FIJI Trip: March 31-April 13, 2007

I’m home from Fiji! Brent and I had an amazing trip but I’m really sad that it is over now. 10 weeks until I get to come home for a visit! I can’t wait to see everyone!

I’m sorry this has taken me so long to post- but it took a while to write and I’ve been swamped with school as well!

Day 1- March 31

Brent arrived in Nadi (after a VERY long trip) at 5:35am. He checked into the hotel in the city and then came back to the airport to meet me. My flight was delayed for over 2 hours- plus I almost missed my boarding call while I was in the washroom. I was almost in tears when I thought they weren’t going to let me on the plane :( . I finally made it to Nadi at around 4pm and Brent was waiting for me. I was SO happy to see him!!!!!! We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and fell asleep early. Poor Brent hadn’t slept in 2 days and was sick!

Day 2- April 1

We thought there would be some things to do around the hotel, but there wasn’t really- so we just slept in and spent the day around the pool and in the hammocks. The food at the hotel was good and reasonably priced. Brent was still sick, but he was a great sport and was starting to feel better.

Day 3- April 2

As soon as we woke up we caught a taxi to Club Fiji (our first ‘resort’). The accommodation was ‘cottage-like’ and was pretty good- but we were both glad that this was the first resort we stayed at… cause in retrospect, it wasn’t our favourite. The food was bad, there were lots of bugs, mosquitoes and stray cats around and the staff were kind of spacey. When the tide was in the place looked AMAZING, but when it was out there were giant mud-flats all around the resort. Despite all that, we had a great afternoon walking around the mud-flats, swimming in the pool and drinking wine. At sunset (and high tide ;), Brent took me out to the water and asked me to marry him!! He had a HUGE diamond ring for me that Richard made for him. I was not expecting it and started to cry when he got down on one knee. We had a great dinner afterwards (even though the food was pretty bland). We were SO happy it didn’t matter!

Day 4- April 3

We had an early breakfast and left the resort early since we had a day trip planned with Captain Cook Cruises. We took a tall ship to Mystery Island and spent the day on the beach snorkeling, swimming and relaxing. They served us a good lunch and morning and afternoon tea. We took lots of GREAT pictures and managed to miss a giant rainstorm on the mainland. We also had some great entertainment- a 55-year old lady from Melbourne who got completely pissed and was shooting her mouth of the entire way home. On our bus ride back to Club Fiji, we stopped at a whole bunch of 5-star resorts on Denarau Island. We couldn’t believe some of the places!!! The road back into Club Fiji had been flooded, so was in REALLY rough shape- but we eventually made it back there.

Day 5- April 4

This was a lazy day. We wanted to go fishing, but the staff at the resort were slow and spacey, so we decided to save it for another day. We went to a little pizzeria and met a really nice Fijian whose sister had married a Canadian and moved to Edmonton. We had 2 Hawaiian pizzas (our favourite) and drank some Fiji Gold Beer while it poured rain outside. It was actually really nice. We swam in the pool for a while in the afternoon. That evening was Taco night at Club Fiji (with free tequila shots), so we sat at the bar. Brent decided to try the traditional Fijian drink (that is banned in Canada, by the way) called Kava. I was warned not to drink the Kava by some people in Australia, but Brent was being polite, so he accepted it from the bartender. I think he regretted his decision for the next few days, but luckily I had brought some immodium with me just incase.

Day 6- April 5

Off to the Islands! Everyone told us that if we went to Fiji that we should make sure to get to the Islands… and they were 100% right!! We had pre-paid tickets on a beautiful catamaran that took us into the Islands. It took about 1.5 hours for us to get to the Island we were staying at- called Matamanoa. This was most definitely the NICEST part of the trip (and Brent let me choose it since we were going to be spending my birthday there)! The Island was amazing and our room was really cute and had air conditioning! We had an amazing lunch and a great afternoon snorkeling and double-kayaking. The snorkeling around the island was absolutely unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it! We tried to swim towards the breaking waves, but we couldn’t get to them since the tide was out and the reef was too shallow. We went swimming in the amazing pool (that overlooks the ocean) and relaxed on the super-comfy deck chairs. After dinner (which was great), they held the 3rd annual International Hermit Crab Race. Ten countries were represented and each country’s crab was auctioned off for $20-$45. The person who owned the winning crab won the pot. Snow bird, the Canadian crab, didn’t do very well.


Day 7- April 6
It was my birthday so we decided to sleep in a little. We went for breakfast at around 9:30 and I had eggs!!! I know it might not sound that exciting to you, but I hadn’t had eggs for breakfast in over two months so it was a big treat! After breakfast, Brent and I went back to the room and he gave me all my presents and cards from everyone. I couldn’t believe it all! So many surprises :) Around lunchtime we decided to sign up for a fishing trip on a glass-bottom boat around the Islands. It was hand-line fishing and we used sardines as bait. Luckily Brent wasn’t grossed out by the sardines like I was, so he put the sardines on my hook for me. Still, he ended up catching 4 fish and I caught none! The fish obviously didn’t know it was my birthday. I also ended up donating a lot my sardines to some hungry squid that was hanging around.
After fishing, we read our books by the pool and then went for another snorkel at sunset! We had a really nice dinner and some wine (with my birthday $$ :) – thank you!) and then sat in chairs on the beach trying to figure out some constellations of the Southern sky.

Day 8- April 7

This was another AMAZING day! We got up early because we had a scuba diving trip planned. Breakfast was included with the price of our stay, so we felt we had to get our moneys worth (Brent especially felt this way on this particular morning, I think… he he he). Anyway, we both had huge omelettes and Brent also had toast, 2 bowls of cereal and some fruit! We ran straight from breakfast onto what ended up being a private boat for our scuba trip (since no one else had signed up!). Our first dive was at a site called Supermarket and it was a SHARK dive! Great start to my scuba diving adventures (this was my first dive with Brent and my first dive after finishing my course)! We saw so many sharks and I was hiding behind Brent and our divemaster a lot of the time. We also saw a moray eel which I think was about to bite Brent while he was trying to get a good picture! I pulled him away just in time… he he he. After our first dive Brent was not feeling very well :( . We decided to go for a snorkel at the new dive site (to get off the boat incase it was sea-sickness). I was working on my cannonballs and Brent was trying to make himself feel better. Our boat driver was fishing and he caught a HUGE Bluefin fish while we were there. Unfortunately, Brent was still not feeling well while we were snorkeling (with the sharks!) and I looked over just in time to see him vomiting in his snorkel :(. Poor Brent… !! but I think he felt much better afterwards! Our next dive was at a site called the Seven Sisters and was a pinnacle dive. We saw tons of fish and coral and a GIANT grey reef shark! Eeek.
We were done diving by about noon and went back to the resort to hang out in the pool. We tried to go for a sail in a catamaran, but there wasn’t really enough wind. We had a good lunch, swam in the pool a little more (I just LOVED the pool there!!) and then went out in single kayaks looking for some breaking waves! We caught lots of waves together, Brent broke his paddle, and I bailed in one particularly big wave. After kayaking we went back to the pool and then had our first (of many) game of chess on the giant chess board. Dinner that night was a buffet around the pool and Brent and I filled up on giant prawns! They were just AMAZING.

Day 9- April 8

Easter Sunday. We went for breakfast and then straight to the chess board for another game. Afterwards, we went back to the room and Brent had an Easter egg hunt set up for me! I haven’t had an Easter egg hunt in years- so I needed some clues, but it was GREAT and I got lots of chocolate and cards! He he he. We wanted to go to a Fijian church service on another Island, but we only found out about it the night before and it was too late to sign up. :(
After the hunt, we went on a snorkeling trip organized by the resort. They took us on a glass-bottom boat to the other side of the Island and dropped us off to snorkel for a while. The snorkeling was incredible and we got lots of great pictures, but we were getting stung by something in the water so we didn’t last very long. We were back at the resort by early afternoon and had some veggies and cheese for lunch. More swimming and more chess and then went for a really nice walk along the north side of the Island at sunset. We found lots of hermit crabs and tried to race them (like the race the other night). Brent’s crab won. :(
We had another great dinner and lots of chocolate for desert. I fell asleep really early that night, but Brent set the alarm for 2:45am so he could bring me to the water and show me the Southern Cross constellation (which apparently can only be seen between about 2am and 4am).

Day 10- April 9

This was our last morning at Matamanoa Island :(. I hope that we can go back someday when we are old(er). We left the island at around 9:30am, took 2 boats back to the mainland and then 2 buses to our new hotel on the Coral Coast. The trip took a long time, but went smoothly and we arrived at the Bedarra Inn late afternoon. The inn was small, but the staff were very friendly and they had a fabulous restaurant there. We went for a walk along the beach and saw tons of crabs and GIANT, super long sea cucumbers. The sunset was amazing- again! We also went for a walk through the Outrigger 5-star Resort that was right next door to us- which was obviously VERY nice, but WAY out of our league. On our way home we met a wood carver from near Suva who was really great and we ended up buying a few souvenirs from him over the next few days. We had a great dinner at the inn that night and then planned some excursions for the next few days before we headed to bed.

Day 11- April 10

We woke up early because we had planned a tour for the day called “The Jewel of Fiji”. A tour bus picked us up at our hotel and drove us over 1.5 hours across the country to a small town where the tour started. We were crammed onto a small boat full of people (mostly a church group from New Zealand) and headed up the river to visit a Fijian Village. We stayed there for the morning, had a short tour and learned some history. They also made us a traditional lunch (cooked underground), had a kava ceremony for us (Brent and I both got out of drinking it this time), and danced and played music. The ladies of the village were selling souvenirs and we almost bought a cannibal fork (since we were in the highlands where cannibalism was practiced as recent as 100 years ago), but instead Brent bought me a really nice necklace. :) After the village visit, we got back into the boat and rode for about 30 minutes up the river. There was nothing else around, but for a few tiny villages and the scenery was amazing. It looked like a rainforest. Eventually we got to a beautiful waterfall (after a short hike up into the forest). There was no one there and we got to swim around it for a while. Brent went cliff jumping and we took lots of pictures. I loved this place!! After the waterfall, we headed back down the main river on the boat- but got to ride a bamboo raft for part of the way. After the tour, we had another long trip back to the hotel (with a strange bus driver). Had another nice dinner at the Bedarra Inn and then went to bed early.

Day 12- April 11

This was another AMAZING day. We had organized a rental car for the day and we headed out to find Natadola beach at about 10am. The car was backwards and standard, but Brent seemed as comfortable as ever, so I wasn’t worried at all! The road leading to the beach was closed, but we found a very dodgy detour that eventually led us there. Natadola beach was amazing and practically empty. The beach was soft and sandy and the water was warm. We literally had the entire 2km stretch of beach to ourselves for the whole afternoon. We went body surfing (on and off) for almost the whole day and Brent got pretty burnt. We had a great lunch at an empty resort nearby and also went for a 30 minute horseback ride along the beach. We didn’t get out of the ocean until the sun was setting after 5pm. It was a great time! We had pizza and ice cream for dinner and again fell asleep fairly early after a long day in the sun!
Day 13- April 12

We had planned to spend the day at the Outrigger 5-star resort next door (pretending to be guests), but when we woke up it was overcast and raining. :( We had to check out of the Bedarra Inn by 11am, and were planning to stay in the Coral coast for the day, but because the weather was so awful we decided to catch an earlier transfer back to the Mercure Hotel in Nadi town. We had a fun afternoon together back at the hotel pool (Brent is such a goof/meatball sometimes!). We also walked about 2km (each way) along a stinky highway just to have a Jr. Burger with extra pickles at McDonald’s. I’m not sure what possessed either of us to do that (it was our FIRST visit to McDonald’s together ever), but it was a funny little adventure anyway! We had a nice dinner at the Mercure Hotel Restaurant and then made a chessboard out of scrap paper. We played two games and Brent won both. We packed up most of our stuff and got ready to leave the next day. I was really really sad :( .

Day 14- April 13

This was a very sad day because we had to leave each other (and Fiji). We hung around the hotel for the morning and had a nice brunch. Brent came to the airport with me at around 1pm and waited with me until I had to go through security. I didn’t want to leave. Brent’s flight didn’t leave till 10pm that night, so he went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day. It was such an amazing trip, but I wished it didn’t have to end. It was very difficult to leave and go back to Sydney. It would have been perfect if I could have gone home with Brent to see my family and friends!... but that’s only 10 weeks away. Something to look forward to… again!

ps. Here's a picture of my "man" of honour and me! he he he