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Published: October 5th 2006
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Arriving at Nabua Lodge
Our first Fijian Island... We spent the last day of North America with my sister and her husband in L.A. We went first to the East Beach bar and grill in Santa Barbara before driving down the coast towards L.A. We passed Malibu beach along the way and stopped off at Santa Monica pier, which was a little like Brighton pier! We then headed down to Venice beach (Muscle beach) and saw loads of wierd people doing weird things. Ther were also loads of people with signs saying they would do anything for marijuana!
We caught our flight to Fiji and surprisingly there weren't really any extra security checks than normal except you couldn't have gel products in your carry on luggage.
We arrived at the airport in Nadi and then spoke to some travel agents about booking boats and accomodation out to the Yasawa Islands, just off the north east coast of Fiji's main Island, Viti Levu. We spent our first night in the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel and took a trip to a village close by, Viseisei, which was supposed to be where the first European landing was. Most of the the village had become modernised with most of the traditional
Beach at Oarsman Bay
This was the best beach we found on all the Islands (Nacula) thatched bures replaced by corrugated iron structures. The Main central bure was still traditional however. Later that day we went into Nadi itself, somewhat of a dump, although there was a colourful temple at the far end which neither of us took a photo of for some reason!
The next day we got picked up early for the Yasawa Flyer, a big yellow catamaran that would takes us around the islands for the next 6 days. We were going to the furthest island, Nacula, so got prime seats upstairs on the top deck and got set to really break in our tan! After about 4 hours of sailing, including several dropoffs at other islands it was our turn. We hopped onto a small boat with our bags and two other girls to go off to our first resort. Each resort you stay at has a 3 meal a day plan which comes with the price of accomodation. We got to the beach and jumped off the boat, but the girls stayed on, they must have been going somewhere else, what if we were the only people there?
We said hello the the owner and had our lunch, tuna
pasta, before getting shown our beds in the dorm bure. It was a cool traditional bure, but we were the only people in it. Later I met some American girls staying in the next resort which was joined but we still hadn't seen anyone in ours. At dinner time loads of people suddenly turned up and we learned that the nice beach was on the other side of the island, where everyone had been! Earlier we had seen a seasnake snorkelling, eek! The next day we walked over to the Oarsman Bay resort and found a really nice beach and some good coral just off the beach where we saw Parrot & Angel fish, plus the usual others.
After two nights at Nabua Lodge on Nucula, we hopped back on the flyer and travelled an hour and a half down to Coconut Bay on Naviti. Here we were treated to a Bula (welcome in Fijian) song upon arrival. It turned out that a couple we had met at Nabua were also staying here. We played volleyball in the evening before dinner. After the food the staff sang the bula, bula song, followed by the South Island Pacific bula song
Climbing for coconuts
There were notches cut into the tree which made it easier to climb and then everyone had to play muscial chairs! The following morning we went on a snorkel trip to see Manta Rays, we weren't sure if we would see any but decided it was worth the risk for F$20 (about 5 pounds). Sure enough our boat pulled up and the captain shouted 'Rays' pointing into the water. We quickly got on our snorkel gear and jumped in. There were two rays swimming around, a completely black one and another with white marks and a missing tail. They moved so gracefully in the water and I hadn't realised how huge they were. I would say about twice my armspan. After about 30 minutes with the rays we did another drift snorkel over coral, but it was much the same as at Oarmans Bay the day previous.
When we returned from the trip they were doing a coconut demonstration, but we just missed it. A guy had climbed a coconut tree and picked off a coconut then cut it open for people to eat. I asked if I could have a coconut, they said yes but I had to go and get it myself. So I climbed up the coconut tree and
Creamy
Enjoying the fruits of my climb got one and asked him to open it. I don't think they expected that I would do it!
Later that day we got on the Flyer again and headed south to Kuata Island. The weather was pretty crap today and overcast so again when we got there we played volleyball. That night we had a BBQ which was good then played some drinking games, which didn't work out too well as people kept forgetting the rules. After, we went down to the beach and some brought out their guitars and played a few songs. We awoke to cloudy weather again, which started to turn to rain almost immediately. After breakfast we set off for the 'rock' with a Canadian guy, Josh and a German girl, Meren. The resort offered a F$5 guided tour but we decided we could find the way ourselves. We found a path which started to head up but it then turned a bit muddy and unstable, plus I was only wearing my flip-flops! We arrived at a big red flag, then realised where the rock was. We were in the wrong place. So we had to go down again a bit then climbed up the
Beachcomber Island
We stayed here for 2 nights of partying, much needed after the quiet days spent on the previous islands rock for a good view up the island chain.
The boat picked us up at around 4 that afternoon and we sat and waited for 20 minutes in the boat while the Yaswa Flyer turned up. We had a few beers on the boat as we were now heading to the party island, Beachcomber. We got off the boat with a guy from England, Nish, who was studying medicine at Leeds Uni. When we got to the island it was happy hour so we had a beer and Nish bumped into a girl who had been on one of his other islands he visited. She knew some more people who knew some more people and soon we had a big group. Dinner was really good with a buffet style BBQ so it was as much as you can eat. After, we partyed out the night and Nish bumped into 4 guys off his course, a small world! DJ foxy led the tunes and we all danced the Bula dance, 'to the left, to the right', which was just a variation of the Macarana! The next day was spent recovering from our hangover... Then amazingly 2 girls off Nish's course,
Emily and Madi, turned up on the Island, it really is a small world!!! That night again was spent partying and playing drinking games, some people (from another group) deciding to go skinny dipping much to the dissaproval of the Fijians.
It was really hot for our last day on Beachcomber so we lazed on the beach and played some crazy golf before soaking in the spa, a hard life eh? We had to catch the boat back to the mainland which was sad as we'd had such a great time, we had one last night on the mainland before our flight at 8-30 the next morning.
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Sheila.
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You party animal!!
Enjoyed reading about your time on Fiji. It reminded me of the time we were all on Gili Trawangen together and kept bumping into other people we'd met previously. Sounds like you had more parties though! Love the photos too! Mum