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Bula! (hello in Fijian)
Certainly lagging behind on the blog updates but I guess I don't want to depress you people too much as I've heard the weather hasn't exactly been great! Now writing from New Zealand having spent 12days in Fiji. Communication proved rather difficult on Fijian Paradise Islands where the electricity was only on for periods of about 5 hours at a time. How dreadful! We spent four nights on Mana Island followed by 4 nights on Robinson Crusoe Island. It certainly feels like we spent a lot longer due to 'Fiji Time' and the laidback lifestyle, which I quickly accustomed to.
Have already met some fantastic people: a few to mention are Jay the comical French Canadian, Mich-aeel the gay professional dancer from Finchley and Manuel the token German on Mana Island, Chris and Douglas the two Swedes and Dyanus and Josh from Oz. We had a very funny conversation with Jay about the meaning of 'bender' in the presence of Mich-ael which proved thoroughly embarrassing for him after having being told its true meaning.
Moments to mention - not that they aren't all worth mentioning, include our trip to the sand island near Mana, where we went snorkelling as it is surrounded by coral reefs. I've seen stingrays, blue star fish, small sharks and lots of other colourful fish - still yet to find Nemo. Survivor Beach was another fantastic place where they filmet the American reality tv show Survivor. This was a deserted beach on the other side of Mana Island, where the sand felt like velvet. The local kids were out searching for coconuts and became our tour guides for the afternoon. They showed us around a derilect temple which was destroyed in a typhoon 3 months prior to our visit. They also fed us coconuts and practised their English with us. One boy told me he had to go home to do his English writing or his teacher would make him run around the school - Mum I bet you wish you could have done this when kids didn't do their homework! Tribal Day on Robinson Crusoe Island was great fun - we made tribal costumes using items only from the bush which entailed palm tree skirts, wooden bow and arrows, sea shell necklaces etc. Lots of games followed to decide who would be put in the make shift cage made from bamboo, as well as plenty of alccohol! Staying on Robinson was a great experience in itself. We were treated as 'islanders' throughout our stay and whatsmore we had to have bucket showers and pump our water to get it out the tap. Cold showers didn't prove too much of an issue in 90 degree heat though. 'Kava' ceremonies and tribal dances were fantastic to watch with firedancing and knifedancing. For those that don't know Kava is the Fijian drink that is dried roots of a plant and basically tastes like mud water and makes your tongue tingle and eventually you fall asleep.
I really could go on for ages about individual experiences as I've had such a great time and remarkably its only day 12! These paradise islands, apart from being beautiful are made by the people who are so friendly and welcoming. Remarkably they remembered our names upon returning to the mainland after 9days away and everyone is your friend. Quite surprisingly though underneath the paradise image there is a lot of poverty and corruption. Our first day in Nadi certainly surprised me after having to go through what looked to me like a shanty town on the way in. Driving out of the town only reinforced this image where people seemed to be really poor living in shacks mainly and relying heavily on farming. Talking to one of the maids in our hostel she was earning $2 an hour working 8-5 daily and 14days straight at a time. Back home I was on 10 times this! Incidentally for those at CMC I can't say I miss it a great deal. A daily routine of sun bathing on a hammock, swimming, snorkelling and drinking doesn't quite compare to a day full of frontsheets, web postings and business card letters, sorry guys :)
After a thoroughly relaxed 12 days I'm now ready for an action packed 2 weeks in NZ which I plan to do bungees, skydiving, black water rafting and much more. Mum I hope you don't read this before I've done some of them :) All the best from what could possibly be the furthest point possible away from home
Tom
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