The Coral Coast and killing time

After returning from the Yasawa's we hung around Horizon backpackers for a couple of days and decided to head for the Coral Coast. We were to stay at three different resorts Vakaviti, The Beachhouse and Raintree lodge. On our last night before we left, we ran into Nikki, Ben and Gaz who we'd met on the islands. They were going for an all you can eat Chinese buffet as it was their last night, we decided to join them.

The boys at raintree lodge

10 people walked into the restaurant that night, not everyone was hungry so 5 were going to eat and 5 came to be sociable and drink beer! We filled up our plates and ordered 10 bottles of big beer, the waitress came over to inform they only had 5 big beers left. We decided this was ok, we share the big beers one between two and order 10 stubbies. The waitress came back 2 mins later to inform us that they had no more beer! We were distraught, we finished our plates and legged it out the door looking for the nearest place that sold alcohol - we found the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel. It was really beautiful and we spent the night drinking jugs of beer watching the rugby world cup 7's, the highlight being the Fiji side winning with 10 Fijian women running around screaming Ura (sexy) at William Ryder, the new Fijian number 10. The next morning we got up, said our goodbyes to the others and nursing our heads headed for the Coral Coast.

We stayed at the first hostel, Vakaviti for three nights. It was just outside Sigatoka and very basic. The owner (a kiwi named Gerrard) had taken over two years previous and was still building the bar/restaurant, but all the rooms had cooking facilities so we popped into Sigatoka and got some stuff. When we arrived the family Bura (which we had booked) was no longer available, this meant we had a room with a double bed, a single bed and a mattress for the floor! After some brief arguments I got the single bed (as I had shared doubles beds with people in all previous accommodation), James and Papa shared the double bed and Jon got the floor.

It was James's birthday on the 22nd March and we had some big party plans, unfortunately Jon had a really bad stomach ache for a few days and I had a sore throat and could barely swallow so our day of drunken revelry petered out into Dan and James getting slaughtered while Jon and I tried our best to keep up without passing out! Because of this our time at Vakaviti was very mellow, lounging by the pool, watching DVD's and sleeping.

By the time we left for our two nights at the beachouse we were beginning to feel better and ready to party again. The beachouse was slightly more expensive than Vakaviti and a lot nicer, the grounds were much bigger and there was a large bar/restaurant area to hang out in. The beach was bigger and nicer with a number of activities arranged everyday. The only problem was the self catering kitchen was diabolical, everything was dirty and the toaster/kettle didn't work. We were again annoyed as our travel agent had booked us into a 4 bed dorm and when we arrived we were split into 2 separate 5 bed dorms as there weren't enough spare beds.

We spent the first afternoon sitting around playing cards and eating ice cream (I think I'm actually addicted to ice cream now), in the evening we partook in the Indian night all you can eat buffet. We weren't going to, but talked to the girl organising it who said we could share a plate between three of us as there was loads left over. We stuffed our faces and headed for an early night as we still weren't 100%

After a few days of doing nothing I was beginning to get bored so decided the second day at Beachouse I was finally going to go Diving in Fiji. I was up and ready at 8am sharp as I had been instructed, I'd forgotten about 'Fiji time', the minibus turned up at 8.45am and we finally headed off. I arrived at the dive shop and was informed due to the power outage (A surprisingly common occurance) I couldn't pay with my credit card and the nearest cash machine wasn't working! As I began to get worried the owner came in and said it wasn't a problem, I could dive anyway and hopefully power would be restored by the time we returned.

I was diving with two very experienced Aussie's and an Irish guy who was living in Oz, his partner was along to have a fun dive while we were having lunch. I convinced the dive master to take us on a 30m wreck dive called Gilligans tower, visibility was great, approx 20m. We dived the wreck for approx 10-15mins then headed up to Gilligans tower, a pinnacle of rock starting at 23m and heading up to 5m, it was covered in soft coral and loads of marine life, we even saw some lion fish which are uncommon in the area. For lunch we headed to a nearby island and had free use of the resorts facilities (very posh), I decided to climb a coconut tree at about a 60' angle and ended up falling out (much to the amusement of one of the Aussie's). After this I decided to take it easy in a hammock, my new found Aussie friend and the Irish guy decided that I should have a push. While holding on for dear life (I was nearly doing a full circle) the hammock gave way and I landed hard on the coral, it was hilarious but we had to fix the hammock quickly as the locals didn't seem too pleased.

The second dive was a place named nomads reef, a couple of mins into the dive I saw the biggest fish I have ever seen. A Napoleon Rasse, it was approx 2m long. While still digesting the sight of the Rasse I saw my first white tipped reef shark. It was amazing, we sat and stared for 5 mins while it swam about before turning round and heading back the way it came. On the rest of the dive I was lucky enough to see a blue (yes blue) jellyfish, a big sting ray as well as the usual assortment of soft coral and smaller fish.

I returned to land to find the power working but the credit card machine broken, however the cash machine was fixed and I managed to pay for a wonderful experience.

The next day we headed for raintree lodge, we were originally going to stay for 2 nights but only stayed for 1 as Dan and Jon needed to get back to Nadi to pick some stuff up before they flew out. Raintree lodge was wonderful, set in actual rainforest with some of the best food I had tasted in Fiji. We arrived and I had banana's and bacon on pancakes (an interesting combination but after 4 weeks I was really craving bacon). The only problem we found was the mosquitoes, I thought Horizon in Nadi was bad but this place was a breeding ground for them.

Suva is the capital of Fiji, I have to say I wasn't impressed! On the ride in we saw a rubbish dump, boys correctional facility and a prison, we should have realised something was amiss then! As we were getting out of the taxi we were pestered by an older man trying to sell us wooden items from a paper bag, apparently they engrave your name on them telling you it's a free gift then make you pay anything up to $100, we didn't hang around to find out. As we were walking down the main street it seemed all eyes were on us, and we were worried about being mugged. We stayed 45mins in Suva before deciding we weren't entirely comfortable and picked up a return taxi back to Nadi for $60 (absolute bargain).

The day was Saturday and we arrived from the 3 hour cab ride about 11.30am. I had managed to rearrange my flight for 1/4/05 next Friday, I had 5.5 days to kill! That evening we couldn't get back into Horizon as our booking didn't start till the day after. We decided to stay in the Nadi Bay Resort Hotel that we had visited before. We arrived and had spent 10 mins in our dorm before a massive thunder clap caused the lights to go out plunging us into darkness for approx 30secs before they came back on again. Within 5 mins all the people from the pool had returned to their dorms as none wanted to be caught in this freak thunder storm.

We got talking to a guy who told us that Ed's bar had a happy hour from 5-9pm, as it was 4.45pm we decided to pay a visit. 6 of us went down including a guy named Luke we met on one of the islands for a night. It was $2.50 a bottle (stubbie) and we were going through about 1 every 15mins. I got talking to an old local named Brock, originally from Oz but retired to Fiji approx 10 years ago. He lived with a guy named George who ran the diving at the Sheraton Royal hotel (one of the most expensive hotels on the island), he introduced me and George offered me a good deal on the diving so I took his business card and said I would phone his secretary the next day to organise it.

Luckily George and Brock left about 7.30pm, about the time we were talking to a local named Paul to convinced us to drink the Fiji way - one glass between everyone and you drink the beer in shots. We had experienced this before and knew that the night was going to go downhill from there but we were already drunk! Needless to say by 10.30pm we could hardly walk and decided to make our way back to the hotel. I have no memory of the trip home but do remember waking next to the toilet about 3 hours later, something I haven't done in a few years (Charlie, you remember the last time I'm sure)! The next morning I discovered the only person to not be ill was James who was really paying the price, we checked out at 10am and made our way to Horizon where he disappeared for the next 8 hours to lie in bed and nurse his head.

Papa and Jon were due to leave the next morning so we got up at 5am to say our goodbyes, unfortunately their flight had been delayed so they turned up again at 8am. Long story short, their flight was delayed 15 hours. They needed to go from Fiji to Sydney, then Bangcock, Then Heathrow the finally Sweden. They had missed all their connecting flights and Jon had to be on his ship in 6 days otherwise he faced fines. He was not a happy bunny and I still don't know if they have arrived home safe!!

Also that day we met Christow, the marketing rep for Robinson Cruesoe island. It turns out she had been in Ed's bar a couple of nights before and had a number of laughs at our expense. We chatted for ours and I promised to get some people together for her pub crawl on Thursday night. Unfortunately James couldn't make it as he flew out that day.

The next couple of days I spent diving with George and Dive Tropex. George was teaching so didn't come out with us. we went with two guides Norri and Andrew, and had so much fun. I was a little worried on the first dive as when we descended the vis dropped to 1m because lots of silt had been washed up, we eventually found everyone and set off. Luckily the vis got a lot better but my mask kept fogging up, on the second dive Andrew lent me his spare and the problem was sorted. I saw and held an octopus (I've only ever seen baby ones before) which was squirting ink all over the place. On the second day I was lucky enough to dive with a kiwi who was an instructor and an air hostess, the air hostess was only on the first dive so on the second dive we went shark hunting! We found a mother with 4 babies, it was phenomenal to watch and possibly my favourite moment in Fiji (although there are so many that could take that title), we had a couple of swim throughs and played about under the water for a while. It was great to dive with two experienced guys as the previous three dives I'd come up with over a hundred bar still!! (I think maybe I grew some gills in Fiji).

The evenings were spent at Ed's bar again talking with George, Norri and the locals. I met a biker named AJ who was part of the Iron Horsemen, the oldest bike club in Australia. He has offered to take me up in his plane if i'm still in Melbourne after the 26/4/05 which I really appreciate.

Thursday night rolled around and Christow turned up to give away a free nights accommodation at Robinson Crusoe island and drum up support for the pub crawl. I'd spent the day with a musician named Ray who passed on the crawl but the others Carrie (American), Kevin (Brit) and Andrea (Canadian) all came along, in total we were nine. We headed down to the first bar called Skytop and started playing a drinking game called ring of fire, we were late but by the time Christow turned up with the others 90mins later we were already feeling the effects. We moved on to Frequency and then Ed's bar (again) having a really great night.

The next day I woke up nursing my head and checked out for 10am. I spent the day in Nadi with Ray and Carrie trying to get some photos developed so I could send them to my friends on the islands, this proved a lot more time consuming than at first thought and I was running late for the airport. The bus ride back to Horizon is great, at one point the bus actually drives down the beach!

At the airport I had to find the Quantas office and change my ticket, I had done this over the phone but needed it in writing. I spent half an hour in the airport offices and got a little lost, at one point I came out behind the check in guys who were quite surprised to see a tourist in a secure area! This turned out to be a bonus as I met the head of Air Pacific Fiji who put me in the right direction. As I was finally checking in I found my next problem, as I had only a one way ticket to Oz I needed the permission of the head of Air Pacific to fly in case Australia refused me entry and the airline was fined. Luckily by this time we were old friends, when he saw it was me he laughed and said it wasn't a problem (for a while I was thinking i'd never leave Fiji).