Bula to Paradise!

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  Fiji and Yasawa Islands, Fiji
Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Friday 23rd September 2005

Today dosen't exist for us as we lost a day crossing the date line from the states to Fiji!

Saturday 24th September 2005

Well after blagging our free ticket exchange and wasting some time at Los Angeles airport we boarded our flight and enjoyed the 10 hour overnight journey to Nadi, Fiji (pronounced Nandi). We landed safely at 5.02 am Fiji time losing the Friday after crossing the date line, which was very strange! We are now 11 hours ahead of the UK as opposed to 8 hours behind in the states! When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by friendly Fijian people singing the Bula Welcome song to us, this is at 5 am in the morning!!

Kate and I doing the 'dance'!

! They had flowers behind their ears and shells around their necks and playing little guitars, it really made everyone smile as they were walking past to go through customs. Security wasn't very tight and we made a pretty smooth pass through and had our passports stamped again (we love that bit!). We stopped off at the first information desk as you walk through to ask directions to our accommodation for tonight, we were guided through to ATS pacific, the travel organisers for Fiji who helped us out arranging our Island hop passes and arranged our free shuttle bus to Nomads Skylodge where we had arranged to stay on our first night on the mainland to get sorted. It was cheaper for us to use the water taxi (Yasawa Flyer) and pick the islands we wanted to go to as opposed to booking a 'Bula Pass' so we sorted out where we wanted to go and then after 4 hours (Fijians are just soooo slow...Fiji time they call it!) we got our free shuttle bus to Nomads. We were told check in was 10 am but when we arrived it was actually 1 pm, we were pooped as I didn't get much sleep on the plane, Dan went by the window and slept the whole way missing meals while I sat listening to the french guy next to me laughing at comics! Nomads was nice and it had the basics, swimming pool, table tennis, internet and a bar and restaurant. We got chatting to Paul who worked behind the bar who was just lovely and was teaching us Fijian (Bula, hello, Vinaka, thankyou!...etc). We were told Nadi town was a dive and not really bother going there so we hung out at Nomads and once check in time came had a couple of hours catch up sleep which was well needed

Leaving South Sea

. Once I had woken up, we went for tea and had spaghetti bolognese, garlic bread, large drinks and apple pie, totally stuffed and it didn't even cost a fiver! We sat round the bar for happy hour chatting to other travellers and we met Mike, he is from Chesterfield travelling on his own, he is leaving for New Zealand at the same time as us so we thought we would meet him back at Nomads again for our last night in Fiji. Dan has started to get bitten my mosquito's today so we nipped and got some bug spray! We rolled to bed about 10 pm, our bus picks us up at 8 am in the morning to take us to Denarau where we will catch the flyer to our first island..South Sea Island.

Sunday 25th September 2005

Wow, well I don't really know what to say...it really is paradise here. Okay, we set the alarm and got checked out of Skylodge for 7.30 am and waited for our free bus to take us to the Flyer. When we got to Denarau we exchanged our tickets for vouchers and boarded the yellow boat. It was only a 25 minute ride to the stop of South Sea Island where we booked our first 2 nights accommodation. Everything is included in the price which is 3 meals and all water sports. As we came towards the island it was just absolutely amazing. We had to get off the yellow boat and board a small boat which took us in to the shore

Me watching the sunset!

. I was so excited! The little boat stopped on the beach and 9 or so of us got off and were once again greeted by the 'Bula' song. Our bags were carried up to the only building on the island where we were staying (or should I say wooden hut!). It was a 30 or so bed dorm with bunk beds upstairs and the reception and bar area below. The island took all of 4 minutes to walk around. The sea was crystal clear like a swimming pool and the sand was pure white and shaley. We couldn't quite believe places like this really existed! We were taken to the dorm and we picked a bed, I had bottom bunk, Dan had top. We had not long been on the island when the drum was beating to let people know the boat was taking people out to snorkel. What happens here is people come to visit the island for the day, then there are the people that stay overnight. The Yasawa Flyer boat leaves Denarau on the mainland in the morning, travels up through the Mamaruca and Yasawa Islands and returns in one day so stops off at the islands to drop off and pick up so once the day trippers left the island there was only 12 or so of us there for the night! We decided to go straight snorkelling, the fish and the coral was just so beautiful and colourful it was just like sharks tale! We snorkelled for about 45 minutes then got back on the boat to the island. The smell of lunch wafted pasts so we all sat down for a buffet lunch together of fresh cooked fish, salad, pasta and rice with fresh fruit, just yummy and a change from the states for sure!

Me with the local children

After lunch we got chatting to Elliot, the diving instructor who convinced us to try a dive, I wasn't so sure at first but as we saved the money from the flight and it's a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' we decided to go for it for 30 pound each! We ran through the ropes with him and sorted out the signals for underwater and got kitted out with tanks, masks and flippers. We were going out to the sea from the shore to enable us to practice the breathing in the shallow water. When I stood up the tanks and weights were so heavy I fell back down! It was really funny, I just couldn't control myself in the water either and felt like I was about to float off! We had a few minutes practice then off we went. We started to swim down together linked onto Elliot and as Dan got more confident he went off on his own, staying close to us though. Our ears were popping as we got deeper, the sea was crystal and the coral just amazing. My mask kept on filling with water so I had to keep blowing through my nose to sort it out and at one point the breathing bit came out my mouth so I had a right panic on but managed to sort it! Elliot let us pick up a sea cucumber which looked like a massive marrow sized caterpillar! and the bluest, brightest starfish I've ever seen! As we got deeper I spotted a....shark! I panicked and bolted and pointed to Elliot it was there, we found out afterwards that it was only a reef shark but it was enough to panic me!!! We also saw an Eel poking out of the coral, one thing that sticks out was a dome shaped piece of coral and there were hundreds of tiny bright blue fish that were swimming in and out, in and out, it was like something i've only ever seen on the T.V and it was the most amazing experience

Our hat competition!

! Elliot said we were so lucky to see the shark on our first dive so we were both quite pleased after we'd surfaced! Later on in the day we lazed in the hammocks drying up, we watched the day visitors leave and it wasn't long before the sun went down. Dinner was served at 7.30 pm so when the drum started beating we sat down for dinner together. We sat chatting to Tanya and Stephen, travellers on their way home and they were giving us plenty of tips for Nz and Australia. We all joined in for a few games of chinese whisper but with actions and sat drinking fiji gold beer! A lizard dropped on our table at one point which gave us a bit of a fright! Us 4 were the last to go to bed. The hut has a large thatched roof, it was so peaceful and as everyone else was already sleeping we drifted off to the sound of the sea lashing on the shore and nothing else!

Monday 26th September 2005

Today has been absolutely fantastic. The drum was beating for breakfast at 7 am and we sat down to cereals, fresh fruit and toast. I was being called into reception as I had a call...it was Kate! she was checking we were on South Sea and would be with us in a couple of hours! I was really excited so once we'd finished breakfast we sat and waited for the boat to arrive. It was so great to see Kate and Andy and they both looked well

Our own private beach in Kuata!

. We got stuck straight in, Dan went off on the sail boat with Andy whilst Kate and I had a good catch up, I was really chuffed to see her. Kate hadn't booked onwards from here so they decided to spend their time with us and come to the next island so we were both really pleased, Dan could spend some time with Andy and I could spend some time with Kate, it gets quite strenous spending 24/7 with the same person so the break was nice for us both. Kate and I took out the Kayak but it was a bit choppy today and when we ran aground we got off we were just in time for lunch! After lunch we had a fiji beer and went off snorkelling on the other side of the island (which isn't far!). Dan has burnt his back today from the sun. There were some amazing fish and at one point we saw this huge long grey fish with what looked like a razor beak and black eyes, it was actually staring at me! I swam off quickly! It's Andy's birthday today so he sat and opened his cards that he had brought and I made him a 'beach card' from the coral and shells which he was really touched about! We showered up and went down for dinner. We played fun games of which I came 2nd in musical chairs so won a beer! We then joined in on 'go crabby go' a crab racing game. We went off with torches searching for crabs and the guy labelled them up with numbers, we each payed $1 and gave our crabs a name, Dan's was Anvil and mine was Elmo. The crabs are put in the middle of a circle and they have rounds where the first crabs to leave the circle go to the next round

Our welcome to Cocunut Bay

. It was fun, mine didn't make it out of the centre circle though! The last 3 crabs in had owners from Germany, Ireland and England, it was so funny they were told to sing their national anthems before the race, when the German guy was singing all the english were hissing! The irish girl didn't know hers and everyone joined in for 'God Save The Queen'! I was fun. We all sang 'Happy Birthday' to Andy and he was treated to a free cocktail. We've had a really fun night. We were in bed for 10.30 pm. We have to pack in the morning to leave for the island of Nacula.

Tuesday 27th September 2005

Today we were leaving South Sea Island so after a lovely breakfast we packed our rucksacks and I wrote my diary whilst we waited for the boat to collect us. The boat picked us up at 9.45 am to take us 4 hours north to the island of Nacula. We boarded the boat and decided to sit outside on the front deck, what a ride! It wasn't until we stopped to drop people off that we realised just how hot it was and we've got more of a tan from the boat ride so we went inside to the nice air conditioned seats! The views to the various islands were lovely and we passed the islands we had planned to stop off at on the way back. The sea was blue, green and so clear it was like someone had coloured it with food colouring

Scuba Diving!

! Our resort was Nabua Lodge so when called we got off the boat onto the little boat to our resort. There was only us 4 on the boat today. The resort is made of little individual cottages called 'Bures'. We had a meal of fish pasta waiting for us which was lovely. We were shown to the bure just off the beach with a hammock. The accommodation was really basic and not very clean but it was the experience of it all that made it worthwhile. We had mosquito nets for the beds which pleased us as when I walked out of the Bure I saw the biggest yellow and black spide I've ever seen and it took me at least 3 or 4 hours to get used to the fact it was so close to our Bure! Dan and Andy played volleyball with the locals and Kate and I layed in the hammock reading by the beach. Later that afternoon we had a trickling cold shower (with flipflops on!!!)and headed to the main hut for lunch where we sat round with chicken chow mein, vegetables and potatoes. A german girl staying here plays with fire so when it went dark showed us a few tricks for the entertainment! The power generator went off at 10pm which leaves no power until sunrise so we had torches at the ready and went to bed!

Wednesday 28th September 2005

We slept okay last night, it took a while to drop off as the thought of the huge spider lingered with me

South Sea Island

! We woke at 6.30 am to the waves! I got up and took a walk down the beach, it was windy but I could see it was going to be a nice day. The drum was beating for breakfast at 8 am so we sat down together. We decided to pay $10 each and take a trip to the Blue Lagoon on a small boat so when we were ready we took the boat ride over about 20 minutes away. It was beautiful here, we were a bit gutted there were no flippers or snorkels left but as Kate and Andy had their own we took it in turns to have a look at the reef. The water was really shallow and it took Kate and I ages to lie down on the surface to start snorkelling, we couldn't stop laughing! After a couple of hours passed we got back on the boat to Nabua Lodge, I was busting for a wee and it was that choppy it took double the time to get back! We were served a well needed lunch which was lovely. After lunch we sat on the beach under a palm tree making hats as there is a hat competition tonight after dinner! We spent a good hour on them and boys being boys went way overboard! Kate and I went for a laze in the hammock and chatted away while the boys played volleyball. They were supposed to have a match with the other resort but they didn't turn up. A local lady comes to the lodge every day at 3 pm with tea and home made cake so we paid $3 each for cake and tea which was lovely. Kate and Andy moved into the Bure next to us today on the beach (the one with the huge spider on..eeek!). The drum was beating and we headed over for a bbq tea of sausage and lamb and buffet salad, pasta, pumpkin and aubergine which tasted great

South Sea Island again

. The 2 guests staying from Nz hadn't made hats so they judged them, we each had to walk in and present our hats. 3 places were awarded and Andy came third and won a can of fanta! After the hat competition we were told it was Kava night so we would sit round with the locals and drink Kava, their local drink. Anna from Germany was our chief here and Andy was nominated as 'spokesperson' so when Andy shouted 'Taki' it was time for another round! Kava is taken from the root of the plant and is dried up and mixed with water, it looks like muddy rain water! you are handed half a cocunut full of the stuff, you clap once and say 'Bula' then drink it back all in one and clap again three times before passing the bowl back. It is rude to stop drinking so it goes down it one! Kate and I only had 2 and gave up! It was rank! It made our tongues tingle a little but that's it thankfully! It has started raining tonight, we were in bed for 10 pm.

Thursday 29th September 2005

Last night when it started to rain, it didn't stop! I woke at 6.30 am and sat on the porch writing my journal. There was no sign of it clearing up today. When the drum went at 8 am we sat down for a pancake breakfast, everyone was drenched! We were going to spend some time at Oasarmans Bay today and visit the village but that plan was out of the window

The big spider!

! Kate and I read books on the porch with blankets covering our legs and boys being boys went off in their shorts to play frisbee, snorkel and find lizards! By lunchtime it was still teaming it down! Andy and Dan came back with crabs they'd found and tried entertaining us with crab racing! We put on in the shower under the door when Anna was showering and it provided a bit of entertainment for the camp to say the least! It actually nipped Dan's finger which was quite amusing as it wouldn't let go!
At 3 pm we went for banana cake and tea. The new arrivals were here so we sat chatting to a guy called Tom who actually went out with a girl from Andy's school it turns out...it's a small world! and it's getting smaller! It's our last evening here so we sat round after dinner chatting as it was still raining outside! We all went spider spotting and after talking about creepy crawlies we all made it back to our bures before lights out to check the rooms before sleeping!

Friday 30th September 2005

This morning we woke up at 6.30 am and I went for a walk and wrote my journal then sat chatting to Tom for an hour or so. The drum went at 8 am and we sat down for our last breakfast which we tasted paw paw for the first time but we aren't sure what it actually tastes like or whether or not we like it

The Bula Welcome Dance!

! We are leaving today for the Island of Navita, and the resort of Coconut Bay where we plan to stay for 2 nights. We just lay in the hammocks reading as it was sunny today! It's so nice sitting on your own having time to think, it was a beautiful view and very peaceful, you start to feel really chilled out and horizontal!
After lunch we settled the bill as the flyer was waiting to collect us. Nick and Vicky, a couple who were catching a flight to Auckland that night had decided to take a speedboat back to mainland which hadn't arrived so they got the boat with us. Onboard the flyer a local guy had his leg all strapped up with sticks and cloth, he had broken something but had to be transported to the mainland to get treatment! We arrived at Naviti, Coconut Bay at 2.55 pm. We boarded the little boat which took us to the resort and we were greeted by a huge group of people singing to us, which later we found out was one big family. We were served orange juice and went inside to register. We were shown to our Bures and again had one right next door on the seafront next door to Kate and Andy. We took a walk along the beach and caught 'afternoon tea' at 4 pm. The lads played volleyball in the afternoon and Kate and lazed in the hammock watching the sun set which was just beautiful. After the sun had disappeard we could see what looked like dolphins jumping out of the water in the distance which actually turned out to be waves rolling over the reefs. The path from the bure was lit with flamed torches and the sky was so clear you could see the stars so well, we were told we would see the best constellations from here and you're not wrong! We sat down for dinner, it was much more organised here and we were served like in a restaurant! We had sweetcorn soup for starters with mounds of doughy bread, chicken and vegetables with potato and pumpkin cream for pudding, it was just delicious and they really go the extra mile here

The Bure at Nabua Lodge

. All the locals were singing the whole way through the meal. Afterwards they performed the 'Bula Welcome' dance for us and then we got to join in and have a go and also do some dancing games which was fun! We met Alex, Nick, Junior and others who sat with us showing us card tricks and dancing, we are really getting into the Fiji life here and it's been a great day! We found out today we have 1 day less on the islands as Fiji people think there are 31 days in September!! ...strange!

Saturday 1st October 2005

Today has been great. Woke again at 6.30 am and sat by the sea writing my journal. We slept well and it was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the sea. The breakfast was tops, we had cereal and freshly cooked scones which were still warm with fresh fruit. We decided to go snorkelling today on the boat and search for Manta Rays. We got kitted out with flippers and masks and off we went on the boat. Our first stop was Coral Gardens, we got off into the deep sea and the boat went round the other side of the bay, we snorkelled to the boat. We actually snorkelled around the reef drop, again it was beautiful and the fish were really colourful. We boarded back onto the boat after about 45 minutes and then got dropped off a second time to see the Manta Rays, unfortunately we didn't get to see any here but it's still been good

The group at Nabua Lodge, Nacula Island

. Some others got off a third time on another Coral Garden but as the sun was so hot, Dan, Kate and I stayed in the shade on the boat. We tried some clam which Nick had found and he had cut up on the boat, which was a bit different! It tasted like cauliflower! Junior brought a water melon to the boat and they cut it up for us to share before heading back to the bay for a lunch of vegetable pie..yummy! We spent most of the afternoon chilling out and reading books in the hammocks. The sun was shining on the sea and it looked like loads of twinkly stars chasing each other, it was a nice sight. We showered and changed in time for the sun to go down again and had a dinner of Baracuda kebabs and rice! As it's our last night here the locals dedicated a song to Andy, Kate, Dan and I it was 'leaving on a yellow boat' and it was really lovely! We joined in the welcome Bula dancing for the new arrivals and games and then sat outside chatting to people who had come down from the other resort, the german girl was here too again playing with the fire so they had come down to see what was going on. The local children crowded round to see pictures on the camera and we had so much fun!

Sunday 2nd October 2005

Woke early this morning so got up to write my journal again

The view from our Bure!

. We are leaving Coconut Bay today to go South to Kuata. After a yummy pancake breakfast we packed our rucksacks up again and left the Bures. The boat wasn't picking us up until the afternoon so we decided to take a trip to the village and join in on the sunday church service. Nick urged us to put a life jacket on for the boat...we stood knee deep in water just waiting for a boat that wasn't there...there is just no rush over here!
The village was great, it took 25 minutes to get there and once on shore we were greeted by the Chief and walked a short walk to the church, the service was already underway and we could here the choir singing. We walked in to the back entrance of the church, all the children were sitting on the right at the front, peering round curious of who we were. At certain points during the service if the kids were whispering, a guy walked up behind them and smacked them with a cane! The service was great although we only understood the bit where they welcomed us! We walked to the front and gave a few dollars donations. We sat in church for about an hour and then afterwards made our way back to the boat. We said 'Vinaka' to the locals and got our boat back to Coconut Bay. The village was like a little shanty town with the houses and the 'large baked bean tin' type showers.
Dan and Andy sat in the hammock waiting for the boat and Kate and I caught up with some paperwork

The view from the plane leaving Fiji

! The boat came to get us at 2.30 pm so we boarded the flyer and off we went to Kuata our last island stop. We arrived there at 4 pm. It was a nice island but it felt much more like we were living with the locals! Our Bure had a thatched roof and was very basic. The locals washing facilities were right outside and they were washing their clothes and laundry. The shower was as cold as ever but we had a right laugh when thinking about it! Dinner was between 7 and 8 pm so we were told we could help ourselves to seconds, we were eating what we thought was the starter but actually turned out to be the main meal so when we went up for bread and was told it was all gone we couldn't stop laughing so ordered chips and peanut cookies to keep us going through the night! We each had a $14 cocktail which was rank! We headed to our bures at about 10 pm where we saw the biggest cockroach I have ever seen! It took a while to get it out but was sure I wasn't going to sleep once the power went off...I had my mini mag light at the ready!!

Monday 3rd October 2005

Woke at 6 am today, not actually sure if I woke or didn't sleep at all after the cockroach! Breakfast was at 7 am, they blow into a shell here to let us know it's ready! We had delicious pancakes and fruit with a cup of tea

The Yasawa Flyer

. Andy found out there was a beach a 3 minute walk from where we were so we headed there for the day! It was beautiful and there was only us 4 there! We read books and soaked up the sun and Andy went off to climb the mountain. We cooled off in the warm water pools where the tide had gone out. We headed back for a short time to eat lunch then spent the rest of the afternoon chilling on the beach. Dan and I were leaving so the boat came to collect us at 3.30 pm. We sat and had a few beers in the shade before saying bye to Kate and Andy and boarding the boat to the mainland. We saw Anna on the boat and Junior so we chatted to them and the journey back went quite quick. Once we were off the boat we boarded the free shuttle bus back to Nomads. We got a dorm room for 4 which we ended up sharing with one other person (who actually kept coming and going through the night so we didn't sleep too well) We had lots to eat and sat chatting to Mike who was leaving with us in the morning. We managed to catch up on a couple of emails too.

Tuesday 4th October 2005

The alarm went off at 6 am as we decided to travel the 5 minutes to the airport with Mike in a taxi to get an extra hour in bed. The taxi guy pointed out 'The Sleeping Giant' on the mainland, a huge rock which looks like the giant sleeping, the Fijians believe that if you go here and bath in the hot springs, it heals

Waved offf from South Sea

. We arrived at the airport and queued to check in and put our rucksacks in. Our flight was delayed by 45 minutes. It didn't seem long after looking round the shops and we were on our way, only 3 hours to Auckland. We went through customs and Vic was waiting for us at the airport. It was an hours drive to Vics house in Paeroa. We met Scott, Vics husband and their 2 children Josh and Tex. They live on a farm with 150 cows, a few dogs, some pigs and a lamb called Minty! We had some lunch and Vic took us over to see the cow shed, I fed the lamb with a bottle and then we came back to the house. Vic and I went for a 'handle' which is a pint or something over here at the local pub and brought some beers back to the house. We sat chatting and catching up whilst Dan and Scott went out shooting for rabbits! I was in bed for about 11 pm and Dan was in for about 1 am.

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