Bula from Fiji! We arrived here on Thursday 29th Oct and flew into Nadi. We stayed one night before getting up nice and early to make our way to the other side of the main island. We decided a while ago we didn't want to do any of the arranged island hopping tours but instead get out to a small island to have a real fijian experience. After a search on the internet we found Caqalai (pronounced thung-ga-lie) Island which sounded perfect. We went from Nadi to Suva, the capital. We got a taxi from Suva (worst than the Thailand ones- crazy driver!) to Waidalice landing where a boat was picking us up to take us to Caqalai. We arrived to the landing earlier so the taxi driver took us to the nearest village to get some food, we were the only non-fijian people there. We got on a tiny boat that looked like a rowing boat with an engine one where we had to sit on the floor, going down Waidalice river was really nice but the open sea was very rough. Caqalai Island is beautiful, its part of the Lomaiviti group of islands. It's run by the Methodist Church from the next village on other island so doesn't sell alcohol but you can take your own, not that we bothered. It takes about 15 minutes to walk around the whole island and we decided to camp here which included 3 meals a day of amazing fresh, home cooked fijian food. The meals are at set times 8, 1 and 7 and if you lost track of time (easy to do on a paradise island) they blow a shell when food is ready. After over first evening meal we had our first yaqona (kava) experience. Its made from tree roots which are pounded and mixed in a big kava bowl with water and drank from coconut shells. It looks like muddy water, hard to explain what it tastes like but it makes you numb. We had to clap once and say bula before drinking it in one go and clap 3 times after.
On Sunday we got a boat with a local man and boy from Caqalai and some other people staying on the island, over to the village where the church is that runs Caqalai. We were greeted by a Fijian ladt called Martha and waiting in their kava room with her while she told us all not to leave and to go live with her. until it was time for the service. Before the service a watched a man and boy play on a lali, a long hollowed out tree truck that was like a drum, which qwe think is the calling to say the service was about to start. The service was in Fijian which we knew before we went, a man greeted us all and apologised for the service being in Fijian, but the singing was great. Afterwards we were led outside where we lined up and shook hands with everyone, including the children who were lovely. We got a boat back to Caqalai and had a lovo lunch. Martha said in their village they only have lovo on birthdays, weddings etc so it was great to have it on Caqalai. Lovo food is where they dig a hole in the ground, rap all the food in foil and cook it under the ground for a few hours. It was a mix of fish (including Barrakuda which they caught), meat and salad and it taste amazing.
We had a great 6 days on Caqalai, the first few spent snokelling and most of the guys playing volleyball and football etc with the locals and playing with the 2 gorgeous dogs!Sunday after church it poured with rain for the rest of the rain so just lazed around reading etc (a hard life!). Monday it was still raining quite abit and by tuesday our stuff was getting wet so we decided to move into a bure for our remaining 2 nights. The bures are really cute, they are thatched little huts with just a bed but ours had electricity (woo-hoo) which went on between 6-10pm so we were able to charge things! The locals on Caqalai are lovely and they are all family relating in some way or the other. Some of the guys sat down a few nights a sang and played guitars for us. We met some lovely people on the island who were also travelling, Sam and Aaron who were lovely and have been travelling for a year and a family from Switzerland who were also travelling for a year, their mum is a teacher was was schooling them as they travelled. There were also 2 girls from Sweden who had been their 3 months as part of university trying to make Caqalai and eco resort which was pretty amazing. On Wednesday it was still raining, although we had 4 days of rain we still had a great time, just relazing on Caqalai. I hired a wet suit on Wednesday as it was our last day and I was determined to snorkel with Pete. We woke up on Thursday (5th Nov) on the day we were leaving Caqalai to blue sky and sunshine! Luckily we were only going over to the next island, Leleuvia so we knew the sun would be out their as well!

As soon as we arrived on Leleuvia on Thursday we fell in love with it, we were planning to stay 6 nights but stayed 2 more days so we had just over a week there and we still really didn't want to leave after that. Caqalai and Leleuvia are amazing island, very similar, apart from Leleuvia is a bit bigger, still tiny though, it took about 20 minutes to walk around. Leleuvia has about 10 locals, again most are related, we stayed in a lovely bure with just a bed and a light. The facilities on Lelevuia were renovated a few years ago so there is bar and luxury toilets and showers compared to Caqalai (still cold though). On both Islands there is no internet access etc and on Leleuvia they can't make out going calls, it was so lovely to be away from everything and just be on a simple, basic island with amazing people. We met a lady Michelle who is from Aus and spent everyday with her, she is lovely so that was great. A few days after we arrived her Fijian friend Dan, who lives in Suva came over to stay with Michelle. On our first night after dinner one of the locals invited us to join them having kava, we joined them and all the locals were there together, playing guitars and singing all night. On Caqalai when we had kava it was after people had asked and only about 3 of the locals joined us which was great, but it was so lovely on Leleuvia to be aske to join them, it was more natural and we did the same pretty much every night. We had another lovo dinner on Saturday night and another day we got a boat to Levuka, the old capital and saw about 20 dolphines in the sea on the way! We also got a boat out to honeymoon island, a tiny desert island and a snorkelled around the reef which the local guys were fishing. There are some gorgeous children on Leleuvia, including Meme (said mem-a) who was 3 and her baby brother Josiah who was 6 weeks old and gorgeous. The children have such a great lifestyle, on an island with no cars, no danger etc and they get to spend all day playing outside. Meme spent some time with us playing on the beach and in the sea. We love this island so much, we really felt like part of their family, they are all wonderful people. We had such a relaxing time just snorkelling, swimming, boys playing volleyball, drinking kava and listening to their music (and Pete playing and singing, which they loved), and even abit of kayaking and yoga! We went back to Nadi and went into the town, which we both hated, way too busy. Off to Hawaii now! Lots of love, Claire and Pete x