27th Oct: Because of the date line we arrive in Fiji at 9.30pm today its all very confusing! We were picked up by our G/H Sunseeker and bombarded with info on what to do we were knackered and just wanted to hit the scratcher so to bed we went!
28th: The accomadation was shabby, the pool was empty and the bathrooms were not the cleanest. The room cost 45F$(23euro) We booked ourselves on board the yellow flyer for tommorrow this boat does a daily return trip out to the yasawa islands dropping off and picking up at the various resorts. We booked 2 nights accomadation in Melbravo resort on Nucula Island which is the furtherest island that the flyer travels to. We took a walk around town and our first impressions of Nadi town was it was like being back in Delhi half the population in Fiji are Indian who came over donkeys years ago to work on the plantations. There has been alot of problems here between the fijians and the Indo-Fijians especially where politics are involved and the last "Coo" was only 4 years ago. We bought a few things we needed for the islands and had lunch in a nice cafe that had good coffee and freah rolls and sweet buns.That night we went to a indian restuarant for dinner but it was very disappointing and over priced.Nadi is the main city for getting out the islands and Suva is the capital which is on the other side of the island 230km away. Anything we have read and all the people we spoke to said that the main island has little to offer and that the Yasawa islands are a good budget option.
29th Oct-1st nov: We were collected from our G/H and on our way to the island at 9.00am, we arrived at Melbravo at 1.30pm. Our Bure(Fale) cost 100F$(50Euro) per night and included 3 meals. Accomadation is more expensive in the Yasawa islands then any of the other islands we visited so far and the meals were pretty basic but ok. Our bure on Melbravo was good and the grounds of the resort were nice but the beach is crap, the family who owned the resort were good fun and friendly. At first we were not impressed with the place but in grew on us over the next few days and we ended up staying for 4 nights. A 1/2 hr walk away you had Oarsman bay that had an excellent beach and good snorkling. There were 9 other people staying at melbravo and 3 of these were Irish. One guy from Dublin was saying his brother was going out with a girl from Clares area and did she know her and would'nt you know was'nt she in Clare's class in school! Also Donal&Elaine from limerick were a good laugh and were also at the and of there trip like ourselves. We chilled alot here reading in our hammocks is did'nt take long getting into fijian time were anything you can do today can always be done tomorrow! Donal&Elaine got invaded by large brown spiders that drove them out of their bure in the early hours of the morning one night and they had to take refuge in the dorm for the rest of the night! We had a good time here its a pity the beach and snorkling were non exsistant! We went on a trip to the "Blue lagoon" the beach where the film of the same name with brooke Shields in it was filmed!
2nd-9th Nov: We caught the yellow Flyer at 1.30pm and had decided to head to Waya island to a place called Bayside Donal & Elaine were going to a resort close by called Sunset, when the boat pulled in we thought that bayside looked pretty dull and that Sunset looked good. We had not contacted bayside so we just winging it to see if we could get a better deal on the bure. When we landed on the beach we got a nice supprise the place was well laid out and had just 2 bure and 1 was available we got it for 90F$ and they looked span new and our one had 4 beds it so we could sleep it a different one every night! If you were looking for parties and such this is not the place but if you want peace and quiteness you are on a winner. So Anna&Jim were the owners and had 3 kids there were a young OZ couple staying in the other bure. We enitially had booked for 2 nights but were having such a nice time we ended staying for 8 nights. The snorkling was good along the reef off the beach and one day i met the resident White Tip Reef Shark he's 2 meters. I was out snorkling at low tide in about 2ft of water i had come across these clown fish and was playing with them as they are very cocky when i looked up there was the shark maybe 8ft away giving me a good look over he then proceeded to do a half circle swim around me before heading off i can tell you he had me on edge a "wee" bit! I went out a few times with Jim at night spear-fishing with a spot light usually to catch lobster and crayfish along with some fish, i managed to catch a couple of lobster myself but was a bit to slow for the fish. One night jim shown the light and there was the shark but luckly i did'nt see him as its bad enough not being able to see your hand in front of you face and not knowing were the shark is at then to be seeing him in the torch light a few feet away giving you the once over!!!!! To think about it to much would give you the jitters! The water along the reef was only a few feet deep and one of the cool things I noticed was that the stars in the sky were so clear that you could see thousands of them and if you looked down on the coral and waved your fin around it would aggitate all the florescent and it was like looking at a mirror image of all the stars in the sky. On other days i went fishing on Jims boat but caught very little except a few small red snapper. We took some walks up the hills which gave great views of the island and sunset was only 30min walk away so we visited Donal&Elaine a few times to have a natter and a beer! The food was great and most days we had fresh lobster and plenty of fruit. Another couple turned up from OZ and they were camping so for the duration of our stay there was 6 people here. We had the use of 2 kayaks so we used these a bit, on saturday night it was Jims birthday so we had a "KAVA" session for 5 hours one of the locals played a guitar and sang although it was the same song he sang for the whole night the kava was hard to drink as it tastes rank but we kept at it and by the end of the night the legs were doing their best to take me the opposite to were i wanted to go! I went fishing 1 night and while we fished Jim and another guy went spear fishing when the guys had finished spear fishing they came over to the boat with their catch and i was dissappointed to see they had a young green turtle his shell was about 14 inches long and he was so beautiful i tried to get them to put it back but to no avail the other guy took it home to eat it!
10th: Our last day today we get the boat at 4.00pm back to the main land, Anna cooked us a lovely lunch of Lobster and Smoked fish in coconut milk and we had our last lounge in the hammock we had such a nice time here its ideal for couple's looking for a quite time the food was too good and the weight is piling back on but what can you do! We arrived back on the naim land at 6.30pm and got the courtesy bus to a hotel that was recommended to us by gang we met on Melbravo, it was called the Newtown Beach motel and it was heads above the Sunseeker and cheaper the room was freshly painted and spotless we had an ensuite with hot water(its been 41days since we had a hot shower) they had a small restaurant that served good indian food at a cheap price Anna was the waiteress there and she piled the food onto the plates and told not to buy the beer from the bar to go to the store down the street and buy it for half the price and she would put it the fridge for us! That night we ate in the hotel and chatted to a swedish couple we had met in Somoa.
11th: Spent the afternoon in town doing the usual bits and bobs before we caught the bus back to the Newtown we bought a few beers in the market and for the rest of the evening played some pool and table tennis with the Swedish couple before cooling of in the pool. We had such a good feed in the hotel last night we decided to eat again their tonight.
12th: We fly this evening to Raratonga in the Cook islands so we went to town to catch up on the blog, emails and i got a hair-cut, our flights at 5.00pm and takes 3 hours. We had a good time here it started of a bit iffy but was not long growing on us it is over priced for what you get but Fiji is a popular place and one of the main stopping of places between the states and OZ/NZ.