Fiji - welcome to paradise.

To escape the winter cold after hearing all about the heatwave back home we decided a wee trip to a tropical island was in order.

Graham and Diane had enthused us with their adventures in Fiji last winter, so we were keen to see it for ourselves.

We arrived in Nadi (pronounced Nandi!) and the airhostess said 'welcome to Paradise' as we touched down! We had decided not to hire a car but use buses and taxi's, so we waited in warmth and brilliant sunshine for the air conditioned bus for Suva the capital.

Unfortunately by the time we go to Suva it was raining and dark - a local 3rd world bus station in the dark and rain is a very confusing and noisy place! We also made a mistake with our first nights accommodation - not worthy of Lonely Planet - we shall write to them to let them know!

It got better after that!
We were sitting in the front and realised the bus driver was watching the film on a monitor as he drove - a bit disconcerting!

 At least the Sunbeam buses all have windows unlike local and school buses!

 This is a place not to stay in Suva!



This is the place to stay! The Grand Pacific - beautiful. We did manage a lovely coffee and breakfast there!

Suva is a big city and very like ones in Malaysia etc, we enjoyed eating in Hawker Centres and visited the main museum, where they have ocean going canoes and interestingly a section of the original rudder of the Bounty (as of Mutiny on the Bounty)

From Suva we got a taxi to Bau Landing where we were to get a boat to the island of Leleuvia off the east coast of the main island of Viti Levu. We were quite surprised when we go to the landing down a long dirt road to find there was nothing and nobody there! The taxi driver waitied with us until some other people arrived who were going to another island on a local boat. It was very 'Fiji Time' a small boat arrived with the school children from Bau island and some of their teachers heading home, so we had a chat to them.

Eventually a truck arrived with provisions for our island and then the boat arrived - as you can see it was overcast and very windy!

After a bouncy wet trip we arrived at the island. X marks the spot (too small for the map!)



A beautiful if windswept tiny coral island, which took all of 20 minutes to walk right round.

 At low tide it was fascinating walking out on the reef, where during the day we had been snorkelling amongst a rainbow of tropical fish, including comical clown fish, elegant angel fish and huge parrot and long thin fish (don't know their names!!)

The coral was superb too. The photo above is from the website as we didn't have an underwater camera unfortunately! See Graham and Diane's blog for some good photos of the same reef. G & D Blog. Thanks to you both for the recommendation to stay on this tiny island.

We did have some sunny weather but it remained windy for our 3 days in Leleuvia. Apart from extreme relaxation we did enjoy some local cuisine, including superb fish, cooked fern leaves, local ceviche and a Kava or two with the lovely staff.

 A new dorm for back packers was being built using pandanus leaves for the roof

The high point for both of us was the first dive we have done in 15 years - both of us were a bit nervous especially as the swell was very high. We both had a dive master with us and although the visibility was quite poor we did have the excitement of catching a large green turtle (about 20 years old). One of the dive masters wrote on a pad underwater to reassure us it was being caught for tagging not eating! It was very strong and put up quite a fight before it was put in the boat.

 Here you can just see him swimming away from Seru the dive master after being tagged.

A baby turtle had also been rescued and was being protected until it was large enough to release and have a good chance of surviving in the wild.

A beautiful restful island.