Leaving Fiji :-( Mana Island

The fish i caught!
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That morning we were heading to our last of 6 islands, Mana.  It had been recommended to us (yet again!) by a Danish couple we had spent some time with on previous islands.

We arrived to a somewhat basic resort, called Ratu Kini´s.  On appearance, you wouldn´t think much of the place but this is where our intended 2 night stay turned into 5!  We ended up having an absolute blast here!

I saw a shark!!!!!!

a local fisherman
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Each night the staff provided entertainment.  The first night was crab racing, like the previous night, only this time i bet on 2 crabs which ended up coming no-where!  I don´t much much luck!  The 2nd night was ´Polynesian Nite´ which resulted inthe members of staff performing dances from various pacific islands, such as Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga and Somoa.  The funniest thing was the gay chef dressing up as a woman!

The 3rd night was ´Fun and Games´ Nite.  We had a bit of luck on this one.  Limbo was the first game (rubbish once again!), followed by the sexual positions game which Rob and I ended up winning, giving Rob 2 dives for the price of 1 and a free snorkelling trip for me!  The 3rd game involved balloon and more sexual positions which I ended up winning as well - free cocktail for me!  That night turned into a pretty late one, drinking with an Irish couple from Dublin, Emmet and Lydia.

Robin knife dancing
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The following night was a kava ceremony, only Rob and I were asked if we would participate as Chief and Mistress!  We said ´yes´ of course!  This meant we had to dress up in the traditional dress and basically sit and look pretty, whilst one of the staff described what we were wearing and then we had to drink kava!

The staff in Ratu Kinis´were so friendly.  We got on with them all really well.  Rob and I went on 2 fishing trips with Moses and Ate.  Ate was the lady who owned the hostel and had named it after her late husband, the chief of the village, Ratu Kini.  On both trips we caught a fish each.  I caught my first fish, a blue trevally and Rob´s was a silver trevally, which the chef kindly cooked for us for dinner!  Delicious!

The view from the top of the island
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Rob did 4 dives whilst we were there.  He did 2 normal dives, a deep dive of 27m and a wreck dive.  I think he´s getting more addicted, the more he does it!  On his last dive at a place called ´The Supermarket´, I was able to go out as well to take advantage of my free snorkelling trip.  The Supermarket is a reef which drops off into the ocean, reaching depths of 30m plus.  It´s a popular dive site as grey reef sharks, black tip sharks and white tip sharks frequent the waters.  I was there to see a shark!  After about 30 minutes in the water, all i had seen was a lot of fish.  I was desperately scanning the water for a shark, when something caught my eye, about 8 metres below me.  I could cleary see a white tip on its dorsal fin and tail.  It was a white tip reef shark!  Its tail swooshed from left to right behind it.  I came up, choking on some water in my snorkel but when i went down again, i could just about see it as it swam off into the Pacific.  Still, i was chuffed I´d seen a 1.5m shark!  Woo hoo!  Rob told me afterwards they had seen 7 or 8 on their dive...doh!  Watching them dive just made me more frustrated that I couldn´t do it as it looked amazing.  Oh well, my ear will hopefully heal soon!

IMG_5919
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The rest of our time was filled up with volleyball, coconut drinking, lying on the beach and eating and drinking!  There was such a good vibe at Ratu Kini´s that we kept prolonging our stay, until we decided there was no point going back to the mainland early, so we sailed back the day before our flight to Auckland - Santiago.

Fiji had been brilliant.  We´d met so many nice people, fellow backpackers and Fijians.  The place is paradise and with people as friendly as theirs, you can´t beat it!

The gay chef dressed up as a woman!
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Next stop - South America!  Woo hoo!