Team No Job - The Great Escape 2007

Hi everyone, just time for a quick catch up on what we got up to in Fiji

Friday 13th April - Just a short hop flight from Auckland to Nadi in Fiji. We were staying at Smugglers Cove hostel which included a free transfer so that helped as we didn't have to deal with any of the taxi touts waiting outside the airport. The cashpoint in the airport refused to give Rich and Laura any money so they had to take a taxi later in the evening to one of the 2 McDonalds on the island to try another one.

Saturday 14th April - Took a trip into Nadi town center which was "interesting". The streets were full of people and cars and we stuck out like a sore thumb as obvious tourists so we were the target of touts every few meters. We did manage to find our own way back to the hostel on a local bus which which at one point drove along the beach to find the road again. We had to wait quite a while for the bus so we just sat in the bus station and did a spot of people watching. Wherever you went in Nadi there were people, but none of them seemed to be doing too much. Everything in Fiji happens on Fiji time, i.e slowly!

Sunday 15th April - This was the first day of a 6 night/7 day tour of the Yasawa islands. We had an early transfer to the dock and then a 4 1/2 hour boat ride to the outer islands. Although it was a catamaran it was much much smoother ride than the trip across to Koh Tao. Our first stop was Coral View Resort, a tiny little place on the edge of the island. Our accommodation was a little basic and as it had been raining so much it was rather damp but the people were really nice and friendly so that made up for it in a way. All our meals were included in the package as it was so remote there really wasn't any other option in the way of food but it was all freshly cooked and actually wasn't that bad.

Monday 16th April - We had two nights at Coral View so this was a full day to sit out and relax. Laura and I took a walk down to the end of the island (20 mins - the island was pretty small) and went snorkeling on a coral reef. We had been snorkeling off the beach at the resort the previous day but we saw many many more fish of all colours on the second trip out. The afternoon was reserved for just being lazy, we each found a hammock on the edge of the beach to sit back and relax and it was only interrupted by the rain late in the afternoon. The evening entertainment involved a traditional fijian welcome from the staff at the resort and some dancing which we all had to participate in, no choices.

Tuesday 17th April - The morning was spent waiting for the boat to come and pick us up to take us to the next location, another excuse to just sit in a hammock, the Catamaran picked us up after lunch and took us down to the Wana Taki boat which was cruising round some of the other islands, this was our home for a night. We found time for a spot of kayaking but other than eating the huge dinner they put on for us and reading we didn't get up to too much. The boat was really comfortable as it was dry and air conditioned and a nice change after the damp beds previously but the one downside was that the water pump had broken so there was no running water to the showers or sinks.

Wednesday 18th April - This was the day of our first dive in Fiji. We transferred across to Manta Ray Island for a beach dive. I was amazed at the amount of fish that we saw. This was by far the best dive that we had on the entire trip. The amount of fish that we saw far outweighed what we saw at the great barrier reef and the coral was completely undamaged. In the afternoon we transferred to our next island was Kuata. Kuata was much like Coral View in that the beds were damp but unfortunately it did not have the charm of the earlier island. The people were not as friendly and the food was average and at times terrible. We were due to stay on the island for 2 nights but we had spoken to people before we arrived who had warned us about it so we had managed to change our booking to only stay for 1 night.

Thursday 19th April - We did absolutely nothing productive on Thursday. We sat outside reading and playing cards for the entire day until the boat came to collect us in the afternoon. We transferred down to our last island called South Sea Island which was the smallest island we visited. From the one building on the centre of the island/sand dune you could sea all four sides and a walk round took all of 5 minutes. The island unlike the previous ones we had visited was run by Awesome Adventures Fiji so had more of a resort feel to it and the standard of the dorm and the food was much much better.

Friday 20th April - This was the first day where the weather was as befitting a tropical island, hot and sunny. This therefore required much sunbathing. This was the pattern for most of the day broken up by snorkeling over the coral reef next to the island.

Saturday 21st April - Laura and I got up early and went on our second dive in Fiji, Rich didn't join us on this one as he had got sick of having to promise to the instructors that he wasn't going to die under water from an asthma attack. There had been problems with every dive previously because as soon as he ticked the asthma box they didn't want him to dive. This dive was a wreck dive and was the deepest that we had been to at 20m. The dive was excellent. Our instructor showed us the wreck and then took us back up stopping and pointing out various different things for us to look at including a sting ray. This was also the cheapest dive that we had done at $45 or 15 pounds! The rest of the day was spent sunbathing until the storm passed overhead in mid afternoon and the heavy rain started again. This made our transfer back to the boat a little interesting. Each transfer from the island to the catamaran was made on a little boat which had to be waded out to so with the high waves and driving rain our little trip out to the main boat soaked us pretty well. The journey on the main boat back to the mainland was much better smoother.

Sunday 22nd April (the first one) - The day was very uneventful, we had returned to Smugglers cove hostel the previous evening to stay the last night and we just spent the day doing laundry and waiting to go to the airport. In the evening we traveled out to catch our flight. Unfortunately they we couldn't talk our way into first class but we did end up with seats at the front of a section so it was a little more comfortable than otherwise would have been. The flight was uneventful (all 10 hours of it) however the entertainment system in our seats didn't work too well which was annoying

Sunday 22nd April (the second one) - Our flight from Fiji landed at lunchtime, the process of entering America was actually much quicker than i had expected. It only took them 45 minutes! Unfortunately for us a China airways flight had emptied in front of us and nearly every one of them without fail hadn't filled in their visa forms correctly and require translators to help them with the customs officer which slowed things down somewhat. We managed to transfer terminals in good time and check in to our next flight to San Francisco so early that we were put on standby for the next flight which left 3 hours earlier. Although the plane was late by an hour we managed to get seats on board and arrived in San Francisco two hours early at 6pm on Sunday (our flight from Fjii departed Fiji at 10pm on Sunday).

Overall Fiji did what it was supposed to do. Gave us time to sit about and do pretty much nothing. We met some cool people on the trip which helped make things a little more fun. Much of the time you had to make your own entertainment but it's nice to sit and read a book sometimes!.

Laura is going to write the a blog about San Francisco shortly, we might finish that before we get home in a couple of weeks. See you all soon

Chris