Leaving Matamanoa

Last day on the Island. 

Victoria has been sick all throughout the evening and night L, so not the most cheerful at the moment, and currently writing a LONG answer form about her feelings about the experience.

We woke up and had a lazy one and a quick breakfast just before it closed at 10, just to find that we had to be out of the room by 10!!! So packing was quite hurried. After having checked out and gotten internet for the day to have something to do (it’s raining, and we have no room to chill/shower in..) we’re now sitting in the restaurant/lobby and writing/internetting. 

The boat to take us off the island and back to mainland Fiji is due to arrive in 5 hours (4PM), so there might be a fair bit of internetting and Big Bang until then, as long as we can find a socket somewhere… laptop is dying..

Matamanoa Day 4 - Fishing day!

Activity Day!

Today we went snorkelling, and I went out for a 2 hour handline fishing trip! Unfortunately, the fishing was with 5 other people, one of which was a massively rude Australian girl that kind of ruined it a bit for me. It did remind me of how happy I am that it’s just the 2 of us travelling around, and not having to deal with lots of other people all the time J

The Rude one in red behind me. Note my slightly P:d off posture :-)

Matamanoa Day 3 - Pool day

This day might be a bit of a write-off, as Victoria started feeling really sick in the middle of the night L Now (at 4pm) she’s a bit better, but still not in great shape. Must have been something in the food, so today she’s staying away from the local food, and chomping away on some muesli bars that we brought from Brisbane.

We also managed to find a dying roach in our bathroom in the middle of the night! They seem to be following us around!!! I solved the problem by putting the trash can over it, and the cleaners have now gotten rid of it. It’s a LOT cleaner here than it was at Soldiers Point though, so we’re not that worried.

Now the plan is for me to head off to the infinity pool for a splash, and then we’ll enjoy the sunset from the beach outside our window. It’s a tough life!

Matamanoa Day 2

This place is still amazing J 

Got up and had breakfast at 9.30. Not as amazing a breakfast that you would get at a 5 star on the mainland somewhere, but considering that it’s an island in the middle of nowhere with limited resources, it was good enough. 

After that we lazed in our room for a while, watching season 5 of Big Bang Theory and just relaxing. The Bure is really nice, and the view is wonderful. Today it’s not raining, so it’s all sun outside the windows.

The plan for today was to go on the handline fishing at 2, but when we got to booking it, the last 2 seats were taken by some people who got there just 1 minute ahead of us! What’s the likelihood of that on an island with no more than 30 people! Anyway, instead, we went for some more Big Bang, and I dozed off for a couple of hours J

Instead of the fishing, we booked a Sunset cruise for the evening, thinking that it would be something like the one we took at Hamilton Island, with 20 other people. Instead it turned out to be just US, and the 2 guys handling the boat. It was a really beautiful way of getting to see the island, and Victoria got some local information out of the guys. It turns out they live on a neighbouring island, and return there every evening.

When we got back from the boat, it was time for dinner, and then … some more Big Bang J

Going to Matamanoa Fiji!!

Getting to Fiji turned out being the longest day of our trip so far. Getting up at 9 at Byron Bay on Saturday the 23^rd, and arriving at our Beachfront Bure on Matamanoa island at 11:50 on Sunday the 24^th. In between there, we:

•  Drove from Byron Bay to Brisbane in the first good weather that we’d had in our 3 Byron Bay days
•  Met with Adam in Brisbane on the South Bank
•  Walked around shops for a little while, and killed time in a café (and me in an Arcade across the street)
•  Drove to the Airport
• Dropped off the rental car
•  Found that THIS was the flight that we could only have one bag each on
• Ditched the water we’d bought, as bringing it would cost 15 aussie dollars per litre…
• Managed to get our overweight down to just 10kg, and then got help from a very helpful checkin girl who cut that in half for us so that we “only” had to pay 75 instead of 150 dollars for that.
• Flew for 3 hours to Fiji (I slept, Victoria probably didn’t)
• Got picked up, given our first set of shell necklaces, and shipped to a hotel for the 2 hour wait until the morning ferry, slept in the hotel lobby
• Got driven to the port by a Fiji:an who seemed quite unhappy with his place in life, driving people around and earning 80 Fiji dollars / week
• Took a Catamaran ferry out to Matamanoa Island, on sometimes choppy water, and then a small boat from the ferry onto the beach
• Got our 2^nd pair of shell necklaces

Phew!!

Since then, it’s been raining and quite windy nonstop, so we’ve gotten our well needed rest and have hung out in our Beach Bure, nr 19 on the Sunset side of the island. The place is absolutely amazing, and like taken out of Castaway… WIIILSOOOOOON!

we get onto the island by taking a small boat from the big Catamaran, as there is no port; only beach :-)

Welcome drink nr 2!

Our beach Bure is amazing

But it's raining pretty hard outside

Victoria is shattered after the boat, and has a well deserved sleep :-)

We are welcomed with - guess what - even MORE sparkling wine...

Byron Gym

So we've found a gym again :-) This time it's "Byron Gym", and we managed to go!!

I did the Crossfit WOD, which consisted of:

Power Snatch burpees, 95 pounds, for time, 12 - 9 - 6 - 3

Unfortunately it completely CANED me, but at least I did them :-), it an embarassing 6.15 minutes..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST1MkSJHAOQ

Gale Winds and 300mm of rain!

So we've now been in Byron Bay for 2 of the 3 nights, and it has been raining NON STOP!!

... but that's actually not that bad :-) We're both feeling a bit homesick, and have longed for a good reason to just stay in and eat homemade food and watch DVDs. With the weather being as bad as it is now, that's basically the only safe thing to do, so we're happy. The idea for today was going to be to head down to the lighthouse and look around, as that is supposed to be very pretty, but with the rain and wind we're having, that would be suicide!

So now we're sitting in the apartment, having just had fish finger sandwiches and watched more Big Bang Theory, and waiting for the cookies that Victoria has made to cook in the oven, while the storm is raging outside.

Tomorrow we're off to Brisbane and then to Fiji in the evening. We've been told that the weather is going to be a bit calmer tomorrow morning, so we should be safe driving there.

Driving to Byron Bay

After the roach ordeal we are now somewhat paranoid about roaches.  We drove to Opal Cove resort (5 hours, Johan did it all) which did not have very good reviews on tripadvisor (thanks again trailfinders), but upon arriving it looked bigger and much better in the reception/restaurant area than our previous Ibis ordeal.  The room however was quite manky, being not too clean and the air con put white dusty stuff everywhere.  It also smelt as I imagine Faulty Towers would smell.  Anyhow, we gave it a chance and we quite happy until we saw a roach on the step on the way back from the restaurant through reception.  This of course set us into panic mode once again, although it was not in our room, so we decided we would try and sleep in the room with the light on.  This had limited success.

Johan drove another 3 hours this time to Byron Bay, to a hotel that had excellent reviews, specifically for being clean.  We were convinced there would be no roaches here as it is very very clean.  However, whilst watching the DVD last night Johan spotted one climbing up the wooden TV stand.  After some more spectacular roach tracking, Johan managed to get a bowl over the said roach.  We haven't seen any more yet.  We have come to the conclusion that it must have come out of Johan's bag of clothes that was sitting right next to where we found it.  This bag of clothes had been lying unzipped on the floor at the Ibis all night until we left, so we are horrified to think that it might have been in our bag all along.  And so the full effect of the awful Ibis continues!

Muchos windos!

There were numerous warnings about the various rip currents, you can see how choppy it is here from the brown colour in the waves.

The force of the waves was very impressive!

There was loads of sea scum... as Johan had the window down taking photos a MASSIVE bit of sea scum foam headed for his open window, most bounced of but this small amount tried to get him!

On a more positive note, the drive to Byron Bay was amazing, it rained A LOT the whole way, and has stormed and rained since we got here.  It looks like there should be some kind of cyclone, but there isn't.  I always thought England got a lot of rain, but we don't know what rain is back in the UK!  It rains so hard here that you end up with the visibility you get in really bad fog.  I guess they are similar to monsoon rains.  Very impressive...unless you get caught in them ;)

All the food we got from the supermarket.  Doesn't sound that fun, but when we've been away from home and cooking your own meals for a month, then the prospect of cooking and eating what you want is pleasing!!