FIJI TIME ON THE YASAWA”S!!

FIJI TIME ON THE YASAWA”S!!

So the clocks went back during our last night, for once we were well informed, clocks changed, alarms set and off to bed. So we first wake up at 5am to the hostel alarm as two girls leave the hostel with wheely suitcases in tow!!??!! Then an hour later theirs a knock at the door and a rather anxious receptionist telling us that its 7am and our transfer is due any minute. He was clearly concerned given our light was off and mike was half asleep in his undies!!
So in a panick mike tries to wake the sleeping beauty up and get his phone to check the time and find out why the alarm hadn’t gone off when mike realized everyone had been told about the time apart from the receptionist and the two girls who were probably still standing very bemused at the bus stop and the receptionist who was frantically working his way around all the rooms waking up his lazy guests and wandering what he had done to deserve such a lazy bunch of tourists on his early shift!! He was clearly a little embarrassed with himself when Mike managed to point his mistake out. This was Fiji time gone mad!!
We got to the Ferry terminal and boarded the Yasawa flyer which is a huge yellow cateraman that delivers tourists to the beautiful pacific Fijian islands everyday.
We had a 5 hour ride ahead of us to Oarsman Bay resort, Nacula island. The Ferry stopped in the bay and we were collected by motor boat and taken to the island. It was a result, we were greeted with drinks and our bags all taken to the Bure (bungalow) we had been given a free upgrade from a dorm room to a private bungalow on the beach looking out to sea.
We were given lunch and then spent the day snorkeling on the reef just off our beach. All meals were signaled by the staff hitting the Fijian drum. At diner we sat on communal tables which turned out to be an excellent idea as we all got to know each other very quickly!! It was kinda like speed dating for couples. We had some really interesting and fun people there.

While at Oarsman bay we took part in all the activities, the first one was a boat ride to caves where we had the opportunity to climb, crawl and swim through a network of caves. It was pretty adrenaline fuelled given the complete lack of safety gear, pitch black darkness and only one flash light held by the guide who only managed to get lost once. Needless to say Loo escaped with a bit of a lump ontop of her head from the cave wall, but great experience. Mike escaped unscathed as he didn’t actually make it into the caves cos he wasn’t feeling too well. Poor bunny.
That afternoon the boys decided to get their fishing rods out and go catch diner. Jimmy took us about half an hours walk from the resort to a point where tide ran fast and we set to work while the girls sunbathed.

In the evening we played potato racing(which Laura won a beer) and musical chairs ( which mike won a beer) and every evening al the guests and staff would gather on the patio with the sun setting over the sea and drink kava and chat late into the night.

Kava is a mild narcotic, which is used in the western world to treat depression and anxiety, it tastes and looks a bit like muddy water, and as far as we could tell its main effects were a numbing sensation of your mouth and throat. They grind tree roots and add water. The chief drinks first then the spokes man then everyone else drinks one by one in the circle. The chief initiates the drinking by saying taki . they hand around the kava in a half a coconut shell. I don’t think it’ll take off in the uk.

We visited a traditional Fijian village community while there , meeting the doctor and seeing the health centre, local school where the children sang songs for us in their assembly. We walked around the houses and brought some homemade mementos from the local ladies.
As much as we loved Oarsman we did have to sneak off to the competition resort next door with was a contrast owned and operated by a successful Ozzy businessman (who we later met on another island). We were tempted across by the Vonu beer and afternoon snacks on sale as the food wasn’t always enough to get you through the hole day at Oarsman. We had some secret sign language amongst the group and had to operate a covet mission as we felt a little guilty giving money to the enemy!!
After one session on the vonu we all swam out to a boat moored off the beach and had competitions for the craziest dives into the crystal clear water with sun setting behind- magical!!

We made friends with some lovely people Kate, Ed, Manuel, Alana, ash and Pauline. But like always when you’re travelling you say goodbye to people just as much as you say hello. We were sad to see them go as we had all got on so well. It wasn’t quite the same without them.

Oni our Fijian mother type figure tried to cheer us up and showed us all the uses for the coconut. We got to make things, eat all the different aged coconut, climb the tree and drink the milk. They even use the roots as medicine for food poisoning from fish.

We loved Oarsman bay for its connection to the traditional side of Fijian life. We were there for Easter weekend and the Village has a mix of catholic and Methodist which is at the heart of their community, so we visited the church for the Good Friday service. We thought our mum’s would be happy to hear this. We also watched their Easter day parade where a huge wooden cross is carried by the villagers across the island the different tribes give offering for the other tribes then it’s taken to the water where they would swim across with it to the other islands. This was a tribute to the peace and unity that Christianity had brought to their culture. It’s definitely much better than them cannibals!!

With a heavy heart we left oarsmans bay and headed back onto the yasawa flyer next destination mantaray resort. Here we were staying in a 34 bed dorm. We had heard the food and snorkeling here was amazing… the rumors were true the food was fantastic, and snorkeling was out of this world!! There were day time activities of jewellery making and basket weaving… I think we could make pretty good OTs ! Our first night there we went down to the beach for a romantic walk. We heard some splashing in the water and we looked out to sea…. Only to see 8 baby black tipped reef sharks beach themselves in front of us…. Unbelievable!! The next night the shark beaching event had caused quite a stir so that night we went down to the beach with 20 people keen to see these sharks…. Unfortunately the sharks were a no show…so we went up to play some limbo and a good old game of ring of fire… the best made-up rule being finishing every sentence with “in my pants”… so funny!

The next day we hopped back on the yasawa flyer this time heading to the poshest resort in the yasawas octopus resort… woo hoo what flash packers we are! We had arrived… a dorm with air con and only 15 beds this time!! It was like being on holiday! Every evening there were games organized. The first night we played a bit of volley ball and every time you got a good shot you got a shot. We made friends with some lovely girls from California they reminded Laura of her and kimmy. We also made friends with a real Australian guy who lives in the bush and goes wild boar hunting, and a funny Norwegian girl called Hannah.
The next night we played more silly games with balloon dancing, pig king horse donkey and relay drinking! We managed to win pig king horse donkey and our prize was a two handed massage for both of us valued at F$200. Awesome!
We headed back to the mainland and back to blue water lodge resort for some more of their amazing food. Nicole and Meredith joined us for dinner for our last night in Fiji.

As always we were sad to leave but really excited about the next step….new Zealand!!