We flew out of Auckland in the morning and arrived at Nadi airport during the late afternoon where it was raining. We collected our vouchers and made use of our free transfer to Nomads Nadi Bay resort, which was a lovely resort style hostel come hotel. After a little bit of confusion with our reservation we found out that they had overbooked so we were upgraded. We decided to take the bus into town to look around and get some dinner. The bus ride was quite an experience! The bus itself was packed with local people, was very old and had no windows so it was completely open at the sides and to make matters more interesting we were not sure where the town was! The town itself was very busy and a little overwhelming so we opted for a very traditional meal- Nando's! After eating it was already dark and we were told to take this van back to the hotel. It was a white people carrier with covered seats, a neon blue light and loud music. There were 8 other local people crammed into the back of this an and I was paranoid this would not be the taxi ride we were looking for. Thankfully we arrived at the hostel safely and the ride was quite an experience!
Thankfuly the sun had come out just as we were ready to depart to the Island of Naviti to stay at the Manta Ray Resort. We were picked up and taken to Demarua to catch the ferry to the Yasawa Islands. The ferry journey itself took around 3 hours to our resort and was a really beautiful trip. We sailed around lots of the other islands (including Bounty Island where Celebrity Love Island was filmed) and got to soak up the sun at the same time. Once we arrived at the Island we were transferred onto a smaller boat to take us close to the resort. On arrival we were greated by the staff who sung us a traditional Bula welcome song. After we made our way to the main bura or a refreshing fruit cocktail and a briefing before heading to our rooms. Our room was a lovely wooden hut with a balcony overlooking the beach. For the rest of the afternoon we had lunch and just chilled out on the beach, whilst Arber became restless and had to explore. After some persuading by Arber we took the Kayaks out to the other island across from us. On the way we could see some amazing coral and fish in the clear water. That evening we had dinner and watched crab racing at the bar.
The following day was full of more of the same, reading, sunbathing and relaxing. Arber went scuba diving in the morning and said it was fantastic. For the rest of the day we just relaxed in a hammock ad played volleyball on the beach until dinner. That evening was Fijian night so Arber and I watched traditional food being cooked. Dinner was nice and we enjoyed a couple of strong cocktails whilst watching traditional dancing. I kept getting picked to dance with the dancers which was fun if not slightly embarrasing!
The following day was our last on the island and the sun was still shining. Arber went fishing in the morning and was the only one to catch a fish so I was very proud! We had a goodbye ceremony in the afternoon in which the workers from the island sung t us and a coconut was craxked before playing a tourist vs Fijian tug of war. It was very sad to leave as the island wa so beautiful and so were the staff. We took the boat back to the main land and arrived at the Nadi Resort to find we had also been upgraded there to a huge apartment for just the two of us!
We checked out in the morning and spend the day relaxing by the two hotel pools before catching our flight to Los Angeles that evening. We had a really lovely and relaxing day and a lovely dinner at the resort restaurant before catching our flight.