Bula from Fiji

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog and it feels a bit trickier to get back into it. Since Sophie has had her ‘bad eye’ from the paddleboard incident we stayed and played in Auckland for a week and then moved onto pastures and countries new.

In Auckland we moved into our new home away from home and had a holiday away from our holiday and lived it up with the mighty Thomsons. Their amazing house came with beautiful hospitality from possible the best Kiwis in the world. A big thank you from them for giving us 5 star luxury to crash in and the hot chocolates on tap.

We saw the sights in the City of Sails and climbed up the harbour bridge (in between lying by our pool that is!) It took us back to our leaving party at the Church as aviators and hard hats were part of our safety gear.

In month 5/7, our journey then took us onto Fiji. We spent one night on the mainland; Viti Levu in one of the main towns Nadi before heading off to the Yasawas – a large stretch of island supposedly the most beautiful in Fiji. We were not disappointed; our resort was called Manta Ray and had amazing coral a few metres off the beach.

We saw a 2m long reef shark in the shallows and finally Sophie saw her angel fish (Nemo). Our days were spent snorkelling, lazing around and focused all around the delicious meals. One day on Manta ray was spent making a coconut bracelet. When we saw ‘bracelet making’ on the list of activities we thought of idle chit-chat around a table with some beads. What we got was; a trek into the jungle, a climb up a coconut tree, sawing a coconut then sanding it for countless hours until Si (slave driver/activity man) was happy with the finished product, which incidentally was too big for our wrists and ended up being an ‘upper-arm piece of jewellery’. ‘Sanding’ involved a rock, some sand and some water, stir all together and rub coconut frantically until sweating profusely. Anyways the finished product probably wouldn’t be sold in the gift shop but it worked very well for our tribal costumes on Robinson Crusoe.

After 3 nights on Manta Ray it was time to move onto another island off the south west coast of the mainland called Robinson Crusoe. This island was entirely different from the sparkling water and calm nature of our previous island. The moment we stepped onto the island we were greeted by a fire show and 80 other guests.

These guests left the resort later that night leaving only us islanders; the overnight stayers and the staff with whom we became great friends and a large family. Many a fun night was had. One night in question was Tribal Night which was our initiation into our island family. In the day we scoured the jungle in search of vines, coconut leaves and flowers to make our costumes. The rest of the day was put into preparing our outfits for the nights activities. Me and Sophie being costume experts (comes with being in a hockey squad) set about with great enthusiasm.

Of course as with every single country we’ve been too we had a little accident! Whilst making Sophie’s coconut bikini, yes everything we put our minds to is given 100%, the Swiss Army knife she was using slipped and she took a chunk out of her finger. So even with a large bandaged finger, Sophie still won first prize (I think it was a sympathy vote!)

I think Sophie’s accident was punishment for me bringing in my penknife into the country; I used my Swiss Army knife in our campervan as a tin opener and then forgot to stow it in my hold luggage when taking our flight to Fiji. In customs after being x-rayed I was pulled to the side and asked if I had any dangerous weapons on me. After some rummaging I found the offending article in my hand luggage, I profusely apologised and somehow hoped I could get it posted home as I knew it would be confiscated. But oh, no… the security woman simply whipped out the largest blade, held it up to a ruler and stated that as it was under 6cm it would be fine to take onto the plane!!! We have defiantly have had a fork taken of us on our travels, but a 6cm long penknife is fine…

As we were staying in cheaper resorts we had fairly rustic facilities, dorm rooms with 35 others and cold showers but really, that just added to the charm of the islands. Our favourite was the bucket showers at Robinson Crusoe; due to Cyclone Mick who hit their shores a few years ago the island no longer had running water from the mainland. So they had to ship fresh water everyday so water was rationed to a bucket per day each. The bucket shower had to be pulled down and then filled then hoisted back up and there was a tap welded on the underside. This was perfectly enough water for a shower and I realised how much could be wasted by not turning off the shower in between lathering etc.

Our discoveries from Fiji are; Fijians are all amazing singers we were serenaded when we arrived and when we left the islands. Also all Fijians are built naturally like tanks. Old traditions of cannibalism gave the eaters the power that was stored in their enemies’ body, so it was fight or be eaten so only the fittest survived. Bringing now a nation of giants and coincidentally a coconut looks a lot like a rugby ball which is why they have such a talent in that sport!

We are now in Hawaii living the American dream, Saint Paddy’s day tomorrow which the Americans are going crazy for so hopefully should have plenty of craic to report back on.

Love from Cara Magoolagan-Thomson and Sophie Acarnley-Thomson