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May 25, 2005
Fiji Time
Fiji was a total shock to the system for me and Rob: limited electricity, no hot water, no mobile phone reception and certainly no internet :) Once we had got over the initial shock however, we had a cracking good time.
The first island we headed for was Nanuya Lailai to visit the Sunrise resort. From here we visited the Sawailau caves which were featured in the film: Blue Lagoon (Looks a bit saucy if you ask me). We refrained from going in the Blue Lagoon itself not because of the saucy film, but because a) our first attempts failed and we didn't find it, and b) because there was a guy who had earlier got severly stung by a sting ray there that morning and his screams could be heard for miles! He got taken away in a sea plane, we saw him later and he was not screaming any more but his foot was swelled up like a melon.
We also met a couple of cool Kiwi girls (Lu and Rachel) who I reckon we will go and say hi to in Wellington.
All in all we weren't that impressed with the Sunrise resort although it was a nice island to look at.
Sunset resort on Waya was so cool we decided to stay an extra night, plus they were putting on a Lovo for the guests the next night which we thought would be rude to miss.
Our time on Waya was action packed, we never even had time to get bored sunbathing. We went on a mountain trek, went line fishing (I caught 2 fish, yipee, with total equipment of an empty coke bottle, fishing wire, hook and bate), I weaved some bracelets while Rob was made to weave a basket (you can imagine the comedy), watched a coconut being husked, went snorkelling along the coral reef (better if you have decent equipment I think) and took part in a couple of Kava ceremonies (Kids we were going to bring some home but it tasted a bit like muddy water).
The mountain trek was a lightweight roundtrip of 5 hours which Rob mostly undertook barefoot due to the number of mosquito bites on his feet. Of course everyone else thought he was crazy and was just walking "Fiji Style". During the walk, we stopped off at a mountain spring, walked through lots of grass taller than head height, and indulged in a small amount of unexpected rock climbing. However it was all worth it when we reached the top of the mountain and saw the Yasawa Island group spread out in front of us. On the way back our guide (Poni to his mates) took us via a Fijian village where the locals harvested coconuts for us to drink (very refreshing and not at all milky as expected). Everywhere on this island people were so friendly (and genuine about it too) which really made the trip for us.
[2 FijiSunrise galleries here and here]
[2 FijiSunset galleries here and here]
[2 FijiWayaTrek galleries here and here]
Posted by deb at May 25, 2005 07:03 AM