Bula from beautiful Fiji!
My flight from aukland was less than impressive I have to admit, with a big screen shoving jackie chan down my throat and air hostesses trying to shove an awful attempt at a chicken sandwich down my throat, let's just say I was glad when we landed! And what a welcome too! Bands playing Fijian music, people handing out flower layes to everyone, it certainly set the mood! And after a couple of trips back and forth between offices to get some stuff sorted, I not only had my accommodation sorted and my Fiji experience trip booked, but I had also discovered that Fijians are possibly the most friendly people known to man :) me likey it here :) my first night in general was quite calm, which is unusal since normally I get ripped off by taxi drivers whilst I'm getting users to new currency etc etc, so calm worked for me :) and I got the traditional invite to dinner from a random group who were in my room but for once I decided to forgo it in favour of sleep, lovely lovely warm non bed buggy, non bunk bed sleep...
The next morning was the start of my new adventure through the main land island of Fiji, and boy by 8am it was boiling already! Definitly a welcome change from being so cold I don't ever want to leave my bed! So I'm down in reception walking out to meet the bus when what do I hear, but 'hello treacle' in a worryingly familiar voice behind me! I turn around and it's only bloody dave from kiwi isn't it! I knew he was going to Fiji but assumed he would be sunning himself on an island somewhere by now - But apparently not! Straight away I knew this was going to be an interesting trip! Along with dear old dave, my bus consisted of a guy who did my exact Africa trip just wrh a different country, a girl still drunk from the night before, another girl who did the same volunteering project as me (and who incidently updated me on all the gossip since I left :p) and then joe and lewis from kiwi as well!! How ridiculous is that huh! I mean it was brilliant becuase I hadn't seen joe in ages and plus already knowing everyone kinda makes things a lot easier but still, saying it's a small world doesn't quite cut it!
Our guide was called Gerry and straight away I liked him, I think everyone did really - he was pretty damn cool :) and his first task of the day was showing us the delights of nadi, where i could finally get rid of my 'dora the explorer' trainers as dave called them, and swap them for some slightly more appropriate if very big and flimsy, flip flops :) we also had to purchase sarongs to cover our legs with when we visited the villages, including the boys I might add and I have to admit, the group picture where we are all wearing the exact same sarongs in a lovely array of colours is certainly a sight to be seen! Oh and yes dave, I totally agree you can work the hell out of a sarong :p
Once we left inner city nadi we headed out towards a lovely beach set aside from anything else, where, for a couple of hours in the blazing sun, we sunbathed, swam in the beautiful clear sea and got to know each other over a big BBQ lunch Gerry cooked for us :) after that we headed off to our home for the night - mango beach resort. By the time we got there it had started raining but it was still wonderfully warm and to be honest, the rain just made the sunset even more spectacular so that was fine by me! And you know what else was fine by me? Chris being at mango bay waiting for us!! Bloody chris! It was like a kiwi reunion or something - I almost expected jade to pop up from behind the bar! But it was excellent to have us all together again, really, it was just like new Zealand, with warped bromance between chris and dave as they fight over who has the most mosquito net covering their beds, bountry rum drank out of water bottles, and lots of hobbity goodness from joe (I mentioned he was roughly the same height as a hobbit right?!) - definitly tres happy to have everyone back again :)
That night we all caught up with each other and we found out how chris had stuck around at mango to see if any of us turned up and how dave had been island hopping for a while, it was nice, and after dinner (me and chris both had the nicest cheapest lobster ever although the guy from Wellington apparently served his since it was a quarter of the size of mine!) we all joined in the 'pub quiz' which apparently was the same each time since Gerry basically knew all the questions in advance :p (and yet somehow we still came 2nd!)
It was a great evening and mango bay was absolutly georgous, really it was wonderful - an excellent start to Fiji life :)
Xxx