Barefoot Kuata Island
Instead of just sticking to the mainland for our stay, we decided to spend half the time on one of the many little islands. We chose Kuata for the fact that they offered shark diving and snorkelling, which is also one of the main reasons we chose Fiji out of all the Pacific Islands. I am the most happy with this part of our trip, and I don't think we could have chosen a better island to visit. The staff were incredible. I don't think I have ever felt so welcome, cared about and safe in my life. The marine biologist on the island is also from Upper Hutt just like me! I felt like I have now gained a new Island family and cannot wait to go back to see them again. Oh, don't let me forget to say that the Island itself is breathtaking, well cared for and offer a lot of different activities to do. We went from hiking, to snorkelling, to playing volley ball with the staff, to diving and finally dancing into the night with the rest of the tourists.
Snorkelling
Let me start by saying, this wasn't the guided snorkelling with sharks, this was just from the beach with the free equipment. This is a really long, and really funny story to explain and I don't think typing it will do it any justice. Instead, I shall just show you the photos and say, coral hurts. Also, sorry for the excess skin, but there was no way to avoid... I would like to mention, I didn't get caught on coral just the once either, it was twice. Over two days. I think it's safe to say that I should not snorkel ever again but I did get to see some cool fish, and baby sharks!
Diving with Sharks
This is as cool as the title suggests. I went open water diving with Bull Sharks. I don't have my diving certification, but this has really encouraged me to get it. We went diving to 12 metres where we hid behind a tiny wall made of coral. In front of us, sometimes within touching distance, were bull sharks that can range from 1 - 3 metres. They were getting fed fish carcasses by a bad-ass woman in front of the wall who was constantly surrounded with other fish, and little tawny nursing sharks. This was the most incredible experience, and definitely in the top five of things in my life. We were under water for around 40 minutes, but it hardly felt like ten. If you ever get the chance to do this, I 100% recommend you doing it, no matter the cost. I couldn't really afford to do it, but rearranged some funds to make sure I could do it after seeing some peoples footage. Speaking of footage, my goPro stopped working because of the pressure at that depth, so the only photos I have are complete luck.
Quad Biking/Zipling
Back on the mainland we stayed at the Hilton to really change up the dynamic of our trip. However, we made sure to keep some adventure into the trip by going on a quad bike adventure. Like snorkelling, I have never done quad biking so this was yet another first on this trip. I thought we would be quad biking in the middle of nowhere, where I could feel safe, but I was wrong. We started by quad biking through Nadi. Fijian traffic rules make no sense to me, and I am contemplating if they even have rules. It was crazy. Finally we got out of the city and went onto a dirt road to Sleeping Giant Mountain. Driving through Nadi and its outskirts really opened my eyes to how Fijian's live and how impoverished the country is. We are so lucky to live in New Zealand, especially in relation to pets. Our destination was Zip Lining in Sleeping Giant Mountain and this was incredible. Zip lining through bush over looking a beautiful river. It was lovely. And then we quaded home, back through Nadi traffic!
Those are some of the highlights of my trip, but I did film a bunch of little clips so will be compiling a video together showing the excitement on my face during all these moments and more. I am hoping to have that up in April :) I hope you enjoyed!
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