Fiji (Part 1)

9th Nov - 10th Nov 2006

After only a few hours of uncomfortable sleep on the flight from Melbourne, I arrived heavy-eyed at Nadi (pronounced Nandi) airport. It was about 5.30am local time and my body-clock was on Snooze mode. As I blindly followed the other passengers from the plane to the terminal, I was woken up by the sight and sound of locals performing a welcome song for us. It was like something from a movie and it instantly put a smile on my face. Passport control took forever as I was introduced to 'Fiji time'. There's a time and a place for the Fijians' easy-going take-your-time attitude, and this wasn't it. Once I'd got to arrivals, I quickly found the tour desk for Beachcomber Island (Fiji's party island) and booked for 1 night, knowing I'd stay longer but unsure exactly how long. Everyone seemed to speak English well but still used the Fijian words 'Bula' and 'Vinaka', meaning 'hello' (along with a seemingly endless list of other things) and 'thank you' respectively. If there's one word to sum up Fiji, it would be 'Bula' (Where in this case 'Bula' means "fun and sunshine, there's enough for everyone").

The free bus ride from the airport to the port left at 7.45am. It felt like quite a life-threatening journey with some questionable driving, but we made it in one piece and on time for the Beachcomber boat. It was turning in to a lovely hot day and I couldn't wait to get on a beach and enjoy the sun! As the boat came ashore to the island, we were greeted by more great music and a chilled pineapple juice in the heavenly air-conditioned reception. 2 British girls (Siobhan and Sandy) were in front of me in the queue to book in. I started up conversation and we said we'd meet later.

I chilled out and read some of my book before embarking on a walk around the outside of the island. I didn't really notice the curve of the shore so it was a bit of a shock to find myself back where I started after only 5 minutes! The island was a mini paradise with stunning views all around. The only let-down was the coarse sand which made it painful to walk in places. Clearly the island wasn't named after a current member of staff.

Lunch time came around quickly and I queued for the buffet and had most of the dishes on offer. Curry in the heat of the day felt a bit weird but I went along with it. I spotted the English girls and sat down to eat with them. Another girl sat opposite me and introduced herself as Amy and mentioned it was her best friend Jessie's birthday. Together we quickly formed an unintentional group of English travellers consisting of me, the 4 girls and 2 guys called Kalvyn and Nick. They were great fun and we'd barely had time to let our lunch go down before we decided to have a go on the Banana boat. Kalvyn, Amy, Jessie and I put on some stylish life jackets and climbed on to the unstable banana, preparing to be chucked off repeatedly. As it turned out, we were experts at hanging on! If there was such a competition, we'd win hands down (obviously, otherwise how would we hold on?) The boat driver tried his best but we only fell off once. As we got back on I suggested we sat backwards for the rest of the journey, which was great and we even managed a few Mexican waves whilst bombing along.

I was staying in a 12-person dorm with a shared porch looking out over the back of the island. I went back to chill out and sat on the porch with some guys staying in the next dorm. I was wearing my skydive t-shirt and a guy called Russell said "I recognise that t-shirt!". He was from Essex and was travelling with his friend Dan. They were with a group they'd met on another Fijian island called 'Robinson Crusoe'. In the group was an American guy from Georgia called Jamie. Amongst many nicknames, he was known as Forest (of the Gump variety) due to his accent which made everything he said sound hilarious. Jamie and his guitar kept us entertained for hours.

In the evening we went for dinner (another buffet but with desert) and as it was Jessie's birthday we started some early drinking games. At about 8pm there was an auction for a crab race where you could bid on 30 crabs, each with a name related to a different country (like The Terminator from Austria). Siobhan and I planned to share a crab but we kept getting out-bid. Damn them! Some of the crabs went for over $30 just based on the country they'd been assigned.

I'd read lots about Kava, a traditional drink which is part of everyday life for Fijians, used in ceremonies and as a social lubricant to aid story-telling. Most people I met didn't like it and said it was like drinking mud, but I wanted to give it a go. A Fijian guy was making a batch near the bar where he had the ground-up root of the Kava plant wrapped in a cloth and was straining it with water. It certainly looked like mud! Half a coconut shell was dipped in to the liquid and scooped up. I downed it in one and although it wasn't the best-tasting drink I'd ever had, it wasn't bad. It had a certain bite to it that made my tongue go numb, similar to something you might have at the dentist's. I went straight back for more but I'm not sure why.

I didn't know the winner of the crab race (in fact, I don't know any crabs) but it was great fun to watch. Amy had ordered a big birthday cake for Jessie and the birthday celebrations went on late in to the night. After the bar closed at midnight, you were allowed to bring out the duty-frees and that's when the proper drinking games started. A few rounds of Ring of Fire got the best of me and after falling asleep at the table, I was helped back to my bed by Kalvyn and Nick at 2am. I slept peacefully until a maid woke me at 10.30, thinking I was leaving, despite making the effort to tell them I was extending my stay. Sigh!

I stumbled out of bed, very hungover, and went to pay for 3 more nights. On the way back I bumped in to a girl from my dorm who had arrived the night before with her friend but they'd crashed out early. She introduced herself as Jean from Sheffield and when I said I was gonna take it easy that night, she said I wasn't allowed as it was her 25th birthday.

I joined the rest of the English group on the beach and was told stories of my drunken night which I have no memory of. This included a tale of me wielding an imaginary light sabre around the beach! They're lucky I left my real one at home.

I walked over to speak to Jean and she asked if I wanted to join her and her friend Danielle (who I'd introduced myself to the day before and found out she was from Ohio) on a kayak trip across to the nearest island, Treasure Island. Dan, Russell and Jamie joined us but we only had the last 3 kayaks between the 6 of us. Dan, Jean and I swam, snorkeled and got pulled along by the kayaks across the deep waters. The reefs around the other island were truly amazing. I was snorkeling with Danielle for a while when I noticed she had disappeared. She'd seen a shark and rushed to shore in terror. I found out where she'd seen it and went in search. It was a shallow area (about 4ft) but I came face-to-face with easily the biggest fish I'd seen outside of an aquarium - it looked like it would rival my body weight! I then noticed a shark behind it which was about as long as my arms can stretch out and it looked gorgeous. I decided to follow the shark and managed to stay with it until the huge fish returned and scared it away.

I went to shore and up to the bar where Danielle was getting a drink to calm down after her shark-encounter. We sat drinking until the others arrived and then the 2 of us walked around the island. It was a great island, much larger (it took 20 minutes to circle) and better maintained than Beachcomber. We watched a large tractor pulling a container up the beach and later a quad-biker tearing it up along the beach towards us, passed a spot where a sign said to be quiet as turtles were being 'grown'. On the way back we did 2 per kayak with Danielle and I sharing one and taking turns to paddle. It got very windy and the waves made it a struggle to get back before the sun went down.

After that evening's entertainment of Pacific Island dancers and a fire-dancer, I asked DJ Foxy (the main entertainer who's deep-voiced catch-phrases included 'Everyone say Bula!', 'How you doin?' and 'Whatever!') to wish Jean happy birthday and get everyone to sing. Unfortunately he misunderstood and announced the birthday of 'Mr Jean'.

Danielle and I sat on the beach admiring the stars for a while before retiring, absolutely exhausted from the day's kayaking.