Monday, December 15, 2014

Fiji - Monday 1st & Tuesday 2nd December 2014 - Day 9 & our last day

When we went down to breakfast this morning, Christmas trees and decorations had appeared overnight! It took me a while to realise it was on fact December the first! It was looking very festive, they celebrate this time of year in a big way. We took a short stroll after breakfast today just to say we did move off the sunbeds for a while!

Beyond the pier to the romantic bure is a long stretch of beach, pretty much untouched, unlike the Warwick's beach that was raked every day and sand wheelbarrowed to cover the rocky parts under the wooden umbrellas, we really did feel it for the poor bugger who got that job every day! The tide was out so much of the coral and rocks were in shallow water and so were a multitude of sealife, a reminder of why I don't swim in the sea much. The long snake looking things are sea slugs, harmless but pretty ugh. There were sea snakes too apparently that hide under the rocks, I definately won't be swimming in the sea anymore this holiday haha! I'll stick to the pool ta very muchly. It was our last full day so because I hadn't taken enough photos already, I took some more......

Sea slug
 Crabs, not a good shot, they were shy....
  Textures, I'm a very tactile person and love textures




 Another sea sl-ugh

 When the tide goes out people take the opportunity to go and have a closer look
  Some go almost to the reef itself.
 Sea sl-ughs gob! 
It uses its tentacles to hoover up debris from the floor and brush it into its mouth
 I have no idea what this was, I though it was an anemone or some other kind of sea plant, but no it bloody moved and gave me the heebie jeebies!
 Bright blue starfish
 
 I'm pretty sure that sl-ugh was eating the pretty starfish!
 Not sure how far we could have gone but the coastline went as far as the eye could see. We were told it would take 11-12 hours to drive around this island, unlike Rarotonga that took just 35mins!

  Heron

 
 Coral

 Loved the texture on these branches
  

 For our last evening we booked to eat at Sazanami  the Japanese restaurant and opted to try the Teppanyaki bar. You sit around the large hot plate and the hugely entertaining chef cooks your order in front of you, it was a fabulous evening and lots of fun.





 








Just as we were about to leave our waitress stopped us and asked us to sit back down and please wait. We had no idea what was happening, we noticed lots of calling to other staff members, after a while a small group gathered in front of us. The chap in the middle thanked us for coming to the Warwick, they hoped we enjoyed our stay and that one day we would come back and see them again. They wished us a safe journey home and then sang a Fijian farewell song Isa Lei. Now I know they probably sing it to heaps of people but right then in that moment it was like it was just for us. It was incredibly moving and I bawled like a baby, I'm such a sap but these people really get to you. After the song ended they all gave us the warmest of hugs. I've got tears in my eyes just writing this,I had the song playing in the background to which you can listen to here As it happens it's a piece of video of the Warwick staff singing too.
  To finish the evening off we went to the Hibiscus bar and met up with the guys from last week. They really were very good musicians, I doubt there's a Fijian that can't sing anywhere. There were quite a few cocktails that night and there was a good crowd in too so it made for a great last evening. Lots of hugs all round again.

The last day
And so here we are on the last day, the last full day as ours was an evening flight. We paid extra to keep our room for a few more hours so that we could keep our bags in the room and go have a shower before we left. We had a leisurely breakfast and spent the day relaxing by the pool and I finished my fourth book. We had pizza for lunch and that was delivered to our sunbeds, we didn't venture far today until it was time to vacate the room and make our way to reception and settle the bill. Our pick up was coming for us at 5.30pm, he arrived early so we gathered our things together, made our final farewells and we were off. The transfer was 1 1/2 hours to Nadi airport. Along the way we saw people in the villages all outside together, either playing volleyball, children running around chasing each other, swimming in the rivers and ocean, and passing the most basic of rugby pitches with  grass up to your knees. They don't have much, there is much unemployment and some must struggle every day to survive, but I reckon we could learn a lot from the way they live and play together, that sense of family and community is worth far more than anything money can buy.

Our flight left around 10pm, we landed at Auckland at 1.40am. Then with another 1 1/2 hours to drive home we were glad to get into our beds and sleep. And so life returned to normal.
This truly was a fabulous holiday, very relaxing, ate too much, drank too much and  got to meet some very special people. We will return one day in the hopefully not too distant future.
Vinaka Fiji xx

Whilst we were waiting for our pick up I wandered around and took the last of the photos, some of the lovely gardens at the front of the main entrance. 
Enjoy and thanks for reading.
Be back soon.........




 







 









3 comments:

  1. I have enjoyed reading about your wonderful holiday. It sounds like a fabulous place with beautiful, friendly people..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sue, have loved following your trip with your posts & your gorgeous photos. Fiji looks such a wonderful, inspiring place. Would love to visit one day. Thanks for sharing, your photos are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stunningly beautiful! I think it makes a holiday even better when you have brilliant and fantastic people working there too, just makes everything more special, I'd have cried too! I've just thoroughly enjoyed reading all about your holiday! x x x

    ReplyDelete

I love reading your comments and I thank you for taking the time to write them. I do my very best to reply to every one of them right here on the blog. When you leave your next comment tick the 'email follow up comments' and then you'll get any replies I leave. Thank you for reading my blog.