Bula!

After two months of trekking, sky diving and more rain than imaginable, we left New Zealand more than ready for two weeks on the beach. We arrived in Fiji right in time for sunset and a fire show at our hotel. After an hour of ten Fijians tossing, eating, and swirling fire sticks, we immediately felt the difference between being in a Western culture and being in Fiji. We spent one night on the mainland before jumping on a boat and beginning two weeks of island hopping.

The first place we stayed, Bay of Plenty, was like Lost with some huts. The people were so nice, standing knee deep in the ocean playing us a welcome song on their guitars as we arrived. They taught us how to open a coconut, net fish, and dance like Fijians and served amazing homemade food. Our room was perched on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean and provided an amazing view for sunrise. We stayed only one night and headed to Coral View, a more populated island.

Our first morning at Coral View we headed out with the dive masters on a shark feeding dive. We took a boat twenty five minutes away from all land and dove 18 meters down in the middle of the ocean. Once we were all assembled and holding onto a rope, one of the dive masters opened a trash can of dead fish and at once hordes of fish came and feasted on the impromptu meal, and one by one reef sharks would swim by and take their pick.

Then, all of a sudden, you see all the small fish swim away and in comes a sickle cell lemon shark--more than 4 meters in length and fierce. It was like watching the Discovery Channel in front of your face. The shark came in, cleaned up, whipped its body as it swam through and disappeared again. We saw two of those sharks during the dive and eleven other sharks total.

We left Coral View after 4 days because we wanted to see other islands. We spent a rainy night one an island misnamed White Sandy Beach before moving on to Manta Ray Island, a supposedly high end backpacker resort. We were not terribly impressed and headed back to Coral View for our last few nights, with our new friends Colleen and Colin in tow. The staff, food and accommodation at Coral View was awesome--the staff were constantly singing, everyone knew our name and there was 24 hour power--a big deal on the islands! But this was not what would ultimately be what I remember about Coral View...