Today consisted of doing this at the resort all day:
Dinner was Fijian BBQ at Sunset Point. We watched the sun go down, ate delicious BBQ and then sat near the open fire enjoying the night time beach vibe. On the way back to the room, a horse chased us….which was kind of exciting / terrifying.
From the mud baths we returned to the resort for another quick shower and a change of clothes before taking part in a Sunset Dinner Cruise on Captain Cook Cruises.
The sunset was spectacular and the food, drinks and dancing were also good. Due to the fact our hotel was a fair way out than everyone else’s – we got a private transfer instead of the same bus! Score! Patrick the platypus had a great time on the cruise and drank way too many cocktails.
We went to bed at 8pm last night after 30+ hrs of no sleep. Both of us slept through fairly solidly and woke up at 9:30am to rush off for our included breakfast.
We then nabbed a beanbag right on the beach and from 10am – 2:30pm just….lazed around. We went in the pool, took advantage of the swim up bar, sat in the spa, read books and drank cocktails.
At 2:30pm we headed back to the room to get out of the sun a bit before our sunset beach horse ride. The horse ride was….interesting. Firstly, we ended up with a random 8 yr old kid on the horse ride with us. Alone. Which seemed…somewhat unsafe. It was also not particularly romantic lol. Then, B got the super angry, pregnant horse that kept charging people and got left to control it on his own. THEN it turns out my bad knee means I can’t gat off a horse, even with steps to assist me.
While the sunset view (and unexpected free bubbly!) was nice, I think we can safely say that my first time on a horse will also be my last!! After the horse trauma/experience was over, it was happy hour so I drank two $10 margaritas and felt a lot better about life.
Cocktail count: 2 x fruit daiquiri, 3 x pina colada , 1/2 bottle bubbly, 1 x classic margarita, 1 x pineapple margarita
Today’s lesson: in the world of Mel, riding a horse is like riding a mountain bike…difficult and likely to result in a(nother) broken wrist.
We did an overnight flight from Melbourne to Fiji. Not ideal for travelling but not totally awful either. We left Melbourne at 11:50pm AEDT and arrived at 6am Fiji time…so just under a 4hr flight time. While at Melbourne airport I realised I HAD FORGOTTEN MY TRAVEL MASCOT PERCY – again! This time, we bought a tiny ring in, his name is Patrick.
On arrival, we went through customs and then caught a taxi for about 25 mins to the main reception area for Sonaisali Island. We had to catch a tiny boat across the inlet! It was barely 7am, the sun was just coming up and nobody except staff was up at the resort so there was opportunities for amazing photos.
We relaxed on beach chairs and napped for the morning before being allowed to check in three hours early (midday). Our bure is pretty cute. We share a common wall with next door but they are all set up like that and we are right smack bang on the beach in front of where the sun sets. We cuddled up on a beanbag on the beach for awhile in the afternoon before I convinced B to “move” the beanbag on to our deck. I’ve written a pleading note asking them not to take it back lol.
All the beanbag shenanigans was exhausting (and we hadn’t slept for 26hrs) so it was nap time. Then beautiful sunset photo time!! Amazing. I picked the 9 best out of like….63.
Dinner was at the main restaurant at the resort and was traditional Fijian curry. Yum!
Day 1 cocktail count: 2 mudslides, 1 pina colada, 1 fruity dacquiri and 1 Moscow mule
Today’s lesson: max out the duty free coming over on wine and bubbly – the cost here is obscene. A $17 bottle of wine in Aus is $80 here and a bottle of bubbly is literally 4x the price!
Today was the last day of school for semester one, 2018 and tomorrow we fly to Fiji for a full five nights of glorious relaxation! When we decided to do a relaxation trip I settled on Fiji pretty quickly (only a 3hr flight from Sydney) and immediately started researching for my two main requirements – a swim up bar and an ocean front villa or room. Turns out those are damn hard to find in peak season! I also initially had “childfree” as a main requirement but all the strictly adults only places needed another flight from the domestic airport so B vetoed them this time around and we just aimed for a smaller resort without a huge kids club to attract families. I’ll come back to you another time LikuLiku Lagoon Resort.
We are staying at the Doubletree Resort by Hilton which is on Sonaisali Island. It’s very close to the main island and is only a 25 min taxi ride from the international airport with a 2 min boat ride across the inlet.
We have booked to stay in a King Premium Ocean Bure (hut) facing onto the beach. The pricing was exceptionally good (this whole trip is cheaper than what it cost us to go on what we politely refer to as “the Perth trip from hell” in 2016) and the inside of the bure looks amazing!
We have one short day trip planned to visit the mud baths and the garden of the sleeping giants but other than that it’s basically all about relaxing together, drinking fruity drinks with umbrellas in them and frolicking in the water while Canberra freezes through -5C temps. Here are some photos of my recent suffering – working on a farm school site requires multiple layers, thermals, a beanie and good gloves at the moment!!
The doggos (yes – note the plural! We have formally adopted Jet as of two days ago) will have a family of pet sitters coming to stay – highly recommend Emma Lily Grace Services in Canberra – and the big babies won’t even miss us a tiny bit while they have kids to dote on them and give them all the pats they want.
Fiji, here we come!! 🏝 🍸 🍹 🏖 😎
Mel's Travel Blog 