Bula from Fiji!

Bula! (that's Fijian for Hello!)

Sorry that its been so long until my first post but this is the first chance I've had to update my blog since leaving the UK two weeks ago!

I'm not really sure where to start because it feels like I've done so much since I've been out here, but I think the most logical thing would be to start from the start!

My flight left Heathrow on the 2nd March and I finally arrived in L.A. at about 6:30pm local time after an 11 hour flight which wasn't particularly enjoyable! I managed to find the shuttle bus that I'd booked without too much trouble so that was a relief, but it wasn't so great when it took so long to get to the hostel I had booked. There were about 8 people in the shuttle bus, all staying at different places, and unfortunately I was the last stop so I didn't arrive at the hostel until about 10pm local time, which worked out to be about 6am UK time so I was pretty tired! We were held up on the shuttle bus as well because when we got onto the freeway, someone changed lanes and went into the side of us, so that resulted in a big argument between the two drivers which delayed us even more - great! The night didn't get much better when I arrived at the hostel - the staff weren't exactly helpful and the room consisted of 6 old mattresses on the floor, not exactly what I wanted on my first night away!

Got up fairly early the next day, partly because there were construction works going on outside which were very noisy, and partly because I only had a day in L.A. so didn't want to waste it. The hostel that I was staying in was in Hollywood and had a really great location so it was quite easy for me to spend the day exploring without having to worry about how to get back again! I managed to see the Hollywood sign (which you can just about make out in the photo below), albeit from a bit of a distance, but it was still pretty exciting! I also saw the Walk of Fame with all the stars on the pavement, the Chinese Theatre with the hand/footprints of the celebrities, the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars were held, and I decided to go on a celebrity homes tour in Beverly Hills which was great fun – saw dozens of star homes such as Britney Spears', Sylvester Stallone's, Mel Gibson's, 50 Cent's and many many more!



My flight out of L.A. was at 10:30pm and I met a couple of girls from England who were also flying to Fiji so we managed to get seats together on the flight which made the time pass much quicker. We finally arrived in Fiji at about 5am on the 5th March (we totally lost the 4th March because of the time differences, so technically I’m now a day younger which is an odd thing to get my head around!) and I headed straight for Denarau Marina to start my 12 day package on the Yasawa Islands.

I started off on Bounty Island which was the island where Celebrity Love Island was filmed so I had a walk around to have a look at the set on the first day there. It only took about 15 minutes to walk there, and only about 30 minutes to walk around the whole island so it was quite small! Managed to get quite sunburnt on the first day because I foolishly thought I’d be ok in the sun for an hour without suncream because it was a cloudy day. I was wrong! Didn’t really do much on Bounty Island which was probably because I was a bit jetlagged and it took a while to get used to the heat and humidity. I’m not sure what the temperatures have been over here as I haven’t seen a single thermometer, but it’s hot! The weather has been a bit mixed here because it’s the rainy season in Fiji at the moment, but it hasn’t been a problem as the rain is a nice break from the heat.

After staying on Bounty Island for 2 nights, I moved on to Kuata Island which was about an hour and a half away by boat. The scenery at Kuata was stunning; we were surrounded by mountains and the beach was great. Spent some time in the sea to cool off and then visited a village on one of the neighbouring islands in the afternoon. I found that very interesting and we had a great guide, Jerry, who told us lots of things about the Fijian lifestyle. There is such a contrast between their way of life and ours back in the UK – everyone is so much more relaxed and friendly, although the concept of ‘Fiji time’ did start to get a bit annoying when you’re trying to sort anything out. In the evening we were taught the ‘Bula dance’ which was similar to the Macarena and involved shouting out ‘Bula!’ as loud as possible at the end of each section. There was a massive thunderstorm that night which was really scary – everything was so loud, probably because I’m used to double glazing, but we were staying in a dorm made out of wood and straw! I did the usual thing of counting the time between the lightening and the thunder and was quite horrified when there was barely a gap between the two! Luckily I survived to tell the tale though! The next day I went kayaking which was great fun. I shared a kayak with an Australian guy called Tyler (who beared an uncanny resemblance to my brother, Tim) so I think that made things a lot easier when we were battling against the current. Later on in the day we went for a guided summit walk which gave us some great birds eye views of Kuata island (I’m sure I’ll bore everyone to tears with the photos when I return in August!).

The next day I moved on to Yaqeta island, one of the biggest islands in the Yasawa group. I stayed at Sanawai Resort which was tiny – there were only six tourists and the dorm wasn’t finished when I arrived so I had a bure (straw hut) to myself.



The weather wasn’t too great on the first day so I just spent the afternoon chatting to an English girl whilst enjoying the free afternoon tea. We took part in a traditional Fijian Kava ceremony in the evening which was an interesting experience. Kava is a drink that is made from the root of a plant and basically tastes like muddy water, but the Fijians believe it has medicinal powers and they seem to love the stuff. I wasn’t too keen but still managed to drink quite a lot to fit in with the spirit of things. The weather was quite a lot better the next day, although I was a bit worried when I found out that the other five travellers were leaving for other islands at lunchtime – luckily some more people arrived so I wasn’t left by myself! Whilst staying in Yaqeta I found two couples who were doing the same package as me, although one couple were a day ahead of me, and the other a day behind. It was good though because I kept on bumping into them as I moved from one island to the next. On my last day at Yaqeta, the locals from Sanawai Resort took us to church with them for the Sunday service. I was overwhelmed by how welcoming the Fijians were and the priest even apologized to us for having the service in Fijian as opposed to English! I was sad to leave Yaqeta in the afternoon as the people at the resort were so friendly and really made you feel like one of the family - it’s true what they say about the Fijian people being the some of the friendliest in the world, they really have been amazing.





The next island that I went to was called Nanuya Lailai and I stayed at Sunrise resort. The accommodation was very basic (and has been on the rest of the islands too) but again the people were so friendly and the island was so beautiful that it didn’t really matter. I gave up wearing make-up and doing my hair on day one and am quite surprised at how little it has bothered me, although I suspect that’ll all change when I get to New Zealand! In the afternoon of my first day on Sunrise I met some people who had also just arrived and we went for a walk across the island to the famous Blue Lagoon (from the Brooke Shields film if anyone has seen it). There was a bit of confusion about exactly where it was, and I’m still not sure if we were in the right place, but we tried to do some snorkelling there as it’s meant to have some of the most colourful fish and coral in Fiji. The snorkelling wasn’t a great success – one person stood on a crab, another was scared of sharks and I started off ok until a jellyfish bumped into my arm and scared me half to death, then I scraped my leg on the coral so just gave up and went back to the resort. It was a bit of a shame, but I knew that I’d get another opportunity to see some of the marine life another day. The next morning I went on a trip to Sawailau Caves which was great – we swam in the underwater caverns and even did some rockclimbing inside the caves which was really enjoyable. Had a bit of a lazy afternoon when we got back to the resort, followed by a crab race in the evening which was good fun. The next day I went on a school visit, although it was quiet when we got there because many of the children couldn’t make it to school that day because there had been a storm in the morning. Still, it was interesting to have a look around and talk to some of the teachers about what the children had been learning and how the school system works in Fiji. I left Sunrise Resort in the afternoon and headed for Korovou resort on Naviti island.

Korovou resort was like luxury compared to some of the other islands that I’d stayed on – one of the best things being that they had fans in the room which made it much easier to get to sleep in the evenings! They also had a swimming pool which made a welcome change from the sea. It was raining in the afternoon so spent the afternoon being taught how to play poker by an English guy called David, and then spent a couple of hours playing with an Australian girl (Tracy), a Scottish guy (Steven) and a German couple (Daniel & Diana). The weather cleared up later on and so we managed to get some time in the pool before enjoying another rendition of the Bula dance in the evening. Had a very lazy morning sunbathing by the pool the next day, and then caught the boat to Manta Ray Resort on Nanuya Balavu in the afternoon.

Manta Ray resort was really great and probably one of my favourite places that I stayed at whilst on the Yasawa Islands. The resort was built by an Australian only 2 years ago and featured all sorts of eco-friendly things, including long-drop toilets which amazingly didn’t smell. The photo below shows the views from the bar which were stunning.



The food was also fantastic – they had a great chef who did buffet-style dinners which offered so many different foods – it was great! I decided to do a dive the next day as Fiji is meant to have some of the best dive sites in the world and it would’ve been silly not to have a go considering the price. It was my first ever experience of scuba diving and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A guy called Rick took me down and showed me the most amazing fish and coral – I saw some clown fish (like Nemo), and even a Stingray! I left Manta Ray resort yesterday and some of the Fijians sang us a song which was great, although I’m still not exactly sure what they were singing about!



And that just about brings me up to date with where I’m at now. I arrived back in Nadi on the mainland last night and am spending today doing things like washing and getting in touch with the world back home (I’ve already managed to spend about 3 hours in the internet café!) as there isn’t much to do in Nadi town. My flight to Christchurch, New Zealand is early tomorrow morning and I’m very much looking forward to getting to NZ as I’ve heard so many good things about it from other travellers that I’ve met.

I’ve just had a look at how much I’ve written and can’t quite believe it – sorry if I went a bit overboard, I know that I’ve left out quite a few things and probably could’ve written about ten times more but I don’t want everyone getting bored of my blog on the first post!

I hope everyone back home is well, and hopefully my next post won’t be in the too distant future!

xxx