Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hey All,
Okay so I apologise for being really slack at keeping you all updated!
So I am currently in Sydney, arrived on the 3rd after saying goodbye to Will for 3 months!
Anyways before I tell you about Australia, let me fill you in on the last 5 weeks in Fiji!!
So we loved Fiji so much! It was completly different from New Zealand in everyway, we loved the people, the culture, the food and not forgetting the 30 degree plus heat every day and the 80% humidity! Yesss hotttt!!
Anyways we spent the first few weeks island hopping on the Yasawa Islands.
The remote Yasawa Islands group consists of a chain of 20 ancient volcanic islands, 4 of these islands have dramatic elevations with summits just short of 600 metres above sea level. The beaches are pristine, white and sandy with nothing but coral which is great for diving, as well as dramatic crystal clear lagoons!
We spent our time on South Sea Island, Waya Lailia Island, Waya Island (Octupus Resort), Nanuya Island (Manta Ray Resort), Naviti Island (Korovou Resort), Matacawalevu Island (Bay of Plenty Resort) and Nacula Island (Oarsmans Bay Resort). There are over 34 resorts to stay at but many are on the same islands so we picked our ones from others advice :)
The ones that stood out were definatly Manta Ray Resort, Oarsmans Bay Reosrt and Octopus Resort- which has won tonnes of awards! Google them if you have a chance to see what I mean :)
They were all beautiful, food was mostly excellent, people always so friendly and we throughly enjoys ourselves! We spent our time sunbathing, diving, jewerelly making, joining in with the daily activites, meeting friends and drinking :) Good times!
So when we returned from the islands we spent a few days chilling at Nadi Bay Hotel and then headed off on our Fiji Experience adventure!
Our first day started with a wander around Nadi markets, where we chatting to some locals, stacked up on fruit and veg and supplies for the day. Wandering through the markets with the locals was abit of a eye opener and we saw tonnes of fruit and veg we'd never even heard of before! You certainly have have to keep your wits about you here, with locals following you around the shops, asking you where your from, what do you do at home, if you want to look in their shops or even inviting you to visit their homes and play with their children! Fijians are considered some of the friendliest people in the world, however at this opportunity you certainly say 'no thank you' and move on! Like I said an experience!
Any ways we headed south away from the tourist hub and headed towards Natadula Beach, voted in the 10 top beaches in the world! The country side we travelled through on the way was amazingly beautiful and we were all surprised how green everything was when you get out of the city. Once we reached the beach we had a play in the sea, got to know our fellow travellers and our Guide Jerry and the bus driver William and all chipped in $5 (about £1.50) and enjoyed a Fijian style BBQ! Yum!
When you land in Fiji your perception is that the country is centred on Tourism, however other places we travelled in Viti Levu (the mainland) are predominately self sufficient villages reliant on crop growth and sugar cane for income and family meals. Local fruits and veg grown by local villages still make up a huge portion of the Fijian diet. We drove past huge fields of sugar cane as we made our way through the main land. Cattle, horses and dogs are found in the middle or sides of the roads as there is no fences and the only way farmers know their cattle is by individual bells hanging from their necks!
After Natadula Beach we headed to the coastal village of Malomalo, where we met the chief of the village, visited the church, got a lesson from the women on banana tree leaf weaving and enjoying a traditional Kara welcoming ceremony. We also visited a tradtional bure that was made out of traditional Fijian methods and local materials. To date this bure had survived 7 tropical cyclones, now 8 after a further severe one that hit Fiji in December 2009. Not a single nail was used in it's structure. A must when entering a Fijian village or school is that you must were a sulu (sarong) to cover your knees and a flower behind your ear... right if you are taken and left if you are available.
From the village we headed straight for Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park. With over 650 hectares or dunes, it is one of the earliest recorded prehistoric sites in Fiji. Of course we got to have a go sand-boarding down them! Will and I had obviously already done this in New Zealand so we were experts now of course... yeah right! After trying to get rid of sand in every bodily crease, we headed West for the Coral Coast. The area is famous for it's miles of coral coast line which makes it one of the best places in the world to dive... bringing us to our first resort, Mango Bay. A stunning beachfront resort with free watersports, pool activites, nightly entertainment and traditional Fijian jewerelly making. We jumped off the bus here and enjoyed 4 nights in this gorgeous resort. This is where we first found out about the 2 tropical cyclones that were currently over the Cook Islands. Although not predicted to hit Fiji, there was warnings for strong winds and we did get one hell of a tropical rain storm! Warm though I may add!
After four nights we jumped back on the bus, met our new Fiji Experience crowd and headed for Navua, Pacfic Harbour in the Namos Highlands where we started the Matakibau Trek, a 3 hour trek through the Fiji Rainforest! After a 4x4 truck took us to the start of the trek, we started our extremely muddy trek into the centre of the mainland... and boy did all that rain the previous day before make it mudddyyyy! Mud up to our knees in some places!
The story goes that Fiji Experience decided they wanted to include a rainforest trek in their packages but wanted a really remote and proper Fiji trek, not any of this chessy commerical operations, so anyways word got out to a few local villages and 3 days later a man named Mr Mataibau turned up at the Fiji Experience office in Nadi explaining he'd grabbed a few lads from the local villages armed with machetes, and recut an old crop track by hand through to the upper river villages... and ta da... you have the Fiji Experience Trek! This definatly isn't something many tourists get the opportunity or even choose to do when they get to Fiji! It was muddy, slippery and wet after walking through several rivers up to your waist! At the end of the trek we reaches a group of waterfalls and spent the rest of the day cooling off, jumping in and trying to swim under the waterfalls! Very cool! Then came a short trek back before we got a long boat back through the rainforest passing through remote rainforest villages in the highlands.
After hosing off in the sea we headed to Uprising Beach Resort in Pacific Habour- Adventure Captial of Fiji. This was a gorgeous resort with an awesome sea view and picturesque islands scattered along the horizon. We had fun playing Fijian fancy dress and had coconut lessons and Will and I enjoyed our own beach bure for Valentines night :) Not usually I do a trek through the rainforest for Valentines hey!
The following day after a early start we headed into Suva- Fiji's Capital City. We had a look at the markets and cruised around Suva to take a look at the presidents house, Fiji's only women's prison, the university and the Island of Ovalav- where male prisoners serving life sentences are sent to this remote island, which also happens to be shark infested waters, where crazy tourists can pay to dive without a cage! Don't know how you feel, but with Fiji's most dangerous prisoners and blood sucking sharks- it was the last island I wanted to pay over $300 for the pleasure!
As we continued North of the Banana Highway, we headed through local towns and then visited Naiyala High School, a community run school set up and paid for by the community which recieves hardly any government support. This school caters for 5 villages and has been open since 1974. The school caters for 120 students and has a female and male dorm to cater for ½ of it's students that board to be able to attend. With limited training resources, we brought them stationary gifts and in return the children showed us around the school and did some singing and dancing, telling us about themselves and what they wanted to be when they were older.
Fiji Experience aims to contribute to local schools and orphanages, whether it's school children on the rural highlands or disadvantaged kids in Suva, Fiji Experience pay a visit to share stories, knowledge and help where ever they can. We learnt that 20% of all our passes went straight to 3 school children to help them pay for their fees; two at primary school, one at secondary and one young man who started his first year at University this year to become a teacher. Fiji Experience promises to continue to pay these children's school fee's until they have finished their education. This was lovely to know what our money went too, made us feel like we were actually making a difference. After all 3/4 of the Fijian population live in poverty...
You can tell the children are so greatful for our visits, they were always so happy to see us and hear where we all come from and what we do back home. After a sad goodbye we headed to Wailotua Village in Wanibuka Provience, where we enjoyed yet another Kava Welcoming Ceremony and met the chief of the village and learnt to make jewerelly with the ladies. As part of the ceremony, our Fiji Experience guide takes permission for us to use the Wamibuka River, this is where we go Bilbil Rafting!
Now before I go any further, I need to tell you about the weather that went on that day.., it literelly rained ALL day and NEVER stopped! Now you might be thinking, ah it's done that every day in England for 3 months!.. but this is tropical rain, and when it rains, it RAINS!... so heavy and constant it actually feels like it's never going to stop!
So anyways thankfully the chief still gave his permission, so after a quick change, the entire bus gets out in bikinis and shorts and t-shirts into a tropical rainstorm and climbs (more like slides!) now the river bank to begin our rafting challage!
The challage takes place on 2 16 berth bamboo rafts ( a traditional simple transportation craft in Fiji).. in other words bamboo tunks tied together with string that 'kind' of float!
So imagine this.. 11 crazy Fiji Experience passenges, sitting on half sinking bamboo rafts, dressed in next to nothing, attempting to hand pandle as fast as they can down a VERY muddy river in a tropical rainstorm!! Honestly it was the few hours of my life!!! It was soooo much fun!! After a race full of cheating, we stopped and playing water rugby and then attempted to pandle back upstream, however all that rain made it impossible, so we resorted to clambling up the river banks and walking in the rain! After a hosing down (driver's orders!) we travelled to Rakiaki and VoliVoli Beach Reosrt and spent the evening playing drinking games. We ended up staying 5 nights here as it was so nice.. take a look at the pictures!
So when we finally got back on the bus we spent our last day travelling back around to Nadi, where we started our tour. However before we got back we spent the afternoon playing in hot mud pools and hot water springs! The pictures say it all really- take a look! Great fun! After saying goodbye to the group, we spent our last week in Fiji chilling our at the hotel, venturing into Nadi Town for pressies and had some good nights out with Will's friend Matt that came over from Sydney and other travellers we met at the resort..
We we kinda didn't celebrate Valentines and Will and I only had two more nights together, Will paid for us to stay at the Radison in Fiji- a 5* resort! It was beautiful, the room was gorgeous, had 6 pools and great food! We even ordered films and room service to the room just because we could :) It was a great end to Fiji :)
So Will and I said goodbye at the airport, which was sooo much harder than either of us had imagined... after spending everyday of 3 months together it was going to be really weird and we were really sad to leave. We had a great nearly 4 months travelling together and I'll miss him tonnes!
Anyways I arrived into Sydney mid afternoon on the 3rd March and spent the rest of the day chilling before Faye arrived the next day! I was so excited to see her, after going from living together and seeing each other everyday to going to not seeing her for 4 months!! I'm so happy she's here now and am really excited about the next 3 months we've got travelling Australia together!!
Spent today sightseeing on the open top bus around the city, seeing the Sydney Bridge, Sydney Opera House, The Rocks, Botanic Gardnens, various shopping malls and great food stops! It so reminds me of New York with it's huge skyscrapers, masses of people, posh shops, bright lights and cafe culture! Such a difference after spending the last 5 weeks in Fiji living in a hut on a island with sometimes less than 3 other people! We are loving it :)
Plan so far is to stay in Sydney til Wednesday, then we've booked a flight to Melbourne, I have friends there so we plan to meet them and enjoy the city before back to Sydney and then start our travels up the East Coast! Wooop! Loving every second :)
Miss you all millions xxxxxxxxxxx
- comments