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Currently in Kaikoura in New Zealand now but am still back in Fiji with my journal updates so will start there.
Right, so after the experince of the Fijian islands, me and Leeroy headed back to the main land. This is the point where all three of us were split up. Tom was still with Becky on one of the islands. Leeroy headed back to our hostel in Nadi. I had to make the three hour trip down to the south of the island because the next day was SHARK DIVE day. Just getting there was nerve racking enough. The coach driver from the port dropped me off in Nadi city somewhere. It was just getting dark and i had to find some way of getting to the south of the island. I managed to get directions through some dodgy looking streets, where i was the only foregner around. i ended up at some market place that was supposed to be where you get a minvan to the south of the island. Eventually i found a van that was parked on the road that was apparentky going that way. So.... me and 10 Fijians all set off for the 3 hour journey to Pacific harbour. It was quite an experience being the only foreigner there. Anyway, all went well and i ended up at the hostel i was supposed to be going to.
The next day was the shark feeding dive day. I headed out to the dive centre to get suited and booted, watched a few videos of the sharks feeding. They have even named the sharks. One is called Scar face and is a 6 metre tiger shark. I was kinda hoping he wouldnt show. We then headed out to shark reef, aptly named, for the briefing. We were told stuff like.. dont put your head in the sharks mouth when he is eating, dont grab the dead pieces of fish as one might bite your hand off, common sense stuff really. The first dive was to 32 metres. And that meant Nitrogen narcosis. A combination of being narcosised and seeing sharks. So there i was with a big smile on my face watching these sharks being fed. Unbelievable. There were about 4 bull sharks, 4 nurse sharks and a few reef sharks, including the black tip, white tip and grey reef shark. The most scary one though were the giant trevallies, who had big fang teeth and were all over the shop, eating everything. The best part of this dive was when a nurse shark, whose head was about a metre wide, came and lay next to me, looking at me as if i had some food. I even got the chance to stroke him as he didnt seem too threatening. We then ascended to shallower water for some fish feeding, also accompanied by a few black tip reef sharks. After an hour surface interval, to get rid of some of the excess nitrogen in our blood, we headed out for our second dive, to 17 metres, for the main shark feeding event. This was to be purely the big bull sharks and the instructors would be hand feeding them. It turned out to be a spectacle. There were between 15 and 20 bull sharks altogether and I was positioned just a few metres behind the instructor. You could literally count the sharks teeth as his mouth opened in front of me to take the fish from his hands. Even after taking the bait, the shark would continue to swim forward, as if coming staight to you. You could see his mouth and gills moving as he chomped up the fish. And then, about a metre from you, he would turn and go back to the arena of sharks. It was a great show. I have bought a Dvd of the whole thing, which should be arriving at my house soon.
Me and this lad, called Adam, who i met on beachcomber went back to the hostel after the shark dive and celebrated the great dive by having some pizza and watching the Godfather and Rocky. We then went to the bar downstairs for a few drinks with some of the local Fijians. Turned out to be a great night. Everyone ended up in the pool, going town the tube slide they have built. This hostel, Tsulu, is probably up there with the best i have stayed in. Its pretty much a village with everything, including bar pool, slide, bakery, supermarket, restaurants, bars, dvd shop and soon to be cinema. A fantastic day, topped off with a great night out. We got to know all the locals who worked at the hostel.
The next day we headed back to Nadi. Here i met back up with Tom and Lee as we had a seven o clock flight the next day. That meant a 4am wake up call. That was a toughy. Sad to leave Fiji. Its been quick but action packed. Next lies New Zealand and probably my most anticipated place.
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