Monday, July 27, 2009

NAQALIA LODGE !



We booked our Fijian island hopping holiday months ago - but, be warned, that doesn't mean you will get what you booked! When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by a perspiring travel agent who told us that we could not go to WayLeiLei, which we had booked, and we would have to go to Naqalia Lodge istead (there were no options)



Greg in the coral bed at low tide, finding octopus for dinner...



It was described as a 'new resort' which is always a bit worrying.
The bure was huge and comfortable, if not quite built yet! The walls only came up to roof height and then there was a gap at the top, open to the jungle. This meant that the first giant spider was spotted by Jess who immediately leapt onto her bed, when this was followed by the largest cricket we've ever seen, we knew we were going to have fun!



Mosquito netting was on the front windows, but none of the others and we had to send out to another island for mosquito nets.The showers were cold.
It was a family run resort and we had booked for 3 nights.. we walked to the nearby village through head height grasses and next cove along, and the resort we would have been at (we shouldn't have done that)





The family were fabulous and couldn't do enough for us - all we had to do was ask - I think they served us food they thought we liked (it was dreadful)



The highlight was when they did a lovo for us and baked the dinner under hot stones and sand (bit like a hangi)we had snapper and chicken, taro and cassava and the kava ceremony in full regalia.





We had a lovely time really and experienced the 'real' Fiji, it's just that I don't like the big spiders or the cold showers!

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