My Fijian Fantasy!

My stay in Fiji has been absolutely FANTASTIC! And I could not of wished for a fuller experience during my 3 week stay there. I was only meant to stay there for 1 week initially but it ended up being longer due to the great people, places, food and ..... oh the surfing!

Where I stayed was on the main Island of Viti Levu and about 2 hours from Nadi (pronounced Nandi) airport. I stayed near a place called Navua at a the Waidroka Bay Resort.

When I first got here I found the pace of life painfully slow, and I'm a pretty laid back person! It took a few days to adjust to the sitting around and just looking at the ocean, but it's something I like to do anyway, so it was great. The resort was aimed at Surfers and Divers and I was lucky enough to often be the only guest there.

During my stay there I managed to almost fully live my dream of surfing and diving and drinking in a culture far removed from anything I have known.

The surfing was amazing and on the first day decided to go for a surf with an Aussie guy. All of the surf spots are a boat ride away and are reef breaks, meaning they break on the outer reefs of the island, so the water may be 30 foot deep and the waves are then breaking in about 3 foot of water onto the reef. The wave also breaks in a horshoe shape too as opposed to a shore or beach break which normally is just a long line. With the horshoe reef the wave jacks up quicker and bigger and faster.... so a massive lesson was in store for me!

To be honest I got totally battered by the waves and struggled to catch them properly. It seemed as soon as I would paddle for one it would jack up and then just slam me into the shallows of the reef! But after a lot of sessions and working through frustrations I got there and improved and managed to become a better surfer, I wouldn't say I mastered them but there were some amazing waves where I felt a thrill and a confidence I've not had before, very rewarding. It was also great to see the sea life once again, masses of coral under the water, and as a wave would break if it was calm enough the wave just became like glass and I would be able to see the reef as if through glass in an aquarium, crystal clear. Turtles could be seen again, just like in Hawaii, a small baby one popped up at one point to and looked awakward as it flapped on the surface. During the boat rides out we would see masses of flying fish cruising through the air. My Dad had talked of these as I was growing up and I've always wanted to see them, and I was amazed at how long they fly for, not just pop out of the water for a bit but they actually 'buzz' along like an insect for really long distances, almost unbelievable!

The surfing on my last day was a real treat. we travelled an hour by boat to a reef in the middle of the ocean called "Frigates" It is a world class wave and a group of 4 of us were lucky to

have it all to ourselves. and it was HUGE!!! I don't usually get too scared in the water but paddling out to these was a bit daunting, probably a 15 foot wave breaking into 3 foot of water... the kind of thing you would see in a magazine. I can't really describe the feeling of being out there. A sense of immense awe and fear but at the same time having to dig deep to find the courage to face them and the determination to want to ride one. In about 3 hours I probably caught only one wave and got absolutely worked by many more. They were fast, heavy and steep and all that I had learnt in 3 weeks of surfing reefs was put to the test and I was once again left feeling like I was a total beginner!

Not sure that the photos do it justice but you can just make us out!

THE SHARK DIVE!! I’ve always wanted to see big sharks in open water and considered a cage dive in Hawaii, I never did do it and so I took this opportunity as it was very similar…. But without the cage! It was a bit scary for a number of reasons, firstly when the boat took us out to where it happens we were only a few miles from where we’d been surfing the day before! Secondly there where Bull and Tiger sharks there, all known to have sampled homo-sapiens at some point! All in all it was a great experience, just fish everywhere and now and then a big shark would just effortlessly cruise in from nowhere and you can physically sense the respect and presence from the other creatures there… including us. It is a somewhat false set up though, as we drop down the mooring line and make our way to a kind of auditorium. I had my dive camera with me and was shown a small little coral outcrop and told to stay by it… I look round and everyone else is behind me with a rope in front and it just seems like there all there to watch me get eaten! I’m comforted when a diver in charge with a metal pole comes over and tells me to stay where I am (not verbally…we’re underwater! it was via simple hand signals… not dissimilar to the ones used everyday on the roads in the UK).

They then drop down big wheely bins full of fish chum, at which point all the fish in the surrounding area show up going hyper, the bins are opened and then all chaos ensues. Fish and food everywhere, then there’s an eerie stillness and massive sharks glide in looking like they hate absolutely everything they look at and so powerful, an 8 foot Lemon shark then vertically drops into the wheely bin, straight down and just chows down all he can, still effortlessly moving it’s tail but the power generated seems to increase in strength and ferocity the closer to the mouth you get. I could see its sandpaper like skin crumple as the tail gracefully thrashed back and forth. I then looked down to where my hand was and saw a Conga Eel glide under my hand, its yellow eye beadily looking at me as its mouth revealed its razor teeth. The strange thing I have always felt with diving is that because we wear a wetsuit and a mask there s very little to ‘feel’ and nothing really to hear and so the experience, to me, always seems somewhat 2 dimensional and even though the experience was spectacular and intense it still feels as if I didn’t really do it.

My stay so far has been fantastic and I have been able to see so much ocean life that I have always wanted to see. Sharks, Sea Snakes, a 5 foot Marble Ray, flying fish. The smell of the Islands when out at sea, and the quick changes of the weather from sunshine to storm. The calmness of the sea early in the morning to the quickening of the trade winds as the sun warms the air and begins the weather cycle. These are things that I never thought I would get to experience, my Dad would talk of it from his time at sea when he was young and all I’ve ever wanted to do was see it and feel it for myself. It’s such a great feeling to achieve a goal that has been with me since a boy, It’s a massive experience for me.

Above all of this though are the people. I asked some of the people who work here if I could go to their village with them and they were so excited to have me. They live in small shack type houses, very simple and very humble. Some of the babies were crying when they saw me as they have never seen a white person before…. Either that or I just scared the crap out of them somehow!

The village experience was great and I swear the less people have the more they care for each other and the bigger their smiles. I also went to church with one of the girls from here, she is a 7th day Adventist and their Sabbath is on a Saturday, I’ve lost all concept of time and so didn’t care what day it was!
Actually the Fijians have a saying “Time can wait” it’s like an ode to laziness but with the sentiment of Confucius which makes you think it’s really deep wisdom!

The Church was really simple and lovely and again these people were just so happy to have me there and welcomed me in. They would stop what they were saying and explain things in broken English for me and it was great and although I wasn’t a member of their church and they knew I was Mormon they showed nothing but love and kindness to me.
After church I wanted to get to the capital city which is 2 hours drive away but there was no chance as they invited me to a big dinner they had prepared for everybody in an old hut. I went in and everyone was on a big table and they sat me down and put a plate of traditional Fijian food in front of me! It was one of those moments that you kind of want to experience but dread at the same time. Loads and loads of food that you just can’t recognize by look or smell… or taste! Everything is new and different and being offered in big portions to the guest! “Have more, have more” they would say and all the while my heart is filled with gratitude and my face is smiling whilst at the same time I’m suppressing the gag reflex! And then amongst the stewed leaves and fully scaled fish and root vegetables I spied a way out, like a shining gateway to Xzanadu. I reached out with focused eye and full purpose, with a deafness to offers of strange soggy cold seaweed and boiled grog and grabbed two bits of watermelon. As I bit into it I could feel its cool juice running down my chin and my throat, the refreshing flesh melted in my mouth taking any lingering morsel of foreign food from my pallet, It was so good… and the taste of a familiar food eased my stomach. I am so grateful for that fruit being there that day. Please may I just say that I don’t want to come across ungrateful to these wonderful people and I hope I have not done so as that is furthest from my intention.