Fiji

In Australia when students graduate high school they go on a holiday with their friends known as "schoolies" for a week or so. The popular trend the past few years has been to go to Fiji as it is only a 4.5 hour flight, and the whole island is dedicated to the students making it a safer environment to party in. Thus about 600 students from around where I live in Sydney, Australia traveled to Fiji to party for a week.

The first day took us about 17 hours in travel time, where I had to wake up at 3:30am to be at the airport for my 6am flight. Followed by a bus from the airport, to where the boat would take us to our island,  but we missed the first boat and had to wait about 4 hours for the next plane to arrive. When we finally arrived to the island we were greeted by Fijians singing and handing out shell necklaces and saying "Bula!" which is the Fijian way of saying "hello". The first night was filled with excited partying, everyone forgetting about the exhaustion of traveling to the island. By 3am the next morning I was passed out, when I was awoken by my room mate Cleo shaking me awake because some boys thought it would be a funny idea to run past our room and either purposefully or accidentally knock off the fire extinguisher causing an explosion of the smoke fusing into our room. We had to evacuate our room, and we told the workers we could go stay in the boys room as they had spare beds but their room was about a 10 minute walk, and because we weren't thinking at 3:30am, after we hadn't slept a whole 24 hours, 3 girls hopped on a buggy with 5 big Fijian men. When they started driving into a bushy area we realised how stupid we had been and started saying if they were to kidnap us we could run away... Luckily they dropped us near the boys house. We spent about 5 minutes figuring out which room was theirs before finally knocking on the door and eventually figuring out the bed situation and passing out again. All in all, a very eventful first night.

The second day we went snorkeling. We went on a boat ride about 20 minutes away from the Plantation resort and just stopped in the middle of the ocean and dived into the water. The water was so clear and beautiful, with lots of coral and fish, I even saw a shark calmly swim under me! That night was "tight and bright" themed and again we partied until the music stopped (Granted we had no choice as our room was right behind the d floor).

Third day was filled with relaxing by the beach and pool, tanning and swimming. Lots of food and good company. Before the partying began that night, a few of the workers were singing songs, where everyone joined in and even a few students got up and sang. It was really nice.

The fourth day a few of us went on the Shell Village tour to another island, where we participated in a Kava ceremony and met lots of Fijian children and elders. It was so interesting to see the way the Fijians lived on the different islands, as the island I was staying on was very commercialised due to the tourism and catering to us. It was breathtaking to see how happy they all were with what little they did have, reminding me that family, friends and good health are the basic needs for happiness and to appreciate what I already have in life. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the beach, and pool yet again. The fourth nights theme was "Gender bender", where the boys dressed like girls and vice versa. There was a pole dancing competition which was hilarious.

The fifth night got dramatic, which is an understatement, but I won't go into details. But let's just say it resulted in me walking around in no pants and my friend's t-shirt trying to look for my "friends" to help them out as I had to evacuate the room I sleeping in when I had wanted an early night...

The sixth night I tried to drink again after a few days break, but by this time I was so sick of alcohol after the first three days and could not physically drink it. The Fijians sang us traditional songs which were beautiful before the partying began. This nights theme was "back to school" and I was sick and tired and my eye hurt, so I went to bed around 12 oclock and passed out to the sound of music blaring.

The seventh day was spent sleeping, but luckily it rained most of the day. Everyone was exhausted by this time, but had to go out with one last bang for the last night, so we spent the day catching up on sleep.

It was sad to leave on the last day, but I was definitely ready to come home. I lost my voice all week, I got a little sunburnt, I got glass in my foot and had the nurse stick a needle in it, I had sore blurry eyes, I had a cough, I think I got alcohol poisioning on the first night... So yes it is good to be home and I appreciate home so much more after being away, but I am so glad I went and the scenery was beautiful and the Fijians were lovely. Vinaka for a great, memorable week!