Sun, sea, sand and snorkelling

Trip Start Aug 24, 2008
1
119
129
Trip End Jul 07, 2009


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Fiji  , Yasawa Islands,
Friday, June 26, 2009

We had to get the bus at 7.15am. Because the bus yesterday was late, we were not too bothered about it and casually had breakfast, patted the dog, checked out and went for the bus at 7.19am. The owner of our hotel informed me that we had missed the bus! We are supposed to be in Fiji time! Anyway a man took us on his car and sped off after the bus, which we caught up and got on. The bus took us to the port and it took 2 and a half hours to get to the Yasawa Islands. We passed lots of tiny islands covered in palm trees, and one or two big ones covered in volcanic rocks. The boat pulled up at Octopus Resort on Waya Island and a little boat took us to the shore. We arrived to Fijian singing and clapping and a welcome drink that was orange and pink. The resort is beautiful - lush tropical gardens with flowers, traditional bure huts, a pool, a bar and a lovely sandy beach with turquoise sea, the whole lot surrounded by palm trees, forest and rocky hills. It was lovely. We felt like we had arrived in Barbados
The children sing for us on our village visit
The children sing for us on our village visit
. We checked into our dorm which was made of bamboo and then went for a wander to see what was about. The beach was very long so we walked along it in both directions until the rocks stopped us going any further. Then it was time for lunch. We sat on the porch by the sea eating Caesar salad and beer-battered fish. After lunch we hired some snorkelling equipment but the tide was too low to go snorkelling so we sat on the beach in the sun for a while and got eaten by mosquitoes. When the tide had come in a bit we went snorkelling. It was some of the best snorkelling we have done. There were loads of brightly coloured fish, including a shoal of yellow ones, and they were all different from the fish we saw in Asia. After snorkelling we had showers, dressed for dinner and sat in a hammock watching the sun set, although we missed the actual sun set because David needed to get his hair. Typical! We then sat and looked up at the millions of bright stars in the sky, before heading to dinner. We sat on tables of 8, so we got chatting to the people about our travels and theirs. Dinner was nice - coconut soup, chicken with papaya salad and ice cream with pineapple and rum.

The next day we went for breakfast of fruit and pastries. David and I then went on the village walk with some others at the hotel. We walked behind the resort and over a hill that gave us great views over the bay and the islands surrounding us
David with our welcome drinks
David with our welcome drinks
 
Comments!
. We could also see the huge rock that is the highest point of the island. We walked down into the village and the villagers said 'bula!' (hello) and the children waved. The village had pigs running about, dogs, little shacks and children everywhere. We felt like we had walked straight back into Laos. we went into a school where the children squealed with delight and we were treated to songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They were so enthusiastic and practically screamed the words. Their classroom was small and had the alphabet on the walls. Their teacher was a huge Fijian man in a sarong. One or two of the children looked a bit scared of us, but most wanted to shake our hands, high-five us and pose for photos. We looked around the craft market, where I bought a shell painting on homemade paper. The little children came over to look at me, touch my hair and stare in wonderment at their own photos on my digital camera. I am not sure if they knew it was them. We returned to the resort and David and I went snorkelling again. We saw loads of fish and then we had lunch. I had a traditional Fijian dish called Kokada which was steamed fish in a coconut with rice. I went to a weaving class in the afternoon where I wove a bracelet out of grass. David and I had a game of pool, sat on the beach for a bit and then had dinner. We had calamari, fish pie and banana cake yummy! Afterwards it was time to go crab racing. We chose a crab off the beach, registered it, named it Pickwick and then they were all put in a circle and the first crab to the edge was the winner
The beach when the tide was out
The beach when the tide was out
. Pickwick went out first round! It was fin though, and the $3 each we paid for the crab went to the local school. After the racing David and I sat on the beach watching the shooting stars and listening to the waves.

On Friday we had another go at snorkelling and saw loads of fish. This was better than most of the diving I have done. Afterwards we returned our snorkelling gear and checked out. We had a tasty lunch and then waited on the beach for our boat back to the mainland. We saw the local Fijian rugby team leave for a match on another island, and at least 30 of them were on such a tiny boat it nearly sank. One guy fell off and they all laughed and sailed off. He had to swim after them! Our boat came and it was a bumpy trip back to Nadi, where I had fried fish for dinner.

The next morning we took a taxi to the airport. We were already running a bit late, but when we arrived, David realised he had left one of his bags at the hotel. We dashed back for it, but the taxi driver stopped off twice to buy cigarettes and bread! Didn't he realise we were in a hurry?!? I know Fijians are relaxed, but this was just silly! We got back to the airport to find a huge queue because check in had only just opened, so as it turned out we were OK. We took off and 4 hours later arrived in Sydney.
Denarau Island hotels Slideshow

Use this image in your site

Copy and paste this html: