South Sea Island

We’d been looking forward to some luxury all week and couldn’t wait to experience what South Sea Island had to offer after hearing such good things from other people.

The weather was pretty bad when we arrived so it meant that we couldn’t have the candle lit beach front dinner we had been looking forward too. Instead we had it inside the dinning room which was still nice but not quite the same.

The food was pretty good too. We had soup and bread as a starter and then fish and jacket potatoes for our main meal. It was nice not to have rice and chicken on bones which is what we ate for basically every other meal on the islands.

After tea they did a crab race, Hels crab was looking like it was going to win but then at the last moment he steered off to the left and lost. It was such a random thing to see.

The next morning it was actually sunny! Fiji was sunny! We had been waiting all week for a sunny day and it finally arrived on the last day of our island hopping. The ironic thing though was that I couldn’t lie on my back as I had burnt it on Beachcomber which meant I couldn’t use the deckchairs/ sunbeds. As the beach was made mostly from coral it was extremely painful to lie on, so I had to go and lie by myself near the sea where there was some sand. I looked and felt like a loser.

We all got pretty hot sunbathing so took a dip in the sea but because of the strong current it wasn’t very relaxing. We kept on getting stung by things too which wasn’t nice. We should have dressed from head to toe like all the Chinese tourists there, there was no way any sun or sea creatures was touching their skin.

South Sea provided the best buffet lunch for us, as well as putting on a show of singing and dancing. It was a very nice way to end our island hopping experience, we just wished the weather had been nicer for all the other days as there really wasn’t anything to do when it wasn’t sunny. I never once thought it might not be ridiculously hot and sunny in Fiji, as that is what you see on TV and postcards, but it turns out that‘s a bit of lie.

Back to Nadi

In Ice Bar

We headed back to the main island for our last night in Fiji where we were staying in Banana Hostel again. Hels never got round to booking in for the night so had to sleep on the floor again.

We went to Smuggler Cove for some food as it was the last night we’d spend with Hels, and then we got some booze and had a couple drinks with Simon, Emma, Seb and Max who we met on the islands.

At about 11oclock we headed out to ‘Ice Bar’ which was supposedly just for tourists. None of us knew what to expect but it was actually pretty nice and a lot like clubs in England. The strangest part of the evening was trying to be set up with random Fijian guys by a married woman. She kept on grabbing my arm and pulling me into men on the dance floor like she was trying to set up an arranged marriage or sell me. Very odd indeed.

Nadi Sunset

We danced for most of the night but then decided to head back to the hostel as it was emptying out pretty quickly. I wanted some food at the end of the night but of course there are no takeaways, I did manage to persuade a guy at our hostel to make me some toast for a couple of Fijian dollars though which was awesome.

All in all Fiji was a lot of fun and different from anywhere I’ve been before. I defiantly could not live there though as the islands are far to isolated and I couldn’t stomach anymore kava!

Beachcomber Island

Cindy tried to top up her tan

We upgraded from our ‘one coconut’ bula pass (the cheapest pass) to stay on what is known as the ‘party island’, Beachcomber.

The rest of the Fijian islands were very nice but also very quiet with not a lot going on in the evenings so we were looking forward to a spot of drinking and socialising on Beachcomber.

When we arrived we were shown into our room, it was a girls only dorm which appeared very much like a maze. You had to weave in and out of all the bunks, it was pretty confusing. Us three were put in the beds right at the end, but Hels was put the opposite end, right next to the boys half.

The strangest thing was waking up and just seeing plants as there was no wall. It was like we were sleeping outside which messed with your mind a bit, especially when you’ve had a couple drinks.

The shower cubicles were in a line so we showered at the same time and had a nice chat as we washed our hair, because as you know we haven’t spent enough time together in the last four months. We then got ready to have dinner and have a couple of drinks, this is when all the shenanigans began…

Stag party number 1

The Haka

After a couple of drinks in our jungle maze room, we went down to the bar where they had a live band and were playing different games. We joined in with one of them where you had to pair up and then do different lifts/ moves when they shouted. A guy who had been near me dancing grabbed my arm so I had to pair up with him, the problem was he was like half my size so struggled to lift my elephant body.

Surprisingly we didn’t win the game but he insisted on buying me a bottle of wine that came with glasses in a case and an ice bucket. This really was not what I wanted so  had to try and hide from him, this was exceptionally hard as we were in the only building on an island in Fiji!

Anyway, we had some more drinks and started talking to some guys on a stag party who had a blow up doll called Cindy with them. A lot more drinks were consumed which led to us falling over on the sand a lot and just generally being silly. The groom was the funniest of all, he spent a lot of time on his hands and knees in the sea as he just couldn’t figure out how to stand up.

All four of us were incredibly pickled (we’re rarely drunk at the same time), so the next day was spent trying to work out exactly what had happened. My clearest memory was of how lovely the father of the groom was.

Chilling with Cindy

The funniest part for me was remembering how I wanted to call a taxi to take me home from where I was, (next to where the turtles live) as I couldn’t remember how to get home. I had somehow forgotten I was on a tiny island with only one resort, and that the bar and the turtle area was literally a two minute walk away from my bed. Hilarious!

Stag party number 2

As we were making a slow recovery the following morning and talking about what a funny random night it was, a group of New Zealand Mauri guys arrived and turned our quiet hang-over day into a day of beer drinking and dancing.

To begin with none of us wanted to touch a drop of alcohol at all as we still felt pretty rough, but they wouldn’t give up so we sipped at the vodka orange cocktails they had just bought. This wasn’t good enough for them so we then had a shot each of straight vodka! This most defiantly did not go down well, but the drinking continued.

All Blacks Sevens player

After a couple of rounds of vodka and bourbons, they then got huge beer kegs which they offered to everyone in the bar. They were all extremely drunk by this point as they had been drinking since 7am! This made them very loud and very rowdy, everyone in there was watching them but to be honest it was hard not to watch a group of massive tattooed rugby players.

They picked people up and poured beer from the kegs into their mouths which really just went everywhere as they were too drunk to aim it properly. They danced and sung karaoke and drunk the bar dry. We all felt a little tipsy from the day time drinking but it was worth it for how random our day had turned out.

As two of them used to play for the All Blacks they all performed the Haka for us before they left which was a really nice way to end the days festivities.

Kuata

When we were heading towards Kuata Island, we were all a little worried as all we could see were rocks and absolutely no buildings of any kind. We thought we may be sleeping under the stars that night.

Bula Boys Dancing

Of course that wasn’t the case and there were quite a few buildings in the little resort. We were in a room of about 30 beds and a fair few of them were taken which was nice after there only being seven of us on Long Beach.

We spent our afternoon watching and playing volleyball with the other guests and some of the guys who work there. It was really fun but I was shockingly bad so sat out for most of it as it was just plain embarrassing.

It was ‘Fijian Night’ on the island so in the evening we ate a traditional Fijian meal which had been cooked under the ground (like the Mauri meal in NZ). We had to eat it with our hands which was quite difficult when it came to the coleslaw… On our table we had some lovely Canadian guys who were covered from head to toe with tattoos.

Once again we had to join in with the kava drinking activities and be completely silent as they carried out their rituals. After all of this the ‘Bula Boys’ did a traditional dance which was very entertaining for us. They then got everyone up and taught us the Fijian welcome dance amongst other dance moves and games.

They then paired us up with dance partners and I was put with the most handsome guy there which made the other girls very jealous. Sadly I discovered he was just a pretty face and there was absolutely no personality behind those beautiful eyes. He would have been ideal on a poster, just not what you need for a dancing competition.

Volleyball

All the pairs went into the circle to do a dance and then two pairs were picked for a dance off. The best dancers in our opinion was the old couple who did the jive. It was Dorothy’s 71^st Birthday that night and they were the most adorable couple I’ve ever seen. Sadly they weren’t picked, but Bie and her guy were, along with two others. Bie didn’t win in the end but it was still a really good night.

Some more kava was consumed after and we all had a good sing-a-long. For some reason nearly all Fijians can play the guitar and have really good voices which is just as well as there’s nothing else to do on the islands in the evening except for sing.

The next morning we made anklets from shells and I bought some fresh water pearl earrings as I keep on losing mine. The sun decided to come out for a bit too which meant we could get a spot of sunbathing in before we had to leave to go to the next place.

Nabua Lodge and Long Beach

Nabua  Lodge

Nabua Lodge

We had to get up at 7am as we were getting picked up to go to the harbour where we were going to start our Awesome Adventures Bula Pass.

We bought the 6night/7day island hopping pass when we were back in England as we were told it would be easier and cheaper than waiting until we arrived in Fiji. It turns out this wasn’t true at all and you can buy the pass the day before and for the exact same price as in England.

What really made us angry was that when we went to the desk to pick up our passes, we were told we had to pay another $150 each as the pass we bought had expired, even though it was an open dated ticket. The reason we were so pissed off was because we booked it through STA and they should have either told us that it wouldn’t be in date and that we’d have to pay more on arrival, or given us the option to just book it a month or two later which wouldn’t have made any difference to us.

So because of their stupidity, we were forced to pay $150 before we were even allowed on the boat, and it put us in a very bad mood. Not what we wanted on the first day of our holiday.

Anyway…after a couple of hours of sizzling on the top deck of the boat, we arrived at our first island and our first resort, ‘Nabua Island’.

The beach wasn’t that great but the resort itself was really good. They had laid up the tables for us on arrival ready for lunch and performed a welcome song and dance. We managed to get ourselves a private room which was good as we didn’t want to socialise.

There was a small cake shop down the beach where we went and ate some delicious sponge made by the sweetest old lady. It looked like a wooden shack, but somehow she managed to cook a cake. It only cost like £1 too.

Having cake

For tea we had a three course dinner which we didn’t expect at all. We didn’t even know we got lunch so it was all a pleasant surprise. After we had eaten they tried to make everyone socialise with each other by singing songs from their countries, but it just sort of separated people even more.

We were all tired and I wasn’t feeling the best so we went back to our room and just chilled out so we could get up early to enjoy the sun.

Long Beach

Long Beach

Long Beach was chosen by us simply because of its name. We figured it must have a nice long beach as it was called ‘long beach’, and this was true luckily.

When we got off the big boat and into the little island shuttle boat, we got dropped off really far away from the island as the tide was out. They couldn’t get the boat any nearer so just left it there and we walked through what was technically the sea.

It was so weird to see people walking so far out to sea, as it looked like they should have been either swimming or walking on water. We sat on the beach for a while whilst Hels collected shells, whilst this was going on, a frog appeared out of nowhere and chilled out with us on the beach.

There was only seven guests staying on the island the night we were there which was a little weird. The night before there had only been three people so I guess we were lucky there was a few more for our stay.

After we had dinner the staff invited us to join them in sharing kava. None of us wanted to do this but we didn’t want to be rude so all joined in again. At about 9 o’clock it was all over and everyone went to bed. This was far too early for us so we decided to stay up and drink in the dining room.

As they switch off all electricity at 10pm, we were plunged into darkness but they kindly let us borrow a torch for the night. So us four girls and the two guys from our room played some drinking games and then all squeezed onto a hammock on the beach as there was nothing else to do.

The next day the weather wasn’t very nice again so we learnt how to weave baskets in the traditional Fijian way. It took nearly three hours and then we had to just leave them there as we wouldn’t have been able to carry big leaf baskets around with us on the rest of our travels.

We made some bracelets out of leaves after which was much more fun and practical for us. Me and Hels had the same pattern and Bie and Nineham had the same as each other, it was like we were some sort of bracelet gang.

Our stay on Long Beach was good but we still hadn’t experienced a sunset, an awesome beach or sunbathed for more than half an hour so onto the next island we went.

Fiji: Nadi and Drinking Kava

We had to wait in the airport car park for quite some time before our taxi bus came to pick us up. All the other transfers for other people were really nice, they had big shiny cars or brand new coaches with flowers printed on the side, ours was nothing of the sort. Ours was a super old van with not enough seats, no seatbelts, dented metal and to begin with it wouldn’t even start. Most people would have found this off-putting, but as we’ve experienced journeys like this on our travels before, we just found it funny.

Our hostel, ‘Banana’, was very basic but it had everything we needed and it only cost about £3/4 a night. The staff were absolutely adorable too, they helped us with anything we wanted and made everyone there feel welcome and like one of the family.

When we were sat in reception using the internet, we heard a familiar voice outside and two seconds later, in comes Hels! She was a girl we met on the Kiwi Bus who we invited to come join us in Fiji, we didn’t think she’d actually turn up as it was pretty expensive and last minute, but there she was! It was awesome!

Fire Show

What made it even more great was because she was drunk from drinking on the plane. She was making jokes and pretending her name was something different and just generally was being pretty funny. She was now part of our short blonde girl group. (Sweet as bro).

We were invited to join the big circle of people sat down on the floor, where a couple of the hostel guys were singing and playing guitar. It looked fun so we merrily sat down, then we were offered a bowl of some brown water.

This brown water is actually called ‘Kava’. It’s made from crushed pepper roots and water which they mix together in a giant bowl and then hand it out to people. It means a lot to Fijian people as it has strong ties with their religion apparently. This means that when ever you have a bowl of Kava you must clap, then take the bowl, say ‘Bula’ down it in one, and then clap three times.

If you drink enough of it, it’s supposed to make you sleepy and relaxed. You’d have to drink well over 10 bowls for anything to happen though as they make it very weak for travellers.

The first time I tried it I nearly threw it back up instantly! It tasted exactly how it looked, like muddy water. There is no other way to describe it.

It can also make your tongue go a bit numb which is a strange feeling to get from a drink. None of us liked it at all but had to keep on drinking it as they kept on passing it to us. They wouldn’t except no for an answer and their singing was so good too we felt bad refusing them.