Bounty Island, Mamanuca Islands, Fiji

23rd October – 26th October 2017

After getting on the plane in Los Angeles, it probably took me about five minutes to fall asleep and when I did, I was out for a while. I missed the safety messages and whole taking off process and the next I heard was the air hostesses bring around the food. Hearing that, I was torn between sleeping and eating because I needed to do both really. I couldn’t physically open my eyes at first but when I did I had missed it; all I had to do was ask the air hostess and she brought me a tray. After I was awake, I decided I would try and watch a film. Just as I had put it on, one of the air hostesses was passing with a cart of something, I looked at him and smiled and he offered me a spare dessert from business class: it was a really nice piece of cheesecake too.

As soon as I had eaten, I fell straight back to sleep. I couldn’t physically keep my eyes open to watch the film I had put on, but I didn’t mind. I drifted in and out of sleep for most of the journey. At one point, I was woken up by an air hostess who lifted me off the arm of my chair, as I was hanging over into the aisle and pushed my seat back for me, lying me back on it – I don’t usually put my seat back when someone is behind me but I literally had no energy to say anything so just carried on sleeping. Occasionally when I woke up, I would think that I could watch a film, but as soon as I would put one on, I would fall straight back to sleep – it was good though because I definitely needed it. On the flight information on the screen, it said we wouldn’t land until 6.50, but all off the information I had had previously said we would land at 5.50 and I had booked a transfer for 6.50 to get me to the islands. I couldn’t get my head around why it would have added an hour on when the actual flight was shorter than predicted; luckily, it was just a mistake on the screens and at 5.40 on Wednesday 25^th (we completely lost the 24^th due to crossing the date line – the guy in front of me completely missed his birthday), we landed in Nadi, Fiji.

Getting off the plane was different to anything I have ever experienced before: we were all greeted by a group of Fijian men, who were playing the guitar and singing welcome songs to us – it was such a nice welcome. After getting through passport control and bag checks, I was through to the other side, where I had to then wait for my transfer. Although my email said to just wait in the car park, as I was waiting there, a man told me that I needed to check in at the desk so that they knew I was there. I could tell already that it was going to be a hot day, as it was already 23 degrees at 6.30am.

I learnt very quickly that Fijians have their own time – Fiji time – and everything runs to this schedule and not an actual schedule. I was collected just after 7 and had a few more pickups to do along the way until I arrived at Denarau Port. When I arrived at the port, I checked my bags in and picked up my ticket before boarding onto the Yasawa Flyer. I tried to sit in the shade on the boat, as it was so hot and all my sun cream was in my checked bag – I didn’t think to get it out.

After about a half an hour ride, the boat arrived at my first island stop: Bounty Island. I was called down to the bottom deck to identify my bags, before I had to board onto a smaller boat, from the island, so that I could get there. As the boat pulled up to the island, there was a group of staff stood on the shoreline playing and singing to welcome me to the island – you can’t help but smile when they do that. I was the only one from the Yasawa Flyer who got off the boat at Bounty Island, so I thought it would be pretty lonely; I changed my mind on that as soon as I stepped onto the island though, everyone was like one big family.

On the island, I went to the check-in desk and sorted everything out, but I couldn’t actually check in until 12, so I got myself changed and decided to chill out for the morning.

By the time I was ready and had my sun cream on, and had found myself a sun lounger by the pool, I managed to lie down and relax for a little while. That obviously didn’t last very long though, as I really cannot just sit still and not do anything, so as soon as the offer to go fish feeding came up, I was persuaded and off I went.

A few of us got into the island boat and went out into the sea. We were given bread to throw in and when we did, the fish would swarm around and fight for the bits of bread. We drove around to a couple of different coral spots to feed the fish, but I didn’t get off the boat. After about half an hour on the boat, we drove back to the island.

When I got back onto the island, I went back by the pool and chilled there for the rest of the morning. Just before 12, Berry, the manager (I think), came and got me and told me it was time to check in. I had three men show me to my room, one of them each carrying one of my bags (I had a bag full of bottles of water that I had bought because apparently water is expensive on the islands), I felt like such a spare part, it was a little awkward. I was staying in the dorm for the night, which had sixteen beds in it – luckily there were only four of us in there.

Stepping back out of the dorm to go back to the main area for lunch, I was greeted with the most beautiful view of the trees with the sea behind. It was a view like nothing I had ever seen before. I walked back to the main area and had lunch, which was a buffet style. I sat with two other girls who were staying there, as they invited me over when they saw I was on my own, which was nice of them.

After lunch, I went back by the pool to chill out again. I had a lie down and a little swim in the pool, before deciding that I needed something else to do. As a guest, I was able to rent out snorkels, kayaks and paddleboards for free, so I thought I would have a go at one of those. I rented a kayak and a snorkel but neither of them really went to plan. It would probably have been hilarious to see me trying to get into my kayak, as I would push it out into the sea and as I went to get in it, the waves would push it back onto the shore and I would be hopping alongside it. This went on for a couple of attempts, before I eventually got in. I probably lasted no more than ten minutes in the kayak because it was so windy and the sea was so choppy, that I couldn’t control it and found it really difficult to move – the wind just kept pushing me towards the shore. My plan of kayaking around the island, soon failed.

After I had returned the kayak, I decided to rent a snorkel to go and see the fish. This was again a short-lived plan, as the sea was still choppy and the water kept splashing down my snorkel tube and it tasted disgusting. I saw one fish before giving up on that one too.

Back by the pool, I thought I would try and get a nap in, before there was the offer to go turtle fishing. I thought that the turtle fishing would be similar to the fish feeding that we had done in the morning, but it was just feeding the turtles that were kept in the back area of the resort. I fed them some fish anyway, but they weren’t very interesting and they didn’t do very much.

After the turtle fishing, there were a couple of hours with nothing on, so I lay by the pool and actually relaxed for a while. At about 5 o’clock, it had cooled down quite a bit, so I decided to go for a walk. I walked around the perimeter of the island, as the sun was setting on the opposite side to the resort, but I had set off too early. When I got to the other side, I stopped and sat on the logs for a little while and took some photos – it was very cloudy so I couldn’t actually see the sun. I sat there for a while but I had either set off too early, or it was too cloudy but I couldn’t see the sun set, so I decided to walk back to the resort. The whole journey would have probably taken me about twenty minutes if I hadn’t have stopped to take so many photos and play with the pretty shells.

When I got back to the resort, I went for a shower, to freshen up and get changed into clean clothes, before heading back out to the dining area for dinner.

Just before dinner, we were called to a kava ceremony. Kava is the traditional Fijian drink which comes from the root of a botanical pepper plant. It is crushed into a fine powder and put into a linen sack. The sack is then mixed in a big bowl (called a mother bowl) which is filled with water. The longer they mix it, the stronger it is. They drink kava as a good luck symbol before any event, or to welcome people, such as us; by the sounds of it, they drink it for any occasion. At the ceremony, there is always a chief, who doesn’t speak for the whole ceremony, as he has a spokesperson – we had two people act these parts during our ceremony.

When I tried the kava, I did not like it at all, but not many people do apparently. To me, it tasted like a cold, dirty tea with a very strange after taste that numbed my mouth. This is normal apparently and even the Fijian who was running the ceremony didn’t like it. Before we drank it, we had to clap once, shout ‘Bula’ and then drink it all at once, before clapping three times to end the drink. According to the Fijian who was putting on the ceremony, kava is the reason for ‘Fijian time’, because it makes you very sleepy and laid back, so you don’t want to do anything on time.

Straight after the ceremony, we went for dinner. Dinner was buffet style, and we had a choice of lots of different Fijian foods which were cooked underground in a lovo (an underground oven). After dinner, we sat at the table and chatted for a while, but the jet lag was really kicking in by this point, so at around 8.30 I took myself to bed.

As it was only the four of us in the dorm, I wasn’t worried about the noise when they came in, but I didn’t hear a thing anyway because I was well and truly passed out. I slept reasonably well; I woke up a few times but that was probably the jet lag, so I wasn’t really surprised.

I was awake and packed and at breakfast for 8, as that was the time I had to check out, in order to get the morning ferry to my next destination. Breakfast was a good mix of cold and hot foods that we could choose. I ate my breakfast and sat in the dining area, waiting to be called to board the ferry to my next island, Beachcomber.

Staying on Bounty Island was a lovely start to my Fijian trip. From the moment I stepped off the boat, I felt like part of the Bounty family and I really enjoyed that. I also enjoyed that there were only a few people staying there, as it was nice to get a bit of peace and quiet, to try and recover a little.

To travel is to live, Katie x