Back in One Piece

After a tremendously good time at the TuiTai cruise we of course had to get back to Nadi to fly out to Auckland, NZ. This meant that we again had to get into one of those nice little planes. Great. In addition, we got a plane that was even smaller than the first one because there was too much luggage to fit into the original plane (glad those guys do get a chance to go to school there). But there was no other option so we flew back to Nadi with it. everything went well except for some rain along the way. Got some nice views too but it was enough adventure for that day, let's keep it at that. The picture above shows us both faintly smiling and half-assed posing in front of our own "private jet" (ok, so there was one other person, but we felt damn alone up there). I guess Rachel has conquered her fear of flying because she only squeezed the life out of my hands two to three times (and mine were a little sweaty too when it started raining halfway). But... we're updating the blog so were fine! Again, thanks to all of you who send their prayer, lit their candles, and danced naked all day and night (I don't need any names, you know who you are). Muchas gracias and till we post again!

The Dolphin Chase - Part II

But wait... there are even more dolphins to feast your eyes upon! Chel eventually couldn't take it anymore and along with a German girl (just listen to them awking and panting) jumped in the water, saw a few of them and scared them away. Now you know why they are going so fast. But seriously, this encounter in the wild was a gazillion times better than the forced encounters in the Marine Parks around the world. Let the wild be wild! Go on.. check out some more posts... it's free!

The Dolphin Chase - Part I

Chel and Sois were on the lookout for dolphins and guess what... they found some. Check out the first part of this amazing encounter (they're SOOOO cute aren't they? ;-)

Ship Ahoy - Part II

The other two remaining days were also great. We will only put some highlights, otherwise the posts will become too long, and we won't bother you with too much reading!! Every morning (at 7am), if you wanted to, you could do a stretch sessions with a little massage. Of course we participated every day!! There were aslo morning, afternoon and evening dives. The both of us tried one dive (a discovery dive for francois), but only up to 8 meters.But it was great. We even saw a sting ray, beautiful parrot fishes and corals! But, we mostly loved the guided snorkeling trips where we had to jump in in the middle of the sea to view the beautiful reefs! At one trip, we actually saw 4 sharks, a sea turtle and beautiful colourful fishes!! The sharks were actually quite big (till 1,5 - 2 meters). Three of the sharks were not dangerous, but one was. It also came very close to us, but because we were with a group it scared him away (luckily!!!). There were a lot of MTB trips and hikes to very remote places. We even hiked on an island with only goats on it. We mostly had lunch on white, sandy and very remote beaches, with lots of palm trees and with little crabs walking around with their shells and other lovely animals (one of the most poisonous snakes).

At one morning, we had the oppertunity to jump in the little rubber boat and search for dolphins next to the bay where we were anchored. We found them... there were actually lots of dolphins swimming and playing next to our little rubber boat. It was amazing, undescribable! I just wanted to swim with them in the wild. I jumped in, just to hear them communicating with sonar sounds under the water. It was a real dream, I have no words for that :-) It was amazing to see these beautiful and friendly animals playing and swimming in the wild. That same afternoon we went to snorkel in another bay, were only a few Fijian people lived. While we were snorkeling, we saw a little turtle. However, this time the turtle was not free as the other time when we saw it on our snorkeling trip. It was really really sad to see :-( (and mams and San are certainly not going to like this story.) A hole was made into her shell and she was tight up under water with a rope of about three to four meters. It was so sad, because the little animal was trying to swim into the ocean. She was totally covered with algues, preparing to die... And this was someone's pet, of one Fijian boy who lived on the island and who was actually just curious how big the turtle would become!! We decided, together with other people of the boat, to buy the turtle from him. It costed us about 100 Fijian $ in total, that is 45 EURO. And we still had to divide this amount. We were really happy that the little turtle was released in the end. Finally, our evenings were also really relaxing. Just sitting on the floor, around the kava bowl and listening and also singing with the Fijian guitar players under a starry night in beautiful bay!

So, there they are; some short (well...?) anecdotes about our Fiji adventure. There was of course much more, but we have to save something otherwise we have nothing to show you once back home! One thing is for sure... it were 5 amazing days, spent in a place which you can truly call PARADISE...

Waking up on a Small Fijian Cruise Ship

Before we kick of with the next post detailing our third day in paradise, here's a picture of Chel waking up in paradise and getting mentally ready for our 7:00 AM stretch session. Enjoy!

Biology Lessons with Chel - Part II

Drs. Chel talks about the most important tree in Fiji, the coconut tree. Enjoy!

Ship Ahoy - Part I

Our adventure cruise was finally going to begin! The second day we were picked up and brought to the Tui Tai, a lovely sailing boat. This boat was the only boat allowed to sail around the islands of Taveuni. So we really were the only ones to visit these remote islands. We were again welcomed with the Bula song, flowers and a drink. The boat was very cosy. It even had Sundecks and a little massage room. We met the other people who were already on the boat, because the cruise normally takes 5 days (we only did 3). They were also really friendly. At the boat, we were PLEASANTLY surprised because we were upgraded to the star cabin. Normally you had to pay the double price for that!

At the Tui Tai, you could participate in all sorts of activities. The first day we went on a mountainbike trip to the Bouma falls. It was quite heavy because we had to adjust to the heat and humid air. But the experience was great. We cycled through mango and pineapple plantations and through small villages. After the MTB trip, we continued by foot to the Bouma Falls. There are three water falls: at the first one, we had a picnic lunch and Chel jumped off the waterfall and had a swim; to go to the second one even required some 'survival training' skills because we had to use the 'indian bridge' movement! Sois had a nice swim afterwards at the second water fall; the third waterfall was unfortunately too muddy to go to. We were in the middle of the rainforest, and indeed... a warm, but heavy rain storm bursted out! But we were actually happy because it was a bit of a refreshment. We biked back and afterwards we relaxed on the sundecks and had a real Fijian dinner served right on the deck, in one word: delicious! And this was only the second day in paradise...

Bula and Welcome to Fiji !!!

The 26th of November we left to Fiji (Nadi) from LA. We travelled two days in time and arrived the 28th of November. Luckily the flight was only about 10 hours :-) The Fijians are said to be one of the friendliest people in the world, and indeed they are!! We flew to the biggest island of Fiji, namely Viti Levu. Upon our arrival, we were welcomed (it was 5.45 in the morning!) by a group of Fijian gitar players singing the "Bula" or "Welcome" to Fiji song. However, we had to fly with a propellor plane (ahh..) to 2 other islands, firstly Savu Savu and then to our final arrival point Taveuni. The views were really stunning as we could see all the different islands, colours of water and reefs!

Taveuni is a beautiful tropical island, thick with vegetation and tropical flowers. Therefore it is also called the 'Garden Island'. It has only 12.000 people living on it and is 42 kilometers long and about 11 kilometers wide. Actually we've chosen to go to this island because there are not many tourists and resorts. You really got the oppertunity to see how the real Fijians live. Well, for the first night we reserved a 'bure' or a typical Fijian home. We were picked up by a friendly guy and he drove us to our place (which was 5 minutes from the airport). This was actually in someone's garden! We were welcomed by a girl who was working there. The "bure" was great and even had an outside shower with ocean view. For the rest there was actually nothing, even not a specific city centre. It was quite a culture shock because we just came from busy LA to the middle of nowhere. But, we were quickly adapted again... finally a little bit of relaxing!

We decided to take on a walk to find something to eat and ended up in a rain storm. But we had a great lunch, cooked by a very friendly (again) Fijian lady. For dinner we ended up in a different place called "Coconut Grove." It supposed to be a restaurant, but again it seemed like we were eating inside someone's home. We had to remove our shoes and were welcomed by a group of gitar players sitting on the floor. There were two other couples and that was it. This was the first evening when we experienced the 'KAVA'. Well, we had to sit around the group of gitar players and around a bowl of some sort of 'mud'. Then, we were invited to drink this mud from a little bowl that was passed on from one person to the other. You had to clap once before drinking, and then finish with three claps. Everyone had to drink it, because it was seen as an insult if you didn't do that. Hesitantly we drunk it as well. It really tasted like bitter, mud water and was far from a treat! It was really weird because it made your lips and tongue numb. Luckily this was normal...

Kava is actually a kind of narcotics, namely a tranquilizing, non-alcoholic drink that numbs the tongue and lips. It comes from the waka (dried root) of the pepper plant. Fijian people drink it very often and it is used in ceremonies as well. They also believe that is has medicinal and relaxing purposes. When another girl explained to us that it was completely normal, we were a little bit more relaxed... One good advice: Always check about people's cultures and habits before travelling to the country ;-)

The food was great and really fresh! We had a chat with another couple and asked them why there were not so many people on Fiji. Then it turned out that there was a negative travel advice for Fiji because of a military coup... We walked back in the dark to our bure and had to hurry otherwise the electricity would be cut off. And then we were actually UNPLEASANTLY surprised by a giant spider as big as a person's hand!! When we made a picture of it, its eye reflected in the camera... so you have an idea how big it was. We had to catch it (actually Sois had to, hihi) because the electricity (and light!!) would be turned off in about 8 minutes. But, my spider man managed to do this and we could safely go to sleep after all...