FIJI
With Scott still having another full week off school, we jumped on a plane and only 3 hours later we found ourselves in Nadi, Fiji ready for our Awesome Adventure vacation. We arrived in Nadi at 7pm and transferred to our accommodation at Smugglers Cove on the main island for the 1st night. We grabbed some dinner and took a walk on the beach in the moonlight before heading to bed. We had to be up early and ready for pickup at 7:10am the next morning.
Early morning at Smugglers Cove
The package we booked with Awesome Adventures was called The Lazy Threesome, which was a 5 night/6 day trip between three islands: Coral View Resort on Tavewa Island, Mantaray Island Resort on Nanuya Balavu Island, and Bounty Island.
DAY 1
That morning we were transferred by bus from Smugglers Cove to Port Denarau where we boarded the Yasawa Flyer at 8:45am and found a fairly comfortable spot to sit on the middle deck in the shade. I'm sure the top deck would have been nice, but with a 5 hour boat ride ahead of us, we would have been fried by the time we arrived. Not a great way to start off a beach vacation.
CORAL VIEW RESORT (August 28th-August 30th)
Five hours later we arrived at our first destination where we would stay for the next 2 nights.
View of Coral View Resort from the boat
We were welcomed with big Bula's (hellos) and handshakes from the staff, followed by a much anticipated lunch. Before we left, we had read some reviews that had said that the portions are small and you might go hungry if you are a big eater, or that you may have to buy extra food if you wanted it. This was quite worrisome for Scott, as many of you know how much he can eat. But, Scott was pleasantly surprised when he was given another heaping plate of food for seconds, and often offered thirds.
We were then escorted to our bure, which was a small little individual hut. They were surprisingly nice with a private bathroom and a mini-fridge. 
We spent the rest of that afternoon exploring the resort, checking out the beaches and all the activities available for the next couple days, and meeting other people.
The beach directly out front of the resort wasn't really the nicest beach as it was full of coral, but there was also another beach around the bend of the island that we walked to that was better for swimming. So we went for a swim in the surprisingly warm water.
Back at the resort there was a nice grassy area next to the beach with hammocks and lounge chairs looking out onto the ocean, and we lounged out here until dinner, while getting to know Emily and Daniel from LA, Kieran from Ireland, and Lucy and Adrian from New Zealand.
We spent the rest of the evening playing cards with Kieran, Emily and Daniel, and Lucy and Adrian.
DAY 2
After a simple buffet breakfast, we slathered on the sunscreen and boarded a small boat to go explore the Sawa-i-lau Caves. After the 40 minute ride on the boat in the picture below, we arrived, absolutely drenched.
We walked up a set of stairs and entered into the limestone cave and then plunging into the cool water inside it.
The cave had walls about 50 feet high with a little opening allowing sunlight in.
There were some small caves that were accessed from this larger cave that required you to swim through an underwater tunnel. The guides told Scott to hold his breath for 3 seconds, grabbed his head and pushed him under. More than 3 seconds later and still underwater, Scott wasn't able to find where he was supposed to go, hit his head on the top, turned back and came out. That was not 3 seconds. Needless to say, Nikki did not attempt that one. Fortunately, the reports from people who made it through were that it was just a small pitch black area and not much to see compared to the larger cave we were already in.
We enjoyed exploring the interesting rock formations and watching the locals climb the walls of the cliff and jump.
Then we enjoyed another 40 minute salty shower on the way back to the resort, arriving just in time for some lunch. We had about an hour to relax after lunch before we headed off on our next adventure. Meanwhile, while reading in bed, Scott feels something drop on his arm. We both look up, and there is a lizard. We look back down at the brown nugget on Scott's arm, and at the same time realize he has just been pooped on by a lizard.
When you go to a country and stay at these resort-type areas, you often miss out on the true cultural experience of seeing and experiencing how people really live. Here, they offer to take you on a tour of the local village so you can have a little taste of the culture.
Here are some pictures of the village:
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After wandering through and seeing their homes, we met the Chief and had a chance to ask him questions about his community and their way of living. There are about 680 people living in the island community with a growing population. They do not appear to have much, their houses simple shelters with no furniture inside, just a woven mat on the floor. They live mostly on what is grown and produced on the island and they obviously care about their environment as it was well kept and clean.
The Chief's House Scott and the Chief
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After visiting with the Chief, we were taken to the village market, where ladies and children set up blankets of souvenirs to sell to us.
This village trip was for sure one of the highlights of the trip for both of us.
Back at the resort, we decided that we had not had enough adventure for the day, so we took on the climb up to the high point on the island to watch the sunset. It wasn't a long hike, but was somewhat steep at points with loose rocks not agreeing with the slip-on sanuks we had to substitute for hiking shoes. But, we made it to the top where we could see both side of the island: the resort to the east and the sunset to the west.
Once back at the resort, we had another decent buffet dinner. We spent the evening chatting away with the same people from the previous night, as well as Veronika and Martin from Slovakia who we met earlier in the day. DAY 3
If you remember back when we went to Thailand, it was hard for us to just sit and relax on the beach for a whole day, you can imagine we'd come across the same problem here. But, we told ourselves we were going to do it this time. We had a full day of activities yesterday, today is a beach day.
After breakfast, we decided to pack up our towels, books, and snorkeling gear and head over to the beach on the other side of the island. It took about 25 minutes of walking along the shore to get to a place where we decided to settle in.
Aside from a little bit of snorkeling, we were successful. We relaxed, read, and snorkeled until lunch. Right after lunch we had to be ready to board the boat that took us to our next island.
MANTARAY ISLAND RESORT (August 30th - September 1st)
After 2 hours in the air conditioned section of the boat, we disembarked and welcomed to Mantaray Resort with a cool apple slushy drink. YUM. A quick look around the resort proved it to be quite a bit nicer than the previous resort. Number one hint was the great big sign for Pizza Happy Hour!
We checked into our Treehouse Bure and checked out the beautiful beach. With only a couple hours until happy hour, we decided to check out the reef. We were told that the area around this island has been a marine reserve since 2003.
This has allowed for the marine life to flourish, and is thought to be some of the best snorkeling in Fiji.
Unfortunately we did not take our camera out with us this time, and then the next time when we planned on taking it, the battery was dead. So you are just going to have to take our word for it when we say it was absolutely amazing!
Then it was time for Happy Hour. We shared a fire grilled pizza with Adrian and Lucy. While sitting here with them and Veronika and Martin, a very lovely couple joined us; Nick from Atlanta and Eleanor from Guam.
That night we had a really nice a la carte dinner that started out with a coconut vermicelli soup and fish ceviche lettuce wrap. For mains we got to choose from a couple options. Scott had Fish in Lolo (coconut cream sauce), and Nikki had Beef Kebabs. The most exciting part was the creme caramel for dessert. Mmmm!
That evening they lit a bon fire on the beach and everyone just hung out there until we were ready to crash for the night. While brushing our teeth before bed we met a really nice couple from Germany, Annika and Manuel.
DAY 4
The special thing about this island is that when they are in season between May and October, you may have the chance to go swimming with the Manta Rays. We were told that when the spotter sees the Manta Rays in the channel, they will bang on the drums and anyone who wants to go has to run to the boat and off you go to swim with the Manta Rays. So....
7am BANG BANG BANG
7:15am About 20 people get on the little boat and off we go to find the Manta Rays.
We were taken out to a channel where the Manta Rays swim back and forth for feeding. The current in the channel was very strong, so the boat driver stopped upstream and yelled for everyone to get out of the boat. Feeling hurried, all 20 of us scramble out. Then the search was on for the Manta Rays.
The guy in the boat could see the Manta Ray swimming towards us, and yelled for everyone to swim towards it. Scott and I happened to be in the front of the group, and got a quick glimpse of the manta ray swimming by. After everyone climbed back into the boat, we realized that only about 5 people actually saw it.
So... they took us back upstream and yelled "Everybody out of the boat!"
This time the Manta Rays decided to be more playful.
The one in the video we think was probably about 3m across. While Nikki was fascinated with this one, Scott had spotted one that was even bigger (probably close to 4m) with a white belly. Luckily Nikki was able to get a quick shot of that one too.
It's a good thing Nikki believed everyone when they told her they were harmless, because those mouths look awfully menacing and it got awfully close.
This guy was not shy at all. He seemed to like being surrounded by everyone, like he was putting on a show.
After this we were picked up by the boat again and taken for a third run. This time we decided to leave the camera in the boat so that Nikki could actually pay attention to them instead of focusing on taking pictures. Again, ordered to get out of the boat, we were on the hunt for them again. This time, the larger, white-bellied one decided to freak Nikki right out by sneaking up behind her and swimming RIGHT underneath her. If she would have reached her arm down as it swam under her, she probably could have touch it. So amazing.
8:45am: we return to the resort hungry for breakfast. Mmm... pancakes!
When we returned to our bure after breakfast, there was some mysterious brown plops on our bed. Again, we looked up and this time we were not too surprised to see.... A Lizard! Nikki had a hard time trying to explain to the Fijian housekeeper that she needed a new bedsheet because a lizard pooped on it. I'm pretty sure she went away from the conversation thinking I pooped my bed.
These next pictures pretty much sum up what we did for the rest of the morning. So relaxing...
After a simple spaghetti lunch, we were ready for the coconut demonstration. We went with Salo and watched him climb the tree and drop down a coconut for each of us.
Salo up in coconut tree
Then he taught us how to husk the coconut. It is much harder than he made it seem. He had obviously done it a few times in his life.
Nikki made it through one piece, but Salo finished it off for her. Scott did it all by himself.
Then Salo cut the mouth of each of our coconuts and we drank the coconut juice and then opened them up and we ate the fresh coconut, which had a jelly-like texture. He also found an old coconut and cracked it open with his hand and let us taste the drier coconut. So delicious!
While Salo was climbing the tree earlier, he told Scott and Adrian to watch closely because they would be climbing it later. That sounds like a challenge.
Scott and Adrian working out their strategies
They both left with bruised egos among other things...
They treated their bruises by jumping in the warm ocean water for some more snorkeling. Again, absolutely amazing. We saw Nemo, Dori, Bubbles (and most other fish from Finding Nemo), an octopus, a sting ray, a reef shark, and many really cool anemones.
After snorkeling, we walked to Sunset Beach on the other side of the island where we dried off and waited for the sun to set.
After all that attempted coconut tree climbing and snorkeling, we were hungry for dinner, and were very pleased to find a gigantic buffet of seafood in the dining hall. Mussel pizza, seafood salads, calamari, fish in a coconut curry sauce, prawns, seafood pasta salad, potato salad with pineapple (delicious), and a grill of fresh fish. As well as a piece of coconut pie for dessert. This is the clear winner of the best dinner of the week.
Salo came into the dining room and announced that there would be some games starting down at the beach right after dinner. As instructed, we strolled down to the beach to check it out. The game? Limbo baby, limbo.
Now most people would think that us being 6' and 6'5" would put us at a distinct disadvantage in the limbo department. These people are what we like to call "wrong." We were too focused on the contest to take any pictures, but here's how it went down: There was about 20 people, half guys and half girls. The contest was in the sand on the beach. There was another 20 or so people as spectators. If you knocked the bar off, you got 1 re-do and then you were out. Nikki was 2nd in line and Scott was 3rd last. Now, everything started off as most limbo contests do, with everyone clapping and laughing, and just generally enjoying their time together.
Then there is a tipping point. This is where the bar gets just low enough to make some people take it seriously and get all competitive. Both Nikki and Scott were doing great for the opening rounds, and it wasn't long before it was down to 10 of us and the tipping point happened. We were by far the tallest people still in it. Nikki lasted 2 more rounds before taking 6th place, a respectable position for her first limbo contest, and considering the fact that she is a tree. Scott, however, made it to the 2nd last rung on the limbo ladder, and took the bronze medal. I'm not going to lie, people were impressed.
After a big hand for the winner, we left the limbo bar at the bottom rung and started back up with a high-jump competition, men only. The tipping point here was just starting the game. To make a long story short, Scott and 2 other guys all agreed to only jump with 2 feet, no tricks or 1-foot hurdle technique. The final 3 was Scott, another 6'5" guy from Germany, and Martin. Scott and the German both had good efforts, but couldn't quite make it over the final rung. Martin, at 5'9", won the thing, with a truly amazing forward dive over the bar, landing into a forward roll. Scott wasn't even mad. If the guy had the balls to do that and pull it off, he deserved to win.
After high-fives all round and a big applause from the crowd, we all sat down and tried to cool off from all the effort. We had a great evening hanging out with all the people we had met and travelled with so far.
DAY 5
We woke up to a beautiful morning and learned that our new Kiwi friends, Adrian and Lucy got engaged last night. Congrats again guys!
The four of us, followed shortly after by Veronika and Martin, took some kayaks across to the next island over. It was not very far, as you can tell from the picture, but we thought we'd check out that beach and some new snorkeling territory.
We spent the morning over at this beach, and then headed back just in time for some lunch.
After lunch it was time to say goodbye to Mantaray Island Resort and all the great people we met (except for Adrian and Lucy, who were also headed to Bounty Island). We really enjoyed meeting and getting to know every one of you. And the offer still stands for any of you to come visit us in Canada someday!
Left to Right: Nick, Annika, Eleanor, Manuel, Martin, Veronika, Snowlady, Scott, Lucy, Adrian
After getting rushed through taking this group photo by the guys yelling "boarding time, boarding time!" we ran to the boat to be transferred to our next and final island.
BOUNTY ISLAND (September 1st - September 2nd)
After a two hour boat ride, we arrived at Bounty Island. A beautiful, quiet, chilled out island with very friendly staff. Even though we loved Mantaray, I think this was a great place to end the trip.
Bounty Island
Our ocean-front bure
Later, we enjoyed a buffet dinner with Adrian and Lucy. After dinner we moved to the lounge area where we toasted to their engagement and had a great night with them.
DAY 6
We woke up fairly early, grabbed some breakfast, and decided to make the trip around the island before it got too hot. It took us about 30 minutes to walk the entire shoreline of the island, and that is with Nikki stopping to inspect seashells every once in a while and having to wade through the waves at points because it was high tide.
We met up with Adrian and Lucy again and the boys went off on the catamaran with the Fijian guy who manning the boat. At one point we were just drifting along in the wrong direction, we look over at the guy and he is sound asleep. Hmmm...Nikki and Lucy decided to go out snorkeling while they were out, thinking they'd be a while. But, the boys didn't stay out too long because there was little to no wind and it wasn't the adrenaline-filled catamaran sail hey were hoping for. So instead they joined us with their snorkel gear on.
This time we remembered to bring the camera out.
When we got out of the ocean, we got to go see the turtles that they have under their protective care until they are strong enough to be released.
He felt pretty strong to me. You can see him winding up here to slap Nikki's hand. He can slap hard.
By this time it was midday, and SUPER hot, probably the hottest day of the trip. After lunch we tried to keep cool in the shade and out of the sun (we had gone the whole trip so far without sunburn, and we weren't about to get one now before a flight home). But the air was so still that we just sat there and cooked. In the lounge there was a pool table that had a ceiling fan above it, so we thought we'd see if that would cool us down. Since that was unsuccessful, we finally gave in, slathered on the last remaining drops of sunscreen from the bottle, and joined Adrian and Lucy in the pool.
At about 4pm, we had to get out of the pool and catch the boat back to the mainland. From here, we jumped onto a bus that took us straight to the airport, where we said our goodbyes to Adrian and Lucy (It was wonderful getting to know them so well over the past 6 days and we can't wait to see them again when we go down to the south island in November). We had just enough time to change, pack our luggage up, grab some food and hop on our flight back to Auckland.
We didn't arrive in Auckland until around midnight, and as anticipated, we were bagged. So, we bundled up in the cold and slept in Bertie in the airport parking lot for the night. In the morning we woke up and drove back 'home' to Hamilton.
Later the next night, Nikki started developing lines of big red, itchy welts all over her legs and left arm (last count was about 50 welts). At first she thought she was being eaten alive by some sort of bug, but then recalled feeling tiny pinching sensations while she was snorkeling the day before. At the time, it didn't feel like much and she didn't think anything of it. But now we realize that she must have swam through some tiny jellyfish and was stung several times.
Too bad we hadn't realized it at the time, or Scott could have peed on her...
Later the next night, Nikki started developing lines of big red, itchy welts all over her legs and left arm (last count was about 50 welts). At first she thought she was being eaten alive by some sort of bug, but then recalled feeling tiny pinching sensations while she was snorkeling the day before. At the time, it didn't feel like much and she didn't think anything of it. But now we realize that she must have swam through some tiny jellyfish and was stung several times. Too bad we hadn't realized it at the time, or Scott could have peed on her...
We really enjoyed our time in Fiji and all the people we met along the way. Since being home, people have asked us if we would go back there. We highly recommend going to Fiji and doing the island hoping thing. But for us, there are so many other places in the world that we haven't seen that we would like to see first before going back.
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