Taveuni

Our journey to Taveuni started with a three hour minibus to the capital Suva. Once we had got there we bought our tickets for our ferry trip on the boat and had a few hours to see the city. It wasn't a particularly great city to be. There were lots of people trying to sell us souvenirs and trying to lure us into their shops. After stopping at a food court for some lunch and picking up some snacks, we returned to the dock to board the boat. The ferry was pretty basic but did have a cinema room, which is where we set up camp. After watching a few questionable choices for films on a boat and trying to eat some snacks in the restaurant, which wasn't easy as we were both feeling a little ill from the rough journey, we found a spot on the floor in the tv room to try and get some sleep. This also wasn't easy as we weren't really prepared for a nights sleep on the floor of a ferry. It was very cold and extremely uncomfortable. After 20 hours on the ferry, a quite forgettable experience, we arrived on Taveuni and were picked up and taken to the resort via a supermarket to pick up some provisions. Once we arrived, we took our things to our dorm and spent the evening chatting to people we had met on our journey over. 

On our first day there we decided to pay to tag along on the organised day trip, which was to a natural water slide. We left the hostel around 10 and made our way to the slide via a stop off at the international dateline, which was very cool to see, and possibly means we were at the furthest point we could be from England. After stopping at the drivers house we walked through the forest for about 10 minutes to the stream. There was a bit of a rock pool at the top of the stream which we were all able to swim in before trying the slide. The slide looked quite scary at first but once we got started it was very cool, especially the last section. The locals that were there were even surfing down on their feet, something we didn't try. After a couple of times down the slide, we headed back to the drivers house for lunch. Not before Luca, our guide from the hostel, decided to climb a coconut tree to retrieve a coconut for each of us to have with lunch. After lunch we went back to the hostel and chilled out with everyone, and enjoying a bit of kava time. 

The next was mostly spent chilling out by the pool at the hostel and wandering to the local shop to get food as we were cooking for ourselves. The evening was spent chatting and playing cards with everyone.

On the Saturday we went on another day trip, this time to one of the other islands, Qamea. We left fairly early and had a 45 minute drive to get to the boat. After playing touch rugby with some local children, we headed out on two little boats. The journey was quite wet and rough but we arrived on the island in one piece, waited for the other boat and went back out to sea for a bit of snorkelling on a nearby reef. This was quite an experience as it was quite far our, so very deep, and the sea was a little rough which made snorkelling a little difficult. We then went back to Qamea to visit a local village. Once we got there we had to go and see the village chief to see if we were accepted into the village. Thankfully we were. Afterwards we had lunch at one of the residents houses and then went and watched a rugby 7's game which the guys from our hostel were playing in. We had more kava before leaving to go back to Taveuni. The boat journey back was a lot rougher and much wetter, especially as it started raining just before we got back. After getting back and sorting ourselves out, the evening was again spent chilling out. 

We spent the next few days relaxing, sunbathing by the pool and swimming, before heading back to the main island, not before another painfully long ferry trip, however we were much better prepared for the return journey.