Thursday 15th Feb 2007

Bula from Fiji! Landed at Nadi airport around 6am local time on Thursday 8th Feb. After flying out of LA on Tuesday 6th...wierd! The flight took 9 hours and we slept for most of it and drooled over Xzibit in Gridiron Gang for the rest of the time. It was 21 degrees at 6am when we landed and unbelievably humid! Got free bus to our hostel - Nadi Bay resort - first impression...WOW!! After LA it felt like paradise! 2 bars, 2 pools, coconut trees and tropical flowes everywhere. En suite in dorm - yey! Even kate found it difficult to get onto laid back Fiji time. Spent most of day getting sun burnt and learning to relax. Went for afternoon nap and woke up to find a room full of blokes gear...bit worried. They came up and invited us for drinks with them in the hostel bar where we had our first taste of Fiji bitter and Fiji Gold(which prety much tasted the same). Mal, Chris and Matt, Aussie surfer dudes and builders working on the Fijian Islands for a few months. They were really cool and took us to Edds bar where we played pool, drank sambuca and danced til 3. Back at the room Kate had her first surfing lesson (hopefully first of many).

All woke up feeling worse for wear and ordered toast and Vegimite for breakfast. Knowing Fijians we were not surprised when we ended up with Jam! The five of us got a Taxi into Nadi town, had lunch at Nandos and went to buy some cheap trainers to trash on the treck. When we got back to the Hostel it was chucking it down with tropical rain so we all went in the pool where Mal proceded to break open a coconut he had found for us to drink the milk. We bought some beers and drank them in the room before going for food in the resort restaurant, and polishing off a couple of bottles of wine and going to bed way too late!

Got up early and packed to depart for the "Feejee Experience" at 8.15. Apologised to the rest of the group for being tired and hungover. Met our guide, Bola, who took us to Natadola beach where we had a BBQ and got to know the group. Met Richie and Craig from Banbury who used to go to the Warinner School and knew some peops from Brackers. After BBQ we went to a remote Village made up of a few tin huts. Prety amazing to see how some of the people out here live. Bola taught us about Fijian tradition and lifestyle. After this we drove to Sigatoka sand dunes to sandboard which involved launching yourself head first down sand dunes on a bodyboard (with a hangover)! Our overnite stop was at Mango Bay resort which was beautiful. Too tired tio enjoy it much. Went for buffet quickly followed by bed to recover for tomorow.

Got up early to find ideal weather for our 3 and a half hour treck today. Only half an hour and we were starting to worry what we had let ourselves in for. Huge red clay hills leading us into the rainforest. The surroundings were breathtaking when you had a chance to look around and stay upright. The hills eventually subsided and we spent the last hour walking knee deep in water thru a creek. Jenny was glad we had bought cheap trainers and didnt have to ruin her DC's! We all made hats out of fern leaves and painted our faces with mud. Got down to a river the width of the M25 were our driver JP and the people who wimped out of the treck were waiting for us with tyre inner tubes for us to float down river on. After a few small rapids we stopped to jump in pools and swim under a waterfall. WOW! Got a long boat the rest of the way down river back to the big green bus. Took a drive thru Suva, the Capital of Fiji but were not allowed to stop there due to the Coup. However when we did see military people they soon dropped their machine guns and started waving when we waved and shouted "Bula" out of the bus window. We stopped overnight at raintree lodge hostel where we had a much needed home cooked meal of Spag Bol and some more Fiji Bitter before bed.

First stop of the day was at a secondary school where the students showed us round their classes and dorms. Very basic but the standard of teaching seemed prety high. Algebra on the board that none of us could get our heads around! After the school we went to another small village to take part in a Kava drinking ceremony with the chief of the village. Kava is an unpleasant drink with a taste resembling muddy puddle water! It is made from a root plant strained into water. It makes your tongue go numb and supposedly makes you feel stoned if you can put yourself thru drinking enough. We then weaved bracelets and learnt how to break and strip a coconut before the locals made us a pudding of soggy crackers floating in watered down coconut milk. Jenny only just managed to hold it down! After the village we went to a primary school so that our guide, Bola, could watch the rugby sevens final. From the little we understood of it we managed to work out that Fiji had won by the screams from the little kids. Ended our day at Voli Voli beach resort where we swam in the sea and had crunchy super noodles for dinner....mmmmm! We all met up at the beach bar where we drank more Kava (not sure why) along with more Fiji Bitter and played drunken games and had crab races. We all went to the beach where Bola lit a bonfire with half a gallon of petrol and we all thought we were going to die! We drank more and ended up in the sea and dancing around the fire til 4am.

Last day of the Feejee Experience we got a lie in because Bola was hungover. We left Voli Voli at midday and went for a curry as part of the "experience" because a large proportion of the population are Indian. After lots of goat curry we went to the mud pools to relax....or not. It was really gross and freaked kate out thinking about what was living in the mud and leaves under her fat little toes! We cleaned ourselves off in a hot pool and got back on the bus to say goodbye to Bola and some of our group. Most of us got dropped back at Nadi Bay Hostel where we had a swim, food and spent the nite drinking with Team Norway (Gunni and Ingvild) and American Nick.

Last day in Fiji. We got some well needed washing done as everything we own seriously stinks, then got a taxi into Nadi Town for souvenirs. Went to bed early for 8.45 am flight to Auckland.