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After spending two weeks in FREEZING New Zealand we were dribbling at the idea of stepping off the plane in Fiji to meet sweltering sunshine. We could finally take off our leggings, woolly socks, 300 jumpers, scarves and gloves and try and top up our fading tan ready for our return to England. This would of course mean shaving our legs for the first time in weeks.... nice! We considered venturing to the idyllic islands to the north of the main Fijian island but after much deliberation we decided to stay on the mainland to save our quickly disappearing funds and time. We came across a resort which catered mainly for people our age and up who are after a good time... this basically meant no children running around and screaming every 5 seconds. So we got in a taxi and spent the next 4 hours with a driver who seemed to believe that the speed limit was a mere 10 miles an hour. We arrived at the beautiful resort just in time for dinner, where we soon discovered that at every breakfast lunch and dinner there would be mouth watering options available and our money was slowly but surely spent going through the entire menu.
In the resort was several shared dorms, shared shower rooms, a restaurant, a swimming pool, a private beach, volleyball pitch, their very own club and many gorgeous guys! Everything we needed was here and the thought of a relaxing week was very appealing to us. We spent our time sun bathing, swimming, joining in with the games such as water volleyball, baseball, cricket and volleyball (all of which we were absolutely terrible at) and of course eating off their brilliant menu. Each night the Fijian workers put on activities such as cinema night, pub quiz, pool competitions, the international crab race and club nights.
One day we decided to go on the resort's organised trip to a little island; for snorkelling, a volleyball competition, a picnic lunch with sandwiches, beer and wine and to visit a local community which involved an infamous cava ceremony. To get there we piled into two separate speed boats and set off... little did we know that sitting at the front of the boat meant looking like a drowned rat for the entire journey. The boat constantly slammed down on the choppy waves and we were soaked to the bone...as well as having incredibly painful bums! The snorkelling was incredible from the start. They dropped us off in the middle of a huge coral reef and we dived off the boat straight into a shoal of tropical fish. We even saw a 3ft shark swimming a couple of meters below us! The infamous cava ceremony, although rather interesting, was perhaps the least appetising part of the day trip. Basically us travellers mixed in with the locals and all sat around in one big circle. The chief of the camp sat at the head of the circle and started off a chant of "BULA, BULA, BULA" (which actually means hello hello hello...a word the Fijians seem to use for absolutely everything) and then each person in the circle had to down the "drink" from half a coconut. The fact that the cava came from a scabby bucket in the middle of a fly infested hut wasn't the main problem... the reason it was so disgusting was that it looked and tasted exactly like 3 week old dishwater. It wasn't even alcoholic which you could sort of understand but it contained anaesthetic which left your mouth numb and cold. Not pleasant! But still we had a little insight into how the locals live their life and the cava ceremony is used in all special occasions over there. On the way back to the resort we shot-gunned the back of the boat and proceeded to drink the free, chilled beer feeling nice and dry.
Our last night in the resort...and indeed our last night of the entire trip "sob" was "the daggiest night" night. This involved rummaging through your backpack and finding the worst possible combination of clothes, makeup and accessories to wear. Everyone looked hilarious and made loads of effort and it made for an excellent end to an incredible trip!!
This whole 6 months had been a life changing, fantastic experience and we had very mixed feelings about coming home to flooded England with no shops, nightlife showers or flushing toilets!!! But of course the next day we reluctantly got on the plane and started our long journey back.
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