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Bula!
That's Fijian for those of you that don't know, it means hello, or welcome, or cheers, depending on the circumstances and everybody uses it here. People are so friendly its unbelievable, everybody says bula and is just so nice. Our week in Fiji has actually been really busy, it turned out to be so much more than i ever thought it would be.
After an amazing time in San Francisco (many thanks to Jasmin and Roger for that) and a boring 4 hour wait in LA airport where i failed to spot a single celebrity, and a horrible, turbulent 10 hour night flight we landed in fiji at 5.30 in the morning and it was already 25 degrees. We spent our first day by the pool just chilling out as we were completely spaced and we had a fairly early start the next day.
We were picked up at 8.30 by the big green feejee experience bus which held 33 other travellers, mostly english with a few american and australian. Our first stop was Natadola beach which apparently is one of the top 25 in the world and although really nice i don't reckon it deserves that accolade. still it was cool to splash in the waves and sunbathe and we had a bbq before heading off to malomalo village. Here we went into the chiefs hut and our guide - Cam told us all about the traditions of fijian life. Then we went sandboarding up these massive sanddunes. sandboarding was great, it was a little scary looking down from the top but it was so much fun, i would have done it more except that climbing that bloody sanddune was a b****. In the evening after dinner at our hotel we had a Kava ceremony. kava is a traditional fijian drink and it looks nad pretty much tastes like mud eugh! we were not fans.
on our second day we did this massive 4 hour trek through the rainforest. Zoe says its the hardest thing she's ever done and i'm not far off agreeing (except for the bogle). we went up big hills, through forest, over bridges that were logs, then we had to climb down for ages and it had rained the night before so everything was really slippy and it was quite difficult. then we walked for about 45 minutes through a stream, up and down so more smaller hills and then down a massive hill where we had to hold onto a rope to help us which took us down to a river in this beautiful valley. It really was amazing although i feel like we spent more time watching our feet than the scenery and we were all mud splattered and exhausted by the end. We had lunch down by the river then got to tube down the river in these rubber rings which was sooo cool and then we jumped into the pools of this waterfall. It was actually cloudy that day which i was glad of cos otherwise the trek would have been too hot to bear but on the boat back to our bus it rained and that was horrible.
Clean clothes made it all better though and in the evening we went out into Suva - capital of the south pacific - with everyone in our group and we all got to chat and eat nice pizza so it was really good.
the next day we went to visit a school; this was such a highlight of the trip, the kids were amazing, there was a welcome song and then we got given flower wreaths and shown round and all the kids were so excited to see us and introduced themselves and asked us our names and talked and they all loved having their pictures taken. Then they did a tribal war dance and a goodbye song. It was wonderful to be so welcomed and meet these people who were so excited just to see us. After we went to another village and had another traditional kava ceremony(eeew) but the girls only had to drink it twice and then we got to go and weave bracelets while the boys finished it off - haha! Then we went rafting on these bamboo rafts - zoe's team won, my team lost. my team were rubbish, me included but it was hard! the river was really shallow and we kept having to get out and push. That evening we stayed at a place called vollivolli beach which was really nice again and we all had dinner and games although i was knackered and my legs were definitely feeling the trek!
On our last day we actually had a bit of a lie in (8.30 - rock and roll!) and didn't have to leave till 12. We drove to a bit of fiji were lots of indians live and had a curry which was ok but i've had better down curry mile, then we drove some more and went to some natural warm mud pools. we all got slathered up in the mud and then washed it off in a warm pool and were left silky smooth-ish. it was funny though. and then we'd made our way round the whole main island of viti levu and we had to say goodbye to our feejee experience family and return to our hotel in nadi.
sunday we had a day by the pool to recover from it all and then monday we went to south sea island with our friend sarah. south sea is what i always thought of when i thought of fiji. literally a patch of sand which takes about 10 minutes to walk round. with a few palm trees and mangrove trees and a couple of wooden buildings. It was idyllic (cliche i know but its true) we went snorkelling and saw all these amazing rainbow coloured fish and fish with beaks and some out of finding nemo and big blue starfish! Then there was sunbathing and lunch and a trip in one of those glassbottom vessels where we got to see loads more of the coral and the fishies. And then with a last beautiful sunset and a nice dinner in nadi our trip to fiji was over, i'm so glad we did the feejee experience. we saw more than i think most travelleres to fiji see and we learnt so much about the place and saw such wonderful things. Now we're off to sydney and we shall update you all from there soon
much love
xxx
zoe and alex
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