Touching down in Nadi airport the outlook was a little stormy. As we made our way towards passport control we were greeted by a Fijian band, complete with ukelele. After picking up our bags we quickly found ourselves a taxi to take us to our hostel. Our taxi driver gave us a quick low down on the country as he drive us through the busy town, over pot-holed roads following the country’s very recent flooding. We eventually made it to the Bluewater Lodge and were let into our room, which was very nice. We were so pleased to finally have a real bed! We then had a little walk along the beach lined with hostels before finding a small shop where we invested in some heavy duty insect repellent and a snorkel for the 10 days ahead. Pleased with our purchases we headed back to our hostel for dinner. It was delicious, we both had tuna steaks, and Tom had his first taste of Fijian beer while Emma enjoyed her first Fijian cocktail.
After a fairly early night we were up at 6 in order to catch our bus to the Denarau Marina where we would board a boat for our first island destination; Coral View Resort on Taweva Island. The resort was 4 and half hours away so we settled down on deck for the ride. Within half an hour of leaving the mainland we started to pass beautiful islands of varying sizes, all with pristine beaches and a couple of huts just about visible behind the beach.
At each stop a small rickety looking boat would speed out from the resort, return and collect people heading to and from that particular resort from the Catamaran. Slightly worryingly while one of the little boats was for people, a second at each stop was for luggage, and we watched in slight horror as backpacks and suitcases were slung aboard.
After a lot of resort envy and getting blown about in the wind it was finally our turn to get off the boat. We were whisked away to the Coral View Resort where we stepped into the warm water and waded ashore greeted by a ukelele band and seemingly every member of staff all shouting ‘Bula’ at us before shaking our hand. We were given a drink and sat down for a much needed lunch, where we were introduced to the island by the patriarch of the resort. After lunch we were led to our accommodation where we were pleasantly surprised to be given our own Bure (a traditional Fijian beach hut/cottage). This hut consisted of a sizeable room with a double bed, a bathroom and a small porch.
After settling into our new space we made our way to the grassy beach front area of the resort and chilled out with our books on the sun loungers. The next stage of the day’s schedule was coffee and tea at 4, where we also booked a little trip to the Blue Lagoon for the next morning. After coffee there was a volleyball session at 5 at the back of the resort. Having never really played volleyball before it took some getting used to, but we ended up playing for hours. A lot of the staff joined in during the course of the games, which gave it a nice feel. They were also ridiculously good, probably because they play every day. We also had time for a quick football game before it got dark. We headed back to the Bure for a quick shower before we heard the island drums signaling dinner time. We ate to the sounds of the staff singing songs and playing the guitar and ukelele.
At 8.30 after we had finished eating it was ‘Bula Time’. This involved the staff singing along to classic hits such as ‘The Bula Song’, ‘The Bula Bula song’ and of course ‘The Bula Bula Bula Song’. They then organized all of the guests into a conga line, where the person at each end had to come up with dance moves for the rest to follow. They then made all of the men stand in a line, turn around, and take their shirts off before selecting 3 judges to determine who had the hairiest chest, with a free beer as the prize (Tom didn’t win). Then it was the ladies turn, not to take off their shirts to see who had the hairiest chest, but to do their best catwalk moves before presenting their leg to the judges. Luckily Emma wasn’t the winner of hairiest legs. This was then followed by the revelation that a Mother Turtle had come to lay eggs on the resort’s beach. One of the staff told us how special an occasion this was and that it was sacred in Fiji. He even told us this very serious story about how his father had taken a turtle’s eggs as it was hatching them, and made it cry! Supposedly turtles are one of the only other animals apart from humans that have the ability to cry. He gave us time to go and fetch a camera and a torch before leading us to the beach where there was a turtle submerged in the sand.
He told us to look at the shell moving up and down as it was breathing. He then said he was going to try and make it bring its head to the surface. He gave its shell a push, amid concern from travelers that he was harming this turtle. He then gave it another push before there was an explosion of sand. Everybody reeled away in shock as a Fijian man burst out from under the shell to rapturous laughter from the rest of the sand as all of us gullible tourists recoiled from the shock of it all. One of the best practical jokes we have ever witnessed, they really suckered us into that one. We spent the rest of the evening socializing, playing pool and having a couple of beers before heading back to the bure for the night.
The next day we awoke to beautiful sunshine before we strolled over for our breakfast. After this we chilled out in the sun for a bit before our trip to the Blue Lagoon with another couple. It was only a short boat trip before our guide anchored and began to throw bread into the water to draw in the fish.
We dived in and explored beautiful coral in crystal clear water for around an hour and a half, as well as playing about on the beach and in the shallows, before our guide picked us up again and whisked us back to the resort.
After our strenuous morning (!) it was time to chill out, so we claimed a hammock and read as we swayed. After lunch, we wandered down the beach and found some beasty looking crabs.
We hiked up the hill behind the resort (which was swelteringly hot!), but we were rewarded by outstanding views.
Before long it was afternoon tea time where we sat and chatted with others before it was time for volleyball again. We were slightly better this time as we had a bit of a grasp of the rules. Tom also played around with a rugby ball with a couple of the Fijians when he wasn’t playing volleyball.
After playing for a couple of hours it started to get dark so it was time for a shower and then the drums sounded signaling dinner. The evening was very similar with the same songs being performed by the staff before it was time for more games. There was the traditional conga line followed by a game that involved the guy shouting out a number with everyone milling around him. People then needed to get into a group of that number, anyone left without that number was out. The game lasted for some time, and was quite physical with people being dragged into groups, even if they weren’t playing. It was all good fun and eventually we emerged victorious. Our prize was a free beer each, which always goes down well. Before we knew it the evening was over and it was time to head back to the bure.
The next morning we had decided to join the Free trip on offer, which involved some snorkeling and potential fishing. The drawback was that it left at 6am! However we managed to get up in time, watched the sunrise (something that we didn't think we would do!) and were taken off for some more snorkeling.
The downside was that after the snorkeling, we then had to go and pick up some of the staff from a village on a different island. So effectively we were now a part of the morning commute. We made it back in time for our breakfast and had to check out straight away. They stored our bags for us ready to board the Yasawa Flyer later that afternoon while we went away and found a hammock. We spent an entire morning in that hammock watching Entourage on the laptop. It was very nice to just lie there and do nothing. After lunch the staff sang us a goodbye song before we boarded the flyer to take us to our next resort, Korovou Eco Tour resort on Naviti island.
After soaking up some sun on the deck of the Flyer for just over an hour we were met by the staff of Korovou who guided their boat through the reef just off the resort beach. It was a Sunday, and in Fiji Sunday is respected so there is very little happening in the resorts, we didn’t even get a Bula song!
We were shown to our Bure and we settled in before taking a walk along the beach and wading into the bath temperature sea. Before long it was time for dinner where we were treated to a BBQ.
Activities were back on the next day, after their day of rest, and the first thing we did was watch ‘the Geckoman’, a slightly portly Fijian man with huge hands and feet, who, for a fee of $2 would climb up a coconut tree (just with his bare hands and feet!), throw a few coconuts down for the guests to enjoy, then spin round upside down and slither down the tree to the ground again.
After that we did some fish feeding with the leftover bread from breakfast, paddling in the shallows while a shoal of fish swarmed round us attacking the bread.
We spent most of the afternoon alternating between the pool and the sea, until the daily volleyball game in early evening. That night we were treated to entertainment from ‘the Bula Boys’, some of the Fijian men at the resort singing and dancing in grass skirts. After a Huka, which for some reason seemed to be directed at Tom, they encouraged us to join them in their Bula dancing.
The next morning we again enjoyed a bit of fish feeding first thing. We then had to check out of our bure and get ready for the activity we had booked for that day. We hopped into one of the resorts long boats and sped off over the clear water for about 45 minutes until we reached the site of a WW2 Japanese fighter jet which had crashed into the sea. We spent the next hour exploring the site, snorkeling around it and diving down to get a closer look. The wreck itself was pretty cool and it had become home to a wide variety of colourful fish. We then headed back to the resort in time for a quick lunch before catching the ferry to our last island hopping destination; Bounty Island.
Just as we approached the tiny island, a tropical downpour hit. We were welcomed warmly onto the island by the staff and shown to our beachfront bure, which was the nicest we had stayed in so far.
Unfortunately we had to spend much of that afternoon sheltering from the weather until it was time for dinner. To our delight we found that the resort had a table tennis table and enjoyed a few games after a tasty dinner.
The next morning the weather was still fairly overcast. We spent the morning playing table tennis and reading until it was time to catch our ferry at midday. We had hoped to be back on the mainland by 1, however we hadn’t realized that this ferry was the outbound one, not the one returning directly to Nadi. With the sun breaking through at last though it was fairly pleasant cruising around some of the other islands, and eventually we made it back to the mainland at around 2.30.
30 °C
23 °C
