Fiji and Island Hopping the Yasawas

After our few days in L.A. and the hectic schedule of South America, we were both super excited for the week we planned island hopping Fiji! We had booked and already paid for an open 7-day island hopping pass that would cover the Yasawa and Mamanuca islands. We booked the pass through STA travel, on the basis that it was completely flexible and enabled us to jump between the islands via boat day to day.

After a bit of a restless overnight flight, we arrived in Nadi, the mainland of Fiji. We flew with Fiji Airways, and the service was great, the Fijan people are renowned for their caring and welcoming hospitality, and they certainly showed us that on the flight. They had nice patterned pillows, jazzy blankets, free full sized alcoholic drinks and a huge chicken burger for dinner... Okay, it wasn’t gourmet cuisine, but it was probably one of the best in flight meals we’ve had on our travels so far. Once again we panicked at the array of films and music they had on offer, and they also had a short feature film on Fiji, full of surfing, snorkelling, fishing and everyday beach life. Tom watched it twice whilst fidgeting with excitement, while Steph fell asleep watching 'Gone Girl'. We had all this, always served with a giant Fijian smile, and one flight attendant even came over and tucked Steph in, and turned off the film to stop it waking her up.

 Even as we landed and emerged off the plane, the arrivals lounge was filled with the soothing sounds of the Ukelele as 4 large Fijan men sang to everyone in bright green floral shirts. The only time we didn't feel the Fijan love, was at the immigration desk, where, when asked our address for our time in Fiji, we had no answer, as we were planning to sort our accommodation on the Yasawa flyer, the boat that takes you to each island as well as an on-board travel agent. This didn't sit well with the man behind the desk, and he marched Steph to the immigration office even though Tom had been let through by another man. This was a little nerve racking, however the woman took one look at us and let us go. Emergency avoided!

We were pretty happy with the way Paul, our travel agent, had planned the flights as we landed in Nadi at 5:30am, which meant we had time to get to the Yasawa flyer before it left for the day at around 9.30AM. This meant we could avoid a potentially wasted day in Nadi, where there is not much to do, and could commence straight into the island hopping and really make the most of our time there. Despite being tired, this is definitely something we’d recommend, as you might as well get all the travelling done in one day and then be free to relax.

It was only when we arrived in Nadi, that we suddenly realised we had absolutely no idea how the island hopping pass worked. We knew we had paid for it, for how long and at what level, but we didn’t know how it actually worked. We had turned up to Fiji with no accommodation confirmed, no transfers arranged and no idea who we were meant to be waving our booking confirmation at. We found the 'Awesome Adventures' desk at the airport, which is the company we bought our passes from, where a kind lady told us we could get a free transfer to the port which was an expense spared. As we waited for the bus, we saw the sun rise over the islands of Fiji, and we craved desperately to be sitting on a beach, witch a cocktail in hand!

We arrived at port, Denarau, and jumped straight onto the Yasawa flyer, a giant yellow catamaran, and found the travel desk on board. They gave us a little book which contained a map, and briefs about each of the island resorts you could visit.

Mamanuca islands covered with yellow route, and the Yasawas the red route

The Bula combo pass we had bought, lasted for the duration of 7 day stay, and also included all food which we had forgotten about, so once again, we had an expense catered for! The accommodation is graded not using stars but using coconuts (of course, this is Fiji), so we purchased a double private room pass at a one coconut level. This meant that we’d have our own room, but the facilities such as toilets and showers etc. would probably be shared. It ranges in standard and price from one coconut dorm rooms all the way to 3 coconut private rooms, for those big time travellers or honeymoon lovers. 

As it was still only 10am, we thought we'd aim big and hop to the furthest island possible, so we could gradually make our way back down the islands to get back to Nadi in a weeks time. The ladies on board the travel desk were really helpful, and gave us their honest opinions about which islands would be best for us. We didn't want to go to the major party islands as we wanted to save our money for New Zealand, plus we were more interested in relaxing and seeing the pretty beaches and marine life. They suggested avoiding the Mamanuca islands, as they had more of a party reputaution, however from those islands you could go on a day trip to see the island where the famous Tom Hanks film 'Castaway' was filmed on, which we would have liked to have done.

In the end, we all decided to stick to the Yasawa's and to go to 'Long Beach' resort on Matacawalevu Island, 'Nabua Lodge' on Nacula Island and 'Barefoot Manta Resort' on Drawaqa island. The last resort was a bit more special and had a surprise bonus (the clue is in the name), so we upgraded for a slight extra cost, as we didn't have to buy food which was a relief. 

The first boat ride to get up to the tip of the islands was going to be about 4 hours, so we sat back and relaxed and tried to catch up on some sleep. This said, the bouncy Catamaran made Steph feel slightly sea sick, so it wasn't the most relaxing start to our trip. After a bumpy ride, the tanoy said the speed boat for the 'Long Beach resort' was approaching, and to grab our bags and head to the back of the boat.

At first it felt like a terrifying act of piracy, as these 2 men sped up beside the boat and attached themselves on whilst one climbed aboard. However both men where extremely helpful, and did all the lifting onto the boat of our heavy bags. They offered us a hand to jump on board, and welcomed us with a "Bula". 

We sped off, away from the Yasawa flyer, and bounced over the most amazing blue sea, and headed towards our first stop in the Fijan Islands.

Santa Monica

Before our final day in L.A, we had a bit of life admin to see too. Having bought so many Bolivian style rugs and souvenirs, we had taken up a lot of room in our bags! We decided before we jetted off to Fiji that evening, we would spend the morning sending our bits back to England. This task took up a lot of the day, and due to old maps, we walked a long way to find the old post office had now gone. We trudged our way around L.A trying to find a place to send all of our stuff. It was a hot day, and all of our stuff was heavy, so Steph was quickly becoming quite grumpy, as all she wanted to do was go roller blading down the sea front, which had planned to do afterwards.

After a couple of  hours wandering around the streets, we finally found a post office after asking a few locals for directions. After about another hour of wrapping and weighing, our stuff was in the que to be send to England.

After such a morning, we sat down for a Starbucks to cool down (both in temperature and in terms of mood for Steph). As promised, we headed down to Venice beach to roller blade, passing a few of the stalls we had walked past over the last few days. These all had really nice summery beach wear, and Steph had her eye on a pair of shorts that she wanted to buy for Fiji. Tom agreed that we could splurge this once, and buy them on the way back.

We got to the roller blading rental place, and quickly popped them on to start racing down the beach front. We quickly forgot about the unexciting morning we had had, and were now trying to stay upright and avoid leaving some of our faces in L.A. We were headed for Santa Monica, which housed the pier and promises of a cooler, more chilled side to Venice Beach.

After about 20 minutes of speeding along, the famous ferris wheel was in sight.

We saw some people doing acrobatics on the side walk gym equipment, and took of our blades to have a further look around. We walked onto the pier, and had to resist the urge to go on any of the rides, as we wanted to save our money. We were starting to get hungry though, so we allowed ourself to finally try an all American corn dog.

The sausages were deep fried and put on sticks, and tasted very strange but good. There was something wrong about having a sausage battered, but they were tasty so we didn't complain! The concept was almost as weird as the man/woman who served it to us.

We bladed back to Venice Beach, much faster as the wind was now pushing behind us. We handed back our blades, and went to the market to pick up the shorts Steph wanted.

We found the section where shop was, but in between two stalls, there was a large gap where the shop with the shorts had been. Steph couldn't believe it! It was a afternoon in the mid week, and the stall owner had packed up early and gone home. Having had her heart set on the shorts for the whole 3 days we been there, she instantly went back into the gigantic sulk she had been in that morning.

In an attempt to cheer her up, we went down to muscle beach to buy a present for our friend Mark who would be joining us in New Zealand in a week. We saw a slinky vest that read 'Sex, Weights and Protein Shakes' and knew this would be the perfect vest for our skinny pal. We paid way to much for the vest, but knew the laughs would be worth it, and it actually rose a small smile out of Steph's grumpy face.

We went to a pretty pub right on the beach for some dinner before having to get into the taxi back to LAX airport. Steph had some fresh tasty salmon, and Tom had a salad, as we both realised we would be spending the next week in our swimwear.

 In the taxi there we met a young Australian guy who had been to Coachella and seemed a little buzzing still from the experience. He asked excitedly if we had seen cocaine being made in Bolivia, to which we obviously replied with no, and he seemed a little bored with us after that! 

We got checked in and ready to board our overnight flight to the paradise islands of Fiji.

Hollywood

We woke up still feeling a bit groggy from lack of sleep and maybe very slight jet lag, but we were super excited to be seeing the classical sights that L.A had to offer! We went to the breakfast room which was provided by the hotel, and Steph's eyes lit up when she saw they had WAFFLES! Her favourite breakfast was anything drizzled in syrup, and she devoured about 5 in one sitting. We were back in Western society and she loved it!

We got picked up by our bus to go on our star studded tour, and our first stop was Venice beach which we had briefly explored already. We went down to the beach, and looked at all the cool kids skateboarding in the skate park, doing tricks, and also went to see the famous muscle beach, which was full of butch men pumping iron. We saw crazy guitar man again, and a few more loonies talking to themselves and selling weird home made crafts.

The next stop was the Hollywood walk of fame, where we could see the famous stars and the Hollywood sign. We drove through Beverly Hills looking at all the designer shops gleaming elegantly in the road, and we turned the corner to find the famous pavement. We jumped out and climbed to the top of a shopping mall where we were told we would be able to see the Hollywood sign. We got to the top, searched around, and squinted, and could vaguely see the sign in the distance.

It wasn't quite the jaw dropping view we had hoped for, but at least we can say we have seen it. We decided that seeing the stars up close may be a little more exciting, so went down to see who we could find. 

There were lots of people dressed up as stars, and Steph was complimented by Marilyn Monroe on her red lipstick. We decided to ask the guy who had dressed as Bumblebee from Transformers for a picture, as his was the most impressive costume by far. He agreed but only if his friend spider man could be in the picture as well. This is the strange yet hilarious video we have from our encounter:



Our tour ended in the farmers market, which was a weird outdoor shopping mall with high street shops. We briefly experienced Walmart, and had a hot dog (we wanted to try a corn dog but they didn't do them) and we were dropped back at our hotel.

After our day in Hollywood, we were tired all over again as the jet lag still hadn't subsided. We were both hungry and we both fancied a big American burger. We looked on a map and saw by chance, the L.As best burger restaurant was 2 doors down from the hotel we were staying at. 26 Beach prided itself on making weird and wonderful burgers, so we strolled down the road to try them.

It was a quirky place decorated (weirdly) like an English tea room. We looked at the menu for a good 15 minutes while deciding what to eat. In the end, Tom went for the Date burger, and Steph the Thai Curry Burger.

After a short wait, the most humongous burgers arrived, and are eyes widened. Both burgers were so so so tasty, and we polished the whole burger -chips included- off in minutes. Tom's had dates, goats cheese and very rich flavours, whilst Steph's was literally a satay Thai Curry in a burger.

We left the restaurant in under an hour, and went back to the hotel to fall into a food coma.