Naviti Island

Day 1: Early afternoon, we caught the Ferry for the short trip south to Naviti Island. Tom and Kjetil (I´m still trying to perfect it) were staying on the same island but were in different accomodation to myself and Kathrin.

We were transferred over to White Sandy Beach, which would be our home for the next couple of days. First impressions were not good - Flies EVERYWHERE and huge Hornets circling our room. We immediately switched to another and hoped things would improve.

After sorting this, I took a walk right along the beach only to realise that the Fly problem wasn´t limited to our accommodation. Seriously, it was so bad that I couldn´t even walk without constantly waving my hands around my head to try and get rid of them. Not nice.

The rest of the afternoon was ours to chill so I spent most of it reading in one of the lodge Hammocks, since the Flies were less prominent there.

In the evening, things got even worse as we sat down for dinner. The food served was pretty terrible, so much so that one guy saw fit to stand up in front of the whole restaurant and ask who else thought it was unacceptable. Whilst it wasn´t the best, there wasn´t really any need for him to be so rude and therefore, he didn´t gain much support from everyone else before sheepishly sitting back down. It did the job of creating a pretty awkward atmosphere for the rest of the meal though.

Wanting to escape that, myself, Kathrin and a couple of others from our lodge made our way down the beach to the one the Norwegian lads were staying in. We had taken a look earlier and it was far nicer than our place and thankfully, the staff didn´t mind us hanging around the bar area with everyone else.

Whilst there, we got involved with even more Fijian dancing as we all got up and were taught the ´Bula´dance. It was a bit of a crash course and therefore made for some horrific attempts (I think mine looked more like a Haka) but it was a great laugh trying to follow the pros. This was followed by some Conga dancing all through the bar with plenty of random dance moves to go with it. Needless to say, a much better atmosphere in the room than we had left at our lodge.

Also there were Faye and Gavin - the British couple I had met not long after landing in Nadi. I caught up with them and heard their own Naviti Island horror stories, which included being kept up both nights by Rats in their room. Unsurprisingly, their impressions of the island weren´t good either and they were looking forward to leaving the following morning. Can´t say I was too excited to have one more day there to be honest. Anyway, it was good to spend a couple of hours with them having a few drinks and a good laugh. Gavin is from Norn Iron (Northern Ireland), which meant the more Beers he drank, the harder he was to understand. Pretty funny.

Day 2: Thankfully, we had a Rat-free night in our dorm and were up early for ´breakfast´. I´ve written it like this because it comprised: some stale Cake, disgusting Mango (how they managed to screw up Mango, I do not know) and these pink circles, which I honestly couldn´t tell whether they were Meat or another form of Cake. I had barely any because none of it was nice. Maybe that guy had a point the night before.

Afterwards, myself, Kathrin and a german couple boarded the longboat for another Snorkelling trip. Our boat guides were Tom and Philip - 2 pretty cool guys that worked at the lodge.

The Snorkelling was fantastic - even better than what we had done at the Blue lagoon region. Loads to see and lovely warm water to swim in. The site had hundreds of different varieties of Fish and Corals, comparable to the dives I have done in Thailand and Borneo. We had 2 Snorkelling sessions and they were both quality. At least it wasn´t a complete waste of time visting Naviti Island.

The rest of the day was spent catching some rays (when the Flies permitted) and generally just relaxing. New Zealand in particular had been pretty full on for me so I was enjoying some down time and sunshine. The Norwegians departed that afternoon too so we said goodbye to them as well.

That evening, we settled down for dinner not knowing what to expect. Our meals so far had been fairly shocking but there was a rumour going around that the place had a new chef. All being completely starving, we really hoped so. I´m not exaggerating when I tell you it was a tense atmosphere in the room as we waited for our food.

Thankfully, the rumours were true and they had a new Chef who served us a delicious meal and pudding, which didn´t stay on our plates for long! We felt better for the staff as well, who had clearly been struggling on without a chef for a few days and were equally relieved at everyone´s satisfaction and the obvious change in atmosphere. Like I said, I don´t think they deserved the outburst that had happened the previous evening so all of us were quick to sing their praises this time around. They were really nice.

With the atmosphere altered, we spent the evening at our own lodge this time. Surprise, Surprise - more Dancing and Games were on the agenda, including the Bula Dance we had been taught the previous evening. We certainly weren´t experts but that prior knowledge helped to prevent us looking too stupid. Everyone had an enjoyable night partying with the locals.

Afterwards, myself, Kathrin, Tamir (Isreal) and a couple of other English girls settled down for a few drinking games before we all gathered round the beach fire for some Guitar playing and Singing, courtesy of Tom.

Day 3: Just the morning left on Naviti Island before heading to our final Island in Fiji. Breakfast was good so we enjoyed that before myself and Kathrin took a walk over to the opposite side of the island to see what was going on. It was pretty nice but unfortunately, the Fly problem was just as bad there, which made relaxing sunbathing quite difficult.

After returning to the lodge, we had a chance to see a man the locals called ´Gecko Man´ - so named because of his Lizard-like ability to climb up and down tree-trunks. In fairness, he was pretty amazing at it and we all got some cool videos of him climbing up, throwing us down some Coconuts before sliding head-first back down the trunk. An unusual skill but impressive nonetheless.

Following that, we had another game of Volleyball with the locals, which was especially funny because of Martina´s frequent screams whenever the ball went anywhere near her. Good fun but no Washing Line incidents unfortunately.

Whilst it did get better, my overall impressions of Naviti Island weren´t good unfortunately and I would definately deter visitors to Fiji from going there. I think we just got unlucky with this one though because Nacula had been really nice and I´d only heard good things about all the others too. The luck of the draw I guess.

Fingers crossed for our final island, which is one of the smallest in all of the island groups - South Sea Island.