| NI SA BULA!!! So here's what we (Krys/Len & I) did while on holiday in Viti Levu. This account is more for me so I don't forget anything so might be a bit boring, but you know what I say to that? Sega na lega! It also includes a few tips I could think of too. | ||||||
| day 1
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saturday 01 hongongoi 2006 It was actually a beautiful day in Papaioea - how ironic! Ditched my polyprop, beanie, scarf and uggies before getting to the airport. Len's bag was 24kg and mine about 21kg... eek! but they didn't charge us so kia ora for that freedom air. The excessiveness was mostly due to our bottles and bottles and bottles of water and fizzy drinks for our mixes so lucky we didn't have to ditch anything. Then our flight got delayed by 2 hours at the worst airport ever (i hate palmy airport). Also how ironic. But we finally boarded our plane to a great sunset in the backdrop and flew over Kauwhata Pa and Feilding on our way out. 3.5 hours or so later we started to see the moonlight on the sea and dots of islands... very exciting! We arrived about 9.30pm into Nadi. Its wasn't too hot for us coz it's winter in Fiji too but definitely t-shirt material - yah! We stopped in dutyfree for those v. important purchases but discovered 1) buying wine atleast is much cheaper at home. After clearing customs we found our driver with our names printed out on a paper for us - felt a bit spec coz I've never had that before! Our driver was the coolest ex-skool bus driver called Sai who drove us the 2 hour drive to our resort. We asked billions of questions and started our lingo lessons from here. We also got an insight into driving at night... 2) its just like driving out to any rural pa in Aotearoa. There's pot holes, crazy drivers, locals and animals everywhere just like home, so we weren't fussed by it. On the side of the road are many little dodgy looking BBQ stands. We were hungry but declined a stop on Sai's offer. Instead we called into the Hideaway resort for bar food but their bar was pumping with seedy looking guests. It was going to take an eternity to get served so we jumped back in our van and headed on to the Mango Bay resort and ate M&M's for tea instead. From the huge mango sign out on the main road the Mango Bay resort is about a 2 min drive down a dirt potholed road also just like you'd find at home. We checked in at about midnight and then got shown to our bure - it was fabulous! We went for a nohi around the resort, discovered boto's... frogs which were everywhere. Had a minor heartattack about that. Could hear Snoop d o double g coming from the night club so had a bit of a boogie before they shut up shop about 1am. Went back to our bure to crack a bottle of wine and headed down to the beach and oohed and aahed at the ocean. Stumbled across a hammock and parked up there to congratulate ourselves for coming to Fiji! We couldn't actually see much, just hear the sea and figured the sand was truly white... |
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| day 2
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sunday 02 hongongoi 2006 Finally got to sleep about 3am then you know me... I got up as soon as my eyes opened to check out our surroundings in the daylight! Things were a little clouded over but as time went on I learnt that by about 8.30am the sun would come out. Perfect timing really to finish off a breakfast of fresh fruits and cereal. Pawpaw became my favourite fruit so much so that I have already bought some from the Lower Hutt Sat markets. After breakfast it was time to try out the outdoor shower. It was the greatest ever! Beautiful plants, clearing sky, nice hot shower. Broke out our bikinis then went down to what we were calling the love shack to check out their massuers and what was the deal. The love shack was a biggish bure that held all the recreational gear, random dancing happy fijians and where you do any bookings for horse treks and the like. One of the first contrasts we came across was that they would work around when you wanted something, as opposed to when they were available. Very different from home in that respect so it took a while to get used to calling the shots. So while Krys had her massage with Elloween I went for a sunbathe on white sands. sigh... By about 11.30am it felt as if it was 3.30pm in the arvo. Not sure why but with all that hard work of massages and bathing we were hungers so we checked out the restaurant menu. Was nice to sit in a huge bure and look out across the pool and sea. sigh 2... Continued sunbathing after lunch chasing the sun around the coconut trees. Met most of the 'bula boyz' - the boys in charge of the activities like snorkeling, kayaking, beach volleyball etc every day. Looked too energetic for us so we remained as observers that day. Had tea in the restaurant but declined the limbo dancing in the night club. Made our own pina coladas and chilled on our veranda for a while. Was a very long day considering our 4 hrs sleep so we went out for the count by about 10pm... however if the nightclub wasn't closed due to it being a Sunday I dare say we'd be there! We learnt alot today about the locals. It started to feel like we were being spoilt including having Nayame from the bar open our corked wine so 3) watch that in duty free unless you have a bottle opener. Not only did Nayame the barman open our bottle with a fork coz he couldn't find their bottle opener either he also prepared an ice bucket and stand and brought it over to our bure for us. I doubt we'd get the same treatment back home. We took our bucket down to the beach and laxed back til tea. Also spent some time talking with Ame, one of the bula boyz, who taught more lingo and tested us on how to say things. We taught him some Maori back like kia ora and homai koa te wai coz he asked if he could have some of our water. Krys spent some time talking with Elloween finding out where to get the best coconut oil, where to shop and general yet very important things like that. We got the impression that not many guests took the time to ask of their knowledge or be genuinely interested but 4) it made all the difference in our opinion. Even saying vinaka (thanks) after everything would be met with a short look of surprise from the staff followed by an open appreciation at our attempts to thank them in their language. |
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| day 3
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monday 03 hongongoi 2006 We both had a great moe of about 9 hours I think so were up in time to catch a bus to the Hideaway Resort for parakuihi. A film crew from Granada was doing a 3 hour pre-recording stint so you either had to stay in your rooms or head our for b'fast. We choose the latter of course! It was about a 25 min pahi drive and it was good to see outside of the resort let alone a full american b'fast. Checked out the Hideaway's boutique for prices then caught a taxi for $4 down to Baravi Handicrafts and did some shopping. Price comparisons were interesting so 5) don't ever buy from resorts if you can help it! Invested in some pineapple infused coconut oil for our upcoming sunbathing... in winter... Got back to the resort about 11am. The beach was about 5 mtrs from our bure veranda so we stumbled that long 5 mtrs and started our morning with some sunbathing. Then went snorkelling about lunchtime but I missed some of the events due to shortage of snorkeling gear so 6) get in early so you get the good stuff. I could see the blue starfishes, lil bright blue fishes over the side of the boat. Krys missed the giant clams somehow but saw a shark. No nemo's to be see though, there are all out chilling away from the mainland. While everyone was diving I got taken to the pick up point for all the snorkellers instead and dined on freshly cut fruit courtesy of Freddy the skipper who kindly jumped into the water and fetched me a blue starfish so I didn't miss out. Nice ay. By the time some flippers etc were free I got in the water in time to see some sting rays. The water was not what we expected. It was quite salty and thick but still lovely and clear. I did manage to end up with a semi-permanent singlet while out on the boat so 7) put sunscreen on or wear your bikini if you are brave enough the whole time instead. We also discovered that 8) no one gives a crap about what you look like in your bikini so be not afraid! haha. Had lunch then more sunbathing. That afternoon we got to make a coconut bracelet. After Nox (Inoke) removed the husk for us we sanded down the outside, drank our coconut milk - waste not and all that then Eddie then cut the coconut into a ring. Then it was time for more sunbathing although I was feeling a little sunburnt so it was time to break out a cap and sunscreen. I don't think I've ever been sunburnt in winter...ever. Once the sun had gone down we showered and headed to the bar to order a caprioska. Went through to the night club for the kava ceremony about 6pm. Neori gave us a run down on the kava root and what the kawa was for it (1 boom clap, say bula, drink the kava in one hit, then 3 boom claps then say maca). Everyone had to introduce themselves as the kava went around and if you were single. If you were everyone would sing 'BULA BABY'. We thought it was a way for the bula boyz to see if they had a chance with anyone... theys clever alright! Average age of the bula boyz would have been say 25 yo and from what we could figure all except Neori was single. The marrying age in Fiji is between 25-30 so we found. Anyways, so the saying of bula baby became very catchy as you might imagine. We also inquired if there was a dress code for the ceremony not wanting to offend and all and apparently no legs nor shoulders showing for women, and usually skirts. We did the best we could with pants although only us 2 would be concerned about such things of course. I also wore my newly made niu bracelet that was big enough to fit one of my guns so that's how I wore it. All the Euros were moaning theirs were too big so I conclude they just couldn't see the potential in a bigger bracelet. Eddie came up to me afterward the kava ceremony about it and looked like he appreciated me wearing it. I think its because a lot of others see it as a novelty and won't ever wear theirs whereas I thought it was the coolest gift to give me so to speak. See why they loved us! After the ceremony Len and I hung around for a bit as the bula boyz all sat around the kava bowl to finish it off, singing and a bit of dancing which we got roped into joining. At one point they started singing this wai - I
want a taki taki After the stop whoever is up dancing points to the next person. We learnt the words later on that night down by the bonfire and it also became very catchy for the rest of our stay. Had tea back in the restaurant then back to the nightclub for the International Crab Race where all countries represented that night had a crab. The NZ crab was called Kiora which by Monday night was all we heard when the fijians addressed us even some we hadn't taught... cool aye. Only they couldn't hear kia ora just kiora but we also learned we speak way to fast for them. The crabs were auctioned off with the money going to 1st and 2nd place and was heaps of run. Kiora didn't come anywhere though...dumb papaka. Had a few more drinks back in our bure then joined the bonfire later on that night. Sung some songs, got a history lesson from Eddie, Ame and Nox which was the best - e.g. tom baker's boots are still in the musuem in suva. that dude got munched up for touching the comb of a chief so ana if you ask me. We asked heaps more questions about tikanga and got some interesting responses. Their atua are not openly talked about unlike us. Got a few enquiries about home and how we do things. It was off to bed at 2am leaving the bula boyz to it. |
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| day 4
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tuesday
04 july 2006 World cup soccer was on again I think. Caught it almost every morning that I can think off. Had b'fast then checked out of our bure on the beach to a bure on the side... i.e. an American safari tent. It was cool but not as good as a beachfront bure. On our way out we gave our other bottle of corked riesling to Sarah, one of the cleaning ladies. Was interesting as she came and saw us that afternoon and we wrote a note to say what we were giving her. At home its the cleaners bonus to get anything left in a room whether they admit it or not I guess. Atleast at our resort it stops room theft. Decided today was the day we better get in the sea just off our beach. Had a short dip which must of been exhausting work coz we headed on to lunch with mai thai slushies - 9) drink those fast coz they melt and roll over the side! Tested out the pool then Krys cranked it up in the pool volleyball while I watched and sunbathed... oh again. Just off to the side of the pool it then started raining coconuts. Got some photos of one of the boys scaling a huge coconut tree who then come down to kindly machete one open for us for the milk. The text of a green coconut itself was rubbery which I'd never seen before. Went back to the beach to catch some more rays then just as I got comfortable I could hear Neori shouting about touch rugby. Turned up only to play in bare feet on a bumpy roughish lawn area and was the only girl. There was no roll ball just a tap of the foot and 3 touches with 2 hands only and it was started with a bomb kick. You could also chip but I don't think I even know how to do that. And the boys on my side actually played with me. Had enough for 4 on 4 with different staff like the gardeners, bula boys, groundsmans joining in on their way past. Some Pommy on the opposition kept being greedy and trying to run the ball around me and just for the record ppl, I smoked him everytime which was about 5 times he tried it on me. L for loser buddy haha. Unbeknowst to me there were some staff watching and on our last day our cleaning lady mentioned me playing... 'I see you playing the rugby with the boys... good aye'. I responded 'yeah like a boy aye haha'. 'I see that man trying to run past you, he was no good'. 'Got him every time aye' or something like that. Was one of my highlights especially to hear the weather was too crap to play at home. Everyone else was all tuckered out after 20 mins. I was like uh what? considering we play for an hour solid at home. So I had to be content with what I could get and while I broke a sweat it was more from the heat than anything. Back to the beach for... you guessed it, more sunbathing with beach volleyball just up behind us. That game went for about 2 hours it seems so you can see why I feel ripped off when touch got 20mins airtime. Len went for another massage under the trees on the edge of the beach with Litia - check that photo out! For tea that night I tried the kokoda - raw walu fish with coconut milk and chillies - and decided I would eat it every day if I could! We had a few malibu with diet lift and I must say its not a bad mix. This was before we got to tea so the couple of bottles of wine at tea went down real well. We didn't have a fridge in our room so 10) go to the bar and ask for ice to keep your drinks chilled. They should be accommodating like they were for us! We had a quiz night that night and had to join a table of aussies from canberra, wollongong and syndey. They didn't look impressed with us but we wore then down eventually. With our powers combined the RooBlacks managed to tie it at first place with 4 other teams. So the winner would be decided by the final question by whom ever answered it first and correctly. The question was 'at what age did Nox loose his virginity?' By some miracle Tom (kia ora Tom!) from Canberra shouted out 14 and he was right. We each won a slushy so I tried Sex on the Beach. I'd rate it haha. Managed to get pretty damn toasty that night and stumbled back to bed at time unknown. Ended the night dancing in our safari tent...there's a shot of me dancing in my hibiscus boy boxers. I was dancing to club tropicana drinks are free by wham by then. dont' ask. |
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day 5
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wednesday 05 hongongoi 2006 Checked out of our safari tent and back to a beachfront bure on Wednesday. We couldn't let go of our outdoor shower so wanted to move back to luxury. Sorted our rental car and hit the road to Suva about 10am. I did the drive there while Len prepared her conference stuff. It was pretty entertaining and after being passed about 10 times by other cars I figured that no one kept to the national speed limit of 80km so followed a local at 110-120km. We had beautiful weather of the way there so it was nice to be driving along the sea and checking out the differences in terrain, buildings, life etc. Got to Suva in about 1.5 hours and what a contrast... paru streets and the general hustle and bustle. There was a big urupa on the side on the way in and I've never seen anything like it. Speaking of which we noticed that there were 1-2 graves dotted along the way next door to houses sometimes, nothing other times. Unlike what we're used to it seemed very ummm common place. We didn't get a chance to ask about ratou kua wehe although at one point one of the bula boyz offered to show us a cave of where they put their dead. We declined saying we would only go if we actually had a reason and for a nohi was not reason enough for us! We figured death might not be as tapu as it is for Maori. Must find out more about that one of these days. Thought Suva would be bigger than it was but the main drag was about the same length as say Lambton Quay. They had a flash movie theatre, McD's and a few other wellknown company buildings like vodafone too. Found the uni and got escorted by a security lady to the conference who took us to the wrong place but we managed to find out way by bularing it up. Sorted Len's registration for Vaka Vuku - Indigenous Epistimologies Conf 2006 - who got a cool bag with a shell necklace holding her name tag and a fan with her name weaved into it. Drove back to the main centre to find the markets. Felt like we stood out badly when walking around and everything was $2 shop type stuff. Did find one shop that we were suckered at...part of the experience though I spose. Did manage to do some bartering but think we still got ripped anyway. Got asked how many brothers or sisters I had, what my dad did for a living, shown newspaper clippings of where the money would go to and told they supported 37 villages and so on. It was quite overwhelming so once done we practically ran back to our car. Went back to the conference for Len's presentation who rocked the house with her neo-marxist theories stacked up against examples of land alienation and runanga. Very interesting wrap up... go autonomous or revolt aye Len. Lead to an interesting korero from an older Fijian man there who seemed concerned we might take up arms like they did in 1987 and then more recently. Not long after we hit the road back to the resort as it was pissing down and Suva wasn't doing it for us. Most of the return trip ended up in the dark and rain following crazy locals but we pretty much knew where we were on account of the constant posts advertising the km every 100 mtrs, so we knew how far away we were. Before the sun died we saw heaps and heaps of games of boys playing a rugby type sport, it was hard to tell but probably 7s as 15 aside isn't so popular. Did see some cheesy Pepsi adds with Joe Rokocoko as well as Serevi though. On the drive to Suva I saw a number of very fit men out for a run in the middle of the day. Their athleticism is amazing and definitely something Maori could learn from!! Not many Fijians were overweight and we figured its coz of their diet (fish etc), having to source their own kai all the time and not having cars so have to walk everywhere... there is always ppl walking on the roads. So on a whole we hated Suva. We were walking around saying bula to everyone just like we had got the whole way at Mango Bay and barely got a response. The city is different in that respect and ppl more mind their own business. We motored out of there as fast as we could back to our lovely Mango Bay. Got back about 7pm so had a wine and a couple of pina coladas before heading to the restaurant and bar. There was a power issue that night so the lights were very dim that night and the kitchen was cooking by candle light. Was disappointed my kokoda wasn't on the starters menu so decided to try the ika vakalolo - fish in coconut milk with rice and ooo weee it was the best! About 10pm State of O came on and was the second great event to my night after my vakalolo! Was backing Queensland just coz of Pricey and the history of winners. Watched most of it in the restaurant then moved into the nightclub for the last 20mins to see it on big screen and watched the Roons take it away. The aussies from our quiz night all except Andy from wollongong were all sad sacks after that. ha ha. By this time the power was sorted again and we convinced them to crank the music up for the nightclub. Got a few hip hop songs in then some Fijian fav's before bed at 1am toasty as...yet again. |
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| day 6
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thursday 06 hongongoi 2006 Set my alarm for 5.45am as Nox said he'd take me for a run at 6am. I was too scared to go for one by myself as I would have stood out like a fairy on the main road. Woke at 5.20am and reset my alarm for 6.30am coz I felt a tad hung. Was still wobbly when I got up but wanted to stick to my word. Found Nox who was sleeping in the nightclub (his village is about 45 mins away unlike the others who walk 10mins to the villages eitherside to get home). Normally he sleeps in this tiny tent on the side of the resort. Woke him up and we ran all the way up the main road. Not sure how I managed it considered my hungover-ish state and my cold was still going let alone coming off a week of food poisioning (campylobacter!!) then a week of gee, sunbathing... but coz I'd dragged Nox out of bed it was good motivation. We got to the top of the road and Nox pointed to where we would run... scared I'd never make it I asked if there was a shorter way. We ended up on the original beach road - read - in the jungle or rainforest or whatever you wanna call it - and running up what Nox called 'mountains'. I was hammered but toughed it out as much as I could although on the downhills I spent most of my time making sure I didn't ninja roll down the side of the mountain! Got a stunning view at the top so it was worth it. Jumped a few creeks and bogs on the way down and ended up exiting out of the middle of jungle into the bay (see photo to the left) next to the resort. Thanked Nox then went for a dip in the sea with one of the local dogs then back for a shower. Had b'fast then packed up to ship on out. The boys carried our gears up to the car like they were actually lite. We checked out, chucked our gears in our car then returned to our beach. Len got yet another lovely massage with Elloween while the bula boyz boogied to some pacific mixes. It's a very unique life - carefree and energetic. I ran around the resort getting piks of their beautiful flowers and leafings then hit the bar for one last caprioska. Went out reef walking after that with Nox who had not only given his time to take me for a bush run, but also took a group of us out to find octopus in the reefs. The tide was out at its peak around 10am so all the locals from the neighbouring villages were out fishing in knee to waist deep water. We didn't find any octopi just a sea snake. Had my beloved kokoda for lunch then we said goodbye to all the staff - got hugs from everyone! We handed in some comments about the staff as we appreciated everything they did as apparently some ppl were complaining - not sure why as we were thoroughly impressed. We gave big ups to these ppls for making our stay the best... bar - josaia, nayame, iva, sai; restaurant - joseva; bula boys - neori, inoke, ame, freddy, eddie; frontdesk - kelera, adi, grass; transfers - sai; massuers - elloween, litia these ppl were responsible for teaching us lots of words and how to say them. These were all the common ones we used day to day... io - yes, sega - no, bula - hi, vinaka - thanks, o cei na yacamu? - what is your name?; o ko mai vei? - how are you? - yadra - morning; moce - bye; sega na lega - no worries. Drove towards Nadi stopping at Baravi for more shopping - we got some more beautiful pineapple infused everything... soaps, oils, lotions. Drove on to Sigatoka which is the major town on the Queens Road between Nadi and Suva to have a look at Jacks. 11) Would definitely recommend a rental car so you can control when and where you go although taxis are cheap. Managed to soak up heaps of time shopping that by the time we hit Nadi it was 6pm. Sorted out our rental car which was a bit of a laugh then arranged our bags and purchases at the airport - we'd each lost about 5kg... all that hard work sunbathing or drinking more like! Checked in then did a bit of airport shopping including finding starfruit infusion coconut oil (yah yah) which is one of the greatest smells on earth plus picked up a frangipani flower for our hair (remember left for married, right for single!). Got in at midnight to Papaioea. It was raining and wet but not too cold for me. I declared my shoes at customs from my jungle run so 12) the airport staff cleaned them for me! Dropped Len off home then home to Dad's for a lamb roast. Freedom air might be cheap but I still need feeding. Went to sleep with my electric blanket on high and smelling of a pineapple... |
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| Woke to Good Morning talking about a competition for whatever days in Fiji if you answered what a bure was. Would return in an instant if I could and could have done with a couple more days for sure. So if you've never been to Fiji or any other pacific island of white sands and clear waters, get your nono into gear and get there. Don't forget to talk to the locals and teach them some Maori along the way... NI SA MOCE VANAKA! |
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Len
& I arriving in Nadi...
our
bure no. 5..
sunbathing...
ahhh! 
our
ice bucket...
drinking
the coconut milk before making a bracelet out of it...
waiata
after the kava ceremony...
mai
thai slushies for lunch...
massage
under the trees...
the
RooBlacks take victory... Len, Andy, Dave, Mily, Tom and me
the
official reason for our trip! Here's Krys doin her thing at vaka
vuku...
vakalolo...
hmmm
this
is what I ran out of.. rambo stylez!
shopping
at Baravi where their catchphrase is "browse in peace"...
its true!