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Well we have been in Fiji since the 2nd January 2008 and it has been very very different to our time in America.
We spent two nights on the mainland before heading out to the Islands on the 4th January (my birthday). It is the rainy season at the moment and unfortunately the weather was quite bad, but we decided to go anyway. We got the boat out to the furthest Island away and it took 4 and a half hours to get to the first Island we were visiting called Nacula.
As Tony doesn't really like boats much he got some sea sickness tablets and took them before we got on the boat. I was really smug and said I don't need oneI come from an Island I will be fine. However my smugness went after 2 hours on the boat and I wished I had taken the tablets! I spent the final hour and a half sitting on the top deck in the rain with lots of other equally green looking people!
Because the Islands are quite remote they do not have docks, so basically the resort (they call them resorts but they are far from the kind of resort you would normally think of) sends out a small boat to pick you up from the big boat. So when your small boat arrives they call you to the back of the boat and you have to jump from one to the other. It is like organised chaos as people come on and off from both sides of the boat as well as bags flying past each way.
Once we were on the small boat with a couple of other people they take you to the Island and you have to jump out of the boat into the water or onto the beach. We hadn't known this before we left and Tony was wearing his trainers, so couldn't just step into the water. Instead he tried to jump from the boat onto the dry beach as the water went in and out. Unfortunately he managed to fall over straight into the water and had sand and water all up his jumper and face! Everyone else in the boat thought this was very funny!
There are few people on the Islands and all the electricity comes from a generator, which is only on at night from 6 - 10pm ish, there is no water except rain water on most of the Islands and therefore the accomodation and conditions are very basic.
Being my birthday we had planned to have a few drinks but they only had Fiji Bitter at the resort! That night we had our dinner with the 5 others staying there and fortunatly they were a really good group of people. When Tony told them it was my birthday one of the guys brought out a huge bottle of rum and the irish girls who had been there for a bit got out some malibu and we had a really good night. The highlight of the night was doing the Bula dance which everyone has to do after dinner or they threaten not to give you breakfast the next day.
The next day Tony and I went to the local village with a lady from our resort to meet the Chief of the village. Basically you have to meet the chief and take him a gift (in our case some money) and he allows you to look around the village. As we were looking around the village we realised that our accomodation was actually quite luxurious compared to what the villages lived in, and inspite the lack of technology all the children were playing outside and managed to keep themselves occupied.
The following day we went back to the village to go to church. The church is basically under a tin roof with no doors or walls and everyone sits on mats in front of the priest or under the trees outside. Most of the time however people are singing and dancing around and doing there own thing.
After church we transferred by small boat to the next Island Tavewa where we stayed at a resort called David's Place. There were even fewer people staying here with us just 3 others. Unfortunately it rained really hard for the whole afternoon and as a result the generator at the resort broke down, so we had to eat dinner in the dark!!
The next day the weather picked up and we were able to go snorkelling. Just along from our resort was an area with beautiful Coral where we saw all kinds of fish and sealife that I have only ever seen in an aquarium before, it was amazing.
On tuesday the 8th we transferred to our next Island, Naviti, via the big boat, which meant getting on and off the boat in one day!!! This time when we got into the small boat there were no seats and so we had to balance precariously on the edge of the boat. This would have been ok except for the fact that one of the guys who worked at the resort was having a conversation with a lady who worked on the big boat and we seemed to circle around for ages!!!
We stayed at a resort called White Sandy Beach, which says it all really. On the second evening there we decided to go on the Sunset Cruise they offered. In fact what it meant was they put a wooden bench in the little boat and took us out to the sea as the sun went down and we bobbed around whilst the staff drank beers and smoked cigarettes. So there we were out at sea with 6 members of staff and 6 guests in a small boat with two benches from the dinning room!!!!!
On the 10th January (Tony's Birthday) we transferred to the Island Waya which was the most amazing setting of them all. Basically the resort was on a sandy beach at the end of the Island with a sand bank crossing to the next Island. Because of it's location you could swm off both sides of the Island and watch the sun rise and set over the sea. There were only two others staying here and so it was like our own little piece of paradise.
By now we were really into "Fiji time" which means we managed to fill our days with very little activity. We would get up at 8am for breakfast, sleep in a hammock until we were called to lunch at 12 (the staff would blow a conch when it was ready), then the afternoon would consist of swimming and snorkelling and more sitting in a hammock reading until dinner time.
That evening the staff held a Kava ceremony for us, which is the local drink. We had to sit around on a mat on the beach and take it in turns to drink Kava. Afterwards one of the guys got out his guitar and we all sat out under the stars listening to the music. It was pretty amazing and I am sure Tony won't have another birthday like it again.
It was on this Island where we had a spider in our room that was the biggest I have ever seen, it had a body the size of a small animal and the pattern on it's back had an eye shape. Needless to say for the next two nights we ensured our mosqueto net was fully tucked in and spent very little time in our room!!
Our final Island was Kuata, where we stayed at a busier resort that was full of other English people. After our isolation on the other Islands it was a bit rubbish to be surrounded by loads of other people and the Island wasn't as beautiful or interesting as the others.
So today we headed back to the mainland and fly to New Zealand tomorrow.
Fiji has been a really great experience and the Fijian people have been really friendly and welcoming. They are genuinely nice and unlike some other places they do not want anything from you.
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