Clare writes:
Well, what to say about Fiji?
We chose it as a destination because it sounded idyllic - a paradise island - but by the time we were due to go there we were sad to leave Australia and not expecting very much. We followed the backpacker trail to the Yasawas group of islands, but i think we had rather a different experience than most.
It began ignominiously with a night in a shabby fly-infested hostel with broken air con, then the manager there messed up arrangements to get us to the Big Yellow Boat (BYB) on time so we missed it and had top get another boat and be manhandled between them (our bags chucked across the open water in between!)
OUr first island looked gorgeous - sun, sand, a spit that linked to another island, a smiley musical welcome: 'Bula!' but there was too much wildlife in our bure (bungalow) - flies, mozzies, millipedes, a REALLY big spider, a slug inside my mozzie net and a giant roach climbing over it - it felt a bit grubby and got even scarier the night the generator packed in (although you only have power from 6pm to `midnight in most places there anyway!).
Then we went to White Sandy Beach on Naviti and, bucking the backpacker trend of only staying one or two nights on any island and zipping bewtween them on the BYB, we liked it so much we just stayed... for the next ten days! Ten sunny, hammocky, snorkelly, sandy days lulled by the sound of the tides, guitar music, the drums that called us at mealtimes - food is included as there are no cafes or shops. We'd heard which was the best bungalow so blagged that one - with a verandah out over the beach/ water from where we watched the shoals of flying fish, local fishermen, fab sunsets (the best I've ever seen) and distant lightening storms.
Bliss! A paradise island - the only bad things that happened were (a) me waking one night with a 2inch cockroach in my armpit, (b) Sheila having a nasty allergic reaction to a jellysfish stings on her hands and, oh (c) being stranded in a broken open boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for 4 hours in blazing sun when we went to get medical help.
Apart from that it was great.
No, really. Apart from that it was great. very relaxing and made lots of new friends. Then leaving we had the most amazing send off - because we'd stayed much longer than most all the staff came off to sing us our goodbyes on the beach, it was really emotional, hugs and everything and we had flower garlands given to us and they waved and waved until the BYB took us over the horizon. Then, like the end of a big cheesy film, all of our favourite friends we'd made there at different times over the previous ten days happened to be on the BYB going to other islands, or home themsleves or onwards so it was like a big reunion for us!!!
What a rush.
"Bula!"as they say.... and now to New Zealand