Fiji

N. met me at the airport, looking slightly more beardy and hairier than before, and it was brillinat, brilliant, brilliant, to see him after so long (3 1/2 months!), although also a little strange, because I hadn't seen someone from back home in the UK for that long. It all felt kind of unreal! We stayed the Blue Water Lodge in Newtown, which is seperated from Nadi city proper by a swathe of farmland, and caught the shuttle bus out to the Port Denarau Mariner to ride the Yasawas Flyer catamaran to our island destination, Waya Lailai, early the next day.

The weather was very warm and muggy, though 'not as hot as Darwin', as N. kept telling me, which makes sense since Darwin is, apparently, face-meltingly hot. On the 2 1/2 journey we passed other of the closer Yasawas Islands, including Southsea and Beachcomber, which are traditional, cliche picture-postcard 'desert islands', small islands (you could walk round their circumferene in 10 or 15 minutes) of yellow sand, with a little rainforest in the middle, and bures on the beach. We also saw small flying fish diving and soaring out of the wake of the boat, which I found endlessly exciting - fish that fly, amazing!

Waya Lailai is a different type of island to the 'desert islands', with a small, rocky mountain at it's centre, a lovely sandy beach, and, in the resort area, green lawns. It's the only resort in Yasawas which is completely owned by the village (made up, actually, of 5 villages on the island and the mainland, who form a 'family'). All the money from the resort, minus wages for staff (who are villagers), and maintenance costs, goes back to the village, to build community buildings, schools, etc. The women of the village located nearest the resort also sell jewellery at small, rickety stalls on the beach, and give weaving lessons for 5-7$ per item. Their income from this will go direct to their own families, for high school fees and luxuries ('sugar, sugar, sugar!' as one older lady tells me, with an impish grin). Most goods and food have to be brought in to the island from the mainland, and since the cyclone a month ago which destroyed many of the islands plantations, even the fruit and veges the island could previously grow itself have to brought in by boat. There are still root crops (cassava, which is similar to Maori kumara, sweet potato) growing on the higher points of the island, which we see on a sunset hike.

There is great unemployment and poverty in Fiji (much more evident on the mainland), despite what the glossy tourist brochures would have visitors believe, so the resort is viewed extremely positively by the villagers. There is no real sense of divide, either, between resort guests and villagers (though of course guests can't wander into the village in a bikini or shirtless) - the village kids come on to the resort-area of beach (which has hammocks, volleyball net, tables, the activities and dive sheds), to play, and there are frequent village vs. guest volleyball games. We don't feel sealed off from the locals, which is really good.

written by  LizIsHere on May 8, 2010 from Waya Lailai, Fiji
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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