In the past year we have moved to Hong Kong, spent countless hours shopping at Ikea, furnished our flat, traveled to the Philippines, visited South Africa twice, and then this month we ticked off plenty of items on our bucket list in Fiji!
Fiji was so spectacular that after 14 months of relentless silence I've finally sat down to write this post.
In my mind, day one started when I took off from O.R Tambo at midday on Saturday 14 July. 13 hours later (and maybe only 3 hours of sleep) I landed in HK happy to be back with Jason after 2 weeks apart. The next few hours were a blur of unpacking, doing washing, repacking for Fiji and a quick afternoon nap. Then, at 5pm we were once again in the air. After a much shorter, 10 hour flight (and maybe 2 hours of sleep) we touched down at 7am on Monday 16 July. Considering all of the above we still had a full 'first' day in Fiji ahead of us!
Travelling is not for sissies.
So our real first day actually wasn't too eventful. We checked in to our slightly below average accommodation, had Burger King, caught the local bus which happened to be missing every window besides the windscreen, walked around Nadi and the markets and eventually fell asleep at 6pm after a VERY long day!
Since we had seen all Nadi had to offer in less than an hour on Day 1 we decided to hop on another bus and head out of town. We drove about 40 minutes South and we're dropped off at a rusty sign that said 'Natadola Beach - 8km'. Luckily (or unluckily??) for us we must have had tourist written all over us as a make-shift taxi driver in his even rustier single-cab bakkie offered us a ride to the beach.
Jason had already nearly been scammed in Nadi when a very friendly guy had offered to show us a market and then allow us to take part in a Karva ceremony - all of which are classified as typical Fijian scams. So after squashing into this clapped out bakkie and driving down a steep and bumpy dirt road I definitely thought we were well on our way to getting scammed.
However, a beautiful beach welcomed us at the end of the road and thoughts of being scammed vanished. We quickly arranged a pick up time with our newly classified 'friendly' driver and made a break for the famous Fiji ocean.
After a few mandatory selfies Jason and I both spotted a few surfers on the far side of the beach. Besides a handful of tourists there were plenty of other Fijians out and about trying to sell us horseback rides, massages, coconuts and hair braiding. Too bad we only had surfing on the brain.
I'll definitely give it to those guys for trying. One guy went as far as too offer us a single surfboard, his surfboard, which we could rent for the day. This however meant he'd have to drive home, pick it up and then drive back. And since Fiji time is a very real thing we had to decline his newly created beach service.
This entire holiday I kept saying to Jason that he never knows when enough is enough. It kind of became the motto of the holiday. And this motto started off strong from Day 2. So we decided to tick off something that had always been on my bucket list - a romantic horse ride along the beach. Our guide for the ride, King Solomon (lets try not to make fun of his name), gave us a quick, yet disturbing history of the Cannibalism in Fiji and how they loved to eat fair skinned people. I think mosquitoes would have to agree with them on this fact.
We decided to splurge (in comparison to Burger King) and enjoy a Fijian Indian inspired meal from Sitar to end the day. All I'm saying is in comparison to any meal, almost ever, the meal we had was definitely Shitar than the last.
Day 3 meant saying goodbye to Nadi and hello to the Yasawa islands! After a beautiful ferry ride we were welcomed at Barefoot Manta Resort. FOMO is a real thing and was strongly experienced by us when we were forced to sit and listen to a welcome briefing and deal with all the paper work for check in. I mean, sitting and listening to how amazing the snorkeling is, potential for manta rays and all the other awesome activities definitely didn't help as we sat sipping our welcome drinks.
Luckily for us our briefing was cut short by the best sound. The drum and call for manta rays!!
Within 20 minutes of arriving on the beautiful Drawaqua Island we left FOMO behind, grabbed our snorkeling gear and hopped on a boat in pursuit of the mantas. Swimming with such gigantic, peaceful animals was nothing short of magical.
We ended the day with a sunset cruise - beers in hand and happy hearts.
A sunrise morning hike sounded like a good idea the night before but when our alarm went off at 4:45 I definitely questioned our sanity. This questioning continued for quite some time as we sat waiting for our guide to arrive. After a quick walk up the only hill on the island we sat and watched the sky come alive with every shade of pink and orange. So perhaps our sanity was still intact.
When starting a day with the perfect golden hour and a stack of fresh flap jacks you are bound to have a great day. We soaked in a few warm morning rays while enjoying the view from our hammock. Our accommodation was absolutely ideal. Cosy beach front tent with just the right balance of romance and adventure. Jason was ready to buy an island and move in immediately...
The school visit was one of my highlights. Thanks to the Bucketlist family we had a few dances and games to play with the kids when the teachers put us on the spot. My top three moments:
1) Jason teaching the boys the South African version of a hakka
2) Asking the kids to name different animals in South Africa and Fiji
3) All the kids trying to imitate Jason's well practiced imitation of a cow mooing
While having your classroom under coconut trees with the best beach front view and getting to school on a school boat (not a school bus) definitely sounds like paradise I was really touched to see how these kids had so little to help them learn, yet they were so happy and eager to absorb everything that was offered to them. Poverty and the lack of basic educational necessities could so easily be overlooked by the beautiful setting around the school. We were so privileged, and humbled, by the visit. Once again receiving abundantly more than what we gave them.
Our daily routine at Barefoot Manta became waking up just before the sunrise, enjoying the golden light and each others company on what often felt like our own private beach before tucking into a generous pile of flapjacks smothered in syrup. How else could we get enough energy for our daily snorkeling missions and non-stop adventures... So, thank you flap jacks!
Remember I mentioned our holiday motto: Enough is never enough. This was fully embraced on day 5. Since snorkeling wasn't enough we had to kick it up a notch (definitely more of Jason's wishes) and move on to scuba diving. With wet suits on, the basics explained and a quick sign language course we were wadding into the water. I would just like to take a moment and mention how similar Jasmine and I can sometimes be and how these similarities definitely took effect in this dive.
1) When doing any sort of training/something new we like to set the bar as low as possible for ourselves so that when we eventually start doing something right we will at least be awarded with 'most improved student'.
2) Water can sometimes make us freak out - like a lot!
3) We are willing to try everything at least once just to see if we might love it. Jasmine is still trying to figure this one out with frogs though.
Back to the dive. For some reason I forgot how to swim down and just assumed the sheer mass of the equipment strapped to my body would drag me down - but it didn't. After figuring out how to swim I was equalizing like a boss, breathing normally (much harder than it sounds) and even enjoying looking at all the fish. Who knows what happened next. I started panicking, signaled thumbs up; which for some ridiculous reason means the complete opposite and can be translated as 'Panic & Abort immediately'. When I reached the surface I was hyperventilating and the instructor had to inflate my life jacket - I feel like he didn't realise that floating was the easy bit and sinking was what I struggled with. I was ready to give up. (You see how I managed to set the bar as low as humanly possible - unintentional smart move). The instructor managed to calm me down and the rest of the dive went considerably well. He did however spend the majority of the time applauding me for the tiniest things and checking that I was ok - like I said, most improved student award.
And since trying everything once is very important I was glad when the dive was over as I'm not sure that diving is for me.
You might be wondering why there has been no mention of Jason. Was he even with me during the dive??
He sure was. Jason was swimming around, loving life and acing it all. My favourite all rounder! At the time I couldn't really appreciate him, or the fish, or anything else, because breathing alone required my full attention. But, seriously he was amazing!
Day 5 treated us to the most impressive sunset we had in Fiji. It was very clear that this was definitely becoming our most favourite holiday - ever. Even though our routine usually involved going to sleep almost straight after supper the famous crab race was something we were not going to miss. After bidding and buying our own crabs - obviously we managed to out bid everyone else (at a whopping cost of $6) we proudly 'owned' the South African crab racer. Too bad our rather sleepy crab only woke up right at the end and we didn't even place in the final race. Winning aside, the crab race was good fun and a bit of healthy competition is right up Jason's ally. |
This was our first morning waking up in our new room. Still a beach front tent but with more space, an actual front door and toilet door and a little bit less romantic and adventurous. We had heard about the little reef sharks who's fins became visible at low tide. So straight after enjoying the first morning rays we dashed across to sunset beach to try and spot the little black tip fins sticking out of the water. Feeling like real shark hunters, well actually like shark spotters, we perched ourselves on the highest rocks we could find in the shallow bay. It wasn't long before we spotted a fin and to our delight the little guys ended up swimming really close to us. When I say 'us' I really mean just me. Jason was rather jealous that they seemed to prefer the smell of my feet instead of his. Fiji was definitely producing a long list of highlights on a daily basis.
Being Saturday meant that there would be all-day preparations for the anticipated 'Fiji night'. See, and more importantly, smelling the Lovu doing it's job all day was like slow cooked anticipation. We still had an entire day ahead of us so Fiji night would have to wait. Fiji really is paradise and every time we put our snorkeling gear on and were able to experience what was lying in that perfect blue water we really were blown away. Every single time, every single day. I often squeezed Jason's arm under water and told him that we were ruined for life. But in all honesty, I really do think Fiji has ruined us for future beach holidays. The amount of coral, colours, fish, sunset and sunrise views, accommodation, food, activities, manta-rays, sharks... definitely ruined in the very best way! |
We decided to change up our sunset routine and do a little hike up the hill. I think all sunsets in Fiji are beautiful - but the day's events definitely added an extra colour of beauty as the sun dipped behind the clouds.
The staff at Barefoot treated us to the full Lovu experience - singing, dancing and let's just say very uniquely flavoured food.
One thing I loved about the Fijian people is how much they love rugby, rugby 7s. Another thing I loved was the friendly competitive rivalary whenever we mentioed that we were South African. So, how lucky were we to find out that we'd be in Fiji, surrounded by rugby 7's supporters, while the 7's world cup was happening in the U.S. I was determined to be in amongst the locals, sorry tourists, supporting the Blitz Bokke. Jason and I were welcomed into the staff quarters and found ourselves a spot in front of the small TV. Despite Fiji and South Africa losing my heart was filled to the brim with happiness - and love for the Fijians.
Day 7 - one whole week in this place. We finally decided to embrace Fiji time and spent the rest of the day snorkeling, napping, playing bats, reading and tanning. it was just as good as it sounds. Beach and chill.
Day 8 Today was the last day at Barefoot Manta, the last day of waking up to watch the sunrise, flapjacks for breakfast, plenty of snorkeling, Magnum and milkshake treats, sunset beer shandys and card games and falling asleep in our little beach front tent. It's not all bad though. After checking out we just transferred from our boat to Mantaray Resort's boat. We basically just moved across the street. When moving 'across the street' we also upgraded to a a beautiful beach-front bure with the most stunning view. The lunch was also delicious - and true Fiji style, so was the snorkeling. The rest of the day consisted of once again, beach and chill. |
Day 9 - the last day to soak up the magic of the Yasawa islands.
Being Hodges' and ensuring consistency 'enough is never enough' so we started the day earlier than usual by hopping in a fishing boat. Fishing in Fiji - just something else to tick of the list. I absolutely loved being out on the water trolling for fish. Even though I was content just being out at sea I was very glad when finally one of the fishing lines started zinging along. Jason reeled and reeled and by the sounds of his breathing amount of effort being put in I was sure he had caught a HUGE fish. Turns out, it was a decent (and seriously beautiful) mackerel but definitely not quite as big as I was expecting. After a few more tries and unfortunately not catching anything else we reeled in the lines. And although we didn't see any dolphins I was as happy as can be driving the boat back to the resort. I liked being the captain for a change.
This really shouldn't have counted as a day or even made it onto this blog because our plane left Fiji at 8:20am. But since you are reading this something worth typing about must have happened on day 10. In true Fiji style - the biggest cherry on the top to end off the most phenomenally perfect holiday in paradise happened at the airport. We met the whole Bucket List family! For reals! It was amazing seeing their little family 'behind the scenes', uncut and unedited. Here are a few facts:
1) Cali is even cuter in person
2) They really are as cool in person as they are in their videos
3) The Homelove Network IG weekly vote happens a week after they have already left that country
How can we ever have another holiday as special as this one?
As we boarded the plane, which was fully embracing Fiji time, this holiday had changed us. We had pushed ourselves to try new things, chat to new people and fully embrace every day and every moment. A tiny piece of my heart will forever belong to the islands of Fiji.
Vinaka!