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Published: February 16th 2005
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Nananu-i-ra in the rain
Still beautiful when it's chucking it down. Hey folks,
So thought it was about time we told you what we got up in the glorious pacific island of Fiji. Well, for starters it's a darn sight hotter than where you are!! Smugness over, I promise.
We landed in Nadi on 5th February at 4am, having left LA on the 3rd, and crossing the international date line meant that Friday 4th Feb never happened for us. Oh well. We were in a bit of a daze at that time of the morning, but managed to find our way to the tour office and get our transfer to the hotel. I had beans on toast for breakfast, tasted pretty much like back home, which was rather nice. Fiji is (I think) still part of the commonwealth, and so there is a picture of the Queen on all bank notes. She looks considerably more jolly that she does on British money, but then again it is warmer here (!).
Mooched around Nadi and the hotel for 2 days while we waited to join the tour bus, Feejee Experience. First day we headed to the stunning Natidola beach and had a delicious Fijian bbq for lunch. Unfortunately this beach
Village meeting of the Rachaels
On introducing ourselves at the village, we were greeted enthusiastically as this little girl was also called Rachelli. will soon have an ultra swish hotel built next to it, and will not be accessible to the public. And they call it progress?
Later on that day we visited a village, where we were greeted by many very cute children, and were given flowers to wear in our hair. After having visited a traditionally built fijian home, we had our own personal young tour guide to show us around their village. You knew that the children were well versed in having tourists visiting their village, though this did not take away from the enjoyment of visiting them. Following the village visit, we had a go at sandboarding, which I was overly cautious when doing, and would, given another go, definitely be a bit more daring.
Day 2 and we headed to the Painful Mountains for a lovely trek. The trek itself was fairly okey dokey, especially if it had been done in Wales. But the heat was a bit of a killer, and we felt like we were melting having been off the air conditioned bus for 30secs!! However, the trek was great, an accomplishment at least. And following on from this was the tubing (rubber rings)
down the river. And then a banana boat back to the bus.
At the end of day 2 we headed towards the Fijian capital of Suva, and to the hostel for the night, the Turner House. Went into town for dinner at the Bad Dog cafe, which was very tasty, and on to the Irish bar next door: the irish get everywhere! An interesting taxi ride home was followed by an interesting night's sleep, or rather the lack of it. I will explain...
There is a trend in the USA for college students to go overseas for a semester to study. And the end of February seems to be the time of year that they head for NZ and Oz for their semester. Now I am sure that as individuals they were lovely people, but en masse, it got a bit ugly. Any kind of travelling etiquette appeared to have been thrown out of the window. And many of the "rest of us" in the group, were a little fed up with their behaviour. The night in Suva, for them, meant continuing the party in the big dorm room where we were all sleeping (or not). And we, in fully conscious mode at 4am, thought "hey it's ok, we'll get our revenge in the morning, when we get up before them". Well that was not to be. 6am, they were at it again, telling the whole room, that they didn't know why, but they just couldn't sleep. The "rest of us" lay stiffly in our beds, refusing to open our eyes and get out of bed.
However, that's enough of a rant. Unfortunately we met a bunch of rowdy americans: now I know how someone must feel when they encounter a group of Brits in Malaga. And this does not detract from all the lovely americans we met while in California. It just confirms some of our generalised not-so-nice views about Americans.
Day 3 was a great day. Firstly we headed for another village, though this one was in the more rural area of Viti Levu, on the eastern side. We went along to meet the chief here, with a gift of Kava root, to ask permission to go Bilibili rafting on the river near his village. It is customary to do this and our tour guide told us stories of visitors to the island who had not sought permission or guidance from the Fijian people, before taking a walk up a mountain. Needless to say, the endings of the stories were very similar, and the moral was that you should definitely seek the guidance. We took part in a traditional Kava ceremony, kava being the traditional Fijian drink. It supposedly has relaxing qualities if drunk over a long period of time, but we never had the opportunity to experience this: for us, having initially numbed your tongue, tasted the way it looked, like dirty water. Having had a couple of tongue numbing cups, we went and had a chat with the chief, asking him how he became the chief and how many villages he was in charge of etc. The position of chief is passed down through the male line in families. Women have a very traditional role in village and family life in the more rural areas of the island.
Having gained permission to go Bilibili rafting, we went down to the river. Messed around in the water for a few hours. Then realising the time, we rushed along to visit a boarding school for boys and girls run by the Seventh Day Aventist church. The pupils days run from 5.30am in the morning until they go to bed at 9pm. Never again will I think I had it hard at school!!
We drove to the port to catch the boat to Nananu-i-ra island, which would be our resting spot for the next 3 days. Despite the obvious heat and mozzies, the hammocks by the beach and the general laid back nature of the place, was heavenly. By the 3rd day, there had been a couple of huge tropical thunder storms, and yet they did little to cool the air down.
Having made it safely back to the mainland without getting drenched by the rain, we were our last day of the tour. Lunch was at an indian restaurant, where you could sample a goat curry. But we didn't go for that one. There is a sizeable FBI - Fijian Born Indian - population in Fiji. And we sensed that there is some tension between the FBI pop and the native Fijians, but nothing like the coup of a couple of years ago. This was roused by Fijian discord due to a FBI becoming the Prime Minister. The leader of that coup, whose name escapes me, was first given the death sentence for his crimes. However, Fiji got rid of capital punishment several years ago, and so it was decided to give him a life in prison sentence. Though his is no ordinary prison. He will be incarcerated till he dies, on a desert island. No one can visit him and only the officers that guard in shifts are allowed on the island.
Following lunch, the weather was still a bit miserable, so we were glad to be in the bus, we went to the Subeto hotpools. You jump into one pool of theraputic mud and then into a steaming hotpool of bath temperature water, to clean yourself off. Here we were glad of the rain, had it been hot sunshine, the hotpool would have been impossible.
And that was the end of our tour, back to the Sky Lodge hostel/hotel, and on our flight to Auckland the next morning. Neither of us would recommend the Feejee Experience tour. And that's not just because of the loud big group we shared the bus with, though if you'd rather avoid such groups, getting a bus around an island, doesn't give you room for escape. The 3 days spent on Nananu-i-ra island were the best, as your days weren't set out for you as on the bus. And people we met who had been island hopping sounded like that would be a much better option.
However, you live and learn, and we've found out a little more about ourselves as travellers.
That was Fiji!
Lots of love,
Rach & Rach xxxx
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Lauren
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Fiji
Interesting article! Very informative.