Bula Fiji!!

Arrived in Fiji on the 8th of July at about 6pm. Stepped out of the plane into lovely warm air, even if it was a tad humid. It was so nice not to need thermals, jumpers, hats and scarves!! I went straight to the Nadi bay hotel, which was fine but nothing to write home about. Had a few drinks with people I met there and then headed to bed!

We were collected early the next morning to go to Denarau port to get the Yasawa's flyer boat. My first island, Nanuya Lailai was a five hour trip on the boat and it was just blissful to sit on the deck in the sun and watch all the islands going by. I never realised how much land is actually in Fiji!

So I arrived at the Sunrise Lagoon Resort at about 2.30pm where we were greeted with singing by the staff. The "resort" itself was not the greatest of places (the dorms were hideous) but the setting was heavenly. It took about 30 mins to walk to the other side of the island where the Blue Lagoon was (where the film Blue Lagoon was shot) with Turtle island in the background.It was so beautiful here and this is where I spent most of my time on Nanya Lailai.

I did also go cave exploring while here, which consisted of swimming through tiny caverns in the pitch dark with about 50 other people and I have to admit that even for accomplished swimmers this was more than a little scarey at times!! Plus the fact that I got eaten alive by water lice, it did not make it the best experience of my trip so far!! I stayed on Nanuya Lailai for 2 nights and most of this time was spent reading on the beach, although we did only get 1 day of sunshine while here! And there was me thinking that fiji was sunny all year round?!

The next island I went to was Naviti where I stayed on White Sandy Beach and I have to say that this was my favourite place in Fiji. The staff were all just so nice and the beach was perfect as the name depicts. I spent 2 fabulous nights here and I was sorry that I had to leave. While here the staff brought us to a local village where we met with the Chief, drank Cava(local alcohol and very potent!)and walked around to meet the locals. We also went to the school where the children sang us songs, read poetry and did a Haka for us. It was a truely amazing experience. It was so sad to see how little the school had by way of equipment. They do not get any funding from the Government and they had a total of 50 books for over 150 children! I took the address of the school so if anyone is interested in sending books or equipment then email me and I'll give you the address. It really would be so much appreciated.


The following day we went swimming with Manta Rays, which was astounding. They are so massive!! One was about 4 metres wide and they just fly through the water. You can dive down to them and touch them and it doesn't seem to bother them in the slightest! It's a definite must-do for anyone in Fiji! We also snorkelled through the Coral Gardens and saw such amazing colours. It's definitely as good, if not better than the Barrier Reef. Following this we had a lovely bbq on the beach. It was a perfect day!

My next and final island was South Sea Island and I'm sorry to say that I didn't think much of it. I had booked this for 3 nights because I had heard such good things about it. Firstly, it was absolutely tiny! You could actually walk around it in 2.5 mins and that was strolling! The staff weren't great and then there was the fact that every day at least 130 day trippers arrived because it was so close to the mainland. The first day there is pissed rain all day and it was cold!! I was not a happy camper I can tell you! The other 2 days were slightly better but still not too great. I did absolutely noting but lie on the beach and read and I was definitely happy to leave in the end because I was bored out of my mind!! So it was bye bye islands and back to Nadi for one more night before heading off to meet Anne in Sydney.

I did enjoy my time in Fiji but I definitely think that 9 days was more than ample for me. I would say that it would be a lot more enjoyable if you can afford to do it the proper way and stay in the expensive resorts, but on the whole I was very disappointed with the standard of the backpacker accomodation, particularly considering how expensive it was. That aside, it is a truely beautiful place and you couldn't pick a better place for snorkelling, diving and the likes.The people are absolutely lovely. They all shout "Bula" at you wherever you go (that means hello, how are you and whatever else you want it to mean!) and they all call you "darling". I'm really glad I went to Fiji but I was also glad to be leaving.

Oz here I come!!