It was time! My island hopping tour began today and it began with a 7:00am transfer to Port Denarau. A short drive took a coach load of travellers and holiday makers alike to the nearby marina. It was already very hot and humid by this point in the morning so hitting Port Denarau provided the much-needed relief of gusty winds. The coach load of people checked in with Awesome Adventures Fiji and handed luggage over to the boat crew. In a nutshell, cruising the Yasawa Islands is most commonly done using the Awesome Adventures Fiji Flyer. This is a large transport ship which cruises through the islands, stopping at each one and allowing people to transfer to small water taxis where they are then taken to the beach of their chosen island and commence their stay. The entire island collection takes five hours to head to its most Northern point, here it turns round and heads South back to Denarau picking up passengers headed back to mainland.
One of the girls from the previous evening was also on the same Flyer as me so when boarding time was called we headed to the second deck and got a spot in the sun (this wasn’t too hard!). We watched the crew transport our luggage onto the ship with nothing more than elastic tags fed through handles with our island name on. We were to trust that our cases would end up on the correct island because we weren’t going to be the ones taking them off. As the ship left its dock at 8:30am I could describe the experience so far as nothing short of organised chaos.
It’s hard to translate into words how beautiful the scenery shortly became. It really didn’t take long to leave the mainland to its bustling self and to hit the self-sufficient island life. My island, Nacula, took around four hours to get to. I bid a fond farewell to my lil’ travelling buddy at around two hours and so as the ship headed to its most Northerly point, fewer and fewer people were left on the ship. By this point, I had surrendered to the Fijian heat and moved to the safety of the aircon inside the ship. This is something not to be scoffed at because even with factor 50 sun cream this heat can turn you into a tomato without barely a thought. The winds were relieving but misleading. One by one, the staff would call out the next island we were approaching and it would be your responsibility to take yourself to lower deck ready for your water taxi to your island. It was so casual and, again, the staff were so happy and friendly it made it harder to eventually leave the Flyer.
I made it to Nacula island around 1:00pm and was greeted on the beach with a collection of the staff and, much like the airport, there was someone playing a guitar guiding the rest of the team through a welcome song onto the island. As we hit the sand, the song came to its climax and a huge ‘BULA!’ erupted to end the song. I couldn’t help but smile at this and compare it to the snotty reception desks I have so often been greeted with on holidays. If this were to happen at every island I hop to, I can imagine my stay was going to be a very pleasant one.
The name of the lodgings was Nabua Lodge and I was in a twelve bed dorm. Lodgings varied from two people beachfront bures to larger dorms like mine. I had a fan, my own plug and mosquito nets, practically luxury when you compare it to how remote of a location I was in. The new arrivals and I had a late lunch of kebabs and salad and were then introduced to the island and what it has to offer. Because I had organised this trip on a package basis I had many of the activities the island offered included. Today however, soon turned out to be a scope the small yet delightful area and a hammock chilling, book reading day. The island had around twenty people staying on it altogether. I soon discovered I was on the same tour as a Danish girl who was in the water taxi with me and we soon found our feet with one another.
By the time evening rolled round and we had showered, the drum was pounding to signal dinner. A drum. Can you get much more island life than that? What looked like a tree trunk had been calved into a barrel-esque shape and one of the staff drummed for around 15 seconds. There was just one dish served per meal here on this island and today was actually a BBQ. All the newbies from the Flyer collated at a table for this evening and we bonded over where we had already been in Fiji and islands we were headed to next. Dinner was served on a deck overlooking the ocean and the high tide. It was pretty idyllic. As the hours rolled by, the bar was rinsed and many a dubious game of Ring of Fire was played and the collating of many nationalities’ rules became a great source of fun.
Safe to say my first taste of island life had gone very well and as we headed to dorms around 1:00, the crickets guided the way as the electricity generator had been turned off. You just can’t make this up!
LP x
LozinOz 