Fiji

Forgive me, for I have sinned; it has been a month since my last blog. I do plan to make up for it today and fill you all in on what's been happening though. As the title of this blog suggests I plan to tell you all about our trip to Fiji.

We left on 8th May and came home on the 16th. This was the most relaxing week of my entire life! Most of the days were spent sitting in our bathers under a bure by the pool, drinking cocktails (non-alcoholic ones for me, of course), swimming, snoozing and eating. The perfect holiday for us to just to have time to ourselves and not stress about anything.

Our favourite bure - check out that view!

A few weeks before we went away I was at the Post Office Square store's stocktake. I caught up with Lesley, one of the staff members there, whom I worked with at the Cannon Hill store years ago. We got chatting and worked out that we were both going to Fiji on the same day, the same flight, and staying at the same resort! Huge coincidence! Lesley and her partner Kevin were staying two weeks though, so we weren't on the same flight back - that would have been really freaky! We saw each other at the Brisbane airport before we boarded but they were sitting a few rows ahead of us so we didn't really catch up again until we were both on the shuttle bus to take us to our resort.

Kevin, Lesley and Us

The weather was perfect; about 30 max every day and 20 overnight, but all the rooms had air-con so we kept them on all night. There were a couple of cloudy days but it was still lovely and warm. We went into the closest town Nadi (pron. Nan-di) a couple of times; the first to get some groceries which were a bit cheaper than at our little store in the resort, and the other time to buy a couple of souvenirs and have lunch at an Indian restaurant 2 days before we came home. The best part of going into Nadi is the bus ride. It cost 60 cents and it was one of those experiences you never forget. Because of the warm weather there are no windows on the bus as such, just open sides with clear plastic blind-like sheets that can be pulled down if it rains. It leaves from our resort every hour or so and then takes all these back streets into Nadi. Actually, I don't know whether you could call them streets, more like tiny dirt tracks. There are no bus-stops to speak of - people just ring the bell and it stops in front of the next house or you stand on the side of the road and it stops to pick you up. Pretty cool I reckon. Even in Nadi's busiest streets it could stop in the middle of a round-about and hold up all the traffic while someone decides to get on or off.

This attitude is really typical of Fiji and I loved it. Everything works on 'Fiji time' which translates as 'it will happen when it happens'. Nobody seems in a hurry and everybody has a smile. Walking around the resort, and in Nadi to an extent, everybody would smile and say 'Bula!'. This is their general greeting for hello or cheers or howsitgoin. Everybody is so friendly and easy-going like they haven't a care in the world and I think this rubs off on all the visitors too.

On the Wednesday we took a day trip out to a tiny deserted island called Tivua or Mystery Island. The best part of this tour for me was actually sailing on this beautiful tall ship 'Ra Marama' - 110ft Brigantine, for those who are interested. It took about an hour to get out to the island and the scenery was beautiful. We were kept entertained by the crew singing and playing guitars and had morning tea on the way. When we got to the island we transferred to a smaller glass-bottomed boat to take us to shore. We then got ready for snorkelling, got back on the small boat to take us out to the edge of the reef. Daniel and I had never snorkelled before and in hindsight should have practiced before we got dumped in deep water. Unfortunately we both really struggled and ended up back on the boat and only saw the fishes and coral from there. Next time we will be more prepared. After that we had a huge barbecue lunch followed by a traditional 'Kava' ceremony. We then had some time just to bum around, walk around the island (took about 5 minutes - not a big island) and Daniel and I also went out kayaking. It was then time to leave so we all piled back on to the glass-bottomed boat to get back to the ship. Unfortunately we almost didn't make it as we almost sank. The tide was really low and we had trouble dodging all the coral. The swell was quite big too and we took on a lot of water and one of the crew ended up getting out of the boat and pushing us. Poor guy had to swim out to the ship when we left him behind! The rest of the trip back was quite uneventful and there was more singing and afternoon tea. All in all a really great day.

The Ra Marama

We also met some really lovely people that day. Before we had even got on the ship at the beginning of the day a lady called Marcia came over to talk to Daniel and me. She was over from Newcastle with her husband John and two other couples, Sally and Paul, and Rhonda and Keith. (Hi guys, if you're reading this!) We got to know them all better during the day and worked out they were staying at the same resort as us, almost next door! When we got back to the resort that night we went up to their unit and had drinks with them and caught up them a few times over the next few days down at the pool. We also caught up with Lesley and Kevin a few times for drinks at sunset by the pool and had dinner with them a couple of times too.

The Super Six!
Kevin, John, Marcia, Paul, Sally & Daniel (Rhonda was busy!)

This is the sort of holiday you could do every year to wind down. There are lots of day trips you can do or you can just sit around and do nothing. Daniel and I are already planning our next trip but we're thinking of taking someone along with us so they can babysit. There were a lot of young families at our resort so we could do it by ourselves too. Highly recommend Fiji as a holiday destination.