Updates from the Road: Fiji – Week 2

It is Kat’s birthday week so we splurged and booked ourselves into a resort on Beqa Island, which is the other side of the main island from where we were last week.

We are here until Saturday when we will head back to Nadi. Sunday morning we fly to Auckland, New Zealand. We have a few days there to get our laptop fixed and pick up some good road maps. Then on the 24th we pick up our Spaceship campervan and head out on a 8 week road trip.

Some highlights from this week:

• Enjoying saying “Bula” which is Fijian for hello. You almost sing it…mboooooolaaaaaah! So much fun to say!
• Forgot to tell you last week that we were on both of our flights to Fiji….ABQ-LAX & LAX-Fiji…with a whole team of folks who film adventure shows for various networks from PBS to Discovery to Nat Geo. They had been filming in New Mexico up near Philmont and were on their way to Fiji to film a new show (perhaps the 72 hour race, which filmed here last week). Tons of hard core outdoorsy men and women, many of whom used to be backcountry guides in Alaska, and loads of camera equipment. They all travel the world together, filming wherever they’re needed. Can someone please let us know how we can get in on that? They were super fun!
• The snorkeling here at Beqa is amazing. All we do is go right off the beach about 25 meters and you are on the reef. Loads of colorful soft corals, trumpetfish, parrotfish, fiji anemonefish, anemones, angelfish, loads of types of damselfish, butterflyfish, blue clams, loads of sea cucumbers and bright blue starfish, and loads of other fish that I don’t know the names of.
• Got to watch the firewalkers here on the island last night. Beqa is the island where firewalking originated. The legend is that a man was told the secrets to firewalking by a freshwater eel, in trade for not eating him. Big post coming on firewalking once the laptop is fixed.
• We also got to hear the Beqa Lagoon choir perform earlier in the week. They are from the church in the neighboring village and are rated the number one choir in Fiji.
• Participated in another Kava ceremony.  Kava is kind of like drinking muddy water. It is not fermented and therefore not alcoholic, but it definitely makes your lips tingle and mellows you out. We’re not fans of the taste but we love the ceremony. We have been to 2 since we’ve been here.
• We are the only non-divers here at Beqa Lagoon Resort, and it hasn’t really mattered a bit. All the divers leave every morning for two dives, which means we have the place all to ourselves until 1 pm. Run of the grounds, beach and offshore reef all to ourselves, all the wifi we can use, and loads of spa time. When we cancelled the diving part of our package, they just transferred it over to spa credit. So we each had $200 US to use in the spa this week, which in Fijian dollars is a LOT of spa…way more than we’ve ever treated ourselves to in the past. It has been divine.
• We have our own mongoose in the yard of our bure. We’ve enjoyed watching him dart across the grass or the deck every morning and afternoon.

Have a great week! We will talk to you from New Zealand!