It was an early one for us the next morning as
our bus was picking us up at 7.30_am and we had to get some breakfast
first. They ended up over loading the bus so there wasn't enough room for us to
get on. We had to get on the next one which was late so it made us late for the
ferry check in. We also needed to get cash out as they don't have any ATM's on
any of the islands and my card wouldn't work! Mel managed to get some money
out, and we just managed to get our bags checked in on the ferry before it set
off. Feeling rather stressed out, this still wasn't the dream start we were
hoping for. But that all changed when we saw the first island; South Sea Island
is a little spit of sand with a little resort on it, and you can walk around it in ten minutes, with clear blue skies and clear turquoise waters. Bounty Island
where we were staying wasn't much bigger, it took a whole half an hour to walk
round. The ferry stopped and a little water taxi came out from the island to
pick us up. As we jumped onto shore there was three women there singing a
welcome song to us, with a big 'Bula', (hello) when we jumped off the boat.
This was what we'd imagined Fiji to be like! It was time for some sunbathing so
we hit the sun beds for a couple of hours before lunch. Later in the afternoon
we took advantage of the free snorkel hire and went to try out our new camera
case. The reef was literally meters off the beach, and stuffed with so many
different types of fish, it was as good if not better than the Great Barrier
Reef. We got some awesome pictures, and after Mel called it a day and went in, I stayed out a bit longer and I even saw a Lion fish! Which I also got great
pictures of just to make Mel jealous. We had another fairly early morning so we
could do our first activity of the trip, a sailing tour aboard the 'Sea Spray'
yacht around a few islands, including the one that Castaway was filmed on. The
trip included all food and drinks, which we took full advantage of! Especially
when we met some English lads who we previously met on the bus. We stopped off
at the Castaway Island just before lunch where everyone dived off the boat for
a snorkel and to explore the island. One guy even proposed to his girlfriend on
there! After several attempts at cracking a coconut, we managed to drink some
fresh juice from one, just as the horn went on the boat which meant food time.
After a feast of great food they took us to a little village where we were
welcomed with a Cava ceremony. Cava looks like a muddy puddle in a bowl, and is
made from old flowers mashed up with water to make a drink. It has some
narcotic qualities to it and is probably why the Fijians are so chilled out all
the time. It tastes how it looks, like a muddy puddle and it makes your tongue
go numb for a while after you've drank it. Then we were lead through a market
where we could buy hand made produce off the villages before being dropped off
back at Bounty Island around 5.30_pm. We were supposed to be going on
a night dive that night, but the lure of free alcohol had got the better of us
and the dive master thought it was a good idea if we gave it a miss. So we had a
dinner, watched a couple of small Black Tipped Reef sharks hunt the bait fish
that had come in close to shore attracted by the lights of the resort, and
called it a night. All that day drinking had taken its toll on us.