The Fiji moment

February 19, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized

We arrived in Fiji on Wednesday 26^th Jan with no plans at all. We figured that we didn’t need plans for Fiji, that we’d just spend our time hanging about beautiful beaches, and maybe hopping on a fishing boat to other islands for a day or two (Fiji is made up of 304 islands.) We hadn’t even organised accommodation, seeing as most of the airports we’d been through previously have touts there for you to barter with – but this wasn’t the case in Nadi airport; we were only greeted by taxi drivers asking where we were staying (oh, this was after the musical welcome we’d received at customs by a group of local guys in Sarongs who were playing guitars and singing local tunes; a sound we grew to love.)

We managed to find an office of a lady who wanted to “spend two or three hours planning your two weeks for you” despite the fact that we repeatedly told her we only wanted a recommendation for a bed for the night! Anyway, long story short, we ended up in a taxi to Aquarius On The Beach hostel. It was nice enough, with our own room, and a restaurant, and a pool, and sat right on the beach – although the beach looked more like Blackpool Beach than Fiji Beach. We waited in this hostel until Friday for Sarah (a Dubliner we’d met in New Zealand) to arrive, and eventually managed to sort a plan for the stay.

It turned out that you can’t just jump on fishing boats, it’s not like there was even a harbour, (that we knew of) the area we were in had nothing but 4 or 5 other hostels in it – no shops, no bars, no restaurants, nothing. Anyone we met was only there for a night or two while they waited to go Island hopping. Island hopping, it seemed, was going to cost us a fortune; there were packages available to go to a group of islands called The Yassawa Islands costing about 4-500 for a week (transport to islands and food and accommodation included) but this was way over what we wanted to pay. We managed to get a deal with a little boat company who did journeys to a group of islands nearer to the mainland called Mamanuca, for about £20 a ride, and the lady in our hostel helped us to organise accommodation (which would include meals) on three islands. All in all, we ended up paying about £250 each for a 6 day/7 night island hopping trip.

Sarah arrived on the Friday, and we all caught the boat on the Saturday to Bounty Island. The boat pulled up right at the back door of our hostel, on Fiji time (an hour and a half late.) It was a speedboat, and there were about 12 of us squashed in. Because we were last on to it, we were perched on the back, holding on for dear life, the sea was pretty rough, and the boat kept actually taking off! We got soaked through as the waves were coming up the sides of the boat. We got off the boat at the back of the Island because apparently it was too choppy ’round the front, and was greeted by the Chief who said we’d have to walk to the other side through the bush. We were pleased to find that this island is tiny (there’s nothing on the Island but the resort – so again, no shops, no bars, no roads or even paths), so it was only a five minute walk to the other side of the island, we’d envisioned hours, and it was hot!

We’d been told by Angie, who’d arranged our accommodation for us, that she’d booked us in to a very basic resort, a medium resort and a nice resort. We couldn’t remember which order these resorts were to come in, and hoped, as we were shown to our room, that this was the basic one. The room smelt of wee, and was covered in lino which was sticky and grimy. The rest of the resort was ok though, it had a nice pool, and the food was quite nice, despite the lack of vegetarian options – we ended up eating fish once or twice, just because there was no other choice. Nothing much happened at this island – apart from sunbathing by the pool. We walked the circumference of the island a couple of times, which took 25 minutes, and Andrea even snorkelled her way around the island once, seeing plenty of amazing things; star fish, reef sharks, shoals of fish in all different colours and a very big fish, which she’s not been able to identify yet, which was about a metre long. This island was a lot more of what you’d expect Fiji to be like too; the white beaches and the turquoise sea. For those who have seen Celebrity Love Island (an ITV atrocity of a few years ago) – Bounty Island is the Island. Our pool in our resort was the one you saw them swimming in on TV, despite the fact that the ‘set’ was on the other side of the island.

Two days later, the boat came for us to take us to Mana Island. The boat journey was beautiful, as we passed through and around all the other different islands, and the sea was calm and turquoise. Mana island was much bigger than Bounty, as we approached the island, we could see a few different resorts, and our host, Sereana met us on the shore. It turned out there was a whole village right behind the place we were staying. Sereana’s was more of a homestay; it was her family home with a dorm attached to it. This was the ‘basic’ accommodation. After we had booked this trip with Angie at the Aquarius hotel, she had told us that she hated the ‘basic’ place accommodation that she had booked for us, apparently she called her husband during her stay, crying to come home. We couldn’t see why! The food that Sereana cooked for us was amazing and our room was clean. There was no swimming pool and no sun beds to speak of but this is what we liked about it. Andrea felt like we’d been shipwrecked, which is what Fiji islands should be like. Resorts are for the Costa Del Sol!

On the boat to Mana we met Australian Inga, who was at the end of her world tour. On her way home, she had a stop over in Fiji, and extended it to a couple of days for an extra little holiday – she stayed at Sereana’s with us too. We had been told about a beach about 25 minutes away from where we were staying which was called Sunset Beach, which promised excellent snorkelling. After Andreas amazing snorkelling in Bounty, she was dying to go out again – and Melanie reluctantly agreed to go too. All the way through this trip Melanie has put off going in to the sea, and figured that now that she was in Fiji (and no longer would be going to the Great Barrier Reef) now would be the time to conquer her fear. So Sarah, Inga, Kevin (from Hawaii, who looked like Jesus) and ourselves hired some gear and walked over there in the blistering heat (all Melanie seems to remember of any day recently is melting in the sun!)

We turned the corner on to the beach and had our first ‘Fiji Moment’. We’d been waiting for this since we arrived, Bounty hadn’t quite delivered. The sand was pure white, the sea pristine, and all the colours of the blue spectrum you can imagine.

I didn’t quite enjoy the snorkelling experience as much as I’d tried to. We swam out together – far (I’d imagined we’d be snorkelling around the shore, but it was low tide and too shallow.) By the time we swam all the way out, I was tired and had a mask full of water. I tried to stop to empty it and got a lung full of salt water and had myself a little panic at the depth of the water and the distance back. I decided to go back and so Andrea bade me farewell, not realising that it was her job (as assistant to a first-timer) to escort me back. I made sure Andrea was clear on this with a threat of a tantrum, resulting in almost certain drowning, in the middle of the ocean.

After escorting Melanie back and then swimming back out again to actually do some snorkelling, I was knackered.

(But obviously proud of Melanie for trying!?)

Of course, proud of Melanie for trying. The snorkelling was excellent though. I saw a sting ray and lots of different fish, including a huge shawl of yellow stripey fish feeding off the coral.

After snorkelling, we returned to Sereana’s for some chill time and some dinner. In the evening, Andrea opted for an early night, and Melanie, Sarah and Inga went for a drink in the hotel next door. We ended up in a Kava circle drinking with the locals. Kava is a local root soaked in water, traditionally drunk by Fijians, it’s supposed to be very relaxing, and there’s a whole ceremony that comes with drinking it. You call “Taki” when you want some, and then ask for low tide or high tide (or tsunami) depending on how much you want. It looks and tastes pretty disgusting (somewhere between tea and mud) but was a nice way to pass the evening, with the local boys playing guitar and singing. People kept asking if Sarah and Melanie were sisters, because Sarah is Irish, and Melanie takes her looks from her Irish Mother … and so we became known (to ourselves, in our drunkeness) as ‘Sisters from other misters’.

We of course, spent all of the next day sun bathing. In the evening, we spent yet more time on the beach watching the amazing sunset. We watched some local boys somersaulting off small fishing boats, with the sun setting behind them they looked like silhouettes. We had a giggle trying to put our cameras on ‘automatic’ to take photos of all of us jumping. The photos were hilarious, some of us crouching down ready to jump and others just standing there. When we’d had enough we headed to the bar, attached to the resort next door to Sereana’s for some games put on by the hotel staff. After a few beers to many we stumbled back to our accommodation, but not before climbing into and falling out of a few hammocks!

The next day, the boat came for us again, and we all climbed aboard, to the next island, Walu Beach – where we said goodbye to Inga as she was heading back to the mainland to catch a flight. Walu Beach was the Premium resort, we were met on the jetty by the staff singing us a welcome song, and then taken to check in and given a drink each while we waited. We were upgraded to a Beach Front Bula, which was like a little thatched house on the beach, which had a double and two single beds, a little lounge area, and towels in the shape of swans and flowers and all sorts! There was nothing to do here, but the pool was gorgeous, which was just as well, as there weren’t really any beaches within easy reach, but this was fine by us.

There was a little puppy there which we thought was a Dachshund crossed with something else – a bit like a taller version of a sausage dog. We named her Fiji, and she stayed by our side for the entire trip, waiting outside our room for us in the morning, and crying to come in in the evening. Andrea took her off for a little walk one day and fell in love! She stayed by her side the whole way as if she belonged to her. Andrea tried to encourage the dog into the water, at first she wasn’t having it, but eventually she waded in and went crackers! Just running in the sea and out again and around in circles. When it was time for Andrea to head back to the resort, the dog came back with her. She actually nearly cried when it was time to leave the island and the dog was no where to be seen!

That’s the end of our fiji story … Sarah left, and Andrea and Melanie had a couple of days of chilling out to wait for their flights.

There’s lots more to update you on – and we’re trying to get it all done now so that we can try and stay up to date from now on …