Likuliku Bay will always be special to me.
Octopus Resort is in Likuliku Bay on Waya Island at the bottom of Fiji’s Yasawa Island’s chain.
And this is where I first tried scuba diving. And kava but that’s a whole other story.
I have already blogged about my learning to dive experience ( Breathing underwater isn’t just for fish ) but that wasn’t the be all and end of of my first trip to Fiji. We were excited before we even left New Zealand.
I love this photo and have it framed in my bedroom – just to remind me some days of what extremely happy looks like!
Nell and I flew in to Nadi and spent a night there before the shuttle took us to Lautoka and then the boat took us to Waya Island.
Just down the road from our hotel was a bar called Ed’s Bar. After we had swum in the pool and drunk beer whilst swimming in the pool, we tidied ourselves up and headed down the road for dinner.
And a few games of pool. And some dancing.
There are a lot more photos of the aforementioned dancing. But I think they are safest left on my computer.
The next morning the bus came to take us to Lautoka where we caught the boat to Waya Island.
Arriving in Likuliku Bay was like arriving in paradise.
It’s quite different now but in 2006, the bure’s were barely visible past the beach. I’m sure the water is just as turquoise though!
On the bus trip and the boat trip out, we started chatting to some of the others heading to Octopus Resort with us.
As a result, by the time we sat down for the kava welcoming ceremony that night, we were well on the way to forming the Super Saturday crew with Martin and Sam and Suzanne and Roger and Sheree and Andrew. I’m still Facebook friends with most of them today!
The next few days went spent lying by the beach in the morning, snorkeling and reading. And then there was the reading for the course.
On the Sunday we were invited to take a short (but very very warm) 15 minute walk over the hill to the village of Nalawaki for a church service.
The majority of the people that work at Octopus Resort are from the village so it was quite an honor to be invited over to see their village and participate in their day.
At night, the skies are amazing. We’d often have a few cocktails (or some duty free gin) at the end of the day and sit on the huge deck between the bar and the beach.
The resort faces west so the seas and the sands change colours slowly with the clouds making shapes in the light.
One night when we went out night fishing, when I was about half way through my course, I saw this ….
Nell and Andrew and Tim and I went out night fishing one night with a group of the local guys. They were also showing us how to hand fish just using reels. I don’t remember us having any success at all but it was fun all the same!
During the day I would do my pool sessions in the pool in the centre of the resort and then in the afternoon we could take the boat and go out diving. Tim was doing his Open Water certificate at the same time but there was just the two of us.
Jodie our instructor is still at Octopus – and every now and then I see her pop up on their Facebook page. One day I hope to get back there and see her, and dive all those wonderful sites, again.
My first trip to Fiji was so memorable. Even 7 years later I can remember so much of it and I’d love to repeat all of it!
My Travel Diary is a collection of photographs and comments from diaries I wrote whilst traveling. Whilst I will always keep the diaries, I love reliving those experiences and writing about them here makes me very happy. Events, television shows and songs remind me of certain places, so I’m picking them out at random.
