Left LA on Sunday night (Caroline slept for the first time ever on an aeroplane!) and landed in Fiji around 5am Tuesday morning – we flew over the international date line, so we lost Monday. We were greeted by a Fijian quartet consisting of guitarists and ukulele players, all singing welcome to Fiji! Surreal doesn’t quite cut it! But it made us smile after a ten hour night flight!
Fiji is exactly what we imagined – white sandy beaches, turquoise water, amazing snorkelling and warm sunshine. But there’s another angle that we were in no way expecting; the people. They are ridiculously friendly. For instance, when we arrived at the airport, we walked out of baggage claim and had probably six or seven people ask us if they could help us at all. In the three places we have stayed so far as well, all the Fijians are always smiling, and watching them with each other they are always laughing and having fun. We witnessed the epitome of the Fijian spirit in Nadi, when a bus load of school children drove past all singing at the tops of their voices!
I don’t know if fun is the right word to describe what we’ve been up to though – relaxed would probably cut it better! We’ve spent pretty much everyday snorkelling, lying in the sun and eating! We did however manage to climb to the summit of the first island we stayed on; which after 3 weeks of very little exercise nearly killed us! We might get really drastic at some point and hire kayaks; maybe that will be next week’s exercise! Ryan has also be rock pooling, and has seen loads of different types of crabs, sea urchins, starfish, sea snakes and sea cucumbers, as well as an eel jumping out of the water trying to catch crabs. Caroline has gone off snorkelling since this sighting!
We are currently at a resort called Korovou Eco-Haven Resort on Naviti island, around 3 ½ hours away from the main island. Our first stop was a resort named Coral View, which was located on the island of Tavewa Island, which is one of the islands furthest away from the main island, being a 5 hour boat trip. In both resorts we have stayed in our own little bungalow by the beach, called a ‘Bure’, which have a bedroom and a bathroom. At all resorts in Fiji all your meals are provided, and we sit down with everyone else at the resort for breakfast, lunch and dinner at set times, which is a really nice way to meet and chat to lots of different people.
At Coral View we were even invited to one of the residents birthday party’s; a little boy called Douglas Bruce, who was turning one. It was interesting to see how they mark the occasion in another culture, with highlights including his aunties singing, a blessing from the priest, traditional dancing and a big blue birthday cake for over 80 guests! I doubt my first birthday party was such an extravagant affair!
The resort we are currently at is a little more advanced than Coral View in that it has a swimming pool, facilities to pay by card and an internet cafe! All the mod cons! Unfortunately, we still are yet to have a hot shower, as many of the islands only have cold water; hot being a step too far!
We've got two more islands to visit before we head to New Zealand on Sunday; Ryan's gots everything crossed that there is windsurfing or just normal surfing at at least one of them!
Hope everything at home is good :)
