Bula Everybody!

We arrived in Fiji on Monday evening (4th April) and as soon as we landed we realised it was the tropical season; the rain that surrounded us proved that as well as the immense heat! After booking a place to stay through an agent at the airport we jumped into a taxi and headed for Horizon, when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised as we had a four bed dorm with en suite all to ourselves (one of the beds being a double!) We settled in for the night, had dinner and sorted out what we would take to the islands and what we would be leaving in the lockers and bag storage until we returned.

Early the next morning we woke, had breakfast and jumped on the bus headed for Port Denarau where we were greeted by happy smiling faces and a small group playing guitar and singing Fijian songs (at 8am in the morning!!!!) We stood in the rain for a while before boarding the Yasawa Flyer - our mode of transport to our first destination of Beachcomber Island Resort.

Before we arrived in Fiji we had met up with a lot of people who had already visited and we'd heard horror stories of the dorm on Beachcomber as it has 120+ beds and is renowned for being the party island - exactly what we didn't want on our week long chill out, beach break before heading home! What we didn't realise though was, as we booked the Fiji trip before we came away, we had booked the top package and actually had a private double room with en suite at the other end of the resort where it was actually very quiet! We had private sunbeds, a kettle, a fridge and the maids even came round to the rooms while we were at dinner to turn down our beds for us before we went to bed. You may now call us flashpackers!

The first day on Beachcomber was a bit of a letdown as the weather was overcast and bleak, but it was still warm. We did manage to get in the water for a quick snorkel in the warm sea and we even swam with a couple of stingrays quite close to the shore. We also had the opportunity to go and watch the islands turtles being fed and we were able to touch them which was also quite amazing. However the thing which most surprised us about Beachcomber from the get go was the quality of the food and the pure amounts made available to us! We retired early before the party got going and enjoyed a nice quiet evening in the room.

The next day we woke up to the same weather making us slightly miserable and all our hopes of getting a proper tan for our arrival home going down the drain. However the weather did perk up for a couple of hours and, again, we managed to squeeze in some sun time. We spent the day between the restaurant, the beach and the room depending on the weather and meal times before again having an early night.

After the few days of rubbish weather, we hoped the third day would pick up and it certainly didn't disappoint us! We woke to blazing sunshine and hardly any cloud cover however, as we had to jump on the boat again to the second and last of our islands, we worried that we would miss the sun being out. We managed to grab a couple of seats on the top sun deck for the journey and sat baking in the sun. We didn't realise how burnt we were actually getting because of the breeze from the boat going along. Oops! School boy error!

When we arrived at Mantaray we were again greeted by the workers who were a very happy bunch and after being given our briefing we were shown to our Bure which was a small double room with a fan; very basic but very close to the bar and the beach. We arrived at lunch time and immediately heard the drums begin to bang for the start of serving so we headed on up to the restaurant which was at the top of the resort. The food system here was slightly different instead of the buffet style serving like at Beachcomber you had to order your food and wait for it to come; this made everything take much longer and orders got mixed up with the amount of people being served at once. We spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach and snorkelling around the amazing colourful reef where we saw numerous stingrays and an octopus swimming about. We also took a short fishing trip out to Bubui Island where, between six of us, we only managed to catch one large fish which was later cooked and tasted amazing.

Again when we booked our package we didn't realise it included a free dive or snorkel tour whilst at Mantaray, so on our first morning Kie jumped at the chance and was taken out on the reef and left alone to swim around while the instructors followed a short way behind looking after the more troublesome Taiwanese girls who had never done it before. Sophie was due to take part also but because of a bad ear wasn't able to so she enjoyed an hour chilling out on the beach in the sunshine. For the rest of the day it rained so we spent time in the communal area with all the other guests chilling out and discussing travelling stories as we have done so many times. After dinner that night a group from the local village came to the resort and gave us a show in traditional Fijian dancing, even getting us all up to join in.

On the last day the sun was out blazing again so all morning was spent getting in some last minute tanning time before Sophie jumped at the opportunity to make a bracelet and a basket out of coconut leaves whilst Kie went out snorkelling and managed to find and swim with the 5 feet long resident reef shark, Bob. 2 o'clock came and we boarded the Yasawa Flyer for the final time heading back to Port Denarau and Horizon for the evening before starting our epic journey home tomorrow afternoon.

So, our travels are finally over. Sob sob. Hope you've enjoyed our blogs - probably not as much as we have enjoyed doing everything! Wow, what an amazing six months we've had.

See you all very soon!

Lots of love, Sophie and Kie xx