FIJI FLING

(FK) Our 'stop-over' in Fiji on our way to Oz, was actually more like a holiday within a holiday. Whilst in Panama we decided that we needed a little break after making it all the way through Central America without too many scrapes. This travelling malarkey isn't as relaxing as it's made out to be. Neil was done with independent travel and flying by the seat of our pants for a while so we booked a bit of an organised trip with Awesome Fiji to the Yasawas, an idyllic chain of South Pacific islands to the north west of Nadi. 

With a night on the mainland to fill before we set sail on the Yasawa Flyer, we found a great restaurant to spend the evening. Our over consumption of delicious food in LA had left us craving more curry, so we ended up stuffing ourselves silly at a place called Sitar. 

Off we went to the port the next morning on our air conditioned coach accompanied by our informative tour rep. By now, Neil and I were thinking that this jaunt could have a touch of the Benidorms about it.  Our suspicions were confirmed when we rocked up to a very swish port and were processed in a very efficient manner with hoards of pasty tourists. Hmmm now this was culture shock! Sue Pollard would not have gone amiss.

Our budget 10 dayer involved four island stop overs with all our meals included. We'd opted for the most basic accommodation package aptly named '1 Coconut' which meant staying in dorms. What we hadn't realised and neglected to find out, was that it was Fiji's wet season, but when you've had six months of sunshine, you just take it for granted. Now coming from Manchester, we're used to rain, but even paradise ain't that great when it's absolutely pissing it down solid for six of the 10 days. 

So we did what Mancunians do when faced with rain and just got really drunk on the first day. Here's a bit of a flavour of some of the highlights as despite it being a little like Australia's version of the Canariesl (it's only four hours away) it is absolutely beautiful. 

Our first stop was South Sea Island which is actually part of the Mamanuca's, however we had a day trip to Beachcomber thrown in as the island had been privately booked for the day. We were greeted on the beach with a traditional Fijian song - Bula Fiji, accompanied with guitars and eukele.  Bula is the greeting enthusiastically used by everyone, said to everyone you meet in a booming voice (not hard for me of course). We got to see lots of baby turtles as part of the island's breeding programme which was fun. 

Island in the sun

South Sea was more like a sand bar, a tiny circle of white sand that you could walk around in two minutes. This is where we had our first introduction to Kava, not the fizz from Spain, but the traditional Fijian tea like brew that is drank everyday after dinner in a social setting to unwind the mind and make you sleepy. It tastes pretty unusual, makes your tongue go numb and it didn't really do too much to us, but it was great to take part in the ritual and share stories with village elders and the chief. We were later told we needed to drink at least 20 cups, bugger that I'd be up weeing all night!

(NK) We had a good chat with the chief who was a very interesting man:

"You bloody white fellas, you come here and tell us to put some clothes on and now look at you all running around drunk and half naked."

Haha, very interesting take and good example of the sometimes skewed logic of us white fellas. I also asked him what the religion was before Christianity was forced on them.

"Indescribable." he replied, though I knew what he meant and he knew I knew, so we just knew.

A chat with the Chief

It was winning a bottle of wine the night before in a hermit crab race with 'Dave the Wave' that led to an all day drinking binge in the rain, culminating in volley ball and a swim in a storm. My new found ability to talk with animals allowed me to shift into the bucket of crabs and have a chat to them in crab about who was the fastest, allowing me to pick the winner. Dave the Wave smashed it, there was never really any competition owing to said conversation in crab. Needless to say we didn't drink for the rest of our time on Fiji! 

Heading further up we reached the first Yasawa, Kuata. This was probably our favourite place as it was owned and run by the local village just across the bay. It felt very much like a village with a warmth that was infectious. Great snorkelling, perfect white beach with a backdrop used in Tom Hanks' film Castaway. Fijians are rugby mad and it wasn't long before a game of touch had sprung up on the beach. There I was reliving my youth, skipping through the defensive line when 'SNIPER' down I went with a popped hamstring. Agh, so this is what getting old means.

Paradise found!

Peace

Our mate Aku - now sponsored by Monkey Nutrition

(FK) After a sad farewell, we headed further up the islands to Barefoot Island Resort. This was the only place we stayed that wasn't owned and managed by Fijians and whilst it lacked a little of that rustic charm, it more than made up for it in the standard of the food and the type of activities that were more to our taste. I think that Fijian tourism and hospitality is very formulaic that it then replicated everywhere, with dancing and party games played every night after dinner with a scripted announcement. Organised fun is not always that fun, but we got stuck in with the spirit of the 80's with musical statues, musical chairs and the bula dance. Neil unfortunately missed musical chairs due to his hamstring. Being the best in his family at this game left him a little bit sulky at having to sit out. Barefoot's activities had a sense of more tradition, we learnt about the wonders of the humble coconut tree, some history on Fiji, a quiz, jewellery making and it generally felt a little less force and less pressure to take part. 

Handy crafts - I made Neil a bookmark

The highlight for us was the snorkelling, Barefoot has a world class house reef just off the beach. We spent a good few hours out there, seeing more marine life than we would on a typical dive. Clown fish, rays, feeding mackerel, barracuda, lion fish, cleaner fish, parrot fish, squirrel fish, grouper, hundreds of neon coloured fish and many more I didn't recognise. The piece de resistance was a reef shark. The boys at Kuata had told Neil a little trick to attract the fairly shy creatures - weeing in the water. Sure enough to my horror, the shark circled us a couple of times, yes I nearly shit myself! 

Our last stop was Nabualodge, we'd decided to treat ourselves here and at Barefoot  by upgrading to a private room. The bure here was the nicest accommodation we stayed in and we had the luxury of having our own bathroom. I was really excited about visiting the Blue Lagoon, the location of the slightly erotic 80s film starring Brook Shields. Not many of the other guests knew what I was bleating on about apart from a Dutch couple who were of a certain age! We also did a cave tour that was kindly donated to us by two Norwegian lads who were unwell. The boat ride was pretty mental in Monsoon style rain, but the caves were ace. Two fresh water caves that are linked by an underwater tunnel, one has natural light and the other is pitch black. A little freaky but very cool. 

The Blue Lagoon

Our little trip was missing something though and we were pining for our Central American adventure. That all changed at 3am amidst a huge thunder storm. A crying noise outside our cottage had woken me and I instantly knew what it was. Neil got out of bed and opened the door, sat on our porch shivering and wet through was a white puppy we'd been playing with earlier that day. Neil picked him up, bought him inside, wrapped him in a blanket and placed him on the floor at the bottom of our bed where he slept for the next four hours. Neil got up and took him out in the morning for his business and he came dashing back inside wanting to play. Gone had the nippy annoying pup from the previous day to a dog that just wanted to belong and beloved. O oh, the last time I felt like this was in Thailand and we came home and got Pip Dog! The pup woke us the next night too, amidst another storm, but this time he came trotting in and made himself at home.

Snuggles

We had a new friend, but although all the other tourists loved him, the staff were not keen saying he was a dirty jungle dog. True, but nothing a little tlc wouldn't sort, we squashed some ticks and a couple of fleas and even cut his nails. In an attempt to get the staff to look after him a bit, Neil came up with a blinder of a PR idea, "Let's call him Sereve" he said, "who?" I replied. "Only Fiji's greatest ever rugby player, he is practically a god here!" I'd had another idea too and spoke to the manager about sending some flea and tick medicine to put on the dog from Oz, she agreed and I really hope she meant it. I told her it was good for business to have a clean, friendly and adorable dog around. 

Puppy love - Sereve

We have not encounter hospitality and genuine friendliness like any where other than Fiji. Fijians are very humble and family orientated people who are pretty conservative with their views, however this does not make them narrow minded or judgemental of others, just the opposite. It would have been more up our street if we managed to get off the beaten track a little more, but it was just what we needed. So a little lighter from our controlled portions and nicely tanned from the seven hour boat ride back to the main land, we were ready to get to Sydney and couldn't wait to see Ma, Pa, Lou and Ads!