Bula!
I arrived at 6am after a 5 hour flight from Melbourne, i did not get a lot of sleep as you might expect!! I had a very nice Fijian grandfather next to me who slept most of the way, at one point i decided rather than wake him i would climb over him! Whoops nearly gave him a heartache when i jumped down!
There was a courtesy bus that picked you up and took you to your hotel/backpackers. There were lots of people from my plane there to start with and then more and more got picked up! an hour later it was just me and one other guy! ek!! Turns out he (Nick) was going to the same place as me and the very friendly ladies at the tour desk rang our hotel and complained for us! We finally got picked up and taken to the Sky lodge. Nick was in my dorm and we met Al, struggling to stay awake we hit the sunshine and dipped into the pool. Lunch time we ventured out to this little high street and had some food, we said goodbye to Al and walked back. It was on entering the pool for the second time that I noticed some parts of me were a little pink! I headed and covered myself with moisturiser before sneaking a quick nap!
I then managed to stay awake till 8.30pm! Before sleeping straight through to the 6.30am alarm call. Nick and I were off to the Yasawa Islands on the Awesome Adventures ferry. It was hot already at 7am!
It took 5 hours to get to my first stop; I chose the furthest island so that I could then make my way back. I met Tom and Sophie also going to Coral View, It was a warm welcome with music and handshakes and lunch! I met some great people there, Paula, Alanna, Laura (Neish), Rhonda and Ewen.
The dorm was beautiful and the food was great, even gluten free options! We played dancing games and Neish won a free drink. It was a real giggle and we all learned the Bula dance!!
The next day I went to the Jenolan Caves, beautiful underwater caves that you had to dive under to enter. The group was spilt in to two for travel, those that had prepaid and those that hadn’t. Tom, Sophie and I were in the later group and as the first lot got into their water taxi we were given life jackets! We then went on the ride of our lives, bashing up and down on massive waves. I held onto my seat (plank of wood!) And my back for dear life!! Our shrieking seemed to have little effect on our driver who neither slowed nor apologised just ploughed on!!
The caves were stunning if a little scary in parts. The diving under on the first caves was worst. It was pitch black so you had to look while then shined a torch then dive and hope you got far enough through for the guy the other side to grab you!! Ek. The way back was a lot easier as you could see the light from the outside and the swim wasn’t as long as you imagined in the dark! I also bought a sarong from the ladies selling on the island and great purchase as I lived in it, it was so hot!
Neish, Rhonda and I moved on to Nabau lodge, the girls double room was not nice as none of the windows shut but I quite liked my door, ants and geckos and all! We had a great bunch of people and we enjoyed the sun and nattering. It was a lot more basic than Coral View, the toilets and showers were outside and the wildlife seemed to get inside!
The food was amazing and the evening entertainment was them performing a dance and then us learning…. Yes you’ve guessed it the Bula dance! We all joined in and even got dragged into basically doing the conga!! Haha such fun!
The electric went out after 10 on this island so we were all tucked up in our mossie nets before then!
The next day we want to go to Blue lagoon a nice more expensive place but it was full so we headed fro Manta Ray, it was incredibly modern and clean, showers and toilets outside still but clean and nicer to use, the food was AMAZING and so much of it, the girls stayed another day but it wasn’t Fijian enough for me so I headed to Way Lai Lai. I met Paula there and we met with Laura, Kaylee, Ben and Ben. I had a one night upgrade with an extra voucher so I made the most of it and got my own room for an evening. It was so nice to turn the light out when I wanted!!
It was so hot there than none of us really wanted to do too much but we did attempt snorkelling I had done it at manta ray but it was so cheap here we thought why not. Unfortunately it was to low a tide, I cut my hand and Laura scrapped up her knees. I took my poorly hand to the snorkelling guy there he looked at it and hooked out a lump of coral!! No worries about hygiene here it was bleeding quite a lot and he wasn’t bothered about getting his hands all over it!! He wanted me to pull of the lump of flesh that I’d cut but I couldn’t do it! I cleaned it thoroughly and it’s healing ok now!
Neish and Rhonda joined me for my last day at way lai lai, I hope to see them in NZ as they will be there the same time as me!
It was such a great week and I met such nice people that it was a real shame to say goodbye! But onward and upward to NZ which in a word is cold!!
I’ve got stuck into some youthwork already with the people I am staying with its great to do it just for fun and I got to go rock climbing!
Sorry this is a long one.
Catch you soon
Afx
