We've now arrived in new zealand so this is ...
Trip Start
Sep 19, 2002
1
5
129
Trip End
Sep 22, 2003
Nadi,
Fiji
Friday, October 11, 2002
We had another couple of days out before we left and spent the remainder of the time chilling out by the pool as we were told that it was snowing in New Zealand!!
We took a day trip to Mystery Island on a big sailing boat but this time we had to get into a smaller boat to get onto the Island. We still had to get out in the water though and it was a little way from the shore. Yet another Kava ceremony and then out snorkelling. This was better than the other island as there were loads more fish and we were in the water for longer. I got quite brave and went around on my own while Phil dived down among the coral. We saw parrot fish, rainbow fish, lots of blue starfish, sea cucumbers and millions of other little turquoise and blue fish
Dinner is served
. Phil saw one with a pointy nose and a poisonous starfish. After lunch we went handline fishing but neither Phil or I caught anything. Then we jumped into a kayak and went off for a paddle but we are incredibly unfit so we didn't last long and we kept getting swept into shore. Then it was back on the boat for the trip home where we found that it was cloudy again despite having glorious sunshine on the island all day.The other trip we took was the best one I think. We went up into the mountains right to the top in a little minibus and then trekked down for 2 hours to a remote fijian village. All the villagers had scruffy clothes on and it looked like something out of National Geographic. We thought before we went that it might be a touristy type village but we were really pleased that it wasn't spoiled at all. We went into one of the wicker huts for another kava ceremony and Phil and our friend Martin impressed the villagers by drinking copious amounts of it. Then we had lunch on the floor served by a woman who looked like Freddy Boswell with no teeth but bless her she had put on her best dress as I think we had caught her unawares when we first turned up! We had tinned fish with pumpkins, taro leaves in coconut milk, cooked corned beef with onion and cassava, washed down by real lemon tea. Only after we had eaten all we could and left the house did the villagers tuck in. We wandered around the village taking pictures of the kids who gigled and pointed at us and hid behind doorways and trees if they thought they had been seen. It was great to see a real village and see how the people and farmers really live, even if they did laugh at our hobbling about in bare feet while they strode around on the rocky ground without a care in the world. The villagers all had big grins and looked so happy and the children played with no toys but couldn't want for anything and were safe and happy
Kava Ceremony
. I would like to have lived there forever (but they didn't have flushing toilets!)So on 10th October we left the comfy Beachside Resort with the fabulous staff and left our new found friends to find more in New Zealand. Captain (bar and restaurant manager) wrote us a song to send us off and we discovered that one of our cats had run away so we were really sad to leave and could quite easily have stayed there for the whole year.
Meanwhile, the mozzie bite on my hip was growing ever bigger and more and mroe painful to the point where I couldn't sleep. Check out the next travelog (New Zealand) to find out what happened.....
Over to Phil....
Bula my friends this is your Kava King speaking! Just a few important extra notes to add to LJ's report. The daytrip to Mystery Island was made especially good by the fact that you got 6 tokens for drinks each for the day. There wasn't much time to drink in the day but on the way back the Fiji Gold beer really started to flow. Shameless as we were we even managed to acquire some little old ladies tokens to drink away
Little People
. In my drunken state I later discovered she was from Banbury!!The conclusion on Fiji is that it was a great place where I could quite happily have stayed for weeks. The people are really friendly and would do anything for you (except the touts!). If you ever get a chance to visit I can gaurantee you will love it.
Anyway off to NZ to try the Steinlager!
TTFN
Pip and Red
