Our Fiji Trip

It was a long trip from Detroit to Fiji and we were exhausted from the jet lag. It took a few days to recover after about 24 hours of flying and traveling. We arrived to Fiji around 5:30am Fiji time and almost missed our boat, the Yasawa Flyer at the Denaru Marina at 8:30am. Our bus driver told us boarding was at 8:50. Fortunately, as we were eating breakfast at the marina, we heard the horn blow, scarfed down half of our meal, and we boarded as they were untying the boat. It was close… a little too close. 

The country of Fiji consists of 322 islands, and the area we choose was the Yasawa Island group. You have to take a boat or sea plane to get to these islands and we were told they are the most beautiful islands in Fiji. It took approximately 3 hrs to arrive by boat to our first destination in the Yasawa Islands. These islands contain mountainous peaks, sandy beaches, palm trees, teal water and reefs full of marine life.

Once we reached Drawaqa, our destined island, a water tax picked us up from the Yasawa Flyer and drove us to shore to the Barefoot Island Resort. We were given a tour of the island and then escorted to our bure (room/hut; whatever you want to call it). Our bure we stayed in was much nicer than we expected, meaning that we had our own restroom and shower, not community shared. We had a beautiful view of the sunset beach; palm trees, white sand, huge waves crashing off the reef in the distance and all the other things you normally associate with paradise.

Once we dropped off our bags, settled in to our room, and had a delicious lunch, we made an attempt to lie around on the beach to rest from traveling, but we were too excited and had to get out and snorkel. We went on a snorkel reef safari, a guided snorkel trip. Jeremy thought this would be best since he’s never snorkeled in the ocean before and wanted to know what he was looking at. We both loved the snorkeling, so we pretty much snorkeled for the remainder of our trip (rain or shine). It’s amazing how much life there is on the reef and how many bright colored fish, animals and coral there are! We saw a handful of things that were really cool besides the common reef fish. We saw squid that changed all sorts of colors, a puffer fish and boxfish, clown fish, octopus that turned colors to camouflage itself, lion fish which are beautiful and  also extremely poisonous (Link), and a Maori wrasse (Link) which was gigantic and scared the $#%! out of Jeremy. Besides snorkeling, we did manage to do a few hikes around the island, have long walks on the beach, played a couple games of volleyball with the locals (they are very good at volleyball), and also a couple games of dice with our new friends.

After 3 nights at Barefoot resort it was time to leave. It was bitter-sweet because our time at barefoot was awesome, but we knew we were going on to explore more of Fiji. Back aboard the Yasawa flyer (no issues this time), we traveled another hour or so passing about a dozen more beautiful islands. Every one was more beautiful the last. We arrived at Blue lagoon beach resort and this resort was a bit fancier. Michelle will tell you we stayed there because it was close by to the limestone caves, but she had a hidden agenda, this place is known for its curries and other great foods. We did quite a bit of snorkeling, but it wasn’t as good as barefoot. 

 The limestone caves were fun to explore; we swam through an underwater tunnel to enter a second hidden cave… kind of spooky.  Here at Blue Lagoon we did much more lying around, reading, and sleeping on the beach ; probably because of all the food we ate. However, we did manage to do a few hikes to the top of the mountain to take in the best views we've ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice! 

The resorts put on many shows for us too. We saw an interesting coconut demonstration and got to taste different preparations of coconut, including coconut water, raw, shredded and fried. We had a few hermit crab races, which got pretty competitive. Saw the lovo demonstration, in which the food is cooked under ground. We also participated in a couple rituals and ceremonies. 
Our overall impression of Fiji was amazing. It really was paradise. If it wasn't for the 16hrs of flying, we would recommend it to everyone. We have now arrived into Auckland, NZ and have been busy setting up accounts and running errands. We will be here for the net few days looking for our camper van. Once we find one we'll post it up on here so you'll be able to see where we'll be living while were down here.
We also have more pictures on picasa just click on the link. Our Fiji Trip

As a side note, you can subscribe to our blog which will email you when it's updated. You just need to enter your email in the "follow by email" box.