Bula everyone.
The only word we can think off is ‘WOW’ to even start describing this place. What an amazing part of the world, soft white sand 5 mtr’s outside the ‘Bure’ (traditional Fijian accommodation) which leads into the most amazing seashore we’ve seen, that followed by the most amazing warm Sea and Coral that would please even the most travelled person; and begs you to snorkel it’s hidden treasures. If you ever need to get away and relax, THIS PLACE IS IT! We totally forgot time, date and anything outside of the Island; we were totally relaxed. Anyone that knows Andy will be surprised to hear that at no point did we EVER discuss the outside life we have left behind, you MUST go here at some point in your life. The first 3 days were just relaxation, Swimming, Snorkelling, Kayaking, sun bathing and walking along the seashore. After this, on the forth day we decided to go on one of the many trips that were offered here; Manta Ray snorkelling. Although we did see, and get followed by a small group of Dolphins on the way out, unfortunately we did not see the Manta’s whilst Snorkelling; BUT Em’ did see them from the boat. The skipper did his best to follow the Manta Rays, an adult followed by two smaller rays (apparently very unusual) he did this by inventing the sport of ‘wake snorkelling’ which means they passed a rope out the rear of the boat which all eleven of us held onto while being towed around the channel in the wake of the boat, Andy loved it! (I’ve only seen him smile that much after his Micro-lite experience) After this experience we had to have another rest, so for the next three days we did just that; more Swimming Blah Blah Blah you get the idea, oh Em did try traditional basket weaving; so it wasn’t just relaxing.
As you can see from the pictures the sunset was so beautiful and just the perfect end to the day whilst getting ready for the evening meal, and socialising with the new ‘friends’ we made here over the local ‘Kava’ greeting with the local town major (Kava a root based local brew, non-alcoholic but is a stimulate) this being drunk on the first night. Around this ‘Kava’ drinking were the people we were to have some ‘eventful’ evenings drinking with, Chris & Chris from USA, Leighton & Danielle from OZ, Giles & Nicky from NZ and Steve & Sue from NZ.
The night sky here was unbelievable, you have not seen so many stars in the sky, and it’s no exaggeration to say thousands including numerous shooting stars. There were so many, from the sea line horizon right up and over down to the hill range behind us. I was so disappointed that my compact camera could not capture the image for us to share, but we will remember; there’s no way we could ever forget swinging in a hammock with a beer whilst watching this amazing sight.
The food was not at all what we expected, it was lovely. It was always very nicely cooked, well presented, quick and was a different theme each evening. The lunchtime fish could not be any fresher, as it was caught that morning ready for the lunch time serving in one of the lightest, driest batters I’ve had.
We must’ve timed it right for the ‘bug’ season, we never had one problem; didn’t even have to use the insect repellent spray. We did see loads of crabs, early morning was the best; so as you can imagine Em’ didn’t see many although she was out of bed at 0730hr’s every morning which is un-heard off (True, honest) Maybe the bugs were controlled by our resident Gecko, which we named Lizzie. Lovely little thing, shy but loud; giving her Gecko kissing calls all night.
To say the Fijian people are friendly is the biggest under stated fact we could say, they are they most friendly, welcoming and helpful people you can imagine (we could learn a lot from them) They did their best to teach me some Fijian, but I’m awful at English so they had very little chance; Bula and Vinaka (Thank you) were about it.
Oh yes, must not forget to mention the quiz night which had a ‘Talent round’ we were on a table of ten, ten of us and not a sign of ‘Talent’ between us. I would say that the ‘Actions’ taken to win this round did give the ten of us a link to have a few drinks over that night and the following nights. These actions were quite basic in nature, and back to nature it was; we had four boys v’ four girls beach Volleyball match which was then interrupted by the two remaining ‘gents’ doing a nude streak. Included in the streakers was, yes you guessed it ‘ANDY’ who fell over half way trough the court and exposed a little more than was hoped; but we won the round with maximum points so thank you both to him and Giles ;-) Thankfully no pictures were taken of such a poor show of ‘Talent’
