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After taking the bus to the ferry terminal, we boarded our boat and settled into our 2 and a half hour journey out to Octopus Island.
There are loads of different islands and resorts you can visit in Fiji, with the option of island hoping as well. After all our travels and moving 'home' constantly for the previous eight a bit months we decided that in Fiji we wanted to put our bags down and stay in the one place for more than a couple of days, therefore we ruled out the island hoping.
The island we had chosen was Octopus Island Resort, which as the name suggests is a resort on one of the many Fijian Islands. It had come very highly reccomended by a couple (Mike and Faye) we had met in Australia, who had started their trip there. We took their advice and are we glad we did.
Approaching the island on the boat, we had to change to a little tender boat which would take us ashore. There we were greeted by a party of about 10, playing and singing traditional Fijian music. We stepped ashore, shaking hands with everyone of the welcoming party and made our way to check in. We had booked a private bungalow for our six nights and when we were shown to it, it was exactly what we had hoped for. Just past the beach and pool, tucked away in between some lush vegetation was our home for the next six days. A little terrace out the front, the room, with a wooden floor, wooden slatted windows and big double bed was clean and spacious, perfect. It even had the luxury of a wardrobe, something which we utilised straight away.
The rest of the resort was just as good. The pool area surrounded with palm trees and sun loungers, is just next to the bar and restaurant, which has a sand floor, which over looks the beach and ocean.
As it is a resort we have paid for three meals a day during our stay, we had arrived in time for lunch. Before we tucked into our first lunch though we took a short walk along the beach, with the soft sand under our feet and looking out over the crystal clear waters. If we had said hello to Fiji in Nadi, it was a handshake, Octopus Island greeted us with a huge bear hug, BULA Fiji!
After enjoying a tasty lunch from the a la carte menu, we thought it was time to take advantage of the sunshine and Belle switched into competitive mode, as we headed for the pool side. We sprawled out on massive foam matresses, which are probably comfier than some of the beds we have stayed in, and both worked on our tans. Well that said, Belle has managed to keep some kind of tan all the way round, I however have lost what ever, I would be near enough starting from scratch. This is where we spent the entire afternoon and early evening, spliting our time between a dip in the pool and sunbathing. The sun was very hot, so the pool was nice way to cool down everynow and then. Oh we did actually go to the bar for a fruit smoothie, but that was about it.
After showering we headed over to the restaurant area for 6:30pm, where we attended the welcoming ceremony which involved us, along with all the other new arrivals, sitting in on a straw mat, drinking something (we have no idea what it was!?), which when they were preparing it Belle said, "they have got a bowl of water there and they have just poured sand into it." Luckily it wasn't sand but you wouldn't know from the taste, as when Belle had to drink her cup, it nearly came back up again. We introduced ourselves, shouted 'Bula' a few times and clapped quite a lot. It was pretty fun, although we were not sure what was going on all the time.
Welcoming over, it was time for dinner. In the evening's you eat a three course meal. Tonight it seemed to be fish night, which I know people would say 'what do you expect' but there was more fish than you could shake a piece of coral at (the stick of the sea world). Luckily for me I have been training my pallet to like fish on this trip and this training came in handy, as I ate the majority of what was on offer, not only that, I liked most of it. Belle being a keen fish eater had no problem with this and tucked in. We had, breaded fish and salad to start, a fish medaly for the main, with veg, rice and potato and for dessert was a lemon and orange mouse. All in all a good first meal.
For the rest of the evening we watched the staff take on some of the guests at volley ball, something which was quite entertaining but neither us wanted to join in. It is going to take a couple of days and nights to get used to this heat again, as we were hot enough just sat down, let alone running around a volley ball court.
So that was our first day and night on Octopus, it had been a bloody good one!
Now we wont be writing a blog for every day we are on Octopus, as it would probably be quite boring. Our second day was very similar to the first, with more good food and we got to experience breakfast. A buffet style, with options from cerial, toast, fruit, muffins and an 'omlette station'. Build your own omlette and they will knock it up for you, we didn't try one on our second day but it is on the 'to do' list. So breakfast - good, lunch - good, dinner - good and the sunbathing and relaxing wasn't bad either, Fiji you are spoiling us.
Day three on Octopus and we decided to break our routine for the day, not by much but we changed it none the less. Instead of breakfast and then sun bathing by the pool, we instead took the 10 second walk to the beach.
Where as I have been training my taste buds to be more fish friendly, Belle has been practicing to become more like a fish and with excellent snokelling opportunities just off the beach, Belle decided that she wanted another go. Koo had done a bit of snokelling with Belle in Australia and we had been swimming in the pool here so now, she thought it was time to retry the sea. We hired our mask, snorkel and fins and made our way out into the shallows.
The water was nice and clear and was fairly calm so we didn't have to worry about getting battered by any incoming waves. We started with Belle just getting used to having her face in the water and using the snorkel to breathe, which she did pretty effortlessly. It was then time to have a little swim about, with me playing the part of the stairs or side of a swimming pool Belle could hold onto. We saw some small tropical fish and some tiny ones as well, in various differnt florescent colours. We did this for about an hour or so, letting Belle get used to being in the water and with the gear before she headed in for a break.
I stayed in the water and went for a bit of a swim, seeing some coral and some more fish, with a strange highlight being a small black and yellow fish followed me round everywhere I swam. It would just swim around in front of me, keeping close to my body or face ad when I went for a swim (a 20 yard burst or so) I would stop and there it was, still with me. I hadn't found Nemo, but maybe it was one of his cousins or something.
After some lunch and a quick sunbathe, Belle and me headed back into the water. As it was afternoon the tide had now come in and was deeper closer to the beach. This was a good thing as we wouldn't need to head out very far at all in order to swim around.
It must have been a combination of all Belle's training and the fact that she was having a great time seeing all the fish, as in the afternoon Belle was a completly different person in the water. Where Belle had been holding onto to me in the morning, she was now fully swimming, only occassionally holding my hand for some reasurance, but mainly swimming on her own, taking it all in. As I said the tide was in, so it was better snorkelling in the afternoon, with more fish closer to the beach. Various tropical fish, an angel fish (from Finding Nemo), squid, more tropical fish, some quite big, schole's of fish, bright coral and other marine life. Although it was easier to swim close to the beach this time round, this didn't matter as Belle seemed to have a lot more confidence about her and was swimming where ever she wanted to go. We did avoid the area's which dropped off quite dramatically, but that was to be expected really as about 24 hours prior I don't even think Belle would have thought she would be doing this. I can't stress enough how much improvement Belle had made with the swimming and water, it may sound a bit like a school report card, but for those who know how much Belle disliked (even hated water) before this trip, will know that it would have taken alot to get where she has. 'Well done Belle, keep up the good work, A.'
We were in the water together for about an hour and a half, watching all the fish go about their business, mainly eating, nibbling at the algee on the rocks, before a very happy Belle headed back to the beach. I again stayed in for a little bit longer, wanting to have another bit of a swim. I decided to head out further this time and I was glad I did. When swimming, the coral seemed to vanish quite quickly the further I got out and was replaced by a sea bed of white sand. It was whilst swimming that I saw some of this sand moving, before realising that it was in the shape of a ray. It was only a small one and probably 4 metres or so below me but I was happy to watch it skim along the bottom, with me trying to keep up with it, ocassional diving under to get a closer look. He was pretty cool, but I had to head back in as it was getting later and I felt I may have spent a little bit too long in the sea / sun.
Whilst having a post snokelling, happy hour drink that evening, we both felt a little bit sore and thought that we may have over done it slightly with the sun during the day. After another fish based dinner (fish pie) we both we feeling the effects of too much sun. After dinner we headed back to our bungalow at about 9:30pm, a truely poor effort on our part. We thought we had been sensible with our sun exposure, but we clearly misjudged it, with two English tourists glowing a nice shade of pink that evening, doing our best Dave Aylward impression (when he got severly burn't in Thailand). I think we were victims of swimming in the sea for too long and the desceptive, cool sea breeze, we have both taken note. Although we feel we can blame the snorkelling as it was too much fun & kept us in the water for longer.
Both feeling the effects of the previous day, we took it very easy on the sun on Friday. We spent most of the day reading, in the shade of the bar or by the pool area. We both had a brief dip which cooled us down but after drying in the sun for no more than five minutes, it again was too hot, so we both took cover in the shade.
The evening was the most eventful part of the day, with a night of traditional Fijian entertainment in store. We gather round the pool at half past seven that evening, ready for the show. The staff (or around 40 of them) sang traditional Fijian songs, showed us a kind of Fijian haka, welcoming home dance by the women and some more songs, before it was our turn to join in the dancing. Luckily it was not just myself and Belle, but near enough every one in the resort, together with the staff. The first dance involved linking arms with a partner, behind each others backs, and all standing in a line (facing the back of the people in front). THe music then started and you would 'dance' forward, backward and have to spin each other round to face the opposite direction. It took a little bit to get used to but we got there in the end. The second was more like your traditional conga. We all stood in a line, with hands on the person in front and danced or wiggled round the pool. All good fun, even if we were now sweating like we had just run a marathon.
Dinner was more Fijian fare, with a 'help your self' style feast with traditional dishes of chicken, pork, beef and vegetables, all very tasty, probably the best dinner so far actually. With dinner, you are sat at tables of eight with the other guests and obviously you get chatting with them. We had a couple of drinks after dinner chatting mainly with a Norwegian family, with the husband the ex-mayor of his town, a very interesting and nice man.
It was also a first that night as we experienced some rain. It is technically the 'wet season' in Fiji at the minute, but from the weather we have had, you wouldn't know. We have been told the rain effects Nadi the most and the smaller islands tend to get away with minimal. However for about half an hour, it came down, some seriously heavy rain. Not that we minded, sat in the restaurant, with sand under our feet, having a cold glass of wine / beer.
Our second to last day was a fairly relaxed affair again, with me still wanting to avoid the sun and Belle just about recovered, we alternated between the pool, sun bathing and sitting in the shade of the bar. I spent most of the day in the shade of the bar reading. Once the real heat of the day was dying down we went for a pre dinner snorkel, seeing more tropical fish, with the highlight being watching a reasonable size fish, pick up a sea snail in its mouth and then swim off with it.
We enjoyed a tasty BBQ dinner that evening which was very nice, but before that we had decided to buy a bottle of bubbly stuff before dinner to toast our travelling adventures. We got an ice bucket from the bar and headed for the beach, where we pulled up a sun lounger and watched the sun set. Sat there it was hard to believe that we are nearly on our way back to England and when we do arrive home, it will be to winter. I dont think you could get much more different, Fiji and England in the winter!
We woke up for breakfast on another beautiful day struggling to believe that it was our last day and night on Octopus Island. After a breakfast, where we both sampled the 'omlette station' (sounds alot fancier than it is) we wanted to make the most of the day and headed straight out for some more snorkelling.
We wanted to buy an unverwater camera which were on sale, but when we asked in the office they were out of stock. But, we were told we could hire one from the dive shop, so we tried there instead. No luck there either, as the very casual girl in the shop informed us the dive instructor has the camera and was not in today. Slightly annoying as it would have been great to get some pictures of all the fish and especially Belle having a snorkel on her own, ah well. Having exhausted all our camera options we headed for the water.
The current was stronger than our previous trips out so we had to get used to that at first. It wasn't really bad, you just had to float and let your body go with it, but we soon got used to it and explored again. The coral and reef on display, is beautiful, with lots of different colours and wierd types along with all the colourful fish, I can honestly say it is better than my great barrier reef experience, amazing.
The pevious night we were talking (over our bubbly) about how well Belle had done in the water, but she was still a bit nervous of going out to where she could not touch the bottom. After a little encouragement from me, (probably more the bubbly) she said we could try going out to a deeper bit of water the next day. The time had come...
As there is alot of coral where we were snorkelling, it is fairly shallow, but when the coral stops, it drops away a bit, but you can still see the floor, after the coral ends it is probably 4m to the bottom. After we had had a look at the coral and fish who would go about there daily business, it was time to try the deeper water. Now this may seem like a bit of an anti - climax but Belle was absolutely fine with it. I held her hand at first and assured her it was fine but soon she was there happily floating & swimming around as if she had been doing it all her life, an amazing achievement. What's more she enjoyed it (again!).
When we were in a deeper section of water, at the side of the coral, I dived under the water to have a closer look at a fish and bit of coral it was nibbling on. As I put my mask closer, it was clear I had over stepped the mark. The fish I was looking at, not much bigger than a credit card, came swimming out towards me, attempting to scare me off, "Oi, this is my coral!" It came as a bit of a suprise and worked. I wanted to see if it was a one off so did it a couple more times and each time it swam right at me, angry little fish, he was brave though so I left him alone and we headed for another little swim, before heading out, not wanting to get burnt like last time.
The rest of the day consisted of sun bathing by the pool, going in the pool, eating lunch, bit more pool and sun bathing and one last evening snorkel, in which I saw a couple more wrays, a slightly bigger one this time.
Our last meal was one of the best ones, which was a nice bonus. Soup, followed by grilled fish with veg, with cake to finish, tasty. We sat and had a beer after dinner, savouring our surroundings. Then the we had to do the fun bit, head back to the room and pack.
The next morning we checked out, had breakfast and then waited for our boat to come and pick us up a 4:00pm. We had another sun bathe and swim before drying off and then boarding our boat, goodbye Octopus Island. As we mentioned we had Octopus reccomended to us by a couple of friends we met in Australia and what a great recommendation it was. We had such a nice, relaxing 6 nights on this beautiful island. We wanted somewhere we could put our backpacks down for a few nights and enjoy doing very little, we certainly did that here, we couldn't have asked for more!
Once we arrived back into Nadi (the main island) in the evening we timed it perfectly for the evening down pour, it is the wet season after all. In the 30 seconds between leaving the boat terminal and finding our bus we got absolutly soaked, it looked like we had swam back.
Apart from having to unpack large quantities of our bags, so our clothes could dry, our evening was pretty non eventful, with dinner and a night in an air conditioned room. Octopus was brilliant, but it was very hot at night so our room for the night was a nice treat.
- comments
lethal Well done Belle - a great achievement - a whole new watery world of fun awaits!! XXX
del matt eating fish and belle swimming like a fish - where will it all end?