Advertisement
Hello Hello,
So after a relaxing day in Auckland doing absolutley nothing we headed out with Ngaio and her family to the beach to walk the dogs, despite the rain and wind this turned out to be a great walk! Returned for dinner, with neighbours as well, before desperatley trying to finish the book i'd borrowed from book club.
Tuesday morning we got up, packed up again and headed over to Thelma's in the early afternoon, via a very cheap train! She picked us up and we had a quick snack before going down the scenic drive which took us around the bays and beaches with great views! No walk would be complete without a tramp so of we decsended- inevitably having to come back up the steepest and longest hill of my life!! Impressive to get straight into it despite being there for an hour! That evening we had 'tea' which included Pavlova as desert and watched some Coronation Street with her - it would appear NZ is years behind us! Then it was time for a game of cards- we learnt and excelled at a new game! Early to bed with our 700 layers of blankets and duvets to keep the cold out!
Wednesday Thelma had line dancing and Robert a dinner for retired teachers so we got a break and a lie in! Sadly this time was spent giving a lot of attention to repacking our bags for warmer weather and optimistically packing the thermal top at the bottom! When Thelma returned at lunch time we all headed down to Piha beach for a picnic then a long walk down the beach, it's all grey sand and rugged coastline which is rather beautiful. Sadly (read luckily) the cliff climb walk was closed off so we settled for beach walking! When we got back Robert had arrived and after a long long dinner we had a few more games of cards but Libby and I both having colds and an early morning looming went to bed!
Wednesday and Thursday murge into two as we had to get up at 4am to catch our flight at 7. Robert and Thelma dropped us off at the airport and we settled in for our last short flight! Luckily we arrived 2hours early as our flight was an hour earlier- this is what happens when you book in October and don't check! Upon arrival in Fiji we were greeted by STA travel's Bula Welcome Pack which picked us up and took us to the hostel. We were needless to say shattered so a perfect day to chill by the beach, the weather was warm, nice breeze although the beach disappointingly dirty- although this is the main island near airport etc so better things when we head out to the smaller islands! After lounging around in the hammocks we ate dinner at the hostel which is actually pretty nice as there are people who have rooms with ocean views and thus the whole quality of the place is lifted e.g. decking and a pool! However the dorm is 34 person!!!!!!
Friday morning was an early wake as we were being picked up at 715 and off to remote islands without electricity or signal! Feeling ill with our colds and cough we headed to the port, stocked up on about 20 litres of water and boarded the boat. initially we tried to brave the outside but with sea spary soaking us we retreated in pretty quick! 4 Hours later we arrived at White Sandy beach resort to be greeted by fresh coconuts and flowers, there were about 11 of us arriving adding to the people already there so off we went to the dorm which looked lovely with flowers on the beds but later turned out to be hell on earth with cockroaches EVERYWHERE! On people's bed's on their bags- sick. We met some fellow english girls who were staying for a couple of nights so ate all our meals with them, being all inclusive we lived by the meal times, although were against the early lunch at 12pm and tea at 3 without cake..... After dinner it was time for our Bula Welcome so up we got to learn the Bula Dance, after a fair few goes I finally got it! Musical Statues and Musical Numbers were to follow, old school style fun!! As always with Fiji though bed time is at like 9pm latest!
Saturday is where this blog turns into the most repetitive thing in the world as we pretty much did the same thing every day as you do by the beach! We did a walk along the beach twice a day, laid in the sun, read in the hammocks, read and so on. More Bula dancing followed that night although with a lot less willing participants onyl about 10 of us!! Mossie's seem to be a real problem in Fiji so being bitten alive was the other entertainment of sorts!! Bed time was dictated tonight by a powercut that left everyone stumbling around, i just couldn't get over how dark it was with literally just the moon!
Sunday morning we did the same as the day before although numbers at the resort where diminishing greatly as we went down to 9 people!!!! Isolation indeed! The girls we'd been spending our time with headed of to different islands. The food has been ok but definitley lacks variety- rice and veg for lunch then if your lucky chicken and rice in the evening, although one night it was potatoes, rice and bread- a well balanced meal! Cards with the scandanvians before another early night- although with breakfast at 7 we needed these early nights! Dinner provided excitement as i suddenly caught sight of a spider on the left hand side of Libby dangling from the ceiling, it was literally bigger than my hand, a real life trantula some might say.
Monday morning and we were finally leaving the cockroach dorm although not without picking up our bags to check out and finding we both had cockroaches hanging on, luckily others weren't so screamish and cleared them away for us! We stayed mainly in the shade and the clouds were out in force before getting our boat to the next island in the afternoon. This one was a lot bigger with more like 50 people and when we arrived we had the luck to be put into a 3 person ensuite tiled room with a german girl called Fritzy (!) despite only paying for a dorm!! The other nice suprise was new found signal which allowed us to sort out this panic we'd had after hearing all flights to LA were rerouted to Auckland so managed to put our minds at ease with a few texts home! There was a big show that evening put on by the staff with more Bula Dancing (not as good as us!) and a fire show where one of the guys managed to drop his, put it out, burn himself- bless! We then tried our hand at dancing and games which left me with a pulled stomach muscle!
Tuesday was yet another beach day- a hard life! We were awoken by a cockeral who proceeded to scream at 6 am every day. To kill a bit of cloudy time that morning we decided to empty our bags and check for cockroaches and to our dismay when Libby got to her side pocket out one scuttled!! We're trying our best not to bring them home and infest dulwich. The drum beat and we went down to dinner where the food was piled on in mountains, the added bonus of Waya Lailai island is that they actually provide fruit!!
Wednesday we said bye bye to Fritzy and hello to our own room again! 2 of the girls from White Sandy Beach arrived for a night and were staying next door so we ate with them for Fiji night which started with a cup of Kava drunk from a coconut shell- it makes your mouth go a little numb but really just tastes and looks like dishwater! Dinner had to be eaten with our hands which made a change and i'm afraid to say one i loved! The suntan was coming along nicely at this point as well!
Thursday sadly borught clouds and a bit of rain which in turn managed to give me a slight bit of burn as always you don't think the sun's still getting through! Teatime brought a sick shock to the system as the drinking water is supposedly ok on this island and Lib and I had been drinking it for 2 days but then Francesca (one of the girls we were with) found this tiny microscopic little fish/shrimp in hers.......who knows what we've drank...... We headed out to the boat on our little small boat which brought tension as the engine died for a few minutes. The sea was pretty rough which led to some sea sickness from Libby. We finally arrived back in the mainland and then sat on a hot coah for an hour (until 7pm) before getting moving to our SICK SICK SICK dorm that has damp and rumors of a bee's nest and i can't even begin to describe the bathroom. However when we then met Talia and Francesca for dinner there were 2girls they had met before so we all sat together and these 2 girls Alice and Ella had paid for there own room at a next door place and had 5 beds in the room so Libby and I went and slept in their taking our sleeping bag liners and toothbrushes like a slumber party!! It meant an early wake though as they were flying to Auckland at 6am! Still a night not in the sick dorm......
Today we're staying by the beach, hoping the sun comes out. It's the same tomorrow before we fly to LA at 10pm, arriving before we left and all that date line nonsense! Only in LA for 3hours before onwards to San Fran!! Less than a week till we're back!!
love xxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0476s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
mum
non-member comment
almost over!
this may be my 2nd comment as other one didn't seem to go through! Cannot believe how intrepid you are in face of all the creepy crawlies-make sure there are no cockroaches in your bag on Thursdayat Heathrow. Really can't believe you will be back with us this week. We are all incredibly excited about having you back! Make the most of the remaining time and San Fran should be relaxing at the quirky San Remo! Much love mum xxx