Bula from Fiji!!

What can I say......go to Fiji it is amazing!!!

My adventure started from Brisbane with the my orginal planned traveling companions bailing out at the last minute due to Steve having "man flu" to the extreme. So, I got a taxi to Brisbane airport on my own - like I wasn't going to go!! My few months of work enabled me to finance this trip on my Australian dollars - I never really intended to go to Fiji in my grand plan, so to speak.

The plan journey was 4 hours and the clocks went forward 2 hours and I arrived on Viti levu in the early evening, by the time it got to Nomads Sky lodge, my stop over accomodation, it was getting dark. The Flyer ferry to the Islands left early in the morning the next day. There are around 333 Islands in total - I was visting 3 in five days.

The ferry enabled most people to become partial lobsters on route due to the wind and I was no acception! Some of the Islands can be walked around in about 10 minutes! The first Island for me was Tavewa at the top of the Yasawa Islands for 2 nights after about 5 hours on the ferry. At all the Islands you are greeted by Fijians playing guitars and ucalayees (!) singing fijian songs..yes paradise is very nice! All new arrivals are "welcomed into the family" of the Island. The accomdation is a choice of dorms or huts with straw roofs.

At this point I feel I will explain the concept of "fiji time.' Fijians walk slow, write slow and speak slow. ( Bit like me!lol) Also a bout could arrive or activity start between 4.00 and 5.00 o'clock with a schedule time of 4.30! The only thing to be aware of is when food will be served of course! This is signaled by the beating of the Island drums which are also used to signify departures and events (the same on all the Islands).....life is hard! Breakfast at 8, lunch at 12 and dinner at 7! Hammocks litter the palm trees next to the beach which are prime positions for book reading. The open air showers had the best views I have ever seen whist washing!

I visited the sawailau caves exploring underwater caverns. Swimming through a shallow tunnel into the cave where the guides turn their flashlights off leaving you in 10 metres of water in the pitch dark! I found that once I woke in the mornings I couldn't get back to sleep- this was well before 8am breakfast!! I had a little afternoon snooze sleeping through the drums signalling the trip to The Blue lagoon ( yes from the film). Still my hosts radioed the boat which turned round and came back for me!! LOL This is where I started to make friends with herman ( The german aka The human torpedo!, his wife Julieana and two welsh monkeys named Katie and Emily. The Blue lagoon was gorgous and the weather was amazing ( for the whole week).

The second island was Naviti for 2 nights- a larger Island where you can snorkel on Honeymoon beach - this is where Herman the German earned the nickname of the human torpedo! Again i'm so loving the coral and whole underwater experience - I dived at Korouv Point seeing very different fish from Thailand and Australi but also seeing ones common in both places. It's been a while since my last dive and I was like a little child in a sweet shop! All good Evening activities were the Fijian Bula dancers. Basically I was staying Bula (hello) to pretty much anyone within ear shot of me!!

The third and last Island was Bounty Island - my favourite. This was the Island where Celebrity Love Island was filmed and part of the set still remains. Sea kyating(!) and sailing were all included on this island the snorkelling was really good. ( I remember watching a octopus for a good 15 minutes diving down and around the coral). The fruit shakes are soooo good when lying in the sun but lots of water is a must - Fijian bottled water being one of the purest in the world apparantley.

Visting Fiji wouldn't be complete with trying Kava - a drink make from plant roots and water - large quantities are supposed to cause halucinations and a feeling of drunkeness. Surprisingly I only had one bowl as I had planned to dive agin the next day on Bounty Island. The reason I didn't is that I realised I would under the minimum time requirement of 18 hours between partaking in diving and getting on a plane!! I didn't fancy dealing with the affects of attitude with nitrogen in my bloodstream!

Back to the mainland on the Flyer ferry in the late afternoon and back to Nomads Sky lodge to eat more food!! Some of the food was really good but a lunch of warm spagetti and mixed vegetables on Naviti was like eating air - I need meat!!! My flight back to Brisbane was at 8.15 am Fiji time and I arrived at 10.00 with the clocks going back 2 hours..basically i've been up since 4 am today and anticipate my batteries will die on me later! I used the remainder of my Fijian dollars on a massage before the flight which was money well spent I feel!!

Vinaka!