After a restless night at Sydney airport we were finally boarding our flight to Melbourne where we then boarded our flight to Nadi in Fiji. Both flights were good, we flew with Virgin and their planes don't have TV's in the rear of the seats but you download an app on your device and watch all the films on that. Brilliant idea from Virgin.
The journey to the hotel was about 10 minutes through some rough towns and it's then you realize that Fiji is still a third world country. Our hotel was nowhere near a beach but in a small town called Martintar. The Capricorn Hotel is very run down and just the basic maintenance has not been maintained but I suppose it will do for a week. The TV has only two channels but you do get a nightly film, our shower had no hot water and the sink tap wouldn't turn off. We were given another room to shower in and then reluctantly they gave us a new room. The new room was no different but at least there was water in the shower and it was hot.
The main port where all the cruises sail out from is Port Denarau, we caught the dollar bus and headed there. It's your normal cruise terminal which tourist shops and agents selling day trips.
We opted for a cruise to the island of Tivua onboard a tall ship. We booked the cruise with Captain Cook cruises, we booked for Wednesday as the weather is meant to be better. After some lunch we caught the bus back into Nadi town center where we walked around the local market and watch a singer in the street. Not sure who he was but he was very popular as he was also being filmed.
On Tuesday the weather was overcast all day so we went for a walk to the nearest coast line and hopefully a beach. Well there is a beach but it's not a beach to sit on and the sea didn't look very inviting either, so we just walked. The town we are in has a new cinema and it was half price Tuesday so we headed there and for £2 we watched The Jungle Book, oh what childhood memories of the original film.
The sun did indeed come out on Wednesday and we had a great day out on our private island Tivua. The tall ship that sailed us there was a 66 year old vessel MV Ramarama. It took 90 minutes to get to Tivua and once there we grabbed a drink and a kayak and paddled around the island. It's a very small island and you can walk around it in 5 minutes so the paddle didn't take us too long. We then had lunch which looked a lovely spread but I settled for a bread roll and a sausage and some fruit washed down with another beer. Once finished we headed for the water and a snorkel, once again the reef is almost dead. A lot has been destroyed by the recent cyclone Winston, such a shame as I'm sure this was a beautiful reef. Once back onboard we were served tea and biscuits while the ship sailed back to Port Denarau. Had a really nice time on the island but it just wasn't long enough to chill out. We tried to book another trip to different island but a cruise ship was in and it kinda took over everything. Our last two days we went for long walks and then spent the rest of the day at the hotel pool and topped our tans up.
With hindsight we should of booked an island stay and not the main island as to visit the outer islands you have to take day tours and we all know how expensive they can be. A lesson learnt but I still enjoyed my week on Fiji in the Pacific Ocean.
