The wonders of Fiji

So after a very hectic five weeks of travelling around New Zealand (and when I say hectic, obviously its not like being at work - thank god!), i headed for some much needed r&r in Fiji. However, as with all the rest of the places ive been, budget was useless - dont ever suggest I go into accountancy or anything where figures matter!!!
I arrived in Nadi airport to the Bula welcome, five lovely fijian men in their sulus (sarongs - ala david beckham) playing their guitars. Overnight in the Nadi Bay resort hostel (they call these places resorts - they really arent anything more than a few rooms and maybe a restaurant - please dont go thinking i was in a proper holiday "resort"!)
didnt sleep as was in the hottest dorm ever with a fan that really did no more than make a noise rather than produce any air plus I was so worried about getting bitten by mosquitos having had more than my fair share in NZ! Sadly whilst it was a nice break, it didnt stop the early mornings. I had to be up at 6 am to get the Yasawa Flyer boat. As with all things in 3rd world countries and yes Fiji is one of them, even more so after the cyclone destruction earlier in the year, i didnt expect too much in the way of organisation and I was right. Ive learnt not to expect anything over my time travelling then im never disappointed and always surprised! My tickets for the boat etc hadnt arrived with the team at the boat but nevertheless I got on heading towards my first stop Bounty Island. It was lovely. Small - you can walk round it in 10 minutes at a slow pace! white sand and turquoise blue sea. I treated myself to a Bure (bungalow) as after so many nights in dorms i really couldnt face another especially as I was still hacking badly from the cold I picked up in NZ. I was so pleased when I walked in not to see a bunk bed facing me!!! what a relief! it was right on the beach with a hammock (which I attempted once and you can probably guess how that went!!). I then found out that Bounty Island was the place that they filmed Celebrity Love Island - the one when Jane Middlemass went to pieces over Lee Sharp and Michael Greco was in that too. Well, I was over the moon!! I was walking the very same sand that they had!! quality.
Now you may think that I headed straight onto the sand and laid down for the next three days - you would be wrong. THe first thing I did was watch a lovely man climb a coconut tree and bring me a fresh coconut to drink and eat! heaven!
He did ask if I wanted a go but even if the plan of losing much weight whilst travelling had happened, it still wasnt going to happen - me climbe a tree with just a knife - urm!
After that I did lay down, by the pool overlooking the sea. Apart from a couple of fabulous dives including a shipwreck dive, i stayed lying down for the next 2 days moving for meals - with breakfast still at some ridiculously early time of 8.30am!
AFter Bounty came Octopus Resort on Waya Island. This was further up the Yasawa group of islands and meant a lovely couple of hours on the boat and loads of picture taking of all the islands i passed. Having decided that my budget was rubbish anyway, I decided to blow it even more with another lovely bure! what the hell you only live once! This one had a fantastic outside shower so I could shower and look at the stars at the same time!
This place was top quality! THe food sadly was amazing, the beach just as good and I met some fab people there which thankfully meant that when I wanted to go snorkelling, being the scaredy cat of this that I am, I didnt have to go alone! This was good as we found a leopard shark and some other rather big fish. Now I know you will say, but you dive sarah, how can you be scared of snorkelling - its not the same! im shark food on top of the water and as these islands are so quiet, often I could be the only person in the sea at that time!! you see - its all very reasonable!
Anyway, went for a couple of more dives at some awesome sites. Saw Sharks, turtles, moray eels and the best coral ive ever seen.
The evenings included hermit crab racing - in which I came 3rd! wow! lucky I picked that one! although I sadly couldnt hold the crab to put it in the bucket before the race, eek it may have bitten me! anyway, i was obviously having a girlie moment.
I also visited the village and went to the church service on the sunday. It was lovely. Well, the singing was lovely and meeting the people was lovely. I have no idea what was said and the preaching included quite a bit of shouting, but the singing was lovely. The kids if they didnt behave got a wack of a stick from an old man, which seemed to sort them out - dont worry no one got hurt! We walked to the village passing loads of cute pigs and piglets only to remember we had ribs the night before!!!
I was sad to leave this place, made some good friends and it was beautiful but I moved on to Oarsman Bay on Nacula. This was supposed to be one of the nicest places/beaches per the Lonely Planet. I arrived with a couple of others to no Bula welcome, unlike the other places and a staff meeting in which some of the staff got the sack as Fiji has been so quiet tourist wise since the floods. The chief (who spent all day everyday drinking Kava) owns the resort and clearly people werent happy. The food was edible, just although got better after a few days and maybe I had been too aware of how good the food was at Octopus! Clearly things werent right and I thought someone had died at one point as the atmosphere was so ghostly! I sat with two girls chatting and having a drink on the 3rd night when all the lights were turned off and the staff took our drinks. I wouldnt have minded if it was 11 or 12 at night, but it was 9pm!! thank god I brought some books to read!!Anyway, it was hot, it wasnt england and it was lovely so I cant complain.
I did three more dives which included more sharks. The final dive I did there was a shark dive. It meant feeding the sharks to get them to come to the coral. I had a moral dilemma about going as this is wrong. Its against nature and one day the sharks will realise whats going on! BUT i have done 24 dives and seen a handful of sharks so I went. I shall punish myself later! It was amazing. 2-4 metre sharks swimming about. Wasnt quite so amazing when I looked to my left hand side (being on the end of the spectator row next to the massive coral reef) to see a Big Moray Eel opening its mouth looking at me just 5 cm from my head!!! And yes you can scream underwater. And yes I didnt know i could swim quite so quickly!!!!
Whilst on Nacula i went to visit another village which included my badly bartering with the women for souvenirs - I had to buy off each woman as I felt bad for them, they have so little! We headed to the school where class 10 sang several songs including the best rendition of Kum By Yar ive ever seen. I couldnt stop laughing with their actions. It was fantastic.
So after 10 days on the islands, I headed back sadly to Nadi only to be greeted with a thunderstorm and torrential rains soaking our bags and all our clothes! i have to admit I couldnt help but feel smug I was leaving rather than going! Id had lovely weather and a fab time. I have to go back there some day and see more islands and do more diving!
So now im in Singapore before I head to Vietnam!
Im sort of liking this travelling.......

The wonders of Fiji

Suva, Fiji