Day 6

Our last day. We found another quiet spot on the other side of the island because sunset beach got a bit crowded towards the end of the week. It wasn't quite legal to be there because it was were the 5 star resort was going to be but no one cared that we were there. We had found a Mango and a very nice Fijian family who invited me for lunch had given me a cooked bread fruit so we feasted under a palm tree on a lonely beach. It was one of the best days on the island and definitely a great way to say goodbye.

We walked on top of the highest hill on the island. This is the view on to the southern lagoon.

Sunset at sunset beach, when the native animals come out to chill...

Footprints of a mermaid...

Model action!

The staff put on a fire dancing show the night we left.

We actually had something like a party going on the last night which was a bit of a change after all the chilled out Kava sessions we used to have in the evenings. It was great fun and the alcohol made me feel awake which was very different to the grogged feeling you get from being on Kava.

I felt sick the day we left but I think that I have to blame the drinks from the night before, rather than the fact that we were leaving or bad karma. We woke up very early (I always wake up early when I'm hungover, which is one of my rather useless habits) and even had to wait for the breakfast because the staff was still sleeping (hungover). We spent the rest of the afternoon packing and waiting for the ferry that arrived at 11 o'clock Fiji time and left, after a farewell song and lots of hugs and handshakes, for the main land.

Our Fijian island adventure was already over but it was so nice, that I can't see a way that I wont come back in the future.

Day 5

Day 5 was another of those days where we didn't want to move away from the lagoon. It was just too easy to lie down in one of the beach chairs and go to sleep or get caught in the inscrutable debts of Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld series. In the evening we decided that we should do something and went for a walk. We made the mistake and walked through a little forest to get to a lookout point but there were so many mosquitoes in the shelter of the trees that we had to jog the way back. We went to sunset beach instead and took a few pictures for Bekki's model portfolio.

The view from the lookout. It was hard to enjoy the scenery while being bitten by 20 mosquitoes at once.

I think that this could be out of a Billabong fashion ad...

All the guys dressed up as girls that night and we had to dance along the dining tables and a jury decided on who's performance was the best.

We saw this villager walk past with this shark behind him. It's crazy how their bodies feel and how strong and heavy they are...

It's still alive...

Day 4

We decided to have a quiet day at the lagoon, read our books and chill. Everyone who knows me though knows that I cant sit still for long and so I ended up doing all sorts of stuff. We met two French guys who played water rugby with me and a staff member which was incredibly exhausting but a lot of fun. We stayed in front of our hostel though and didn't even bother to go to sunset beach. In the afternoon the French guys asked me if I wanted to go fishing with them. I didn't really want to go at first but after a while Bekki and I decided to join them because it did sound like fun. We went on a boat with two locals and drove to another island that was uninhabited and looked beautiful in the setting sun. We roamed the reefs around it and I really caught a fish. It was the first time ever for me to catch something with a rod and it was kind of exciting.
It was cool when the guy, Moses, who took us on his boat called out "striking time" and in that very moment two fish took the bait.
We drove back when it started to get dark, had dinner and then went to Moses place to try the fish. It was strange to see that fish, that we had just pulled out of the ocean, on a plate but it didn't taste too bad.

Some local kids. They always came down to the beach and would play with anything they found. They were really cute and loved if you came up to them and threw them around or chased them.

Me and my new favorite animal.

Clement and Flavier

Joe and our first catch

Bekki fighting the biggest fish of the day

Day 3

After a very slow and lazy second day we planned to walk around the island to get some physical exercise. It turned out to be a better training than we thought because it was such a hot day. We left after lunch (a big mistake but I really didn't want to miss it) and were accompanied by two German guys who we met and who also came from Australia. We didn't make it all around the island because we got caught by the beauty of sunset beach again but it was a fun trip. We stopped every now and then for a swim  or a snorkel and to refresh ourselves and had a great day.

Another one of those beautiful beaches of Mana.

This dog followed us for most of the time. There are many semi wild dogs on Mana but they are so much nicer than the wild dogs from Indonesia.

The only place we found that you could jump off from. The water there is about 3m deep and so clear that you can see right to the bottom and sometimes you can see really big fish swimming past along the rocks.

I couldn't be bothered to rent snorkeling gear every day so I made myself a snorkel out of a piece of bamboo. Bekki brought those goggles and it worked out really well, even though I had to hold my nose together with my fingers.

Day 2

We stayed at the main beach in the morning for two reasons: There wasn't a lot time between breakfast and lunch and I didn't want to miss either and there was a little breeze constantly blowing from the south which cooled our bodies down a little bit. Usually we brought our books down and read for a while then swum and then read a bit more. The water in the lagoon was full of seaweed though and it wasn't too nice to swim in the shallow areas but it cleared up when you got into deeper water and there it was as nice as everywhere.
We went to sunset beach after lunch because the water over there was a lot cleaner and there were hardly any people going there. The walk took about 15 minutes through a little forest and past a few Papaya and Coco palms.

This is what we saw, as we stepped out of the bushes on to the beach. I had to stop for a while to handle what I was seeing. We had only seen the beach in the evening when it was getting dark but this was so much more than I had expected. Cristal clear water, blue sky and white beach... I literally jumped out of my clothes and ran into the water before I took this picture because I couldn't wait even a second to get in there.

This is where I want to be. Here, and nowhere else.

What a dream... 

Mana - The magical island

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the island on the "Mana Flyer", a small boat on which they squeezed about 13 guests and 3 crew, and I don't want to know how many bags and supplies for the island. We passed a few small islands on our way and the level of excitement of the passengers rose with every white beach we saw. Mana island actually looks like two from far away because it is really flat in the middle. As we got closer and the vision became clearer I had to fight the urge to jump out of the back of the boat because I couldn't wait to get into that Water.
There are two Resorts and another small luxury Honeymoon Resort which is still in the building progress on the island next to three Backpackers.
Therefore you can visit the island with every type of budget... we had the smallest.
Our Backpacker was the one furthest down the main beach and run by a nice group of Fijians, mostly our age, and we really liked them. They warmly welcomed us with a traditional song and came up to us one by one and introduced themselves with handshakes and big smiles. The rooms were alright at first sight but we didn't stay in there for too long because our first swim was desperately required.
The rest of the day we did what we would end up doing for the next  six days:
relax, enjoy the three included and very nice meals, sunbath, swim, snorkel, sleep, read, wander around and talk to people making new friends and enjoying their company.
Sharing this experience of spending moments in one of the most beautiful places on the planet together was great and we met a lot of very interesting people over there.
It's amazing how lazy you can get with this weather and environment around you...how the time and the days are just passing by and you completely loose track on what day it is and how long you have been there for.
The staff was cool and very friendly and they seemed more like travel mates than like attendants and made our stay there very nice.
Unfortunately we had to change rooms on the first night because of bedbugs but it was a minor thing because Bekki found them before they could get into our stuff and we didn't have any problems with them after that.

The days passed by without too much happening. The food times and the nightly Kava session were the only regularities for us but you couldn't always be sure about them either because they as well were on Fiji time which meant that breakfast was in the morning, lunch around noon and dinner in the evening but you could never be sure about the times. It is hard to remember what we did on which day because in my memory the whole week is a blur of a really good time but it definitely lacks the detail.
Bekki had the great idea to post a lot of pictures of each day and to write only a little bit about what we did because the pictures are a lot more impressive than a few words.

This is day one. We chilled at our hostel after lunch and acclimatised ourselves to the beautiful vibe on the island. I went for a short walk while Bekki took a nap in the sun, before we both walked to the other side of the island to watch the sunset.

We stayed at the main beach in the early afternoon because it was too hot to go anywhere else. Later that day we walked to sunset beach to meet two German girls and watch the sunset. The beach was beautiful and no one else was around so we went for a swim and enjoyed the late afternoon with our friends.

We thought we should put at least one pic in here that hasn't got anything to do with sand and water.

Locals playing a game of Rugby on the airstrip. The kids there haven't got much to do so they do a lot of sports and become really good. A am really surprised, that Fiji doesn't dominate the Volleyball world because everyone there plays so well.

This is the lagoon on the south side of the island. Our Backpacker is on the other side of the bay.

Fiji time

I woke up with a big smile across my face. At least I assume that I was smiling, I didn't see my face... Fiji at last!
It had always been my dream to come here even though I never quite knew why and after we had decided to go to South East Asia instead of the south pacific I thought I had to give up that dream. But now we're here...
We got out of bed at about 8:30a.m. because it was hard to stand the heat inside. We went next door, a partner resort, to have breakfast which was included in the price and we found that it wasn't much colder than in our dorm but at least a light wind cooled our skin and brought a change of air. The buffet was quite nice for such a small price and we enjoyed it sitting on a veranda right at the beach. Admittedly, the beach wasn't very nice, a man made stretch of grayish sand and rather dirty water, but the view on to some of the closer islands made up for it.
We wanted to get most of the organizing done on the first day so that we could leave to one of the islands on Monday and wouldn't have anything to worry about. The area we stayed in, where most of Nadi's hostels are located, is a little bit out of town but the buses rarely drove there and so we decided to walk in the direction of town and see how we went. We ended up walking the whole way, which took us a bit more than 30 min. and was quite exhausting in that hot weather.
We had just walked past the first shops into Nadi's city center when a Fijian man stepped out of his cafe and started talking to us with the typical Fijian heartiness (Bula! Bula bula my friend, how are you today etc.). He invited Bekki to a coffee and me to a beer and told us to go to one of the local tourist offices to get a good price. He knew the woman there personally and said we would get a particularly good deal with her... After the drink we followed her to her office where she actually did offer us a quite good deal, compared to what we heard from other travelers. She was very nice as well and gave us a few directions and even though you know that the friendliness is always linked to some kind of deal it is still real and not gone, all of a sudden, when you decline the offer, which was mostly the case in Indonesia.
We went to the big market place to get some food for the next days and found a huge fruit and veggie market. We bought 3 pineapples for 2 FJD (ca. 80 cent) and made some other good deals. Next to the fruit market was the Kava market. Kava is a drink made out of the root of the local pepper plant. The root is processed and the powder mixed into water which takes on the colour of rain puddles on a very dirty street. Read more about it if you like (Kava - Wikipedia) but all I can tell you is that it tastes the way it looks, it makes you feel very tired and sit in your spot for the rest of the night and, even though you don't really like it, you sit down again the next night and have a bowl or two ( I haven't quite figured out if that has to do with addiction or peer pressure).
The first time we tried it was directly after we left the market, in a local handicraft store (souvenir shop) into which we were dragged by another of those friendly people. They wanted to welcome us to Fiji and did that with the traditional Kava ceremony which was free and supposed to make us feel as if we had to buy something in return, which seemed to be the most common trick with the tourists.
We stayed in town til three o'clock and took the public bus back to the hostel. The bus looked like an old school bus, there was no glass in the windows and to signal the driver you just pulled a string above your head that rung a bell in the front but the best part was when we drove strait on to the beach and followed it for a while, about 5 meters from the water.
Later that afternoon, we walked back from the beach after a little read on the beach, I joined the guys from the hostel next door for a volleyball session. We ended up playing for several hours (and that in a country where you sweat when you move your pinky) and more and more of the local people came who were really good. It was an epic session.
Sunday, the next day was like every Sunday should be. Warm, lazy and relaxing. I woke up quite early, had breakfast after a while and packed my bags and went next door into a different hostel. We couldn't extend our stay in the first hostel because they wanted us to pay twice the price we had paid the night before but the hostel we went to was a lot nicer. Run by a very nice staff the atmosphere and the massive mango trees were very convincing. We spent the day at the beach and around the hostel, enjoying the weather and the good vibes. We were, like everything else on Fiji time.
In the evening we joined the Kava round under a little straw shelter and I think I drank a little too much, expecting a dramatic effect that didn't come. The only thing you feel is that your body calms down, everything feels heavier and you are even too fixed to the spot to get up and go to bed. In the morning however I did have something that felt like a hangover but it might just have been from all that stuff that was sitting in my stomach that made me feel sick...

So that is it. Out of Australia and in the air.

It has been far too short for me to see what I wanted to see and to do what I wanted to do but I will be back very soon to finish or continue what I've started. For now we had to leave behind what had been our home, our companion and our teacher of life experience.
We have had a great and unforgettable time on this beautiful continent with ups and downs and in betweens that have formed us for the future but now we're on our way to the airport with a ticket for two flights and a lot to worry about.
We had too much stuff! Because we had planned to send some of our luggage back home from Malaysia, where it is cheap to do that, but had waited til the last day, which turned out to be a public holiday, we have a lot to carry. Fortunately the bus wasn't as crowded as the last one into the city and we had enough space to pile our bags on the seat next to me. The next thing is to move that stuff around... We have a big backpack each (strangely they are both between 18 and 20 kg), a day pack per person, a bag with the stuff we wanted to send home and one surfboard.
It turned out to be too heavy as well but the lady at the check in was very nice and helped us move things around in the bags so it would fit (Bekki had 23.6kg, I had 23.8kg and our carry on luggage was far too heavy which she kindly ignored. 23kg was the limit...). We had to pay extra for the surfboard being a bulky item and were quite happy that it was only 50$.
The security check gave me the next shock. We had our longboard trucks and wheels in the carry on bags because of their weight and the security people found them disturbingly interesting and potentially dangerous. After having all that trouble before, I didn't want to loose them as well, all together they were worth almost 200€. They found them to be harmless in the end and we could finally proceed.
At the gate we were interviewed by a government lady who asked a lot of questions about our trip and what we had done in Australia. It was interesting to review everything we had done since we had arrived back from Indo but I think it was a bit boring for her because we didn't do any of those tourist things, except for our time in Melbourne.
At last we boarded the plane, but not before Bekki had run back to get her jacket which she had left at the security check, and were looking forward to a relaxing six hour flight with free drinks and the latest movies. But the next shock was close. Our seats were... hmm, seats really, but they didn't have these great, little, private, inbuilt screens that we enjoy so much. I was devastated... No TV on the flight, only one stupid movie on a bigger screen 12 rows in front of me with a bed sound connection. The food was bad too but at least I could enjoy the beer, real Fiji beer which tasted quite good.
We arrived in Nadi on time, about 7 o'clock, ran into a woman who tried to sell us some package deal and helped us to find our shuttle, waited for our shuttle to leave (everything and everyone is on Fiji-time) and finally arrived at our hostel at 10:30p.m. It was a cheap dorm room, cheap in the price and in the facilities, but it was good to have a cold beer with some travelers and locals before we hit our beds after a at first disappointing and exhausting day, that turned out OK because we were on Fiji!!!

Leaving home...?

I can't help it but I start to hate the traveling part o the traveling.
To get around from one spot to another is always so time consuming and exhausting that you mostly need the next day to get over your "jet lag". I won't write too much about the trip down from Armidale because I seem to repeat myself in my complaints which pulls this blog a bit too much into the negative for my own liking. And if I try to filter out the positive aspects of the "only" eight hour bus trip I must say that it wasn't the worst we've ever had. Unfortunately my inability to sleep on the road kept me awake, or rather in some sort of light trance that provides some rest but keeps you aware of what's happening around you, but we didn't stop very often and each of us had two seats to ourselves.
Dylan picked us up from the bus in Narrabeen because he had to go to a costume shop for a Halloween party that night.
We had a quiet day. Dylan prepared his costume, Tim and Janelle were working and Lucy was at school so we relaxed a bit and went for a walk down to the beach in the afternoon. It was a cold and wet day but we were to tired to do anything exiting anyway.
In the evening Tim dropped us at Matt's place, where some of Newport's cool guys were drinking to get ready for the pub. It was cool to see them a last time before we left and to say goodbye properly. Back in 2007 my farewell had been a bit brief because I had skipped my last week of school and we didn't manage to get together before I left and it felt a lot better to do it the right way. We didn't go to the pub though because we had to get up early and I needed some sleep.
We had said goodbye to Dylan when he left to go to the party and to Tim after he dropped us of at Matt's. Janelle and Lucy got up with us in the morning and drove us to the bus stop where we shared a last coffee and finally parted as well. It was     particularly hard to say goodby to the Barbers and the Youngs who we had called the day before because they gave us so much love, support and company during our time in Sydney and made us really feel at home there. It made our time there very special and I can't wait to go back and spend more time with them. Thank you.