Fiji!

There are times living in New Zealand when we forget how far from home we really are. Routine and the familiarity of our new home sometimes distracts us from the fact that we live on a volcanic island on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, that our nearest neighbour is Australia and that we don't shop at Tesco's anymore (mind you, sometimes we call Countdown Tesco's, so I suppose it doesn't really matter). 

But then now and again we remember that we are on the other side of the planet. Case in point - Friday early afternoon I leave work and head to the hospital in South Auckland where Matt works. We jump in the van parked up outside and head to the airport and just three hours later we're in .... Fiji! Tropical paradise and jewel of the South Pacific and so very close to our temporary home. We really are a world away from our real home!

After work drinks!

 With both our 30th birthdays fast approaching we thought what better way to celebrate (early) than ten days on a tropical island. I don't expect this to be the last celebration for said birthdays, so watch this space for more celebratory blog posts.

Having slept off the work week (and a couple of local beers) we awoke to a glorious sunrise and not a bad beach at the backpackers we were staying at close to the airport. Not quite the golden sand from the postcards, but a good warm up for what the rest of our first day had to offer. I will say now it was probably the best first day (and maybe even ANY day) of a holiday EVER.

Not a bad beach really - don't believe
everything you read in the Lonely Planet

 So how did we spend this first glorious day then?

CRUISING!

 A bit of this:

 Some of this:

 All aboard this:

An hour and half aboard on a high speed katamaran followed by the rest of the day on the sail boat 'Seaspray' was our introduction to Fiji's Mamanuca islands, and what an introduction. Our welcome aboard the boat was accompanied by bubbles and cake, unlimited beer thereafter...

Getting a taste for Fiji Bitter and
life aboard the good ship Seaspray

 And a very close viewing of a pod of dolphins!

WOW!

Glorious!

Beautiful!

 After a good play following the boat the dolphins disappeared off to find something else to do whilst we approached a real proper deserted island. The locals call it 'Tom Hanks' island in homage to his time spent here filming Castaway - and it really is the same as the island in the movie! After much shouting of 'Wilson' we jumped off with flippers, snorkel and mask in tow to do a bit of snorkelling on the way to shore. The clear, warm sea didn't disappoint and we were treated to a colourful display of some more of the South Pacific's inhabitants!

Tom Hanks island

 A bit of a walk around the island (didn't take long to do the full loop) and we'd worked up an appetite. Back on board then for a buffet lunch, more beer and cake.

Getting used to Fijian hospitality

Next stop, another of the small islands - this one the home of a small number of traditional Fijian families. The Chief of the village welcomed us with a kava ceremony which involved downing a small dish of a non alcoholic drink made from kava (a type of root) which tastes a bit funny, numbs your mouth but somehow does make you feel very welcome!

 A walk through the village and then back on the boat, we had a bit more time for another swim:

Wish this was my dive!

Enjoying life we rounded off the day with a a sunset trip back to the 'mainland' on the katamaran.

Drunk on beer, kava, dolphins and sun

The sun sets on a beautiful part of the world

Feeling like we could stay in Fiji forever if the first day was anything to go by we awoke excited to head up to the foothills of the mountains near to Nadi (the airport town) for the next part of our trip. Taxi hailed we were soon on our way and pleased to hear that by chance our driver hailed from the same village as the place we had booked to stay in - Sabeto. He was pleased with this fact too, so much so that he took the opportunity to fit his supermarket shopping into the journey...

Spot the keys left in the ignition so we could listen to the radio

 Feeling rather irritated I soon remembered that we were on Fiji time, not Auckland time and just to chill out - our first taste of 'no worry, no hurry' - Fiji's unofficial motto.

On arrival at Stoney Creek Resort (our home for the next two nights) we were pleasd to see that it wasn't really a resort (we were saving that for the last part of the trip), it had the most amazing views of the mountains all around... and we were the only ones staying there!

Room no.1 (also known as the room
with the best view) for us then!

Peace and tranquility were the order of the next couple of days - you couldn't help but relax when greeted with this from our own private terrace:

Relaxed feet

Of course, doing absolutely nothing was never an option for us. Fitting a rather hot 10k in on the first day we decided a walk was more appropriate on the second, which took us to a hot springs and mud pool where we got really really dirty (particularly Matt) and then super super clean!

Attempting to look scary whilst
covered in restorative mud

 Having slapped on the mud we let it properly dry in the sun before we jumped in an oozy, gooey mud pool to remove the crusty layer.

This bikini may never look the same again!

Luckily, the final step in the process was a much cleaner hot pool which we soaked in until we felt clean from the inside out.

A walk back through sugar farms and over a stream we caught up on some reading, enjoyed another beautiful sunset and a delicious meal.

The sun setting on the Mountains of the Sleeping Giant

Before bed we had a bit of a kids fest with multiple ping pong games and a good old fashioned Monopoly-a-thon. Believe it or not I actually lost this game despite my stash of cash!

Probably shouldn't have showboated so much with all the £100 bills!

Our second and last morning left us time for a last cup of tea on our terrace with our adopted cat Jo (three legged, but our ideal cat nonetheless).

Not a bad spot for a cuppa

Leaving comfort behind we jumped on a local bus for a bone jangling bus journey back to Nadi, followed by another (slightly less bone jangling) journey to our next destination, the Coral Coast where more comfort awaited us - part 2 coming soon!

Open air travel !