Week 17 (New Town Beach and Walu Beach, Mololo Island)

New Town Beach
(29.01.08 – 31.01.08)

We woke up on Robinson Crusoe Island to a trail of destruction that had been left by the cyclone, coconuts lay everywhere. Luckily as we were not too far from the mainland we could still get the ferry back. Once we were in Nadi we saw the real damage that had been done, the town was flooded and in some points the water was 3m high which meant that the whole of the Nadi was closed. We were meant to be taking a ferry to Mana Island as soon as we got to the Nadi but we soon found out that the ferries were not running and that our travel agent was closed as her office was in Nadi town. We checked into a hotel at Nadi which most people spend a day in as it should purely be used as a base point for travel to the islands (it is that dismal). Shortly after we checked in the power went off in the whole of Nadi. We spent the next two days reading and playing cards by candlelight with the other stranded guests while the wind howled and the rain poured.

Walu Beach
(31.01.08 – 03.02.08)

After three days the main cyclone winds had ceased and the ferries began to take passengers to the islands again. So after changing a few of our bookings we started to make our way to Walu Beach on Mololo Island. However, even though the cyclone had passed, the weather was still horrible with not one ray of sunshine all day. It stayed this way for the full three days that we were at the resort. The highlights of our days were mealtimes, scrabble and the beer behind the bar!

To be honest it wasn’t as bad as it sounds and we did get to do some sea kayaking when the winds died down a bit, although it was still very rough. We left the island on the 3rd and made our way to Nadi airport where we caught a flight to Hawaii. Aloha to the good weather we hope :D

Week 16 (South Island, Abel Tasmin, Shaving of "the beard")

Abel Tasmin
19.01.08

We visited the beautiful Abel Tasmin National Park where we took a two man kayak out onto the sea. Despite being a little bit choppy and windy at times, we were able to view all the sea creatures going about their everyday rituals, as well as taking in the gorgeous surroundings of the dozens of islands.




We took a very scenic drive back to Christchurch, stopping off at as many places as possible to take in the scenery. We drove past one beach which had dozens and dozens of seals on them. We could get quite close to them, they didn't seem to ooze the testosterone the sea lions did, they seemed very docile.





Christchurch
22.01.08 - 24.01.08

Rob also took the opportunity to shave his beard in time for Fiji
Now you see it............







Now you don't!









Fiji

Nadi
25.01.08

Before taking a ferry out to some of the islands of Fiji we went into one of the main cities of Fiji, Nadi. It was very different to what we had imagined, we had to have our wits about us once again. This country really reminded us of Cambodia. We were invited to participate in a local ritual of drinking a ground root called Kava. It was pretty disgusting, but we tried to keep smiling!



We took a ferry out to an Island called Robinson Crusoe Island. We had a fabulous time on the island. The entertainment was fantastic, we had fire dancing shows put on for us every night.






The staff on the island didn't stop, even in the daytime they managed to get some local dancing into the itinerary.







We met some really great people on the island including Broana and Keira, two Irish lawyers on their holidays. We spent a lot of time with them, including a few evenings of drinking a bit too much!






We saw some beautiful sunsets at the island, although we were only on there for 3 nights, we were really sad to say goodbye as we were made to feel so welcome.






On the last day we noticed that it was extremely windy and by night time the threat of cyclone "Gene" had been confirmed. It was quite scary at the time and we were told to be under shelter at all times because of the falling coconuts!
However, this didn't stop the staff on the island entertaining us. They even performed a fire dance in the hurricane (possibly not the cleverest or safest thing to do considering they were surrounded by wooden huts.)