DAY 9- "paradise"

Leaving Tovu Tovu was a bit of a hassle. There were two island hopper flights scheduled, but the first one only had three students on it anyways. I myself was on the second flight, but that didn’t mean we were in less of a rush.

To pass time, we visited Coconut Grove, the bed and breakfast that we visited on the very first day. We went to buy nice sulus, but we all ended up getting many gifts for friends and family. The problem was checking out. The process took much too long, due to the nice lady who owned the place talking just a bit too much. In the end, Madiha, Jamison, and I had to speed walk back to Tovu Tovu just to stuff our faces for lunch and hop in the van to get on the plane.

I have never liked the small plane rides, and this was no exception. Though I had a good seat with a good view, and though Jacob showed me that there was a rainbow circling the plane’s shadow in the clouds, I still hated that dinky plane. It was extremely shaking taking off, landing, and just about every point in between.

After meeting up with the other part of the group and Mrs. Bottoms (former photography teacher who was living in Australia), we took the two and a half hour drive to Mango Bay.

Along the way, we stopped at an Ecopark, which is basically a zoo of plants and animals. I have to admit, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to a delay in the trip to Mango Bay, but it ended up being pretty fun and a good time to stretch our legs. Our tour guide around the park was also hilarious, cracking jokes about kava and cannibalism (no, really, Fiji used to be a cannibalistic nation).

Arriving at Mango Bay itself was like a dream come true. The front office served us fruit punch as we were told that we finally had actual rooms with actual fans and actual hot water in the showers.

Since there was nine of us girls, we were put in the hotel’s dormitories. It was basically giant rooms with six beds in each, and bug tents shaped like canopies above each one. Three girls (Alex, Katie, and Mariam) had to be in a room separate from the majority. It ended up that there was a man staying in that dorm as well (who got moved that very night, don’t worry). The beds in the dorm were obviously not the best quality, but they were infinitely better than anything we had slept on in a while. It was a like heaven under a bug net. Just laying down on the bed for a minute was my high of the day.