We landed in Nadi, Fiji at 5.30am having had only a few hours sleep! It was far too early and we were far too tired! It was still dark outside but we had a warm welcome awaiting us once we had cleared customs and collected our bags. Everyone wanted to help and ensure we were OK and knew where we were going! We were directed to the bus stop to wait for our coach to collect us to take us to the marina as we are going out to the islands instead of staying on the mainland. We were surprised by what we saw en route, we weren't sure what to expect in terms of how modernised it would be, but there were really modern cars and yet old trucks that you would imagine in really poor places with as many people squashed in as possible. Some buildings were like shacks yet some were modern with air con! A real comparison!
We arrived at the Marina and checked in and boarded the big yellow boat as its referred to! There were lots of locals on board as well who must have gone to the mainland for shopping and were going back to their island on the boat.
Sat opposite us on the boat were a couple who had worked in the Sydney hostel that we stayed in. The guy was one of the three who cooked us Christmas dinner! What a small world!
We were both asleep before the boat had even left the marina and we slept for much of the way! Our first island was one of the furthest in the Yasawa group so we had a 5hour, rocky boat journey to contend with! We stopped at many islands along the way to drop people off. This involved stopping mid ocean, a little boat from the island coming out to the big boat, off loading people and loading new people and returning to the island and the big boat continuing on to the next island! It was very stuffy on board as the air con didn't work too well! They showed movies though, including New Moon which I have been dying to see! I could barely stay awake to watch it though!
When we finally arrived at our island, feeling a little sea sick, we got on our little boat and were taken as fast as possible over to the island! It felt very unstable, especially as the 3 boats decided to race back!!
We had another warm welcome at the resort. All the staff came out to greet us on the beach and we were taken in for lunch! It was veg stir fry, with noodles and rice and pineapple! YUM! From there we were shown to our 20-bed dorm! The staff insist on carrying your bags for you, so some poor young lad had to carry my heavy bag, not realising about the wheels! We felt very sorry for them! The dorms seemed very military style but comfortable! We collapsed into bed and snoozed for a while!
Once awake we went to the beach. That sounds like it was far away, but this is a small island so it was on our doorstep, perfect!! Once we had mastered how to get in a hammock we chilled admiring the view! It was much more bearable in temperature than we had expected! There was a lovely cool breeze and not humid at all! Phew! We stayed on the beach for much of the evening before having a lovely cold shower and getting ready for dinner!
When its time for dinner they beat some drums to call everyone to the dining area. The food was lovely again, different to how we had expected it to be and more of it too! We joined in with the games, including head or tails, of which I won a round! Mark was pleased with my winnings as it was beer! We had individual welcomes, grouped into countries from the staff. We chatted to a girl from Australia for ages who is volunteering in a school over here as a teacher! It was then time for bed as we were shattered!