Our Big Explore: Shark diving, fishing and meeting locals on Fiji

Friday 28^thNovember

We said goodbye to Malene and Zandra in the morning, and at 9.36am we left Ashfield with a directly train to the airport. We queued up in front of Fiji Airways counters together with all the chocolate people, Fijians and Indians. Apparently there is a lot of immigrated Indians on Fiji. The flight went smooth and we landed in Nadi (pronounced Nan-di) on Levu Viti, Fiji in the late afternoon. Now 12 hours ahead of Denmark.

It was cloudy and rainy outside. It’s not the best time to visit Fiji, but since Erik was dying to dive with sharks we had to go. It was obvious that we had arrived in a third world country again, and people admired our vanilla European look.

The so-called airport pick-up ended out in a cab to the hostel, because their pick-up car was rented out. Erik had booked two nights at ‘Bamboo House’ in a 16 bed dormitory for $7 (36kr) per nose per night. It’s located about 5 km out of town, to begin with it seemed far away, since there was no light or life as we drove further away from the airport. But then a little village and a few lights appeared in front of us, and we were got dropped off right in front of the hostel. They paid for our cab ride, and welcomed us. It's a lovely place, with loads of life and a fantastic atmosphere. The place have both a pool area, and restaurant & bar attached, plus a nice hang out area with hammocks and couches.

As we were checking in at the front desk two Danish guys passed us. We noticed one of them was wearing a T-shirt with a Danish football logo on, so we started talking to them.

And after dropping our stuff in the room, which by the way was great value for money, we went down in the bar to taste some Fijian beer and hang out with the Danes. It was two young guys that had been studying in Brisbane (Australia) the last semester, and they were now travelling a bit before they continue their study back in Denmark in January.

After hanging out with them we ventured over to a group with a mix of locals and backpackers. A few of the guys played guitar and every now and then we all sang along. They locals served us ‘Kava’, which is Fiji’s national drink made from the kava root, that apparently cures a lot of deceases (I’m not sure if we should believe that), but it’s primarily consumed to relax. There’s no alcohol in it, but the drinks makes your tongue go numb and there’s a whole ceremony attached to drinking it. When it’s offered to you, you have to clap once and say ‘Bula’ (Hey in Fijian) then finish the bowl, clap three times and say ‘Vinaka’ (Thanks). The bowl goes around the table and the locals decide when the next is offered. We had countless of ‘Kava’ this night, and we met a lot of Americans, and by the way also another Dane from Vejle. It’s the biggest amount of Danish people we have met in one place and in such a short time. Funny little world!

When we decided to go to bed around 2am we were surprised to see the visitor in our bed.. A homeless cat, that obviously was use to sleeping in that bed, since it wasn’t in a hurry to move when we trying to get it out of there. It’s no secret that Erik isn’t a big cat fan, and I must admit I wasn’t either at this point, I kindly asked Erik to move the cat.

He grabbed the cat in its neck and was meant to throw it out the door, but misjudged the distance, and literally threw it into the wall instead. Well, by the force he used and if he had hit the door, the cat wouldn’t only have gone out the door, but all the way out over the balcony. So hitting the wall was the better option, all though I think everyone in the room woke up by the loud sound.

It seemed violent and it was not how I imagined it to turn out. Erik was shocked as well, but on the other hand who wants a homeless cat in their bed. You never know what kind of diseases they are carrying around. I bet that cat isn’t gonna come back the next couple of days.

Cloudy Fiji..

Saturday 29^th November

After having a heavy breakfast at the hostel, we caught the public bus into the town of Nadi for F$ 1.15 each (3,5 kr). It actually felt very nice to be back in a 50 year old public bus again, we don’t know exactly why, but we both felt home again in some way.

In Nadi we dumped into some village people, as they liked calling themselves. Two older oversized ladies and a younger more reasonable sized girl. We doubted if they were real village people or not, but anyway they asked if we wanted to see the local market, and of cause we would. We already knew that they probably would expect some money in return, but they also seemed very friendly, so we followed these big human beings.

In their shop we were invited to a ‘kava ceremony. Free of charge off cause. We sat down on the blanket with them and drank their kava. It’s no surprise that they afterwards expected us to buy some of the handmade bits and pieces in their shop. We told them that weren’t normal tourists, but travelers and we seriously couldn’t fit more stuff into our bags, but that we appreciated what they did for us. We left them disappointed at the shop.

Our main purpose in town was to exchange our Aussie dollars to Fijian dollars. It was a bit uncomfortable to exchange them. First of all because we did it in an Indian run exchange shop (we have a hard time trusting these people – but they offered the best rate), and second of all they would become aware of how much cash we carried around. We considered jumping into a cab and back to the hostel straight away after the money exchange, but giving it second thoughts we went for a stroll to the REAL local market, the fresh food and vegetables market.

There was for sure some fresh food, but also a lot of old food. For instance you can always tell whether the food is fresh or not, by the flies surrounding it. We were brought back in time when we saw fresh pineapples on a stick; we grabbed one each and went to explore the big section of kava root selling hawkers. The town was busy and filled with people, indeed a lot of Indians and a lot of overweighed people.

Back at the hostel we went for an afternoon nab. It was hot humid outside and the fan in the dorm was the only thing that could keep us from sweating. At night when we ate dinner, I had a Fijian style fish with sweet potatoes in coconut milk and Erik enjoyed a heavy round of mash potatoes and bangers (sausages). We were joined by a really shy American guy, Jared, who we both chatted with the night before. He tried to teach me how to take good night shots with my camera; unfortunately he couldn’t teach me anything I didn’t know. A Spanish guy, Ivan, who we met on the bus earlier also joined us, he was less shy and easier to talk to.

The hostel has a kava slash guitar session every night, so we went for another one of these, with the so-called Kava-holic band. Unfortunately they didn’t serve as much kava this night, and we also discovered that it’s not as good and healthy to drink as the locals says. In big amounts and if it consumes on a daily basis, it can provoke liver damage and liver failure.

It was bedtime for us, and in a peaceful moment while I was brushing my teeth’s, Erik was fighting to get a huge cockroach out of our bed. He tried to sweep it away with a folded blanket, the cockroach apparently grabbed on to the blanket, so as Erik thoughts it was gone and looked on the floor for it, he sensed something crawling up on his arm.

I would have loved to see the reaction of how fast he must have swept it away from there. You can imagine the goose bumps I got when he told me about it. I wanted to turn on the light to make sure there weren’t more of them in the bed, but that would have woken up all the people already in their beauty sleep. The light from the hallway outside shined through the window and after a little while we saw the big cockroach crawling on the wall. It was massive, the biggest we have seen, and as long as a ring finger. We had to kill it, to be able to get some sleep.When the shoe hit the wall we woke up a few people, but at this time we didn’t care. We did not want to share our bed with this fellow.

The weather had luckily cleared up in the morning

The dormitry

Erik quickly settled into Fiji Time!!

The smart ringing system in the bus.. Just pull the line..

Kava Ceremony

Market

The kava root

Fresh crabs

"Fresh" capsicum.

This guy is selling a little bit of everything

We enjoyed the beautiful decoration in the cab

The hostel restaurant and bar

The Kava-holic band

Sunday 30^th November

In the morning when we enjoyed our breakfast, Ivan the Spanish guy popped by. He was keen for doing some island hopping and both Erik and I looked into it online for him, we just tried to help him decide what to do the following days. When he told Erik that he was a certified diver, Erik quickly convinced him that the shark dive, we were going to do, is without a doubt the best way to spend time, and money on the main island of Fiji.

Afterwards Ivan got the front desk to contact the Beqa diveshop, but no one answered the phone. What happened next was very spontaneous and I admire Ivan for taking that quick decision about packing his shit together and go with us to Pacific Harbour. He just planned to show up in the dive shop and let them know he wanted to do the dive.

For me it was a little stressful, because it seems like we were running late, and waiting for Ivan, even though it only took him 10 min to pack, seemed like a bad plan. I hate to be late and I was already stressing myself out. He made it, just in time, before Erik was going to kill me for making stress.

We jumped into a cab, didn’t even have time to negotiate the price, we only told the driver we had to catch the bus at 11am. We were, as most of the times when I make stress, in good time and didn’t need to worry about not catching the bus. In this part of the world they run on their own time – Fiji Time, which is obviously always a bit delayed.

The bus was as we know them from beloved South East Asia.. Cheap (11,5 Fiji $ = 34kr), old, rusty and overcrowded. I thought we had enough of this, but we are filled with new energy and patience, so we enjoyed the 3 hour trip to Pacific Harbour. The area is a perfect spot for adrenaline junkies like us. The shark feeding being the most popular one.

After arriving on Fiji, and as said before we are both filled with new energy. It feels good to be back in a third world country, where we can explore things just by a stroll in a town and experience new stuff in the daily Fijian routine, without having to pay for it. It’s just a new and exciting environment and there are plenty of new things to see and explore. We love being back in the bamboo house culture where we don’t need to think about how we dress or look, no one is judging us on our appearance. Here we can be totally relaxed by ourselves, and wear our worn out clothes without feeling underdressed. In the end of the day that’s what we want. Fiji has already made a really good first impression on us.

The Australian culture reminded us a lot of being home, everyone is dressing up and it’s all about looking good, money and business. In the end it felt awkward to be in a developed country like that, and not have anything to do, no work, no duties.

Anyhow we checked in at Tsulu Backpackers and realized we were the only three in the hostel. The Indian owner was thoughtful and gave us to separated rooms. We got a dorm room, original for 8 persons, but it was just the two of us. Ivan got his own 4 bed dorm. It was luxury! The owner Imraz promised to call the dive company and sort out the dives for Ivan for the next day, meanwhile we checked out the pool and bar area, where Mindy, Imraz wife, was working behind the bar.

She's american and we got along with her pretty well, and as we told them we were leaving to check out the beach and the village, they invited us to come with them to the beach. One of their employees, a huge American guy called Laize, drove us to the supermarket where he picked up a box of beer and afterwards drove us to the beach.

While we were waiting for Mindy & Imraz we all had a quick dip in the tempting ocean, it was well deserved after a warm bus ride in the morning. We were the only pale humans on the beach, everyone else was local and it’s was pleasure that no one stared at us, just because of our vanilla skin.

Mindy and Imraz brought some more of their employees, and we made some new friends. They were all overwhelming friendly and very fun to be around. The afternoon went by with drinking beers in the traditional way. The rules is that one serves an equally amount of beer in a small glass and you finish the glass before it’s passed on. In that way everybody gets the same amount of alcohol and everyone is on the same level. This is called Taki in Fijian, it the same they do with their kava.

It took us a little while to get in to, cause we enjoy having a bottle or glass in our hand at all times. It was strange for us that someone else was in charge of when we got our next sip. As it was getting dark and we were getting hungry, plus we were running out of beers, we moved to the Tiki pool bar at the hostel.

We had a nice and filling fried noddle dinner, and then Erik started playing volleyball with the guys while Mindy and I connected in the bar. The traditional drinking continued for a little while longer. I left the party a bit earlier than the guys, we all (Erik, Ivan & me) had to get up early in the morning to dive, so it had to stop at some point.

The local beach

Ivan & Erik

Laize wanted us to adopt him.. Just if we were bored, he said!!

Don't remember all their names, but they were good fun.

It doesn't take much to entertain children here. They don't need an Ipad or Iphone..

Monday 1st December

Our alarm was set for 7am as we were getting picked up at 7.30 for the famous shark dive. Even though Erik went to bed later than me, he was so excited about the dives, that he couldn’t sleep after waking up at 6am – so he finally got me dragged out of bed a couple of minutes to 7.

We quickly sorted out our stuff for the trip, and met up with Ivan, who was running around himself cause his passport was missing – he already went down to the bar, to have a look for it, but without any luck. At this time of the day on Fiji there aren’t a lot of people awake, so we would have to wait until we got back from the trip, to ask if they found it in the bar, which almost was the only place it could have dropped out of his wallet.

The pickup didn’t deviate much from the used Fijian expression: Fiji time!!! This works exactly like the times in some of the other countries we’ve been to, such as the Philippines and Lao (Filipino and Lao time). The best way to describe it is: that they don’t really use the watch, more points on the watch as references. In this case our pick up was supposed to be at 7.30 but didn’t show up before 8.05. Coming from the western world, this is a thing that can be VERY annoying, but we already learned to deal with it for so many months in Asia, so it didn’t take long to accept it here as well.

In the dive shop we quickly got the standard stuff sorted, as getting diving gear and filling in the reliability form, as well as proving our dive qualifications and number of dives. We then boarded the dive boat together with 6 other divers – so a total of 9 divers (paying customers) and 6 crew members for the shark dive, and the captain. Normally there would be one dive master for every 4-6 paying divers, so this already told us a couple of things about these dives: They wouldn’t be anything close to what we’ve tried before (or probably ever will), and that the company is putting our safety as their VERY top priority! A 25 minute boat ride and a dive briefing later, we were at our descending point. The water was calm and clear, which made me less nervous.

On the first dive we dropped down to 30 meter depth and were showed to our position behind a little wall of dead corals. The sharks were already there – waiting for us. They circled around on the bottom a few meters ahead of us. We kneeled down and were as ready as we could get for the action. It was literally unreal what we experienced the next 17 minutes... A shark diver with green rubbish bin dropped down big chunks of fish to the 18 circling bull sharks in front of us. The biggest of the bull sharks was probably between 2½-3 meters, and the belly was as fat as a cows. It was simply mind blowing; I just could NOT believe what was happening, it was magical. We were like invisible to the sharks. All they concentrated about was the fish heads dropping down to them.

They are very lazy animals in terms of not bothering about us, we were too much alive and it would be a hassle for them to eat us. They prefer the easy food. While we were laying there and watching this magnificent scene take place, a small fish kept biding me in my fingers, I must have been in its territory, because it just wouldn’t stop again. While I was getting frustrated by the little fish, Erik was struggling a lot with his Movember beard, as the mask wouldn’t tighten properly around it and it let a lot of water into it. So he had to clear it every minute in order not to get it flooded.

When our dive masters banked on their tanks, we knew it was time to get up in the shallow water. On 10 meters depth there were another small wall where we hung out to see the shark divers hand feed the grey, white tip and black tip reef sharks. They were only half the size of the bull sharks, and not considered dangerous at all. They usually escape when they see divers, and they tend to be shy most of the times. But at this stop it was important that we kept our heads down, as these sharks were used to humans and would get really close to us. Several times we discovered they were right on top of our heads, sometimes to close. While the hand feeding was taking place one of the guys by mistake dropped a piece of fish, exciting enough, it was falling down just behind, and over Erik and Ivan. Luckily one of the other Shark divers saw it and grabbed the fish before it landed on Erik or Ivan’s legs. I bet none of them would have enjoyed a shark grabbing it from there.

After this close encounter we continued up to our safety stop at 5 meters. There we hold on to a rope while they hand fed the smaller white and black tipped reefs sharks. We were in the middle of the feeding area, and the sharks literally swam in between our legs. It was intense and undoubtedly the best safety stop ever. We surfaced straight after and then reality kicked in... We had just dived with over 40 sharks, from the biggest to the smallest. It was unbelievable and indescribable. We felt more alive than ever.

A few biscuits and a too sweet cup of tea later, we jumped in the water for our second shark encounter. This time I was less nervous and more excited. Definitely keen for another shark adventure. Now it was time for some real action. We dropped down to 25 meters this time, and were told to lay flat on the bottom as this wall wasn’t as tall as the other. None of us were interested in a shark tale or fin hitting us so we did as we were told. A guy that has been working with sharks his whole life and the oldest guy in the company started hand feeding the massive bull sharks.

He was right in front of us, and they sharks have learned to recognize him by his yellow hood, plus they have taught the sharks to get hand fed, but only if they approach him from his left hand side, sometimes they will even line up, and wait for their turn. If they came from the right it was most likely new ones that haven’t figured out the system yet, and they wouldn’t get fed, if they approached him from the wrong side.

The reason for this is that he needs to be in control, and that’s hard if the sharks approach him from all directions. It’s amazing that they have achieved this respect and control over the sharks. The sharks are wild animals, not kept in cages or anything like that, so they come of their free will (and maybe their laziness for fishing) to get handfed by these guys. It was absolutely incredible to experience. It kind of shows us that the media gives us a wrong and distorted picture of these incredible creatures. I’m not saying they aren’t dangerous, but they are not as life threatening as the media wants us to think, particularly not for divers.

The 20 minutes went by fast, we heard the banging on the tanks and we went to the more shallow water, in order not to get decompression sickness. They shark divers took us for a normal dive around the soft corals, there wasn’t anything special to see, but it was different from other normal dives, as we could see the sharks hanging around 15 meters under us.

In both dives and at every feeding, the shark divers who didn’t participate in the feeding were around us and protected us all the time. If some of the sharks came to close, they guys had a metal stick to push them away with. This was mostly used around the feeding guys though, and to for example grab lost pieces of meat. The guys were professional and had done this a thousand times, so we felt safe all the time.

Back home again, Ivan got his passport back, one of the staff members had found it on the floor in the bar. So together with a less worrying Ivan, we went out to have our first meal of the day (around 2 o’clock in the afternoon). We decided for a burger meal at one of the local restaurants, during the lunch we talked a lot about what to do the following day.

Apparently last night, after I went to bed, Erik talked with Imraz about going on a fishing trip with one of his friends, who owe him a favor. It sounded like a brilliant idea. I had wanted to do that for a long time as well, and after reading about the big fishes to catch in Fiji we were all hooked on the idea. We just needed to find Imraz and let him know we were keen. After almost falling asleep over our empty plates, we had a stroll around the little village and shopped a few things in the local souvenir shops – such as Fijian flags for our backpacks and some postcards for our family.

Our worries about the next day quickly disappeared and changed into excitement, as Imraz pulled up next to us, on our way back to the hostel, and informed us, that he arranged the fishing trip. He also arranged that we could try both trawling with fishing rods after the boat, but also the local Fijian fishing style, just with holding the lines in your bare hands, and pulling in the fishes without rods.

In the worst case scenario that we would be so unlucky not to catch anything, he also arranged that we could try spear fishing. Such an amazing guy is hard to find. He blew us away with his hospitality and his generous mind.

Super excited we went back to the hostel to get a siesta as our Spanish friend likes calling it.

We met up in the bar in the afternoon, and decided to go for dinner, on the nearby Uprising Resort. It’s a 20 minute walk from where we were staying, and we got there just as the very last light from the sun disappeared. The menu was a bit more expensive than the local restaurants, but we kind of knew that beforehand. Ivan and I both ordered an Indian inspired Fijian curry dish, while Erik kept to the European part of the menu and got a chicken parmigiani (he rarely tries something new). The curries were delicious and Erik’s isn’t worth mentioning.

We were all pretty knackered after the big day, so we killed the time with sharing traveling stories, even though me and Erik had the biggest share in these, as Ivan, haven’t been travelling a lot, but it’s his intentions to do so in the future. So he seemed very interested in our adventures and definitely got some good ideas to upcoming trips. Back home at the hostel again, it was too hot to go to bed, so we killed some time by watching a movie on our laptop, while the temperature slowly decreased.

Outside the hostel

Shark dive!!!

Tuesday 2nd December

Imraz had arranged breakfast for us when we got up– so after having some of that, we left the hostel and stopped by the local supermarket to get some water, snacks and a box of beers for the fishing trip. Then we drove 5 min out of town to meet and greet our captain Rob. A 18 year old boy with a profession as a captain, dive master and later we realized he’s a legend at spear fishing as well. Quite a lot of talents for such a young guy.

After we all have had several cuddles and playtimes with Rob’s and his parents dogs we eventually could pack the boat with all the fishing gear, snorkeling gear, beers, snacks etc. It looked like it was going to be a great day on the water. The clouds were hanging over us but it didn’t look like it was going to rain and if it did, it would be warm rain anyway, so we had no worries!

At our first fishing stop the competition started. Imraz was the first one the catch a fish by line fishing, which made him get the first beer and he elected everyone on the boat to join him. And that’s how the day started. I caught the next two (with a big help from Rob’s friend Daniel). One of them was a red coral cod in a decent size, I was so proud. I have to thank Daniel for telling me when to pull the line.

The competition continued through the whole day, Ivan was the third to catch something.

Mindy was really showing patience, she hates fishing and water in general, so it was a big thing for her to join us this day. In the end she caught a good amount of fish, so she was happy as well. Unfortunately Erik was the last one the catch something, and as I was already in water with my snorkeling gear and the GoPro, he wanted me to film his catch. So instead of taking the fish of the line and put it in the eski (cooling box), Erik put the line and the fish back into the water so I could film his catch underneath the surface, it was predictable what happened next; The fish escaped it’s misery, got off the hook and swam away as fast as it could. It was hilarious, but unfortunate for Erik!

Daniel showed both Ivan and Erik how to spear fish, and Erik was really struggling for his goal during the whole day. But he’s gotta face it – fishing is not his thing!! Daniel and Rob were awesome at it though. They do it often and make money out of it, so they were hardcore.

I could not be bothered trying to hold my breath for such a long time. I did really enjoy watching the guys hunt, and I would love to try the spear fishing, but it needs to be more shallow water and I need to practice holding my breath first. Daniel tried to catch a small white tipped reef shark at one point, I really didn’t like that and I’m happy that it managed to escape again.

We had a long day on the water, and even though the sun hadn’t been out, we could all feel a little sunburn in the afternoon, from the reflecting water and the fact the most of us had snorkeled quite a lot, so our backs was the more painful part.

Back on solid ground we counted the fish - it came to 37 in total. We brought six of them back to the hostel where Imraz and Mindy cooked for us. The others went to the local market where Rob and Daniel would earn their daily wage.

Usually we are against fishing in the tropics, it doesn’t seem right to catch the beautiful and colorful fish, but on the other hand we can’t stop it from happening. It was a perfect place to do it and particularly a good place for me, since I lose my patience easily. Plus we got to taste some of the beautiful fishes, and they were delicious. I could have figured out a better way than to deep fry the fresh caught fish though. It was a shame, but we are very thankful for what they did for us and we appreciate their time and company a lot. It was undoubtedly a fun and memorable day!

Already before we had dinner we had met and joined the Shark Team in the Tiki pool bar. They were all off Wednesday, since there’s never feedings on either Wednesday (or Sundays). So these giggling guys are apparently always going out before their day off. It was great to meet them off work and we had a great time with them. We admire that the Fijians laugh so easily, guys in all ages giggles like teenage girls -it's very entertaining.

There’s a tradition, specific in Pacific Harbour, where if someone wants your shirt, they just need to claim it and the person can’t say no. This is why some of the locals were wearing their shirt inside out – they didn’t want anyone the claim their shirt. The youngest of the guys told me about this, and after enough beers I claimed his Shark Diving Team T-shirt. I really wanted it, but I mostly did it, to see him wearing my tank-top through the whole night. He was very dissatisfied with my decision, meanwhile I was having a blast in my new dress ; the shirt was way too big for me!!

It became a messy night, with dancing on tables and punishing the dance floor. It was 2am before we landed in our bed. We had to get up 4 hours later to catch an already arranged cab to the airport near Suva.

We were a bit gutted to leave Pacific Harbour, and all the wonderful people we met there. It’s absolutely a place that we will consider visiting again in the future, not to mention doing the shark dive again. To our big luck it wasn’t a “goodbye” to our Spanish friend, but a “see you in Auckland” in just over a week. There was never a dull moment in Ivan’s company, so we look forward to seeing him again.