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We decided that we would head to Fiji for a two week 'holiday' before Christmas, yes I know we are on holiday already but hey, so the plan was to fly to Fiji have two weeks of glorious sunshine and apply for our one year holiday working visa…..so off we go….'BULA' the warmest greeting when we arrived meaning hello, everyone is so happy and cheery and we felt so welcome, the first night we stayed in a hostel in Nadi and straight away applied for a visa on line, so being the naïve BRITISH passport holding d*** we are we thought everything was sorted and we would hear from them in the next couple of days. Next morning we headed to Mana Island, which is an hours boat ride away, the island is so pretty and we were again greeted by the most lovely people, the hostel was so funky and just what I would imagine an island backpackers to look like, the staff sang us a welcome song, and we stared out onto the most stunning crystal blue water of the sea and the beautiful palm tree beach, the backpackers is in the middle of the village so we lived with the village people and had kids coming and playing with us all day, it was such a great way to get to know the Fijian people, the first night we stayed in the hostel it was a Saturday and there was going to be a fire and traditional dance show so we both got stuck into the lethal bounty rum that tastes like rocket fuel and should really not be for human consumption, we had such a good night and the rum definitely started having an affect, after the great show we got talking to an Italian guy whom was doing just the same thing as us- getting a visa for Australia, he got an answer within three hours and said he had also been to Asia for three months but had to pay for his visa straight away and one of his questions for the SE Asia he answered incorrectly but still got the visa, we had not paid but thought we might have made a mistake so we started panicking, from then on it just got worse.
Now bear in mind we are on a tiny island inFiji and there is not that much in regards to communication, but we finally track down a woman who had internet and was not shy charging us $35 for an hour and a half….but this had to be done, we applied for our visa's on the right website, paid and crossed our fingers…few minutes later we were staring at the screen in absolute disbelief, we had to get chest x-rays before they could proceed with the application, never mind about the fact that we had been in Australia for two months prior to coming to Fiji but anyway we had to do it, apparently it was because we had been in SE Asia for four months….SH*T, F*CK, SH*T, for the next couple of hours we sat down with the manager of the hostel called Matthias (who was the kindest man on this earth and did everything he could to help us)and planned a way to get back to main land early in the morning so we could get to the city and get this sorted, after many tears and anxious waiting we finally made a plan to get on the supply boat at 7am the next morning and then hopefully be back that evening, we slowly calmed down and both went and sat in a hammock and contemplated our situation, happily swinging away, and feeling a tad sorry for ourselves, the rope breaks' and we go crashing to the ground where Darren winds himself and I am in fits of giggles while a whole village of kids and adults laugh there heads off at us, after such an awful day it just kept on getting better, after a few moments of composure and the hammock gets fixed up I get back on it and before I knew it went arse over tit again, showing my underwear to everyone, l got even more laughter and while my face burnt red with humiliation, it could not get any worse, surely? That night Mathias came and told us that there was a hurricane not far and we may get bad weather but it should be ok by the morning, he was so wrong, we woke up to the howling of the wind and the rain beating our windows down, by 9am it got even worse, trees were falling over, roof sheets were flying off, boats were flipping over and it was just so scary, we all stayed in the bar area shuffling around like lost farts while the staff tried to keep the lagoon from flying away. It was madness, so of course we were unable to get on the 7am boat as there were no boats coming or going, so we just had to sit and wait for the weather to get better, all the while hoping that we would be ok- he was named Cyclone Mick!
The next day we woke up at 6am and ran outside to see the damage and see if we could finally get on a boat, the village was a mess and all the trees were already dying from all the spray from the sea water, we had to pay $80 to get the big boat back to mainland but could only get it at 12.30pm, Finally after an anxious wait we finally jumped on the boat and as soon as we got there we dived into a taxi and took us to Lautoka hospital which is the another city. After waiting ages to be seen we were told that we had to get a doctors note before getting x-rays so we jumped back into the taxi and managed to find a doctor, who told us that the process would take a week, I could not actually believe my ears, I swear I wanted to dive over the table and throttle the doctor, how dare she tell us this, near on the verge of tears we jumped back into the cab and told him to take us to the bus stop in Nadi, where we had to go to the capitol called Suva which was three hours away by mini bus, $70 for the twenty minute taxi ride and $34 for the bus trip, we were already spending far too much money. So we jumped into a very old mini bus and headed to Suva, I sat in the middle between the driver and Darren and every now and again got a delightful whiff of BO and almost vomited but we were on a mission so I just sat and patiently waited , just when we were getting all excited at the prospect of getting the visa sorted, the bus decided that it would be a great time to get a flat tire, nice! We all hop out the bus and wait for an age for the dim witted driver to change the very worn and treadles tire, but thank god after only 20 minutes we were on the move again.
Suva was surprisingly nice and clean, being the capitol of course you would expect it and it did have a very nice feel to it, after the bus ride my arse was so numb and I was so hungry and tired we headed for a place to stay as it was too late to go to the hospital or the immigration, we walked for ages and finally found a very sweet little place at the top of a very steep hill, of course, we booked a double room, a shower was much needed so rushed to the room, we opened the door and I just burst out laughing as bits of the roof was lying all over the bed, I honestly could not believe that anything else could go wrong, it was just too much.
The next morning we woke up really early and headed for the private hospital for our x-rays, it seemed that everything was working out, the x-rays were done within minutes, although we paid $90 for them so I should bloody think so! X-rays done, now we just had to get in a cab and go to the immigration and get a release letter so we can give them the x-rays which we did after doing the trip back and forth four times we were finally told that we should get an answer that afternoon or the next morning, in our excitement we gave each other hi five, as if we had just shot a scene for a kids movie for solving a crime, but who cares we were so over excited, yay we can finally enjoy our holiday…..we jump into the bus smiling like Cheshire cats and I get shat on my a bird with diarrhoea it was beyond disgusting, but is that good luck? I really hope so, so the three hour journey back to NadI was not too bad but we had to stop as a big bus had rolled off the road and down the hill, there was a man holding a child that looked like it was lifeless, my heart sank and realised that worrying about a visa is silly, there were people everywhere and it looked like men were carrying people up the hill. But there was nothing we could do so we carried on,immediately getting back we checked the status, uh oh I needed to send them more information but had to wait for an e-mail…..all thoughts of the bus crash were lost and we instantly started to lose it, after spending another $180 on the boat back to Mana our feelings of dread started flooding back and we knew it was not the end. But what the hell did they want from me?
It was painful on the island waiting for an e-mail explaining what information they needed, we tried our best to enjoy the island and even managed a few tanning sessions and even joining in on the parties at night, drowning our sorrows felt like a really good plan. 'Hey we are in Fiji for gods sake we cant be miserable', we told each other this daily but we are so stressed. After spending $100 on the internet waiting for any sort of information we finally started panicking as we were flying out in three days time, so we had to leave the island two days early back to NadI and get this sorted, we have changed our flight to the 24th and just hope that Monday we can get through to someone so they can help us with our visa and get to Australia for Christmas.
The island was amazing fun and we were almost in tears having to leave, what am I saying I was in tears, Matthias was so kind and gave me a good hug and said that if we don't get it sorted we could always stay with him for free, Mana island is the best and in a funny way we had such an amazing time even though our minds were ticking over, the staff are so fun and friendly and we played games and ate so much food we could of burst. In Fiji when you are a visitor it is polite to accept kava which is a root drink but tastes like cardboard its non alcoholic but if you drank allot of it, it would soon give you a narcotics affect, we stayed clear of it but its is offered all the time. There is allot of dancing and singing here especially fire dances and fire walking. There is also a big Indian culture as they were sent here in 1879 as labourers when the British ruled, until 1970 when Fiji became a fully independent nation.
I will keep you updated and we have decided to take things as they come and have some fun here in Fiji and not get too depressed….after all we are in one of the most beautiful places on earth. So far I am still waiting to hear from them but because it's the week-end I have to wait till Monday to contact them so I will write another blog soon, please cross all your fingers and toes for us?!
Miss you all more than ever now xxxx
- comments
Crissy Mommsen Hi guys Have a great Christmas & New Year and what ever will be will be. If you meant to stay there & work it will all turn out. Love you lots and lots