Wednesday 6th July - Leaving Maqai

We are fed up! Everything is damp, we are dirty and we feel like caged animals. We have made the decision to leave the remoteness and frankly appalling weather and leave Maqai. We have had enough of camping and cold showers and sand in everything and not feeling clean and damp beds.  We seem to have been followed around Fiji by unseasonably bad weather and this hasnt helped - so we pack up, have the goodbye song, say our goodbyes 

 

 

 climb aboard the speed boat...                                    and take one last look at Maqai as we speed away.

We have an exciting boat to boat mid sea transfer as soon as we get off the reef and then a series of vans and pickups before reaching civilisation, the sun shining and best of all an ice cold can of Sprite from good old MH (Fijian Sainsburys as the girls call it.)

We say goodbye to James and Hannah (from NZ) who continued on round Taveuni to their new luxury resort and say hello to "First Light" in Waiyevo - near the ferry port. Hopefully we will meet up with them again when we are in Aukland, NZ.

It looks horrendous from the road; rooms above a small parade of tatty looking shops and a cafe, but as soon as we venture up the stairs the outlook is brighter and we heave a collective sigh of relief and head to the comfort of a hot shower.

Nicole attempts to hand wash our dirty clothes and towels while sitting on the floor of the shower but gives it up as an impossible task - the lady from the cafe downstairs does a far better job, and dries, folds and delivers it back in less than 12 hours, all for $10 FJ (about £3).

Waiyevo is a quiet little place - really only notable for the fact that the 180 line runs through it. This invisible line - otherwise known as the international dateline - means that technically we stood in today and tomorrow or was it today and yesterday! (We never did figure it out!)  Although Fiji conveniently bends the line so that as a whole it works on the same timezone - however, we are learning that "Fiji Time" operates entirely differently though. We venture up the hill to jump from one to the other.

















We return to find that because we havent ordered our supper by 11am, from perhaps the grumpiest Fijian lady ever from the cafe under our motel, there is no supper and we have no choice (!) but to eat the cheapest thing on the menu at the very pricey neighbouring resort - it was very pleasant though!