Bulla 2022!
We ended 2021 and started 2022 on Fiji time which has been a wonderful way to recover from the last two years and refresh for whatever might await us in the year ahead. It has been the laziest holiday we’ve ever had with nothing more strenuous than our three swim’s a day: a swim in the morning for the physical fitness, a lazy play around in the waves in the early afternoon and then a late afternoon swim to avoid baking in the heat of the day.
We did have one adventure out to an island - rather aptly named Robinson Crusoe island. We did the night cruise which left Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji, at 5pm travelling down the river to reach the bay and then about 15mins across the harbour to the aforementioned island. The “cruise” included a dinner cooked in a lovo - or earth oven - and a very touristy “show”. The real adventure happened on the way back which must have coincided with low tide. We left at 9pm and ventured out in the rickety boat into the pitch dark of a tropical night and made our back across the harbour. At some point, much chattering at volume occurred amongst the crew and it became evident that we were stuck on a sandbar. In the middle of nowhere. In the dark. So that got the adrenaline going. The crew eventually manoeuvred us off only for the experience to have flooded the motor which promptly sputtered into silence. So another dose of adrenalin.
Anyhoo….all is well that ends well and we made it safely back to land albeit with slightly more excitement than we paid for!
Other than that one adventure, the only other items of note are that I started and finished the Conn Iggulden Emperor series which was a fantastic light holiday read and spent a rather large amount of time at the spa being assisted in my efforts to refresh and relax.
We successfully and, in hindsight with rather less stress than could be expected, navigated what COVID currently means for international travel (hint: lots of paperwork) and Ant managed to not get too upset at the $600 that the various COVID tests we had to have along the way cost. It was also obvious that COVID has had a huge impact on Fiji: 50% of working Fijians work in the tourist and hospitality sector so, asides from the personal impact COVID has had on them, the island had been “open” for tourism for less than a month and it was obvious - Fiji time aside - that they hadn’t quite found their groove yet. Talking to other tourists staying at other resorts, we appear to have had a better experience than alot of other resorts which sounded rather chaotic. The worst we had was a half hour wait for food and drinks and a concierge who got very flustered very quickly.
We enjoyed the entire holiday so much however that we are seriously thinking of making it an annual pilgrimage to get some quality down-time and possibly for Ant to escape the depths of a Melbourne winter. So Bula! Fiji - we will be back!!
