Fiji

South Pacific

03.11.2006

We touched down at Nadi airport on the main and biggest island in Fiji called Viti Levu. We decided to leave Nadi as soon as we arrived in hope to find better weather further north so we took a boat the following day to the islands which are a couple of hours away from the mainland. Aside from the picture postcard scenery, Fiji is still quite a traditional place with most Fijians on the islands, outside of the resorts continuing to live a village lifestyle under the authority of a local chief and maintaining traditional values and culture. We got to know some locals as most of the resorts employ only locals from the villages on the islands.

Our first stop was Robinson Crusoe island, which was average, mainly due to the weather being pretty bad, this restricted us with things to do. As we went further north the weather improved and we found ourselves on another island called Waya celebrating our four year anniversary with a lobster dinner on the beach.

We then headed to the Mamanucas group of islands a bit further south and to the ‘party’ island called Beachcomber which was only 2 acres and you could walk from one side to the other in about five minutes. Wasn’t really all that but we managed to get drunk on jungle juice. On the way to our next stop we passed the island where they filmed ‘Castaway’ and then ‘Celebrity Love Island’. We stayed at a resort on Walu Beach, where another reality TV program was filmed.

At all of the places we went to we were welcomed onto the island with the traditional string band when we stepped off the boat and the Polynesian style dances at night and of course the traditional Kava ceremony, which consists of the passing round of the Kava bowl and the reciting of some Fijian words before and after drinking. Kava is the national drink and is a part of the lifestyle here in Fiji. It is made from the root of a pepper plant, actually a narcotic, it tastes like muddy water and leaves a numb feeling on your tongue but the more you drink the less you care.