Fiji

February 23


Bula! Welcome to Fiji!
6am flight from Melbourne to Brisbane, then on to Nadi, Fiji. Landed at 3pm, and was definitely not expecting mountains or a musical welcome. It was gorgeous, and immediately I felt the humidity of the tropics.

In the 80 minutes it took to get to the Fiji Hideaway Resort, I learned that it takes 9 hours to drive around the biggest island in Fiji (which we were on). Their four biggest industries: water, sugarcane, lumber, and gold. There were roadside hot corn stands all along the drive. Fiji is part of the British Commonwealth, so Queen Elizabeth is on all of their coins. The drive was incredibly lush and green and gorgeous. Homes appeared to be made of tin or concrete, with several rooms.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I was greeted so warmly. Met up with Tom and Katie, my Aussie travel buddies from Queensland, and enjoyed an absolutely stunning sunset before dinner.

I was wiped and passed out before 9.


February 24
Woke up for the regular breakfast buffet, and had a super chill day of reading, playing cards, and walking along the beach. The water is so incredibly clear and the reef is right up to the beach, so we spent several hours checking out all of the crabs and other sea creatures visible. Not to mentioned all the glorious shells. I cannot get over the sheer beauty of this magical place. I am in love.

We played mini-golf at the resort .... with handmade putters and concrete holes. It was hilarious and none of us could possibly do well. Clearly, no one really played on the course and it was horribly maintained.

After dinner we decided to spend the evening imbibing (read: rum n Pepsi) and swimming in the ocean. I cut myself on coral, made friends with the security guards - VERY important, was very bruised because I am a klutz and definitely did not drink enough water. Think I got to bed around 4am. Maybe.

February 25
Struggle town. Rum hangovers are ROUGH. I was puking, and was not a real person until 5pm. I broke up with rum that day. The mornings are gorgeous and hot, and there was a thunder or rainstorm each afternoon. It was really cool to feel and see the clouds/thunder coming over the mountains and across the ocean.

We went for a beach stroll to check out the reef at low tide, and were NOT disappointed.

Each night at the Fiji Hideaway there is some kind of entertainment. Sunday is a great Pacific Island dance and fire show. I love dinner and a show, and there was audience participation which was awesome. I am always so impressed by fire shows; such skill required.

February 26
We woke up bright and early to head to the Sigatoka National Park and check out the protected sand dunes. Super glad we showed up at 830am because we were SWEATING profusely by 9am. It was absolutely stunning, and a perfect morning.

 

Prettiest weed I've ever seen 

Stunning sand dune 

Think this was once a tree? 

Driftwood 

In the forest, to ward off evil spirits

Gorgeous fern tree! 

We then wandered the town of Sigatoka (pronounced Sing-ah-toke-ah) to buy some souvenirs and enjoy iced coffee. We spent the afternoon taking it easy and enjoying the thunderstorm. I grabbed a drink at the bar and met some more of the staff, who are hilarious. The first question a Fijian will ask a friend about someone new is "Is she single?" I'm unclear as to whether it's a respect thing or a cultural thing or something else. But, upon learning that I am unattached I think I was treated differently because a bunch of them started flirting and I was caught off guard in the best way.

The evening's entertainment was confusing: a village choir that mostly did dancing, and then a few songs. We chose to check out the reef at night because we could see people snorkeling further out. It was SO GREAT!

Massive sea slug. ICK 

Blue starfish!

February 27
Favourite day, by far. It was perfect. We woke up early to head to Eco Trax, a new e-bike tour company that uses the old sugarcane rail line for a sweet ride along the Coral Coast. The tour would be cool on its own, but our guide, Britney, was absolutely hilarious and such a gem. I was lucky and got to share a bike with her; we had some lovely chats, and got to see a whole bunch of farm animals and various wildlife along the way.

 

 

 

We enjoyed lunch, had a nap, and waited for the thunderstorm to pass. Since it was our last day we were invited to a private cocktail party with some of the staff before happy hour. We decided that we would go all out for the night, so we did and seriously enjoyed it. Turns out, the Fiji Hideaway Resort is the only Fijian resort in Fiji. This makes it a lot more authentic and incredible, and so much of Fijian culture was shared with us during our stay. It was really great, and I HIGHLY recommend this glorious piece of heaven.

The cocktail party included Cava, a local alcoholic drink that doesn't taste especially strong but the effects are quite evident. I was invited to partake by the staff, and they gave me the biggest coconut glass they had, along with some jokes and some winks. My face went tingly almost immediately. Apparently, if you keep drinking it you may have visions/hallucinations. I did not wish to try.

Happy hour began with the beating of a drum and the lighting of a huge flame in the middle of the pool. Plus, there was Name That Tune and some great beverages available. There were some people who were VERY competitive and into it. We enjoyed a final GORGEOUS sunset with some others who were leaving the next day, too.

We ate dinner, and then there was a dance party. I learned the Nut Bush, which is a quintessential Australian dance. The song plays at every Aussie event (party, wedding, whatever) and there's a line dance to it.

After dancing and drinking for a while, we decided we needed to go swimming immediately, so jumped in with our clothes on. And we definitely needed to use the slide that very clearly said "No Adults allowed!" It was SO much fun. After some pool time, we decided to go swimming in the ocean with our clothes on. And then we snuck into the spa pool to remove all of the sand. Many rules were clearly broken that night.

We dried off, and had some more drinks with our new friends in the cabana outside our room, then went to bed. It was SUCH a great day.


Feb 28
Final morning involved a tasty buffet breakfast and packing. We caught our cab and made the 90 minute journey to the airport.

We arrived super early, so had some food and perused the shops. It was a sweet flight to Brisbane, where I said goodbye to my friends and hopped on the next flight to Melbourne. I got home around 1am, and will absolutely be returning to Fiji at some point. I was blown away.