Bula!! We loved it! But as suspected it was more expensive than we’d originally hoped. However, who can complain about spending three days lounging around in clear blue waters, hammocks and bures. The only way we knew what the time was, was when the drums sounded to signify meal time. The place we were staying on the edge of an island was small enough that you could hear it from wherever you were and respond to the call.
We stayed in these cute little Bures on the beach. Everyone kept their doors and windows open (the island was too small to get away with stealing anything) and you slept with a mosquito net around you and the sound of the waves lapping just outside.
Our biggest highlight of the trip was on Friday morning they spotted manta rays just around the corner from where we were staying. We all jumped into tinnys and whizzed around to where they’d been seen. It was so amazing. They would let us jump in at the beginning of this channel with snorkels and flippers and we would float down with the current hoping that a manta ray would pass by us as they swam against the current feeding on krill..
Well – pass by us they did! We saw a couple every time we went down. They are so beautiful and graceful and some of them were going slowly enough that you could follow them and dive underneath to check out their gills and the little fishes that attach themselves to their underbelly to catch the krill leftovers. They weren’t bothered by us at all and the biggest one that we saw they reckon was about 6m wide tip to tip!! Another one did a somersault in front of us – so cool!!! (but so exhausting after trying to follow them against the current for about an hour)
The snorkelling there was spectacular. You could hop in the water any side of the island we were staying in and paddle out to some of the best coral and fish displays that I’ve seen. Josh and I hung out for ages always finding some new bizarre fish, slug or piece of coral to be fascinated by. Our dive instructor who was Canadian who has also worked in Australia said it was the best she’d ever seen.
We also had a memorable sea kayak trip out to try and see the Manta Rays by ourselves (which was unsuccessful). There was a storm approaching and we had decided to head back (about a half hour paddle) when Josh started to suspect he was sinking… I looked at his kayak and said it looked fine and literally from that moment on it started to sink quite dramatically, we both got the giggles as he became more and more unstable. We had to aim for this little beach which we luckily made it to and empty out gallons of water and then make a quick mission back before it could fill again.
Other highlights included this amazing meteor we saw go cruising through the sky. It appeared really close and was in the sky for what seemed ages. We were on the beach having a bonfire and it was a great present to three of the backpackers about to celebrate their birthdays at midnight. Others included Josh playing volleyball in his DT’s with the big Fijians!!, the sound of BULLAAAaaaa everywhere you went, great food and Jacqui – I even tried Daruka which the chef made up for us especially… it was great!
So we boarded the plane for Vancouver maybe not as refreshed as we’d hoped due to being so active but really happy that we made the stopover.
We stayed in these cute little Bures on the beach. Everyone kept their doors and windows open (the island was too small to get away with stealing anything) and you slept with a mosquito net around you and the sound of the waves lapping just outside.
Our biggest highlight of the trip was on Friday morning they spotted manta rays just around the corner from where we were staying. We all jumped into tinnys and whizzed around to where they’d been seen. It was so amazing. They would let us jump in at the beginning of this channel with snorkels and flippers and we would float down with the current hoping that a manta ray would pass by us as they swam against the current feeding on krill..
Well – pass by us they did! We saw a couple every time we went down. They are so beautiful and graceful and some of them were going slowly enough that you could follow them and dive underneath to check out their gills and the little fishes that attach themselves to their underbelly to catch the krill leftovers. They weren’t bothered by us at all and the biggest one that we saw they reckon was about 6m wide tip to tip!! Another one did a somersault in front of us – so cool!!! (but so exhausting after trying to follow them against the current for about an hour)
The snorkelling there was spectacular. You could hop in the water any side of the island we were staying in and paddle out to some of the best coral and fish displays that I’ve seen. Josh and I hung out for ages always finding some new bizarre fish, slug or piece of coral to be fascinated by. Our dive instructor who was Canadian who has also worked in Australia said it was the best she’d ever seen.
We also had a memorable sea kayak trip out to try and see the Manta Rays by ourselves (which was unsuccessful). There was a storm approaching and we had decided to head back (about a half hour paddle) when Josh started to suspect he was sinking… I looked at his kayak and said it looked fine and literally from that moment on it started to sink quite dramatically, we both got the giggles as he became more and more unstable. We had to aim for this little beach which we luckily made it to and empty out gallons of water and then make a quick mission back before it could fill again.
Other highlights included this amazing meteor we saw go cruising through the sky. It appeared really close and was in the sky for what seemed ages. We were on the beach having a bonfire and it was a great present to three of the backpackers about to celebrate their birthdays at midnight. Others included Josh playing volleyball in his DT’s with the big Fijians!!, the sound of BULLAAAaaaa everywhere you went, great food and Jacqui – I even tried Daruka which the chef made up for us especially… it was great!
So we boarded the plane for Vancouver maybe not as refreshed as we’d hoped due to being so active but really happy that we made the stopover.
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