White Sand and Clear Waters, Try Not Get Jealous . . .

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After 4 weeks of constant travel through the US we were really looking forward to some rest and relaxation in Fiji. We decided to spend our first 2 nights in a nice motel on the beach in smugglers cove, 10 minutes from Nadi Town. It had a lovely pool and garden so we spent the first two days going from the pool to the sun loungers and back to the pool ...and so on. It was great to do NOTHING for a while ha ha! We also had the beach 100m away so in the evenings we went for walks along the beach and got chased by the local dogs who were MAD by the way! They look quite innocent taking a nap in one of our photos but don’t let them fool you....as soon as the camera wasn’t around they were chasing us and trying to trip us up, and stopping in front of us blocking our paths so we would have to pay them some attention - Hilarious!

After two days on the mainland we headed off to Mana Island (which is part of the Mamanuca Group and was 40 minutes away from Nadi by boat.) You can see from the pictures that it was beautiful.... and the water was not only crystal clear, it was warmer than a bath 😊
We decided when we were checking in to go with an all inclusive meal option which turned out to be great value for money and really tasty too, well we did get a bit sick of boiled rice but the quality of the lunches and dinners was superb. Everything from the BBQ was gorgeous and there was more than enough to keep us nicely stuffed! and every afternoon at 4pm there was ‘afternoon tea’ :P.
Our cabin was set a little bit back from the beach and we walked through the village to get to it from the main hostel building (which was right on the beach) . It was really nice to mix with the local people and we were greated with a friendly Bula (Hello) by everyone we passed. A local fisherman from the village took a liking to us and he would go out of his way to come and chat to us whenever he saw us.
Apart from the very friendly locals, the staff in Ratu Kini’s were fantastic. There was entertainment organised every night ranging from International Night on the night we arrived to Polynesian Night on the last night we were there with audience participation a large part of the show. The staff were all very talented and had a range of skills and jobs, varying fom singing us a welcoming song to preparing meals, and from carrying bags to and from the boats to quite absorbing dances during the nightly entertainment. There was something for everyone and if you didn’t fancy any of the activities, such as medicine walks or coconut jewellery making, there was always the fabulous beach or just chilling out on the decking reading a book or a magazine. Just behind our cabin, over a small hill, was the remains of the set of the US TV show ‘Survivor’. It was quite cool to visit and most of the set was still intact such as the contestant huts etc. I was a bit disappointing to discover the ancient temple which featured in the show as actually a mock up, and made from chip board ha ha! But at least the beach was real and we found some gorgeous coral there too.

Ratu Kini’s was a fab place to stay and Mana Island was the tranquil and idylic paradise we hoped for. We also met some really awesome people during our stay which made it all the better.

We rounded off our time in Fiji with a brief stay in Nadi town and we were certainly glad it was brief. The town had a dirty, sweatly, third world-esque feel to it and the tension between the Fijian and Indian populations was evident even during a short stroll down the main street.

Our time in Fiji was very relaxing and helped us to re-charge the batteries before our 2 months in New Zealand. Auckland is up next. Back soon ........ 😊

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Comments

[anonymous]

I tried not to get jealous but it is not working! Beautiful views! And you look gorgeous with some sun on your cheeks! Kisses :*