Next stop after Oz for the boys was Fiji. After seeing them in Sydney for a couple of weeks, Courts and I decided that the minors needed some senior leadership to guide them through their travels…..so there was only one thing for it really. We packed our toothbrush and booked ourselves on the next flight to Feeejeeeeee.
Five hours later we had landed in Nadi (pronounced Nandi). Conor had kindly arranged a local driver to collect us from the airport and bring us to our accommodation in the center of town. This turned out to be our first experience of what is called Fiji time – a phrase we came to know well over the following ten days!!! Fiji time is pretty much how the Fijians live their lives…doing everything that bit slower and more relaxed, not keeping to any strict schedules or timetables and basically just doing things at whatever time they feel like instead of some kind of agreed time. For travelers like us this means a lot of waiting…….for busses, planes, taxis, boats. A lot of waiting!! Nadi is Fiji’s second largest city on the country’s main island and a popular place for international travelers to spend a couple of nights in en route to the smaller islands. It was perfect for us to relax by the pool during the day and sample some of the local brew, Fiji Gold, at Ed’s Bar by night.
Once we’d got settled we put together a ten day plan to sample some of Fiji’s best islands. Our first stop was a place called Mana Island part of the Mamanuca group and less than an hour’s boat journey from the mainland. Mana is a small but really beautiful island, consisting of not much more than a sandy beach, tall palm trees and a couple of hotels. The people here were really friendly to us – making a huge effort to remember all our names – they were always quick to spot if one of the group had gone AWOL!!! During the day we hung out on the beach, schooling the locals at volleyball and even did a spot of fishing where we caught an ample amount of large, tasty-looking fish……...despite our plans for a major weight off and then cook-off someone how this haul of fish disappeared when we got back to dry-land…never to be seen again!! Where’s my fish???
After a great night out with the locals and a massive sing-song, we awoke the next morning figuring it was time to move on from Mana and find our next island stop. Fiji-time of course came into play and our 11am boat eventually left at 4.30pm….although there was no shortage of complementary snacks and beverages to make our wait more comfortable…..indeed. Eventually and after a somewhat turbulent crossing over from Mana, we left the peaceful stuff aside for a few days and descended on Beachcomber Island which is Fiji’s No.1 party island. The inter-island ferry was a little disappointing...
Following a less than subtle entrance onto the resort and pimped out with some fairly exotic shirts, The Minors and Senior wasting no time breaking the ice and making their presence felt on the tiny island that you could circle in less than 10 mins. We were hard to miss with the evening attire. It went down a storm....
Talk around the kava bowel was that, in recent years some of the shine had rubbed off Beachcomber’s disco ball but for us it was an instant hit with a good blend of friendly staff, fellow travelers and some serious late night tunes. It was a party Island , nothing as hectic or as loud as the likes of Koh Phangnan in Thailand, just a chill out zone like Mana which ran on Fiji Time. A much needed time out for the Minors who were tired after their several months of travel and for the Seniors who were tired after the Minors’ week long visit to Sydney.The first few nights the 140 bed dorm on the Island was booked out by University of South Pacific aka USP (Initially we thought USP might be an American college…not to be!) . That meant we had no choice but to go for the luxury option of bure’s on the beach instead.
We chilled out during the day on the beach (when the weather permitted) and the nights were spent busting moves on the sand covered dance floor with the locals. One night too a sing song broke out led by Mark 'Marty' Canning along with another group of Irish staying at the time.
Food was included as part of our accommodation and it didn’t disappoint . Its probably fair to say that Fijians have a more balanced diet than ourselves with less of an emphasis on meat and more of everything else mainly fish, rice and vegetables.
Although not strictly a Fijian delicacy, there was also a trusty toasted sandwidge machine put into good on several occasions, Mick was genearlly the man taking the late night order ( 7 toasted sandwidges) and our favourate barmaid ‘Ace’ was the chef.
The 2 seniors ventured off on a day trip to 2 local islands (in what turned out to be fairly choppy conditions).
On the first stop we attended a local village and a cermony where the chief of the village officially welcomes visitors to the island. The cermony involved the chief and his crew leading a prayer, some song, everybody drank a bowel of ‘Kava’ and shouted out “Bula!”. Kava is a muddy concoction made from the roots of a pepper plant and its fairly prominent in Fijian culture. It had a peculiar taste and makes your tongue feel 'Furry' (its remoured to be mildly narcotic). We chugged down 2 bowls anyway so as not to appear rude.
After having to swim to shore we also ‘washed onto’ the Monuriki Island which is where the movie 'Cast Away' was filmed. The tour guide told us that around the time of filming Tom Hanks & the Crew spent 2 nights on Beachcomber and that "they drink too much".
On the topic of remote islands , Fiji is a romantic country, and the Islands were a popular choice with lovebirds. If in the very remote possibility you were to bump into a old squeeze from your past in this place, you’d certainly be counting your lucky stars.
We finished Fiji in style with a invite to a BBQ back in Nadi from Colin's cousin Dave who is living in Fiji full time.Dave and his wife Vanessa live in a smashing house on the water front and they went all out putting on a serious feast. We sat outside for the evening enjoying a bit of banter aided by storys of the minors’ shenanigans on their jouney so far and everyone had a great night.
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