More notes on Fiji! if you missed part 1 :
http://earth.kitjunkie.org/fiji/vinaka-vakalevu-fiji-part-1-2006/
1st January 2007 – Kim’s Place – Becky
“Kim and his family picked us up from the Ferry. We took a slow ride over VERY choppy water, with one child steadily emptying the boat of water with a bucket, Kim had on hand steering and the other trying to catch dinner with his fishing line. Andy had no problem fishing as a small flying fish committed suicide by jumping into his lap. 40 minutes later we had settled into our bure, which had a swinging bed. Andie (Kim’s wife) had prepared dinner for us all, a HUGE plate of noodles and Curry, Rice and Chicken, A root vegetable, coleslaw and pineapple. We didn’t even dent the mound of food, apparently Kim has it nightly or he can’t sleep.”
2nd January 2007 – Kims Place – Andy
“At low tide the island Kim’s house is on is connected to Turtle island, a very elite resort where recently Britney Spears had her wedding. We walked between the two to look at the crabs and explore the mangroves, not getting too close for fear to security shooting us from there little watch tower. We headed back to see Kim preparing the boat (emptying the water out) for our return journey.”
2nd January 2007 – Korovou – Andy
“One of the staff, Moses, wasn’t impressed we were staying in the dorm and kept telling us to move into the ‘Love Nest’ next to him and his wife to be. After a little bartering we did move into our own little lodge for 3 pounds more. One of the guys we were talking to at dinner ran an outreach program back in Canada to teach kids how to break dance, he gave us a fantastic demonstration and taught one of the local kids some moves.”
4th January 2007 – In the Island Village – Becky
“We got on the boat to the Village, a 30 minute trip with great views of the coast of the island, we arived at the beach of the village and our guide went to the chief to ask permission to enter. Andy was pronounced Chief of the group as he sat down for another Kava ceremony. While we were drinking Kava, the local women set up a market on the floor selling, craft items, as soon as we’d bought something they started packing up as we were their only customers for the day. I was really impressed with the school whose school motto was ‘the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom’. School was out as its the summer holidays here, so the kids were around the village, helping parents and playing volley ball (and wearing party hats)”
5th January 2007 – Manta ray – Becky
“Iva and Cody were in the shallow water, feeding the fish bread and pancakes trying to get their trust before trying to grab them out of the water, they never caught any. Later we all went (Me, Andy, Midla, Jordy, Iva, Kathie, Thierry) off Kayaking to another island, pulled our Kayaks up onto the beach and spent the next hour snorkeling, I saw loads of purple starfish, and a 2 meter sea worm (Yuck). Kathie and Midla disappeared so Andy went on a rescue mission to find them and came back towing the girls along. That night Mike and Tam (Codys’ parents) put on a fire dancing show, fantastic Jordy joined in and so did some of the staff. Absolutely amazing”
6th Jauary 2007 – Back to Octopus – Andy
“Said good to the friends we’d made and headed off the Octopus. We decided to spend our last 2 nights in Fiji here as we loved it so much over Christmas, I was amazed that some of the staff had remembered me. That evening we played some games for champagne, My team and I won a few bottles. There were only 5 or so games and we were still up for more when we finished, as we’d (England) had just lost the ashes miserably, we thought we’d rematch the Australians to the cereal box game. All good but Becky (due to her previous training with Toni) won for England, we couldn’t stretch to champagne so it was a Fiji bitter instead. After most had gone to bed (including Becky) we carried on drinking, Anna, a Yorkshire girl living in Sydney convinced us to dive in the pool, shortly after the manager came over to suggest we called it a night, an hour and one more dip later and we did. In the morning, Anna and I were checking out in the office when some of the staff were chatting about the rowdy lot the night before, we sat there sheepishly.”
More to come later!
Well we’ve left Fiji and arrived in Auckland, back to the City, and the Internet.
So we thought rather than trying to summarize the last 4 weeks, we’d post snippets of our journal, anything we think might be interesting… This could be a long one.
17th December- On our way to Nadi Airport – Becky
“Andy got called into the ‘Restricted area’ at Rarotonga airport while I was in the toilet, when I got back Sam had told be where he was and was winding me up saying he’d seen all sorts of funny things through the door. Apparently they’d seen something odd on the xray of his bag, which turned out to be our gas lamp, they we’re very excited by all his camping kit and Andy was in there chatting a little while, even got offered a cup of tea. The time difference in Fiji is 22 hours! We missed Saturday completely!”
18th December – Staying at Horizon in Nadi – Andy
“The music here is Hilarious! Fijians love Boney M, Cyndi Lauper, Earth Wind and Fire! Grease Mega Mix! Its in the shops, on the radio, at the hotel. We bumped into Sam again, he’s on the FeJee Experience, a 52 seat coach touring the mainland, 2 of them left on it this morning, tourism is definitely suffering because of the coup”
20th December – On the Yasawa Flyer Ferry – Andy
“The Ferry ride is a great way to see the islands! Glad we’re away from the mainland, amazing views of tiny islands, very cool, every time the ferry comes to a stop at a transfer point, flocks of boats race to the side of us to get their supplies, passengers, family who’d been shopping in Nadi. It reminded me of sheep running to the gate when the farmer arrived. Our first stop is the Island of Tavewa right at the top of the chain of islands, climbed into the locals boat and raced to where we were staying, Coral View. The boat couldn’t get all the way into the beach so we had to jump out and paddle the last 50 meters with our packs through the water, first time it stepped into the water in Fiji, very warm.”
22nd December – On the Beach, Tavewa – Becky
“The hammocks are great, I want to get one when we get home, theres Pumice all over the beach which has floated over from Tonga (There was a Volcano eruption there recently). One of the guys who lives here has been coming out every day to rake it up into a pile, I guess he’s getting bored of it, today he left a patch and wrote BULA in 6 feet letters”
23rd December – Octopus – Becky
“Octopus, WOW, Not going to want to leave, Hammocks everywhere! Our dorms fantastic! individual beds (no bunk beds) with mosi nets, fans and reading lights. Huge, hot powerful showers! Fantastic Food. We joined in the Kava ceremony, my first bowl and my tongue was numb”
24th December – Christmas Eve – Becky
“Got ready for dinner, as we left the dorm I saw Charlotte was wearing exactly the same outfit! Over dinner the villagers came over to sing Christmas carols to us, which was amazing! All Fijians can sing amazingly, odd to hear ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ in Fijian. Andy won a Fiji Bitter by playing paper, scissors, stone with the barmaid”
25th December – Christmas Day! – Andy
“Woken up by a very excited Bex who’d been outside with Charlotte and found presents! Very unexpected. I got up and we opened our cards and presents. The rest of the day was lovely, on the beach, swimming in the sea, in the hammocks, with Christmas music playing in the background. It may be 32oC but we still played Monopoly! Becky Won (Probably by cheating)”
27th December – Octopus Still – Becky
“Went Snorkeling with Andy, Charlotte and Pete. It was amazing! The water was so clear, we saw thousands of different types of fish, almost sculptural pieces of Coral, Pete spotted a Ray hiding under a ledge, and Charlotte and I were surrounded by thousands of tiny glittering fish. Andy went to do a ledge Dive in the afternoon, he said it was quite dark and scary in places, he saw a shark! a moray eel and managed to stay under for 47 minutes. In the evening we watched
Indiana Jones around the pool, as it started to rain we sat under umbrellas and ate popcorn. It wasn’t until it poured down did they decide to pack away the projector.”
28th December – Bounty Island – Becky
“Bounty’s a tiny island, only a few acres big. Andy thought it was like a tropical Huish Woods, with paths all over the place. We came across a partly dismantled shell of a building, that after some investigation turned out to be the Celebrity Love Island House. Andy was overly excited because the dorm was converted from a production room and there where sockets all over the place”
29th December - Bounty Island – Andy
“We walked around the island, in 20 minutes, so then we borrowed some kayaks and paddled around, another 20 minutes. Becky struggled (Partly because she’d picked up a left handed paddle). The Islands close enough to the mainland to get mobile signal, the first time since we’d come to the islands. We spoke to our parents and wished the a Merry Christmas!”
30th December – Wanna Taki Cruise Boat – Andy
“I love boats, already I’m happy we’re spending new year on here, Becky’s feeling a little queezy but I’m sure it will pass. We both jumped off the top of the top deck, 8 or so meters up, quite a drop.”
31st December – New Years Day – Becky
“Holly, Meredith and Andy spent the afternoon trying to convince me England’s a nice place and that i should miss it, all they could come up with was Bumble Bees, Hedge Hogs, Wetherspoons, Castles and of course our friends and Family. We had a traditional dinner, a Lovo, food cooked in an underground oven with hot stones. Chatted till midnight, the staff drank a ridiculous amount of Kava and some of us jumped off the boat, we were warned about Barracudas, so no one spent any time in the water!”
Happy new Year!
Bula,
We’ve been here in Nadi on the main island of Fiji now for a few days, preparing for the next few weeks on the outer islands, which (hopefully) is all done now!
But before we tell you about our next few weeks, lets tell you about Nadi and how we nearly didn’t even come here.
During our stay in Rarotonga we became friends with an American guy called Neil; he’d flown down there to meet his boat the Kwia and to sail it back to Hawaii. When his boat came in he left the hostel to go stay on his boat, but we bumped into him a few times after- our last day, we heard the Kwai needed some more crew to go to Hawaii and Christmas Island, we were very, very tempted, even got off the bus at the port… But sorry Neil, we’re here now…
More about Nadi: well if you get a $20 phone card you can talk for days and days and days… You can get a bus the few miles into the city for 65 cents (20p), taxis are obscenly expensive at 1 pound 50… Although there’s been a high military presence on the island due to the Coup, they haven’t got enough vehicles so have got all the hire cars… Cheesy music is loved here, especially Boney M! everything is 6 dollars (food, hair cuts, drinks, taxi fares, shopping).
Today was our busiest day by far (meaning we actually did something), we caught the 11am bus into town for some shopping, preparing for the lack of civilisation, we bought water, toilet roll and bug repellent, shampoo and choc biscuits. Nadi (as you might have guessed) is a cheap city for shopping, we also bought new sun glasses in the christmas sale (random) and I got my hair cut, something I’ve wanted to do but haven’t had the courage, so I have a new ‘Fiji Style’ hair cut, like I usually have it but shorter, involving a cut throat razor… We had dinner in Prouds, their version of Debenhams. Now back at our hotel, Horizon.
Tomorrow we are getting picked up at 7:15am (Becky says ‘Oh my God!’) and taken to the harbour to meet our boat and sail off to The Yasawa’s for Christmas and the New Year. We’re hopping about the islands, and are staying on the Wanna Taki Boat for New Year! back to the main land for the 8th and off to Auckland.
We’re sadly missing Samoa and Tonga due to their political and military issues.
So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Don’t have too much fun without us!
Andy and Bex