After leaving Hong Kong we flew to Fiji! We had an overnight flight that lasted 10 hours, and then the time change was that Nadi was 4 hours ahead of HK time. When we stepped off of the plane we immediately felt the heat of Fiji. It was tropical. And then when we stood outside waiting for our bus we realized just how hot the sun was! We were very excited when the bus showed up w/ airconditioning. What we didn’t realize was that our busride to our hotel would take us 4 hours.... yes 4 hours on a winding road on a tall tippy bus, on an empty stomach w/ no sleep for 21 hours.... (25 hours by the end of the bus ride....) I just kept praying that I wouldn’t barf. Even w/ an empty stomach that’s all I wanted to do, I think that India made my stomach a little weak and I am prone to getting carsick so it was a bad combo.... And Lockey was even sick and he doesn’t get sick, so that tells you how gross it was... But it only cost us 12 Fijian dollars each to ride, (6 CAD). Oh and also A big Fijian guy sat next to us for half the ride... For those of you who don’t know what a Fijian man looks like, think Samoan, or Polynesian... Tongan... Big! With a super huge smile, and a big “Bula Vinaka” for all (“a warm hello”).
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| The landscape is full of hills and small mountains and very lush! |
When we finally arrived at the hotel we were relieved to be off of the bus. And when we checked in we were pleasantly surprised to have been upgraded to the Villa... We had a booked a beach bure before which is a cute little cottage, but this villa was a definite improvement. The bure was a single room, w/ a little bathroom outside, and no a/c. The villa had a living room w/ a couch and flatscreen, a big soaker tub, a kitchenette w/ fridge, a huge bed (that was cushy and cozy), a/c, an outdoor shower area, and a balcony w/ a sliding door into our bedroom and another sliding door into our living area. It was the nicest place we’ve stayed, we were thrilled. And tired, and had a really great sleep that night!
We met a random fellow from England the day we got there and he took us for a sail on his little catamaran, and he even let Lockey bring it back to shore!
The Fijian people are among the friendliest that we have met, all very helpful, all speak english w/ an island lilt. They run on island time. We made friends w/ one of the servers at the restaurant at the hotel, Kessa, she was always helpful and gave great suggestions, but then when we saw her off of the hotel premises she still gave us a big smile and said hello. Also we went out for dinner to a little cafe and the waitress, Lydia, (She told me her name after she had said to just call her when we were ready to order and I didn't know her name so I said "Bula Vinaka"... She laughed and then informed me that, that was not her name!) was so hilarious, she just kept telling me how sweet I was and kept giving me hugs.
Also when we were watching TV at one point there was a field hockey game on, and I asked Lockey, “Isn’t Field Hockey for girls? Because those are the butchiest girls I’ve ever seen...” Clearly they were men, but I seriously thought that it was a girl sport b/c at my high school (and every other Calgary high school I think) there was a girls field hockey team, but certainly no boys field hockey team. Well the next day who shows up to our resort but a men’s field hockey team from New Zealand. So I learned something new... Where they don’t have ice, they still try to play hockey. Also along the lines of sports, they LOVE rugby in Fiji. They had a hotel team (with staff and friends of staff) and a huge field outside the resort where they had tournaments w/ other teams from the surrounding areas. It was a big thing! (And they are big boys!)
In Fiji our agenda consisted of relaxing, enjoying the cushy bed we had, using our soaker tub and outdoor shower, swimming in the ocean, hanging out at the pool, and Lockey finishing an essay. The 2 adventures we had in the 4 full days we were there were scootering for an afternoon and diving....
First the scootering. When Lockey and I go on a scooter we sing our scooter song... it’s the same as the Tuk Tuk song that we sang back in Thailand, and I think we put a link up then for the Tanuk Tanuk Tan youtube video if you want a good laugh... but it goes like this.... Scoot scoot, scoot scoot, scoot scoot Da da da da! Ya, pretty complicated... but it makes us laugh!
Anyways, Fiji is a gorgeous island, w/ really rich red soil. And all of the green foliage next to the red is very stunning as they are complimentary colors! We went into a little town and saw how neat and tidy they keep their little areas, they have brightly painted humble homes, w/ well kept gardens and trimmed lawns (which would be a feat in itself b/c there is tons of brush in the wild).
We stumbled upon the LDS church too, which was funny b/c as we were scooting I saw this crazy steep hill and the lawn was all trimmed to perfection, and I took a picture of it, and then Lockey said I wonder if that’s a church, and as we passed we saw the sign! The gate to the road leading to the church was locked, but we could see that there was an outdoor basktball court. We would have loved to have gone to a sacrament meeting there, as I had mentioned before the people are just generally so nice, and upbeat, and it would have been a sacrament meeting, but we didn’t get there until Sunday afternoon so it didn’t pan out, but it’s always nice to see the church in other countries, it feels familiar and like home.
After seeing the little town we made our way into the mountainous area (Fiji is FILLED w/ hills and mountains, when we were landing in Nadi we saw the landscape and were really surprised, it was all green and lush and rolling hills and mountains, no flat land! Which lends to the fact that we both got nauseous on that bus ride...) It was gorgeous, just like the rest of Fiji.
And our 2nd big adventure was diving... not just any diving though, SHARK DIVING!!!
We did 2 Shark dives, and there is a guy who feeds the sharks. We are not in a cage or anything while he’s feeding the sharks, we just hang out in a line on this little trench just above the feeding “arena” and the feeder starts tempting the sharks w/ big chunks of fish. Our first dive we went down approx 30 meters and saw a couple of bull sharks, they are big! the females are approx 3 meters, and the males 2 meters (which I thought was interesting b/c males are usually bigger than females, or have prettier plumage etc...). I thought I might be nervous diving w/ sharks (Lockey was just excited of course), but once you are down there watching a) you no longer have control over the situation, so you have to take it in stride, and b) they just were totally not interested in us! They actually seem timid or shy, which could obviously change in an instant, but they ignored everyone except for the feeder! then we went up to 15 meters, and there were smaller sharks (white tipped reef sharks mainly) and they would go right over our heads! And when you would turn around all of a sudden there would be sharks behind you. (Oh PS during this time there were 5 Fijian men down there with us, a camera man, the feeder, and 3 body guards w/ big metal poker sticks.) It was pretty nuts. Then we went up to 10 meters and fed the black tipped sharks, well not us, but the feeder guy.... These were actually the laziest dives we have ever done, you just go down, relax and watch in complete fascination as these crazy “big fish” as the Fijians call them, chow down!
Our 2nd dive was WAY cooler! They saved the best for last I guess! At one point there were SEVEN bull sharks swimming around!!! Lockey was on the end of the line, and while everyone else is laying on our stomachs as instructed Lockey was up on his knees, always wanting to be closer to the action.... The sharks were close enough though! We were approx 15-20 feet from the action at any time. At one point I thought if that bull shark is in a bad mood and decides to eat me I’m through.... They were FAST! (Although Lockey was the one kneeling, so they probably would’ve pegged him off first...) Anyways it was a fantastic experience! (Oh and the first thing we did when we got back to the resort was call my dad to tell him that we survived... )
After diving we went and grabbed pizza (it was actually a very delicious pizza), and a coconut tried to murder Lockey! Well I guess it didn't have very good aim, because it fell right behind him. The Fijians told us that a falling coconut has never killed anyone, but have you ever tried to crack one?
On a side note, the morning we got up to go dive my throat hurt a little, but I checked my ears and I could still pop them (which is necessary to go diving b/c of the pressure change when you descend). But when we actually started going down all of a sudden I felt pressure in my ears, and since it’s never really a problem for me I continued to go down thinking that the air would just squeeze out... it didn’t. So I did my hand signal to my dive buddy (Lockey of course) that there was a problem w/ my ears. We went back up until my ears didn’t hurt again and then started to go down more slowly, one of the dive masters came over and told Lockey to go down (w/ hand signals obviously) and then he grabbed my hand and took me down slowly which was really great b/c I was a little worried that I might have missed out on the shark dives! But it all worked out, and by the next day I had a full blown case of bronchitis... I was certainly very lucky that I got to see those sharks!
After all of that excitement the next day was spent warding off a fever... so I sat in the shade in the pool... It didn’t work too bad! Oh and Lockey and the hotel staff tracked down a tylenol for me too.
Our flight to Australia was early morning so we had to spend our last night in Fiji in Nadi close to the airport, but the ocean water was warm like a bathtub, and there was a Fire Dance performance at one of the nearby hotels.
All in all the short Fijian trip was awesome. We loved Fiji, and would go back if we didn’t still have lots of places to see and it wasn’t the furthest place in the world from home... that may be an exageration, but I’m not sure, the time difference was the most we’ve ever had from Calgary, we were 19 hours ahead! ( or 5 hours apart Robert! :)
Vinaka (thank you) Fiji for a great experience!
