Mana Island

The boatride out to Mana Island was very nice. The water was fantastic, deep blue out in the open, and turquoise around the islands. The first island we stopped at was Beachcomber Island. Just like most small islands out there, Beachcomber is a privately owned island and works more or less like a single resort. It would not take more than 20 minutes to walk around the palm trees that cover almost the entire island. (The rest is the sand you walk on.) The resort is known as the party resort, and that I did not need this time.

When we arrived at Mana, there were people from the "Mana Island Backpacker's Resort" there to carry the bags to the shore. The islands have very long and shallow beaches, so the boats go as far in as they can go, and then we jump in the water to wade in to shore. The island is about 70 acres if I am not remembering wrong. Mana has a lot of beaches, but some parts of the island have volcanic rocks going all the way to the ocean. It is possible to walk around the island, but I was a little too burned to spend longer periods of time exposed to direct sun radiation.

The price at the Backpacker's Resort was s lot higher than on the main land, but $55 (USD 28 / NOK 168) per night included all meals was the cheapest there was. The food was good, but since it was a buffet and a lot of hungry people it was always a winner to get there a little before the food was served. That may sound easier than it is; remember, everything works on Fiji-time, and Fiji-time is even more unpredictable than Hawaii-time!

We could hear on the radio that the cyclone was gaining speed, and that if it became a hurricane it might not be absorbed by the islands up north, but cut right across them and come down to Mana. The weather was still nice, although the waves were bigger than normal, and the extreme heat was slightly absorbed by the cooling breeze that turned out to be an early warning of what was to come.The water was not clear when we got off the beach because of the waves. Fiji is known for having very good scuba diving, and I did really not care all that much about bad conditions. I just wanted to dive again, and I was pretty excited about diving in the strong current and the big waves. I talked to the guy who was doing the dive tours, and decided to head out to a place called "The Seven Sisters". A Swiss girl was also coming out, and she had been doing about 20 dives in Fiji already. The boat we were taking out was a small, open boat with an outboard engine. I put on a lot of sun screen and wore my long sleeved shirt when we headed out. I knew that my nose would get burned despite of my shades with a visor in them; the sun was reflecting off of the water. Our first stop was to the guide's old diving school. He built that one and trained most of the instructors from all over Fiji. Now he is building a new school, but we had to go to the old one to get our cyllinders.

With all the equipment on board we got out on the green water. We crossed the bay where we stayed, rounded a corner and passed the little beach where Tom Hanks lived when they filmed Cast Away. There were reefs alnong the beaches, so we had to stay quite far out. As we circled the island. The Seven Sisters are seven pinnacles on a line. We used a method of entry that I had not used before, but this is how I have seen it in all the movies, so it was real easy. The method was to sit on the gunnol and fall backwards. In the high waves i knew that getting back in the boat again would be one category more difficult. The water was well tempered, but I needed the wet suit to protect from the sun. (I was still red as a cooked lobster.) We dove down along the first pinnacle, looking at an extraordinary scene of marine life. A lot of the fish were the same as the ones I saw when snorkeling in Hawaii in 2008, and many were like the ones I saw in Thailand, but there were also so many more. Wherever I looked I would see something new. The guide had a magnetic drawing board that he used to write down the names of special fish, and then point them out for us. We circled several of the pinnacles and I loved the feeling of just steering as the current pulled us around. Back up a the surface the waves were tossing both us and the boat around. Took of my equipment, starting with the 2.5 kilos weight belt. If i took off the vest first, I would go straight to the bottom. After having a total of more than 30 dives more than me, the Swiss girl struggeled a lot. She had a hard time finding neutral bouyancy and would constantly go too deep, or too high up to "dive the plan". She also took off her fins, so she had a hard time getting back into the boat and I had to pull her up.
From the boat we could see the island where they filmed Cast Away, and the one where they filmed Robinson Crusoe. In the resort they sold tours to those islands, but the water was getting too choppy for the small boats to cross the open water. Back on the island the radio had more and more information sbout the tropical storm "Thomas", that was on the way towards us. They had upgraded it from a cyclone, category 2, to a hurricane, category 3. The news we got from the islands further north was that debrie was flying around everywhere, and that people had evacuated their villages and taken shelter at higher grounds. On the walls in the resort a lot of people had written messages, just like in most hostels. (The hostels often dedicate a wall or so for the guests to use as a kind of a "guest book") One of the messages at Mana Backpacker's Resort went something like this: We had an awesome time here, despite almost getting killed in the hurricane! Thanks to the staff for taking such good care of us. "Run! Get your f***ing white asses up the f***ing hill right now. This is planet earth!!!"

That evening we sat up drinking a couple beer and listening to the radio. I had some Swedish "Snus" in my backpack and the Swedish guys were more than willing to buy me beer for a few portion bags. I bought it in Thailand, in a Norwegian bar. I was going to take it to Australia and see what people think of it there. Talking to Paul, i am sure that it would be a hit, and that it would be great business to bring "Snus" to the Australian Universities.

The next morning was a Sunday, and the day of my flight to Honolulu. After breakfast there was no news wether there would be boats taking us to the main island. The weather was surprisingly good, and me, the two Swedish guys, a Danish girl and a very small girl from Hong Kong went to the beach on the other side of the island. It did not take more than seven minutes to cross the island, and from the top there is a great view. You can tell how the sand around the islands and the coral reefs created different tones of green, and the deeper water was dark blue. When we got down to the beach we walked between some coconut palms and right where the sand started we found remains of the town that used to be there, but that was torn off it's fundaments. This reminded us yet again of what was to come. We could also imagine what a beautiful place this, now empty, beach must have been to live. Four dogs were playing around both on the beach and in the water, chasing each other. I was swimming in my long sleeved shirt again, trying to take care of my burns. I borrowed some snorkeling equipment and hit the reef. It was really hard to get out because of the sharp corals that some places were only one foot under the surface. I tried to move every time there was a wave, and stay still and not get cut on the corals between the swells. When I hit the "wall", where the reef ends, i started diving down a little. It was more than long enough ago since I was diving for that do be an issue, and when skin diving i can only stay down as long as my lungs allow me to, so there is no danger of gettig sick while flying. In many ways it did not look like I would make it to the airport anyway. I saw a lot of cool fish when snorkeling out on the wall, but it was on the way in that I saw the coolest creatures. Trying to surf in with the waves, again not to get cut on the corals, I was making my way to the beach when something dark swam really fast in front of my mask. Seconds later I saw it again.There was no doubt. It was a reef shark. I stood up on some safe corals to look around. The girl from Hong Kong was also up on her feet, looking around. Then I could see them one after the other. They were all small, maybe around one meter long, and they were fast. After looking at them for a while I headed in to the beach again. It was time to go back to the village (the resort was right in the middle of an old village with a lot of old and cosy Fijians.) there was supposed to be a phone call from the Navy that would determine wether or not boats were allowed out on the water.

On the way back i used coconuts that had fallen to the ground to chuck at those that were still up in the palms. One fresh one fell down and I threw it against the stem to make a crack. After about five attempts i got the perfect crack. I squeezed my fingers in the crack and forced it open, coconut milk started to pour out and I drank it. Usually I am not a big fan of coconut, but it is a little special when I am in Fiji, picking it myself, so enjoyed it a lot. When it was empty I opend it all the way and had some og the fruit.

The call came right after I got there, and the message from the Navy was negative. No boats were permitted to go between islands. I did not give up yet, because usually, if the boats are canceled, the planes are canceled too, but the airport was still running, partially anyway.Finally I got in contact with someone who knew a man who wanted to take his boat, and business, to the main island, despite the curfew from the Navy. The last couple days people on all the islands had been taking their boats to she safer harbors on the main island. This guy would stop by our resort and take whoever had to get off the island with him. I got on, and so did about ten others. Two of them were Argentinian girls from Cordoba. They had paid for many days at the resort, but decided it was better to take the loss and leave. After three hours of hitting the cieling, hitting the floor, hitting the cieling, and so on, the overcrowded boat made it to the main island.I walked back to the Drift Inn to hang out till I left for the airport. I got time to repack my bags, and listen to the radio while I had some food. There was nothing but reports on the Hurricane Thomas, which now had been upgraded to a category 4 hurricane. Warnings were sent out to all islands, people were told to tie down all they owned and cover all windows. A government official was telling people what government employees had to go to work the next day. It was not many, most of them firefighters, police officers and nurses. The kids were taken out of school a couple days earlier. The warnings were repeated many times, and they told people to prepare for what would be the biggest hurricane that anyone living had ever experienced. Junior and his family did not seem too worried. They have tropical storms every year, and were pretty sure they would be alright on the big island.After lunch I played a little football on the lawn with Ozzy, Donna and Junior's oldest boy. He must have been about nine years old, and he had more energy than nine of his classmates combined. We made some passes across the lawn, or I should probably say that I did. When Ozzy got the ball he would kick it back in my dirrection as hard as he could. Not aming for me, but trying to get it to pass me. Every time he did he would start running victory laps and loudly celebrate. While we were playing it started to rain. I am not talking about normal rain, but a heavy and massive body of water that hit us faster than we could react to. It was certainly less than four secons before my underwear was soaked, and after one minute it stopped. At that point we could not play football anymore. The ball would only float away, as the 15 centimeters of water that covered the ground was running slowly out to the street. However, this lawn-pool made way for a new game. Ozzy's younger brother joined in and now, only wearing our underwear as the clothes were hung up to dry, we started sliding face first across the lawn. It was a lot of fun, but after two runs my sunburnt chest had enough, and I headed to the shower to rinse the grass out of my hair before I took off to the airport.

By the time I was to leave the roads were no longer rivers, and we could drive by Drift Inn for a quick dinner, on the house of course, just like the ride to the airport.