Trip of a Lifetime

The morning of day 3 was pent worrying about our lost friend, but when he (to everyone's noticeble relief) arrived we went to a local village for yet another traditional Kava ceremony. We spent much of the day in the village drinking Kava and exploring the way the village lived. The village was completely slef sufficient - they built their own houses, grew their own food and whatever they had to buy was bought using their crops as either exchange or sold to get the money for the goods. Once again the idea of television and other western comforts was non-existent barring a cinema type TV for the entire village. Their way of life was to work on the crops and making things during the day then playing sport (Rugby mainly) and drinking Kava and singing in the evenings. The village was right next to a cave that went for miles and was actually where many tribal meetings had been conducted over the years as well as many executions and even used as a crypt at some point. We went inside the cave (only the entrance) and there was an eerie feeling to it especially with the bats flying past your ears!

After saying farewell to the village we had a go at billibilli rafting, this is rafting on bamboo tied together to make a raft. The weather was really bad but this seemed to make it even more fun as we each had a turn at directing the raft with a bamboo pole much like rowing a Gondola.

After getting drenched we arrived at our detsination for the night and was greeted by a guy called Papu who was the entertainer at the lodge.

http://www.volivoli.com/

Another typically crazy Fijian guy who like to party and enjoyed his Kava strong! The night (as usual) began with a Kava ceremony followed by dinner and a night of dancing and games conducted by Papu. A quick note to tell you about was the giant beetle that landed on our table during dinner, we were all sitting on a large bench eating our dinner when all of a sudden there was a loud thud on the table as if someone had banged the table with their fist, as we all looked to see what it was we realised that it was in fact a giant bug that looked kinda like a stag beetle but about 30 times bigger. The thing was about the size of a small rat! Later that evening another landed on my mates back, he screamed and got ribbed about it for the rest of the night.

After the games, dancing and more Kava we went to the beach (which was connected to the resort - the bar was just an extension of the beach) where they had laid on a bonfire for us. It was a great night chilling, watching the stars, drinking games and finally a dip at the end of the evening. This was a night everyone enjoyed, so much so in fact that many people were unable to get up the next morning to go on their dive they had already paid for!

Day 2 in Feejee involved a trek through the jungle which included walking through a river/stream!

The journey there was very random, we were picked up bu what can only be described as an almost military type truck which was covered in canvas and had a bench along both sides of the canvas, the back was open and if the guys on the end slipped they would have fell onto the road. After about half hour on our transport and a 10 minute journey on a very dodgy gravel track we arrived at a clearing in the forrest where we started our trek. The path was guided out by a guide at the front and back and then a few random signs scattered about the jungle when the path split up in different directions which was generally quite straight forward but a little bit concerning cos the signs weren't always that clear and in places the path wasn't that easy to follow. After about an hour and a half we got to the river and started walking through it, half hour of this and we arrived at the river where we did our river tubing (laying in a rubber ring and letting the river take us through small rapids and stuff. We then got to the waterfalls where we started jumping in which was really cool.

After this we went on motorized longboats and made our way down the river, it was at this point we realised someone was missing from our trip! A quiet canadian guy who looked at lot like bill gates and funnily enough worked for microsoft as a spam analyst or something wasn't with us. The guides frantically re-ran the route but he wasn't found. Alarm bells started ringing and a number of search parties went out that night. The local villages were contacted but no one had seen him. That night was spent in a place called raintree lodge, http://www.raintreelodge.com/, surprisingly enough this was a cool lodge in the middle of the rainforrest, the pool's edge went into the rainforrest and we had an excellent barbecue, but the evening was spent in a slightly eerie mood with everyone's thoughts wondering what had happened to our poor canadian friend, especially when the canadian embassy had to be called and 2 of the people on our trip having to give police statements. As the night wore on everyone feared the worse, there were no dangerous animals as such in the rainforrest but there were warthogs that would attack him if they saw him and if he had fallen at any number of the steep drops we had to walk along he was likely to be in urgent need of medical attention. All night there was no sign of hime depsite a number of search parties continuing throughout the night. When we awoke the next morning we still hadn't heard any news, but then at about 11 the next day we heard news that he had been found.

Make of it what you will but our guides believe that it was the ancestors that had taken him, it is believed in fiji that if you walked on tribal land which we had been that day you shoudl bring Kava to the tribe in the village which will protect you from their ancestors. That night the guides had a special ceremony asking for forgiveness and his return from the ancestors and the first search oarty the next morning found him. After spekaing to him we found out he had continued in the stream in the same place where i had nearly walked myself and if it hadn't had been for my friends behind me shouting out to me i would have walked the same way he had. Apparently he got to the top of the waterfalls we had jumped in and he tried climbing down but got stuck and turned back, the guides had apparently checked that entire path but had no luck in finding him - strange stuff!

Went Fiji feeling slightly hung over but picked up a really good duty free deal on an all balcks shirt at the airport which is a really good shirt, fortunately a couple of the guys i got on wll with on the kiwi bus was also oing on the feejee exp on the same day and was on the same flight so i wasn't on my own

arrived in fiji and was wecomed with a bead necklace and a crazy kiwi expereince guy who didn't stop smiling - i don't know if i looked strange or whethe he was always like this but nonetheless he was pleasant enough and sorted me out for accomadation that night

the first night was cool, the place we stayed had the beach as its back and we spent the evening chilling on the beach watching a spectacular sunset with beers in hand on longers

the first day of the fiji bus was cool, went into nadi and had my first experience of kava when some guy randomly led me and my mate dow the road into his shop and then gave us kava (kava is a drink that is made from water and the roots of the pepper plant which makes you sleepy and has a sort of numbing effect on your mouth) the guys then gave me a gift which i ended up having to pay for - the fijians can be very good con artists but i din't spend much on it and got a cool shark tooth necklace, from there we went to a local fijian village and had another kava ceremony, the village is unlike anything i've seen before, the house are made of wood and war shelter type roofs and the whole village had either one or 2 tvs in it, i had to wear a sulu which is like a sarong in the village as well which is like a sarong which i thought was rather fetching

the afternoon was spent sandboarding and then in the eveing we went to our accomadation and met this guy who was known as crazy (and it definitely suited him!) had another kava ceremony (the fijians love their kava!) played volleyball in the pool and had crab racing where you sponsor a crab and if your crab wins you get the pot. the place itself was really nice and the accomadation was in the style of these funky wooden hut type things
(here's the website http://www.mangobayresortfiji.com/index.htm)

so much to tell about fiji and that's just the first day will continue working on my blog but got an interview as a PR job now so i'll be updating this shortly when i get chance

Hi everyone, sorry haven't updated the blog for a while not relly had cahncelooking for a job and apartment in sydney

anyways the end of my trip in new zealand

from christchurch went back up to wellington and had another night out in some irish bar and had a really good night, met more new people and tarevlled on with them

next day went back to taupo and spent a few days there, had anothe couple of big nights out and went on a sailing trip around the lake which (giving you a bit of local knowledge) is actaully the biggest lake in new zealand and was created by a volcano eruption many years ago (sorry if i had already entioned that on one of my previous entries)

anyways went back up to auckland the next day via rotorua and spent the night there before going up to the far north bay of islands. the bay of islands looks kinda like greece and had a great time there, went out to see the dolphins which are brilliant to see and had a couple of quite nights there before having one more massive night in auckland partying until 6 in the morning which i felt the next day on my morning flight to fiji!

oh yeah i forgot to mention i went sandboarding down 80m sand dunes and drove along 90 mile beach on a coach (the beach is actually registered as a road and if you stop at any point you will sink cos its like quick sand!) getting off the beach was crazy, we had to take a run up so to speak from about 200m back and drive as quickly as possible and then basically ram into this ramp and hope that we got up, it was quite a bump but we made it just about!

bungy is fantastic, i had such a good time doing the first i ended up doing the thrillogy which is 3 jumps and they're all nuts but great fun

queenstown is this brilliant little town filled with bars and adventure activities, the scenerey is fantastic and the nightlife is really cool

went from queenstown to christchurch which is a big city with little to do, there's a lot of nightlife and the parks quite cool and the city is very nice but nothing in comparison to queenstown, had a couple of big nights out though which were cool

from christchurch went kaikoura (which actually means to eat crayfish in maori) thsi is a nice little fishing village where you get to swim with seals and dolphins and see whales, unfortunately the weather wasn't very good so i didn't get to see the whales but saw a seal colony and could almost stroke them i got so close - i didn't realise how much they stank!

be writing again shortly