BULA FIJI! Day 1 & 2

Alright, let me start to tell you a little about my amazing experiences in Fiji. So let me start off with a disclaimer, Fiji is the most beautiful tropical paradise ever... hands down. So I will have nothing but a lot of positives to say! So, three friends and I took a week off of school in the middle of the semester to take this trip to Fiji. It was a lot of work to do before leaving but it was so worth it. We flew into Auckland and had a 4 hour layover where we met up with some of Adele's family, had lunch and bought some things duty free then boarded the plane and flew into Nadi. It was dark when we arrived so I had no idea what was in store for me the next day. But that night we stayed at Smugglers cove, which was a nice back packers  hostel. We had an amazing meal and relaxed outside. After being in cold Dunedin it was awesome to be able to sit outside at night in a tank and shorts. Ahhhh, Paradise. There was also some entertainment from the duo called the Kavaholics. They were really fun to listen to and it was awesome because we were invited to sit with them and drink kava! Lots and lots of kava. They just kept offering it! So we kept drinking it! Needless to say I slept very well that night. We had an early morning so we went to bed early. When I got up that morning and went outside I was stunned. The water was so blue, and clear. It honestly took my breath away. We left smugglers cove and went to the port where we boarded the ferry that was going to take us up into the Yasawa Islands where we were spending the rest of our trip. The ferry was a long 4 hour trip but the views of the islands, the sun and the occasional dolphins that would show up to play in our wake made the trip incredible regardless! We finally got to our stop way up at the top of the island chain, where we hopped onto a little boat that took us across the Blue Lagoon (Yeah the real Blue lagoon, from the movie!) and to our first resort, Coralview! The resorts are all small but thats what makes them so charming. The staff was all out on the beach waiting for us and singing and playing the ukelele and whisked us away to check in and feed us! We were so hungry by that point. We also had met some pretty cool internationals on the ferry that were staying at the same resort so we had them put us all in the same room. It was a cool room that slept 12 and had a bathroom in the room! So we felt luxurious. After dumping our stuff in the room we wasted no time running over to the dive shop, renting snorkeling gear and setting up our chairs and towels on the beach. Catherine and I immediately took to the water, about two feet out to sea there was an amazing coral reef. There were corals of the most vibrant colors, and of all shapes and sizes. And the water is so clear the visibility was unreal. There were also tons of tropical fishes, sea stars, sea cucumbers and giant clams!! We spent hours out there snorkeling. The water is so warm (Beth warm everyone, so you know thats warm) that you can just keep going because you don't get cold! We finally dragged ourselves out of the water, exhausted but happy and content. I mean, I just spent two hours snorkeling on some of the best reefs in the world! I then went and showered and we gathered everyone up and hiked to the top of the island to watch the sun set. Holy crap was that an amazing sunset. I have never seen anything like it! We then climbed down in the dark and went to the dining hall for a wonderful buffet dinner. When everyone was settled after dinner, drinking and playing games all of the sudden on of the workers came running into the hall and told us all to hurry because they had just spotted a sea turtle on the beach laying eggs. After giving us a long speech about being quiet and not disturbing it we finally went over to it. They said ok you guys have 30 seconds to take pictures with flash and then your done. So for the next thirty seconds everyone was frantically snapping away. Then all of the sudden right after the thirty seconds were up the turtle burst from the sand, like it had exploded. In reality, we had been the victims of a prank. One of the workers was buried under a turtle shell and popped up out of it to scare us all. I may have shit my pants a little... O well. It was pretty funny. Everyone then went back to the dining room for the rest of the night for drinking and drinking games (Give me a break I was on vacation!). So that was the end of day 2 in Fiji, and what an eventful day it was!!!!!!!! More Fiji posts to come!