Hawaii to Fiji (finally on my blog!)

We left Hawaii very early Tuesday morning and caught the flight to Fiji but as we were going over the International dateline we lost a day so it became Wednesday all of a sudden! We landed in Nadi and got a free shuttle to our hostel, Smugglers Cove and it seemed like a really nice hostel, so nice in fact that we booked a couple more nights before our tour and now after it. That afternoon we lazed on the beach and then had a delicious meal for dinner - 'red snapper' which was very yummy.

Thursday we took it amazingly easyand sunbathed - the sun was so intense that we could only stay in it for a little while so the only thing we could do was go in the pool :-) After that we had a little nap then went back to the beach and laid there. Such a hard life ;-)

Friday we were up early coz we decided to take a tour around a few of the Mamanuca islands, so first thing we went to South Sea Island where we stayed for 3 hours and went in a mini-sub and then did some snorkelling - the fish are much bigger here than in Thailand! After that we had a BBQ and then went for a sail aroung the islands where we saw Bounty Island - home of Celebrity Love Island, Beachcomber Island, Mana, then Castaway - all very idyllic places but spending a week there would be too much sand and sea for us. it was a nice day trip and the weather was gorgeous.

Saturday we joined the Feejee Experience tour so we were up pretty early. We popped into Nadi town where we bought some very cheap trainers - mine were 7quid and Ria's were 5 as we knew we'd be going through water and god knows what else on our jungle trek. After that we went to Natadola beach which is apparently the 7th best beach in the world, there we had a BBQ. The after that we went to Malomalo village and our guide Cam was telling us about the history of Cannabalism and Kava ceremonies. Then.... we went to the Sigatoka sand dunes where we had to climb a very high one and lay on a bodyboard and surf back down - I'm surprised I wasn't awarded a medal for going the slowest - I don't know why I went soooo slow but I did. I enjoyed it but I wasn't going to attempt to climb back up there for another attempt! that evening we stayed on the Coral Coast and enjoyed some traditional fijian singing and dancing.

Sunday we woke up to rain - it kinda turned into a mini cyclone as we were on the edge of it - didn't get as drenched as Tokyo though! Phew! We left our lodge and made our way to the Namosi Highlands where we did our jungle trek which lasted about 3 1/2 hours which consisted of lots of clay dirt, steep hills where if you go up then you must come down and sure enough I fell on my butt - just the once though. Ria was doing so well she never fell over once and then I'm not sure what happened the next thing I know she was on her butt in the water! Bless her. It was a tough trek and the rain didn't help at all but we did it. Then it was onto the river tubing - a little slow though. But afterwards we got off of them when we came to a waterfall and there we could jump off this ledge that was about 12-15ft high so Ria and I thought 'what the hell' so we jumped off of it :-D Once everybody had had their fun we then took a longboat back to where the bus was and got changed and hopped back on to our overnight stop in Suva, the capital of the South Pacific.

Oh and I forgot to mention i nearly had a nervous breakdown coz I honestly thought I'd left my camera at the previous night's accommodation - got scared and freaked out and then took a 3rd look in my rucksack only to find it hiding in one of the side pockets.... how did it get there?! Hmmm

Monday we woke up feeling a little stiff, ok maybe alot stiff - our legs had ceased up! today was going to be our traditional day, so our first activity was a visit to a nearby school where we had a guide each who showed us around their school where we could ask questions about their schooling, holidays, school times etc. At the end all of our guides (mine was called Mary) gave us their addresses so we could send them a photo which was really sweet. After that we went to Wailotua village and took part in a traditional Kava ceremony where we had to clap, say bula (cheers, hello, bless you work) - cheers in this instance, then drink some kava from a coconut dish, then clap again, then say vinaka. The kava wasn't as bad as I thought - kind of peppery, muddy water. Afterwards we did some bilibili rafting and had a race on them where we came 2nd but was later disqualified coz our local helper gave us a good push! That evening we stayed in Ra right beside the ocean - actually all of our accomodation was right beside the ocean!

Yesterday (30th) we woke up a little stiff again! It was our last day of the tour which included quite a bit of bus riding. We stopped in Ba town where we both had Tandoori chicken which actually tasted like the Chicken tonight sizzle and stir and was about to upset my stomach but i avoided it by taking some goood old immodium! Another hour on the bus we then stopped at Sabeto Valley where we went into the mud pool, covered ourselves head to toe in the smelly stuff and then washed most of it off and then went into a very hot natural spa to rinse our face and hair off. And then after that we changed, got back on the bus and returned to Nadi for our drop-offs to our hostels. Got back to Smugglers Cove and asked for the same dorm beds that we had last time... we were glad to be back!