More notes on Fiji! if you missed part 1 :
http://earth.kitjunkie.org/fiji/vinaka-vakalevu-fiji-part-1-2006/
1st January 2007 - Kim's Place - Becky
"Kim and his family picked us up from the Ferry. We took a slow ride over VERY choppy water, with one child steadily emptying the boat of water with a bucket, Kim had on hand steering and the other trying to catch dinner with his fishing line. Andy had no problem fishing as a small flying fish committed suicide by jumping into his lap. 40 minutes later we had settled into our bure, which had a swinging bed. Andie (Kim's wife) had prepared dinner for us all, a HUGE plate of noodles and Curry, Rice and Chicken, A root vegetable, coleslaw and pineapple. We didn't even dent the mound of food, apparently Kim has it nightly or he can't sleep."
2nd January 2007 - Kims Place - Andy
"At low tide the island Kim's house is on is connected to Turtle island, a very elite resort where recently Britney Spears had her wedding. We walked between the two to look at the crabs and explore the mangroves, not getting too close for fear to security shooting us from there little watch tower. We headed back to see Kim preparing the boat (emptying the water out) for our return journey."
2nd January 2007 - Korovou - Andy
"One of the staff, Moses, wasn't impressed we were staying in the dorm and kept telling us to move into the 'Love Nest' next to him and his wife to be. After a little bartering we did move into our own little lodge for 3 pounds more. One of the guys we were talking to at dinner ran an outreach program back in Canada to teach kids how to break dance, he gave us a fantastic demonstration and taught one of the local kids some moves."
4th January 2007 - In the Island Village - Becky
"We got on the boat to the Village, a 30 minute trip with great views of the coast of the island, we arived at the beach of the village and our guide went to the chief to ask permission to enter. Andy was pronounced Chief of the group as he sat down for another Kava ceremony. While we were drinking Kava, the local women set up a market on the floor selling, craft items, as soon as we'd bought something they started packing up as we were their only customers for the day. I was really impressed with the school whose school motto was 'the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom'. School was out as its the summer holidays here, so the kids were around the village, helping parents and playing volley ball (and wearing party hats)"
5th January 2007 - Manta ray - Becky
"Iva and Cody were in the shallow water, feeding the fish bread and pancakes trying to get their trust before trying to grab them out of the water, they never caught any. Later we all went (Me, Andy, Midla, Jordy, Iva, Kathie, Thierry) off Kayaking to another island, pulled our Kayaks up onto the beach and spent the next hour snorkeling, I saw loads of purple starfish, and a 2 meter sea worm (Yuck). Kathie and Midla disappeared so Andy went on a rescue mission to find them and came back towing the girls along. That night Mike and Tam (Codys' parents) put on a fire dancing show, fantastic Jordy joined in and so did some of the staff. Absolutely amazing"
6th Jauary 2007 - Back to Octopus - Andy
"Said good to the friends we'd made and headed off the Octopus. We decided to spend our last 2 nights in Fiji here as we loved it so much over Christmas, I was amazed that some of the staff had remembered me. That evening we played some games for champagne, My team and I won a few bottles. There were only 5 or so games and we were still up for more when we finished, as we'd (England) had just lost the ashes miserably, we thought we'd rematch the Australians to the cereal box game. All good but Becky (due to her previous training with Toni) won for England, we couldn't stretch to champagne so it was a Fiji bitter instead. After most had gone to bed (including Becky) we carried on drinking, Anna, a Yorkshire girl living in Sydney convinced us to dive in the pool, shortly after the manager came over to suggest we called it a night, an hour and one more dip later and we did. In the morning, Anna and I were checking out in the office when some of the staff were chatting about the rowdy lot the night before, we sat there sheepishly."
More to come later!