Monday 6th August
After getting up and loading things into the car, we drove to the airport parking and got into Auckland airport for around 11am. Checking in, Bhavni had to use her old passport as the British Passport did not contain the return Visa – luckily fiji allows all the Commonwealth countries in. Our flight was at 12.55 and was quite quick – Bhavni and I got talking to the man sitting next to us who was a Fijian Indian who had moved to New Zealand.
Arriving in Fiji, with a quick customs check – (what is risotto rice), we got our transfer to our hotel, which took around an hour to arrive at the Shangri-La (or the Fijian as it is locally known). We got a nice room with a sea view and high ceilings on the top floor, of the ocean wing. We were a little hungry so we had our beetroot risotto from yesterday, before venturing out for a walk around the hotel. We had quite a peaceful sleep that night.
Tuesday 7th
We woke up to a bright blue sky day, with a lovely view out to sea. After getting ready we headed for breakfast just after 9am to the main restaurant, this was really busy with a queue to get in. We got a nice table overlooking the sea, and enjoyed our breakfast, though it was quite noisy when helping ourselves to the food. After breakfast we headed to the Adults only pool and just relaxed for a while. I read and Bhavni slept.
Late afternoon we had a walk along the beach, before heading out of the resort. Crossing the bridge from the resort there was a tourist train and when investigating one of the locals offered to drop us into the local town (Cuvu) as the lot of them had finished for the day. From the town, a really small place, we walked back towards the resort, stopping by Ghekkos resort and booking a table for dinner on Friday. We got to Bilbos bar in time for the Sunset (though as always there was a bit of far off cloud). For dinner we went to the Italian restaurant, not really impressed with the main meal – pasta and gnocchi, but the profiter rolls were amazing.
Wednesday 8th
It was cloudy when waking up, turning into a little drizzle. We got to the main restaurant a little earlier (8.30am), so we did not have a queue, but it was still quite busy, especially as we could not sit on the deck due to the rain. We decided to take the sugar tourist train tour to Sigatoka from just outside the resort as it was a wet day. We met the local from yesterday – who got us a little discount for the tour. The train travelled slowly at 14kph, and we got a look at the local coast line and forest areas with a full commentary. The train stopped at a kindergarten where we were treated to dancing and singing from the 5 year olds in Fijian and Hindi. At Sigatoka we were taken to a tourist shop (where I booked a trip for Friday) before being allowed our own wondering time. Bhavni and I went to see a temple (Here Krishna) that was here before heading back to get our pickup to the resort, where we chilled until the evening. We went to the Asian restaurant, where they gave us a special meal with soup and a vegetable curry, though Bhavni just enjoyed the Pad-Thai more.
Thursday 9th
Today we decided to eat at the adult only breakfast restaurant – what peace. The plan was to go the the activities center to do the snorkeling in the morning. However they said to check back at 10:30am as they were not sure how the conditions were. So we sat by the adult pool and chilled for the morning, but eventually we found out there was not snorkeling. So we sat for a little longer by the pool then went for a dip in the infinity pool – freezing. We went along to the main pool for 3 as there was free diving lessons, so Bhavni had a go and loved it – so much so that we decided to book a dive for Saturday morning (we were ok to fly out). I managed to say that I had done PADI openwater before but had not dived for a few years and they were happy with that.
After getting ready, we decided to walk to Cuvu to see what the local restaurant was about – it was pretty much dark when we got to the town centre. We had some corn from a street vender before going to the restaurant where we had a passable dish of steamed vegetables. When we emerged from the restaurant it was raining so we got a taxi back (fj$3). We went to the italian resteraunt and had profiter rolls for desert.
Friday 10th
As we had booked a tour, we were in the adult restaurant by just after 7am, and at reception before 8am for the pickup. The pickup took us to Sigatoka to where we got on the main tour – which had only 9 of us – driving inland along the river. This eventually led us to the two 4×4 vehicles. The guides drove us further inland, showing us the nice scenery and the “salad bowl of fiji”, until we came to the village.
For some reason I got nominated as the Chief, so had to present the kava root to the village priests. We then had to have the kava ceremony and I had 2 bowl fulls of kava. With the ceremony over we were led into the cave part of the tour. We had to walk through a low entrance way with knee high water to get in – Bhavni chose bare footed, but I had sandals. This is where the locals lived during the British Conquest in the 1800’s and we were shown the areas where items were stored and even human sacrifice took place – there was no light at all when we got deep in the cave so it was a little eerie. We fond out that the water for the kava had been collected in the morning from this cave!
After emerging back in the light, we got to the village and had a lunch – sandwiches before heading back. On the return journey we had a blow out – big stick in tyre, and without a spare, the guide had to phone up for rescue – he kept appolgising even though all of us said no problem. We walked down to the river, my feet got covered in mud as we had to walk through a little quagmire and I did not want to get the backpack dirty. So we sat near the river until our rescue boat came (with a tyre for the guide to fix the 4×4). We however took the boat back, and the guide went back at full speed down the river – was brilliant. The ride to Sigatoka and the resort was uneventful after that.
It was nice to have a shower and clean our selves up after that, then we chilled until 6pm where we made out way to Ghekkos for dinner. The dancing started at 7.30pm and they did quite a few island dances – finally culminating in the fire dance. We walked back to the hotel, I was amazed at the starscape – I could even just make out the Milky Way!
Saturday 11th
Again we were at the adult restaurant early as we were told to be at the diving centre by around 8.30am. When we got there, we were briefed, Bhavni was to do a first dive, while I was to swim with the Dive Master and was in charge of my self (still buddy system). It was only Bhavni and I for diving, so wearing our wet suits we headed to the boat for a quick ride to the dive site – over the coral reef. I went first with the dive master leaving Bhavni to enjoy her dive. I was underwater for a while seeing a number of fishes and the colourful reef – visibility was really good. We saw and gave a little pat to a sea turtle, I did not know but this was the deepest point of our dive – 19.7m, no wonder we had to take our time going up. We were back after 37 minutes underwater, Bhavni arrived a little later having been out for 44 minutes, and having an adventure – especially getting under the water. She had a good dive eventually getting to just over 10m.
After getting back to the hotel we changed and went to the pool for a while – it had started clouding over. We walked along the beach all the way to the small chapel on the resort where lots of couples get married, before getting to the cafe for some chips for a treat.We then went kayaking on the sea in the late afternoon. In the evening we went to “Sacred Point” to watch the sun setting, before heading to Bilbo’s bar to have a drink – including a fresh coconut in the twilight. For dinner we went to the grill.
Sunday 12th
We woke up to a beautiful day and had breakfast in the sun at the adult restaurant. Sitting by the pool we relaxed until late morning when we went back to our room then checked out, but as we had a while we then went to Bilbo’s bar to chill outside until our 2.30pm pickup. This got us to Nadi airport for around 3.30, so we had a while after checking in to meander through the shops. Our flight was as 6.15pm. and we got to Auckland after 9pm. We caught the pickup to where the car was parked – I got a little drenched as it was raining heavily. Off then to home.
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