Final days in Fiji

A lot of our time in Fiji wasn't new or different enough from previous days to document with a lot of pictures. We did do a lot of interesting things on our last day and a half.

One thing we did was to take a walk around the island. Or we tried to at least. About halfway (we think?), we encountered this pretty sizable sea snake. From my vantage point that I'd backed away to, I was guessing he was around three feet long or so.

Toby was pretty excited since he'd wanted to get a good look at one after we'd seen a small one swimming in the water. We'd been told by the people on the island that they were both "harmless and friendly" and also at the same time, more poisonous than a cobra, but their mouths were too small to bite. Just in case this was one with an extra wide mouth, I made us turn around.

But our island walk was still fun and beautiful. We ran into some local goats, who seemed just as surprised to see us as we were them.

And we saw more of the "bones" of the island than you could see at high tide.

We also spent an afternoon with one of "the ladies," as she was called, where she talked us through the way the people in her village use coconuts in their various stages of development. "The boys" on the island (typically in charge of activity equipment and such), seemed pretty happy to hang about, help with the demonstration, and generally cut up as guys who aren't working do!

The demonstration was pretty amazing - in just a couple hours, they had made multiple types of food, baskets, bowls, and roofing from various parts of the tree. It was pretty obvious that using coconuts for things we take for granted and buy at the store is something that's not in the past at all. These people who live in rural areas like Nukubati truly do know and still live off the land - even though major tourist areas are not so far away. It was pretty eye opening.

Other parts of our final time in Fiji included going back out on the water - up until mid-day when we left! We just couldn't help ourselves. =)

Toby's witness protection selfie

And of course we had to do a bit more snorkeling!

 

As you do on vacation, we tried to soak up the memories of our happy vacation on our last night and morning.

Last canapés, last evening swim, and last serving of drink snacks

In the picture above is what might be my favorite food from the trip: grilled coconut slices. On most evenings, we'd go to the main lodge for dinner but sit and look at the local fish guidebook for a while and identify the fish we'd seen that day. (Yes, this was super geeky and my idea, but I'm 80% sure that T enjoyed it too.) The first night that we did this, they served us this little snack platter and I fell in love with the coconut slices. So we came back every night after so I could eat my coconut slices before dinner! Mmmmm!

Goodbye to our bure, the peaceful reading times in the lodge, and the welcoming lodge lights at night

When it was time to leave finally, it felt like we'd been gone from Sydney for a month. It was hard to believe it had only been five days! Just like when we'd arrived, the staff all lined up on the beach, gave us hugs, and sang to us as we got on the boat. I have to admit, I was a little choked up leaving such a beautiful place and people.

Saying goodbye to the couple we left with

They stayed on the beach, singing and waving, until we had almost reached the mainland.

Of course, then it was time to face the adventure that is Fiji aviation! The other couple that left with us was on the same flights back to Sydney (the only one that night), but they somehow didn't make the short connection at the international terminal. We spoke to them as they were trying to organize things at the desk and then said we'd see them on the plane. Unfortunately, they never appeared! We talked about them and worried about them a lot on our flight back and knew it easily could have been us that fell through the cracks. Hopefully they had an adventurous night in Nadi and made it back safely the next day.

At the single checkin counter in Labasa

It's still hard to believe vacation is over and it feels like we are worlds away in Sydney. The happy reality is that we're not, and the peacefulness of Fiji is just a five hour flight away! Til then!

Vanaka vakalevu to my T for planning this trip for me. For us.

P.S. A quick video with some of our GoPro footage is up here:

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