Saturday, October 5, 2013

Time to Relax

Last month we went on a family holiday in the south Pacific to the sleepy little tourist island of Fiji.
Fiji is about a four hour flight from Sydney to Nadi(pronounced Nandi) which is on Fiji's west coast. The first thing you notice when you arrive in Fiji is how friendly everyone is and that everything seems to be no problem for anyone. Everyone was running on Fiji time. It's like everyone everywhere is in relax mode. The Fijians are so warm and welcoming.

It was only a short 20 minute trip from the airport to our hotel resort at the Sofitel on Denarau Island. We got in at night so kind of missed out on seeing anything on the way there. When we got up in the morning we were greeted with a fantastic dawn with beautiful weather. In fact spending 11 days there it didn't rain once and the weather couldn't have been better. This is where we stayed at the Sofitel Fiji. It was a massive place. The foyer area must have been at least 3 times larger than our entire block at home.

Sofitel Fiji

The view out the back of the resort was magic, overlooking the pool and out to the ocean. The photo below is about 1 third of the pool as it went a long way to the left and to the right was a slippery slide for the kids and the adul..... er big kids.

Sofitel Pool

We managed to get out on a cruise of some of the outer islands during the trip. We stopped off on South Sea island for a couple of hours where we enjoyed swimming in the pool with the kids and a quick dip in the ocean. Georgia also enjoyed painting at the kids club where the Fijian's got to enjoy our children. Great swap in my opinion, I think we won that one! They had snorkeling, kayaking and other activities but it was far to short a time to enjoy them all especially when the put on such a great BBQ with a great range of side salads. This was fantastic with free beer included. Yes I was in my element.

South Sea Island



The Fijian's we met were all a very happy bunch and loved to sing traditional Fijian songs. When we had lunch on the Island there was a group singing us some lovely tunes. It wasn't my favourite metallica music but it was still good.


Lunchtime music


After lunch we were ferried back to our boat and island hopped around a bunch of fantastic little islands. We stopped briefly at a little island called cast away island. I was wishing that we had stayed there it was so secluded and beautiful. The waters were an amazing colour of light blue and aqua. The camera just doesn't do it justice.
Cast Away Island
Georgia even got to participate in the evening torch lighting ceremony that the Fijian's put on. All the kids got to dress up in traditional Fijian grass skirts and light the torches around the resorts pool area. Little miss 5 enjoyed this immensely.





Needless to say this was probably the most relaxing holiday I have ever been on. Most of the time on holidays we usually rush around everywhere so we can see as much as we possibly can cram in but this holiday wasn't like that. Just about every day we swam in the pool and lazed around in the hammock, with beer of course. I loved that hammock and beer. Although I found it a little difficult to drink the beer in the hammock but I managed it. I wonder what the poor people were doing!

Heaven

When we visited Nadi during our holiday we had a traditional Fijian welcoming ceremony and got to try out Kava, which Fijians consider to be a tradition. Well I don't know if you've ever tried it but it tasted somewhere between dirty dishwater and water filled dirt. Oh god it was really bad. Even back at the resort later that day the first 2 or 3 beers I drank just tasted like Kava. Thankfully it wore off by the next day and the beer tasted normal again.

Kava tasting


On the last day we did some para sailing and jet skiing. Little miss 5 wanted to go para sailing with mummy after I talked her into it. Unfortunately for little miss 5 she was slightly to small to fit into the harness on the para sail so she had to watch mummy have all the fun. She was pretty upset at this to which she was bribed with a jet ski ride with daddy.


After a few laps on the jet ski little miss five wanted to go back to land, but I was having to much fun and pressed on despite the crying and whinging. Although there was no motorcycles during the trip I did get to ride the motorcycle of the water and had great fun doing it.



6 comments:

  1. An awesome vacation with the family. Entirely too relaxing. Must have been hard to go back to work.

    The South Pacific has always been on our vacation bucket list - someday when we actually get a vacation.

    Thanks for sharing the pictures. The jet ski looks fun. I haven't done that in years. Kudos to your wife for para-sailing. You couldn't pay me to do that, lol.

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    1. Brandy it was the most relaxing holiday I've been on. If you get a chance to go do it. You won't regret it.

      The jetski was lots of fun but not so much for little miss 5.

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  2. Fiji... where motorcycles ride on water. You lead such a hard life, mister!

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  3. Now that's the spirit Steve .. I can see how taxing it must have been trying to work out how to drink that beer in the hammock with spilling .. glad to hear you managed it, could have had a tragic ending but you persevered .. well done!

    How different is jet skiing to biking, pathetically I've never done it even though I grew up surounded by water. I must give it a try one day, you make it look fun!

    Oh and para sailing .. I'm envious that musta been awesome!

    Thanks for sharing your holiday with us, every time someone tells me about thier holiday to Fiji they say the same things, it's so relaxing and the people are so nice. Yep that ones on the list too :)

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    1. It was a bit of an art to drink those beers without spilling that beerey goodness.

      Oh the jetski was so much fun, just like a motorcycle but on water, although don't try to counter steer those babies it doesn't work.

      Yep thats one place ticked off the list. I'd go again if I had the chance.

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