Waya lai lai

The snorkelling itself is great - the water is warm and absolutely clear, brightly coloured fish - electric blue, yellow, and stripey ones - dart about, and sinister-looking reef sharks glide below us with buddy parasite-eating smaller fish clinging to their backs. When I spot one for the first time I gasp in surprise, inhaling water through the snorkel tube, and all around you can hear exclamations, muffled by the water and the tubes, as two, then three, then four sharks appear. The guides from the village expertly spear small fish, ripping off the scales and placing them under small rocks on the seabed for the sharks to unearth and eat.
The most breathtaking thing we see though, is on the second trip, when a massive (no exaggeration) shoal of thousands and thousands of small silverly fish appears. I hang face-down in the water, my whole vision consumed by their tiny shimmering forms as they move, independently yet as one. My eyes and mind can hardly comprehend it, so I just gaze as them for minutes.

One night we also decide to tackle the guided hike up to one of the highest points of the island, led by Beri. It's a muggy, sweaty evening and the climb is steep, but luckily Beri is used to guests being much less fit than him (he does the hike morning and evening most days, barefoot!), and there are plenty of stops for water and to take in the views over to the island opposite, Kuata, and out to the ocean. We pass the island's plantations of root crops, and scramble the last 15 minutes of the hike up a rocky slope, clinging onto treetrunks and vines. The views at the top are pretty fantastic, down to the village and resort, across to the islands. We also spot swooping bats. Our touristy exclamations of surprise and delight are countered by Beri's wicked cackle as he gathers rocks and begins attempting to knock them out of the sky! At first we think they might eat crops or cause some other nuisance, but Beri informs us that actually they're just really tasty. He doesn't manage to hit one though, their sonar and speed being more than a match for rocks.

There's also entertainment in the evening; weaponry and clothing displays, traditional songs and dancing, all performed in a relaxed way with the rest of the villagers not performing gathering to watch, and mock loudly when mistakes are made. The guys doing the dancing openly crack up when they make mistakes - a lot like the guys doing the Maori show in Rotorua - and their lack of practice fire-staffing is slightly concerning only in that they seem to more often than not lose their grip on the staff when facing the us in the audience who are only a metre or two away! Luckily everyone gets away without getting singed. We also get a tongue-in-cheek all-resort lesson in Fiji dancing, with commands such as ''Rock the baby, rock the baby, wash your hair, drop the baby" to guide us along. The fact that everyone's had a couple of the massive, colourful cocktails produced by the resort barman, Moses, by that stage in the evening doesn't help our performance.

written by  LizIsHere on May 11, 2010 from Waya Lailai, Fiji
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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