Fiji- Phase 18

Phase 18 Blog- Week 1

The phase started with a pretty cool beginning! 12 of us ended up meeting in Nadi airport and were disappointed when our flight to Labasa was cancelled due to the plane breaking. We were all tired and hungry and were pleased to hear the airline was giving us accommodation and food until the flight to Labasa the next day. The hotel was amazing with good food, air-conditioned rooms and a big pool. After a relaxing day and night at the hotel we were split up and put on three different flights to Labasa. The next morning we were met by the last member of the group- Brad. That day we went into Labasa to buy some much needed items- Bula dresses and pocket Sulu. That night we ate out at a restaurant in Labasa. The next morning we got up VERY early and did not have the best start to the morning with lamb sausages for breakfast! We all piled into the truck for the 5 hour journey to the nearest point on land to our camp. The journey was fairly eventful with a punctured tire and having to get out to push the truck out of the mud! We were met by Paul- Expedition Leader- who took us on a 5 minute boat journey to our island. As we drifted towards camp we were met by the friendly trainees Hayleigh and Josh who gave us a tour of camp. That evening was spent stargazing on the decking.
The next morning we enjoyed porridge for breakfast! Hayleigh and Josh showed us how to do all the camp jobs and we all worked together to make a sandy path to the toilet during a tropical rainstorm. In the afternoon we went for a snorkel and had a swim test. We also began reading our PADI manuals. Since it was a Saturday, the night was spent playing drinking games and lying on the decking! On Sunday we lazed about in the sun reading our dive manuals. On Monday we were joined by the three medics Alex, Gwyn and Sarah!

By Suz and Amy

Phase 18 Blog- Week 2

The week begun watching the very exciting PADI videos! The already qualified divers enjoyed diving on the house reef. On Tuesday we all went to the village of Navatu for our sevu sevu (welcoming ceremony). For most of us it was our first taste of Kava. This was the day that we met our Fijian families! By Wednesday we all had our completed our dive theory test! We all had a brilliant time in Navatu attending a birthday party. The women in the village prepared a feast of fresh fish, pork and many other traditional Fijian dishes. In the evening fun was had by all with Kava, singing and dancing! On Thursday and Friday the water was too choppy to complete our confined water dives. However, the qualified divers managed to fit in a few shore dives. We also had some lectures on fish anatomy, coral ecology and special species! Friday night was Steve’s last night so a few of us joined in with a goodbye Kava ceremony. On Saturday the water was finally calm and we started our confined water dives. Sadly we said goodbye to Steve. On Sunday we went to church for the first time. After church we all went back to our family’s houses for lunch and an afternoon nap!

Amy

Phase 18 Blog- Week 3

By week 3 everyone had completed their open water dives and we all started and finished the PADI advanced theory in one day! We started working on our advanced dives: boat, deep, drift, night and navigation dives and everybody did well! On Friday it was our first ladies night’ when the ladies from Navatu came to camp for an evening of fun. Many games were played including limbo, twister and musical statues. Everybody had fun and the ladies brought round some delicious cakes!
On Saturday we travelled by boat to the local school to watch the rugby. Some of us joined in with a friendly game of netball and football and Ben T and James were lucky enough to participate in a rugby game with the local team. On Saturday we had a pub quiz and played bure wars. We all dressed up in our bure’s colours and undertook challenges, it was a good night! On Sunday it was a trip round to the village for church lunch and a well needed nap.

Suz
Phase 18 Blog- Week 4

On the first day of week 4, Brad left us and we celebrated Jade’s birthday. We began our lectures studying fish and then invertebrates. We needed to learn some fish to species and others just to family. The 5th August was a MOMENTOUS occasion as Kristy and Vicky spotted a seahorse whilst washing up in the rock pools in front of camp. It’s the first time a volunteer has ever spotted one!
The week was filled with fish and invert point dives and snorkelling lessons. During our spare time, we would be revising. This week we also performed our size estimation dives. This is where volunteers have to estimate the size of many pieces of tubing suspended on ropes between 2 buoys located in the inner reef. This must be completed correctly 3 times with only 20% error in order to pass.
Friday nights dinner was AMAZING- Jade and Karen made beef burgers in fresh bread with fried eggs! This week also saw the beginning of salt water showers as we are out of fresh showering water! On the fun dive on Saturday the second boat had dolphins swimming alongside it which was incredible!
Saturdays night’s theme was ‘Superheroes’, costumes ranged from ‘Wonder Woman’ to ‘Wolverine’ and even saw the appearance of new superheroes such as ‘The Stranglers’. On Sunday, we visited a new village named Natokalau. It’s a beautiful village that practises Catholicism which meant the church service was short and sweet in a beautiful little church. A sevusevu was performed to welcome us to the village, so Kava was being drunk throughout the day. A great lunch was cooked for us including fresh fish, chips and tomato ketchup! On Monday there was the first sighting of the octopus in the inner reef by Allyce, James and Ben S. Today was also the day the staff went to the mainland and bought us back our ration items.

Kristy

Phase 18 Blog- Week 5

Another week rolls on with the return of Paul and a new arrival Rach! If only mozzie bites weren’t so itchy! Scratching = legs full of holes = no diving! This week also brought about the first two Namena days! Namena is a diving area about 40mins away from Nukubalavu (our camp), where everything is just more bigger and better! Forget spending dive after dive searching for big fish, in Namena you can’t avoid them. Half the group have also been lucky enough to see Humphead Wrasse! We also celebrated the 2nd birthday of the phase (Happy Birthday Hayls!), so we decided to head up the hill from camp and take in the view of the whole reef. Looking out from the top we could have easily been looking at a postcard the view was so amazing. Whilst most of us headed straight back down the hill, Will, James and Josh had other ideas and went for a trek through the jungle over the hills and found logs for the evening’s birthday fire. We finished the birthday celebrations on Saturday night with a super-awesome Nu rave party. BRING ON THE GLOW PAINT! A good night was had by all! The normal Sunday visit to the village was the perfect way to recover from the week- CAKE!

Will and James