Escaping to island paradise

Today was a pretty exciting day because we went on the smallest plane of our travels yet. It only had 19 seats! I'm so glad we booked this well in advance as I imagine those seats fill up pretty quickly. We had to catch a taxi to the airport which was quite expensive but the best way for us to make the 40 minute journey there. Also the most reliable way. The domestic terminal was rather small and we had to physically stand on the scales with our hand luggage to check the weight for the plane. I guess when the plane is as tiny as it was they have to be careful not to over load it. The flight over from the mainland to Tauveuni was so magical. Down below us all we could see was coral reefs in Turquoise waters. The water looked so very inviting. We landed after roughly an hour and a half in the air and watched our baggage be unloaded by a single guy with a little cart. We entered the tiniest airport you've ever seen and swiftly discovered the hotel had forgotten to pick us up. After a while one of the staff asked who we were waiting for and kindly called the hotel for us which prompted them to come and get us. It wasn't the best start but we were soon checking in to our little detached bure set on a palm tree covered hill overlooking the sea. Pretty much postcard paradise. The resort use to be 5 stars but apparently went under and now the bures are rented out at a much cheaper nightly rate. It does mean there are a few problems but for what we got overall for the price we couldn't complain about anything really. After dropping off our bags we headed down to the beach and although not the nicest in terms of litter it was still quite picturesque. As we walked along the shore we came to quite a rocky area and here I spotted a striped snake. Turns out that Nick had researched snakes in Fiji and it was in fact the most poisonous sea snake in the world. Safe to say we gave it a very wide berth and removed ourselves from the rocky area as quickly as possible. After a quick photo of course! We spent the afternoon in the pool where Nick played games with one of the employee's children. Although it was very fun after a while we just wanted to float around and relax but that was hard to do with a child splashing to get your attention. The only downside is the island isn't very inhabited/developed as you'd imagine a tropical island to be so we are pretty much restricted to the hotel's limited menu for all our meals over the next few days. Still I think there's enough things for us to fancy even if it does include some repitition some days. The biggest down side to paradise is mosquitos. I covered up for dinner, sat by a repellent burning coil and was still bitten 3 times. It looks like it's going to be a few days of being plastered in sun cream and insect repellent!En savoir plus