Bula Vinaka, Fiji!

5 hours after landing in Nadi, one of two big cities in Fiji, (the other one is the capital, Suva), we were safely installed in our dorm at Mana Island, as a part of the Mana Lagoon family for 4 days to come. The staff at Mana Lagoon really did treat us like family. We ate what they ate, and joined in on their kava-drinking traditions at nighttime. Kava is the national drink of Fiji. It's not alcohol, even though it is said to get you drunk. It is in fact a root of some sort, that tastes exactly like it sounds.. in other words; not very good. Since Mana Island was the "party" destination for us on Fiji, we joined in on the activites in the evenings, like a cross-dressing party where we won free kayakrental for a day, not bad! Pablo (Marthe) strikes again!

Dave and Pablo

Traditional dancing was one of the highlights of the Bula-evenings!

Flameboy ;)

Photoshoot on a deserted beach.

We shared dorm with a norwegian boy called Hadle. He studied in Australia for one semester, and was now on his way home. Hadle was a very nice boy and we had a lot of fun with him! Mana Island is not to big, so one day the three of us decided to walk around the Island, following the beach. It turned out to take us a couple of hours after all.. We saw baby sharks swimming around a stony beach, and passed by some beautiful resorts which looked like the place to have a honeymoon. We also found our way to the top of a hill where we had an amazing view over the entire island. On our way back it started to rain again (we had a couple of nights with heavy rain already), and we saw a double rainbow!!!! We also did 2 dives here, our 2 first dives as certified divers! One was at day time, and it was so much beautiful to see in the fiji waters. The second one we decided to do at night time. It was quite scary actually... All we could see was the light from our flashlights right in front of us, and if we saw an other way it would be completely black. All of a sudden a shark comes into our lights, and surrounded by total darkness we followed the reef shark swimming all around us.  Exciting experience!!

Hadle from Stavanger in the first picture, double rainbow in the other! :)

After some fun days at Mana Island we went by boat to Malolo Island! Here we stayed at Walu Beach Resort, a beautiful resort with swimmingpool, free kayak and snorkeling gear, buffet for every meal and very nice lodges! We spent the days by the pool, in the hammocks, snorkeling at the reefs just outside the beach, playing loads of volleyball and kayaking. One night when it was bula-time at the resort, everyone were gathering together to drink some kava. We all introduced ourselves by names and where we came from. The first guy to start were from the mainland in Fiji and told everyone about his weekendtrip to Malolo with his girlfriend. They had gone snorkeling and he had hidden a ring inside a shell which she found, and then proposed to her. Everyone went; Aaaawwwwww.. That was so cute!!!

Hammocktime!

Our last night on Fiji was 17 of May. Norways national day!! We stayed at the mainland since our flight was early next morning. Here we met some other norwegians and decided to celebrate Norway together. Two dutch guys, Justin and Stefan, came along aswell to Hard Rock Cafe where we had delicious dinner and a couple of beers. One of the norwegian girls had a deck of cards with pictures of Norway that we showed to the dutch guys and fijians working at Hardrock. We ended the night with Norways national anthem, a big hit :) Early the next morning it was time to set the clock to New Zealand time.

Ja Vi Elsker!