After an 18 hour delay and 21 hours in Auckland airport I landed in Nadi, at the heart of the 333 Polynesian islands that make up Fiji. Fiji’s ‘winter’ is a little different to New Zealand’s – near constant sun, crystal clear turquoise water and 30 degree heat. After one night on the mainland I did what most visitors to Fiji do and headed out to the islands. My home for the next 6 days would be Mana Island.
About an hour by boat from the mainland, passing many beautiful islands we arrived on Mana. My home for the next 5 nights would be Mana Lagoon Backpackers – a hostel on the beach with no internet, part time electricity and great views.
While we were on Mana most of the island was closed to the public as a TV company had hired most of it to film a programme called Survivor. The space we had may have been limited, but we made the most of it – swimming in the turquoise water, snorkelling with tropical fish on the reef just off the beach and lying in hammocks in the sun. As we got used to Fiji time – when anything can happen at any time, but almost certainly not at the time you were told it would we got more inventive – discussing everything from Donald Trump to Brexit, playing Harry Potter trivial pursuit and making jewellery out of coconut shells. Our evenings were spent tasting the local drink Kava – a cheaper alternative to alcohol that looks and tastes like dirty water and is served in a ceremonial bowl- learning the Fijian Macarena and watching shows put on by the wonderful staff that included danced from all over Polynesia, knife dancing and even a fire dance.
One of the best things we did was going to visit the island school. There are 60 children in the school, a large proportion of the total population of the island which is only 300. Every day at 2pm the kids get a break from the classroom to get outside and the whole school dances and plays games together. The children were much better at dancing than we were, but spending a couple of hours playing with them was priceless.
On our last night on the island we went to watch the sunset on a sand bank – a tiny island of sand in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The journey may have been a bit rough and we all got soaked, but it was a beautiful end to my time in Fiji. Travelling alone to a desert island in the middle of the Pacific was a bit of a daunting prospect, but I had the best time on Mana and that was because of the people I met – the amazingly genorous locals who looked after us so well and my wonderful fellow travellers. I met some great people who I will hopefully see again soon and my memories of Fiji will be the time I spent with them – spending hours relentlessly mocking eachother’s accents, trying to make a trip to a tiny shop last a morning or being massive Harry Potter nerds. My time in Fiji was great because of the people, and hopefully I will see them all again soon.
a wandering almond 