Blog 31 - Fiji Mainland

Phil pickedme up from the airport in Sydney and we had a lovely day together. We stayed the night at a friend of him and there were a lot of good conversations that night. The next day we had a coffee at the airport and I left.. again… Hate to say goodbyes… And now it wasgoodbye for real… It's going to be a while before I'll go back to Oz (I think) and that does make me sad…

Fiji.. here I come…

I had no idea what to expect from Fiji and honestly… the first week wasn't my bestweek, apart from my first evening. A shuttle bus picked me and some others up from the airport and drove us to the Nadi Bay Hotel, a really nice place I have to say. As I arrived there I put my bags in the dorm and made my way back down. There was a man playing the guitar and when I asked him where in Nadi I could buy a ukulele, he asked me if I wanted to sing some songs. Of course.. It was really cool! The Fijian people are very musically talented: many play the guitar and they sing perfect harmonies. After the singing I went to the bar, really thirsty. Some Ozzie guys were having a drink and offered me one as well. In the end we had dinner all together. Glen and his dad own a 4 star resort at Viwa, the most western Island in Fiji and Andrew was trying to sell them his (really good) coffee; a business meeting. Anyway, Glen and his dad were so enthusiastic about there resort and we got on really well, so… they invited me to come over to check it out… for free.. that was a pretty good offer, so I couldn't say no really… I got their number and we were going to stay in touch, because if I were to go to Viwa, I had to extend my stay and thus change my plain ticket.

The next morning I went into town to buy a Ukulele and some proper strings (fishing line just doesn't sound as good) and at noon I was picked up by Tony, a shuttle bus driver who drove me all the way to the Beachouse at the Coral Coast. The dorms there seemed to be really nice and I shared a dorm with 2 other girls: Charlie (English) and Osianna (Canadian). That day I didn't do a lot.. We playedvolleyball after our afternoon tea (free scones) and had a shower after that. I found out that there was free wireless internet there so I tried to update my blog and skype with some friends and family in the evenings. I was hoping for some surf while I was there, but unluckily there was none. The next day we were going to the market in Sigatoka, but aas we arrived there, everything was closed! Yes, it was a Sunday, but the driver told us that the market was open the Sunday before… We took a local bus back to the Beachouse and we were back by 1 pm.. what a waste of time.. Not much happened that day: I was quite exhausted after all the early morning surfs in Bali and the goodbyes in Australia. I just felt really tired.. So I slept a lot, watched some episodes of Lost on my computer and read a lot. We did go to town again on Monday morning and that was quite nice.

After the first night I had hypes of little bites on my arm and after the second night there were even more of those on my leg. When I showed them to Charlie, she had some bad news for me: bed bugs… We don't have those in NL as far as I know, but they are quite common in hostels around Australia. Well, they do have them in Fiji as well.. As I went to the reception to talk about it they denied it (as if I would make it up), but in the end they gave me a bed in another dorm and they washed all my clothes. I didn't want to put my sleeping bag in the laundry or the really nice blue top I bought in town (to wear on my birthday), so I put those in the freezer. Charlie (who knows everything about bed bugs: living encyclopedia) told me it was either washing or freezing, so that was a good alternative. I was quite annoyed by the fact that there were no waves whatsoever and about the bed bugs (obviously), so the next morning I decided to leave. That was a last minute decision, so of course I forgot to get my stuff out of the freezer L The driver promised me he would get it for me and het would drop it of at the hotel I was going to stay later that week… He dropped me at the main road on a crossing where I had to take the bus to Seashell Resort.A nice man and his daughter picked me up: they lived right next to the resort and gave me a lift. As I arrived at Seashell Resort,I noticed that it was really quiet there. Ten minutes later, in the dorm that I shared with Amy, an English girl, I found out that we were the only two houseguest in the resort, which explained the empty and quiet resort. We had dinner together and both of us went to bed early. The plan was to go surfing in the morning. For 60 Fijian dollars they'd bring you to the surf break. Unluckily there was way too much wind the next morning, so I went back to bed and had a really nice sleep-in. That day I did a lot of reading in the sun! After 3 cloudy days at the Beachouse it finally felt like an endless summer again. At 1 pm, Glen passed by and we had lunch together and planned my Viwa-trip. More reading in the afternoon , dinner with Amy and after dinner we had Fijian night. We tried the Kava, a Fijian drink that tastes like roots… If you drink a lot of it, it makes your tong and throat go numb (so I've been told). Not really my 'cup of tea'. We played hypes of guitar that evening and that was really nice.

The next day Amy checked out, but she was replaced by another English girl, Rachel, so I didn't end up being the only houseguest. I did go for a surf that morning! I surfed Wilkes Passage, a right hand reef break. We were suppose to leave early, but they let me wait for an American guy,that was suppose to arrive by plain that morning. At 7.45 am (was ready at 7 am) the skipper decided to just go, since it was getting low tide and it wouldn't be surfable in a bit. There were only 3 people in the water, which was pretty good! After one hour I caught my last wave… last wave because as I was riding the wave, the water was sucked up by the wave and there was just reef everywhere. I let myself fall backwards and didn't have a scratch whatsoever (luckily). As I stood up (yes, I was wearing my reef booties) I was in knee high water and there was a big wave rolling towards me… somehow I managed to throw myself into the wave without getting washed upon the reef (just a small scratch)… time to get out!!

The skipper was really nice and did feel a bit guilty about the fact that I had only surfed for an hour, so when I asked him if he could show me Cloudbreak (a world famous surf break) he said yes. Cloudbreak is owned by a (really expensive) resort and if you're not staying in this resort, you can not surf there, which is ridicules if you ask me. If you are lucky you are allowed to surf there on a Saturday though (that's what the locals do), but still… so I watched these people surfing a perfect left… So unfair!! The skipper told me he had seen Kelly Slater riding a 15 foot barrel for 20 seconds and as he came out, he opened a coca cola can and drank it…that's pretty amazing…

The rest of the day I chilled out, read a lot, had lunch with Rachel, played volleyball (which was really cool), ping pong (with Rachel) and guitar again after dinner. Early night, because another surf the next day.

That morning Wilkes Passage was really crowded; the swell dropped and some other breaks (Restaurants and Swimming Pools, owned by another resort) didn't work anymore, so there were about 30 people in the water… that really didn't make any sense, so I had a lousy surf session, but some good conversations with a couple of surfers I met in the water.

Afterwards I packed my bags, checked out and Glen picked me up to bring me back to Nadi. We went to the airport to change my flight, went to the marina (harbour) and afterwards he dropped me at my hotel, where I chilled out the rest of the day. I did give the driver from the Beachouse a ring, but somehow my sleeping bag disappeared… not in the freezer anymore… hard to believe….

The shuttle bus for the Marina left at 7.30am and it was a 4 hour boat ride to my first destination in the Yasawa's: Sunrise.