Week XXII – XXIII

Fiji – around Viti Levu

Somehow, I lost a week. Just kidding – I’m not very time consistent and thus write this for what happened in the last two weeks. Well, soon I’ll be off to Hawaii and by crossing the date line I’ll get myself a day back. I’m going to stay there till the seventh of July, heading further to Seattle afterwards.

Back on Fijis biggest island Viti Levu I went on a few day trips before making my way down to the coral coast and pacific harbour. There the shark dive I intended to do was almost washed away by lots of rain. I managed to go diving one day later and although the visibility was not the best and I’m not a big fan of just diving down and watch dangerous animals being fed, it was a really good dive. We saw grey, black- and white tip reef sharks, a lot of bull sharks, a nurse shark and masses of other fish.
I did a bit of jungle walking, reading and snorkeling – where I managed to see a small sting ray, a sea turtle, two white-tip reef sharks and to dive up an old mask and snorkel.

For the optical documentation I leave you with orchids, fire dances, coconut trees, mud and kids ..while I try to figure out what I have and have not do to get into the US.

Week XX – XXI

Fiji – Nadi and Yasawa Islands

Walking barefoot through sand (and dead corals – ouch!), taking only cold showers (caused by the lack of hot water), a lot of fresh fruits like pawpaw (Papaya – more vitamin c than a couple of apples), pineapples and bananas, generator powered electricity that is sometimes down, snorkeling with reef sharks and manta rays – and cutting the feet on slippery paths. All that describes the island life quite well.
At first, it might seem as there is little to do in these small paradises, but there’s always more than just lying at the beach in the sun. Although, just relaxing in a most comfortable hammock with some ice cream and a bottle of water, a good book and the view below palm trees onto the sea is one of the most chilled out things I’ve ever done. So what else did I do? I learned card tricks, card games (I admit, most of them were drinking games), improved in kayaking, snorkeling, walking on almost anything barefoot, managed to read a book and to start a new one – come on, that’s a lot in two weeks. Further, I took part in social kava drinking, talking and making music with local people which is so much enjoyable and missing in most ‘modern’ cultures.

Chronological.. After arriving in Nadi, where I stayed two days to get used to the different environment, I booked a travel and accommodation pass and went on to the so called Yasawa island group in the West of the country. I stayed at Beachcomber island, went further up to Kuata, Korovou and the Coral View resort – in the northernmost part of the islands. Afterwards, I was heading down again with stops at Manta Ray Island and South Sea Island – the smallest, where it took about five minutes to walk around the island – at low-tide. Every island was quite different and since the meals are included in the accommodation (since there are no shops on the islands to buy stuff) and most of the resort offer some additional evening program like fire dances and local music, it is not that expensive as it may seem and well worth the value.

I’m back in Nadi and will do some stuff around here and most likely head over to the south of the mainland, the Coral Cost, for a few days before I’m going to leave Fiji and fly over to Hawaii in about a week. Take a look at the Yasawa Island life, sunsets and fire-dancing..

Week XIX

Australia – Byron Bay to Brisbane

All of a sudden the rain clouds cleared and it was fine again. Nevertheless, I went by bus to Brisbane to spend some days there. From there, I went on a day trip up north with Silke. I met her in the hostel we both stayed in. We met some of her friends there and ended up at Birbie Island. Another two days I spent on a tour to Moreton Island with four fellow travelers. We went boarding on sand dunes, snorkeling at ship wrecks, hiking and swimming in a nice lagoon, which I would rather call lake. The time out of the city was really enjoyable. Although, I also liked the days in Brisbane. Except of one threat on my life there is not really much that happened.
I was able to clean and repair my tent. Now, I successfully made it to Nadi on one of the main Fiji Islands.

Brisbane at night and on Moreton Island..

Fiji is different. I’ll write more soon, as far as I find Internet connections.. if not, imagine me chilling around some awesome beaches.

Uh, btw.. no cell phone signal for me here! (and I’m off to the islands)