Enter Fiji

On December 3rd around lunchtime we arrived at the Nadi (actually pronounced Nandi because all ‘d’s are pronounced ‘nd’) International Airport in Fiji with absolutely no idea where we would crash out that night. Shortly after getting our luggage a woman was already rushing up to us offering to help book our travel accommodation for the next few weeks. With no plans at that time whatsoever we decided to go with this woman and hope for the best. After a painful hour of talking over the various options the five of us managed to get ourselves booked into a decent hostel on the mainland for that night and then we would stay at her sister’s husband’s uncle’s cousin’s place (or something like that) on Mana island for the following four nights. When we arrived at Skylodge that day I was happy to see that it was a luxurious spot with a beauty of a swimming pool. We all decided we would go for a swim and try to decide what to do for the next few weeks, which was not an easy task because there were so many options. Nothing much was accomplished during this talk. After dinner and a beer Adam and I just decided to sort ourselves out and buy a 14 day Bula Pass which is a hop on / hop off ferry service from the mainland to and from the various islands in the Mamanuca (actually pronounced Mamanutha) and Yasawa groups. It was the easiest option really because it didn’t required any forward planning. We could just buy these passes then our transportation costs are covered for the entire trip and you don’t need to miss out on any sweet islands because of the cost to travel to them. The accommodation for each night can be booked during the day on the boat so again no need for forward planning. I would only have to decide whether I wanted to go north or south that day, jump on the appropriate boat, then ask around on the boat to see what island everybody else is going to and join in. The girls decided to pay the $60 for a one-way boat ride to Mana Island the next day then they would figure the rest out during their four days on Mana. Once they had that sorted we just kind of hung around in the room and all went to bed relatively early because we had to be at Port Denaru around 7:00 or something the next morning. Other then the few cockroaches outside our door and the annoying task of attempting to plan our vacation I had a good stay at Skylodge. The next day the island hopping was about to begin.