Did Beri really leave us?

Before the real blog starts, here are a couple pictures the Waya Lailai Resort!

And that's exactly what we did!

Welcome to Waya Lailai!

Don't ask..

Hammock Time!

Paradise

Dining area to beach just like that!

The drum thumbed at 7:30 in the morning to let the village resort know that it was breakfast time! We were already awake and ready for the day since after breakfast we were going snorkeling in the reef with some sharks; which we were assured were friendly reef sharks that are used to the program here. We got in the boat around 8:30 Fiji time (which really means 9 o’clock) and we were off to the reef. We were told that it was a 20 minute boat ride out there, but when you’re sitting the back on the boat that is battling the waves and getting completely soaked, 20 minutes goes by really slow. We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t get stuck in the back on the boat on the ride back. We started seeing the reef below us which the water changed from blue to light green and then to dark splotches. Everyone started to get their gear on, but with this being my first time it took me a little longer. Riley had already jumped into the water and started looking for sharks! I was told to go backwards out of the boat like a diver and not being used to all the equipment I swallowed a whole mouth full of salt water! I also had a hard time with the flippers and kept trying to tread water normally, but that was not working out and only quickly exhausted me. However, Riley coached me through it and helped me calm down a little bit. Once I got swimming I was much better with the equipment and ready to explore. Riley was a little bit surprised at first how open everything was, since we were used to snorkeling on the shore line which limited rocks. He had seen an opening in the water yesterday but didn’t want to go out there since he didn’t know what lay beyond the rocks! I don’t blame him. We all started exploring the reef and getting used to our surrounding before one of the Fiji men started to shave off a fish that they had caught to attract the shark. Soon enough a little baby shark maybe two feet long started to make his way towards our crowd.  Not gonna lie I was very scared at this point and started to push myself away from the shark anytime it would look at me from instinct. Riley got a little adventurous, so whenever the Fiji man grabbed the shark to hold him he went ahead and stuck out his hand to touch the shark! He says it was kinda slimy and unlike anything else, but still super proud of himself that he did it. I was super amazed by this and wanted to try but every time I wanted to the shark would be squirming so much and jolting for you that I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! It didn’t take long for another shark, slightly bigger with a white tip joined us. I became even more scared since they had told us to stay away from the white tips. However, the Fiji men didn’t seem alarmed by this so I just felt on snorkeling and exploring. I made sure to stay with the group and not become the odd man out and therefore the man eaten! Not to mention I was getting exhausted from staying afloat at this point so I was okay with leaving when the men from the boat called to say it was our time to leave. Then it was time for a long, bumpy ride back, at one point the man in front of the boat that was guiding off got flipped out because the driver took too sharp of a turn. We were just on a small boat with a motor in the back so it wasn’t hard for this to happen but still extremely funny! We made it back to shore and had a little bit of time before lunch to just relax and recoop. I decided to take a little nap while Riley stayed on the porch to finally catch some reading time. Another group had come into the resort at this point and we were able to meet two people from Germany and one from Norway. One guy that was originally from Germany actually lives in Canberra, Australia now so we’re hoping to meet up with him whenever we eventually get down there to visit! Riley was still obsessing over the coconut so it was back to work for us. After finding a sharp enough rock we took a seat on the beach and Riley started going at it. He was very determined to get to the inside of the coconut and slowly but surely he made his way in. Didn’t take too long and soon we were looking at the center of the coconut where all the milk was. It would have been easier given the proper tools, but the coconut cracking stick had been taken away since a little kid had helped himself to it earlier in the day. We think the resort people took it away so he wouldn’t hurt himself, thanks kid. We were successful though and just waited until tea time before we asked about drilling a hole in it. While enjoying our tea I sparked up conversation with the girl from Norway and found out she was making a stop in Sydney for a week after her Fiji trip! This was super exciting and we’re hoping to show her around a little. The sun was too hot for Riley so he ventured off and managed to crack another coconut while sitting on the beach front while I was still sipping tea. Whenever I came to meet him I was amazed to see what he had done, although we didn’t really make a move to crack it open yet since it was time for the summit walk. We quickly had to go up and change our clothes and shoes since we were apparently hiking to the top of the cliff in this picture. 

Gorgeous clouds with the summit in the background.
Yes we did hike all the way to that!

But when we saw the cliff as we were approaching the island the first day, we knew we wanted to do it! So we did, with a couple pictures of course!

This is the Three Sisters - not as cool as the ones in Australia but they do have names
Jessica, Laura and Vicky.

Just to show our incredibly scary bushwalk to the summit.
Sometimes it was straight jungle.

It took a while, but man was it worth it!

We wanted to watch the sunset but our tour guide didn't bring a flashlight for the way back.

So scary walking across this edge! The first time Riley climbed across it!

That is our resort alll the wayy down there!

Our group tour guide said that it would take about 35-45 minutes to hike to the top of the mountain and right when we started out we could see why since it had such a steep incline. First we were stepping over rocks and then we were brushing our way through the tall grass and flowers. Quite the adventure I must say and we made it to the second landing within 45 minutes probably. Our tour guide, Beri, said this is where the girls should probably stay since the rest of the hike might be harder. I wasn’t going to let that happen though so I kept trucking and so did most of the girls. Eventually we made it to the top and the view was absolutely breathtaking. We had to cross a pretty narrow rock bridge at the top and Riley being near the front he didn’t really know what to do. Since we were literally at the top of the island at this point he basically to practically crawl across and I don’t blame him. I started to do the same but then Beri hollered for us to stand up and it wasn’t that bad, but Riley continued to crawl. We both plopped down on the upper rock right when we got to it to take in the view! We don’t have many words for the view since it is just so hard to describe but it is definitely one of the best things we have ever seen! Side note – we saw the island where Castaway was filmed. The sun was setting at this point and of course Beri hadn’t thought to bring a light, being the tour guide and all, so we had to quickly try and make our way back to the resort. We were making pretty good time until the sun really started to set and then being stuck behind slower people we got left behind. There were about eight of us struggling to make it down and this was no easy task. The German guy in the front definitely had a hard time since he had to scope out the dips and his girlfriend behind him didn’t have any shoes on so that wasn’t helping. She had already slid down one mud path and gotten her white shorts all dirty. Needless to say she was beyond angry with Beri leaving us. It got to the point where it was actually dangerous to keep going since we could barely see what was in front of us. Finally we heard Beri’s voice calling and a flicker of a flashlight. He did not come back into the pathway to help us but rather directed us by the light which didn’t make things any better. Somehow we made it out and were only about 30 minutes late for dinner! That definitely wiped us out for the rest of the night and having gazing at the gorgeous Milky Way after dinner our beds were calling us.