First sun rise in the world!
Posted by Sarah O'Neill , Saturday, 4 June 2011 14:38
The alarm went off at 4.25am and it was still pitch black outside and there was no electricity on, so torches it was. With trainers on we headed to the main bure and I must admit I was half expecting no one to be there! However, we met Berry, our guide, and after waiting until about 5am for another couple to turn up who didn’t, we left. It was a climb up to the top, and it was quite tricky in the dark with just a torch for lighting the way! Berry had an old fashioned lamp, and led the way, but he was quite nippy and got quite ahead sometimes! It was slippery and muddy at parts, so some bits were a bit difficult, but we managed to get t
o the top with just a couple of rest stops at about 6am. We sat on a big rock face waiting for the sun to come up. It was truly beautiful, and was the first sunrise to be seen that day by anyone, as we are so far east. We talked to Berry about life on the island which was really interesting. He said before the resort people had to work from early morning, till late every day except Sunday to get food and plant crops etc, and they still had 
no money, now, he said, we sit on the beach and wait for you to turn up and say Bula, and we have money! He seemed to think it was much better this way! This island has the only resorts owned by a local village. There are three resorts all owned by the village, and it works really well for them. They put 25% of money from the resort back into the resorts to
maintain them etc, and the other 75% goes directly to the village. They have a primary school, and then all the children are sent for boarding school on the mainland paid for by the village, and then university if they like, which they 
are very proud of. I think all the resorts should be owned and run by the village as it helps them to support the whole village. After enjoying the view for a while and waiting for the sun to come up a bit higher we made our way back down. We had forgotten to 
put any mossie spray on so were a bit worried as it was all through bush etc, but luckily it wasn’t too bad at all. Here's the view of the resort from the top, our bure was the 2nd one in from the right on the front row.
o the top with just a couple of rest stops at about 6am. We sat on a big rock face waiting for the sun to come up. It was truly beautiful, and was the first sunrise to be seen that day by anyone, as we are so far east. We talked to Berry about life on the island which was really interesting. He said before the resort people had to work from early morning, till late every day except Sunday to get food and plant crops etc, and they still had 
no money, now, he said, we sit on the beach and wait for you to turn up and say Bula, and we have money! He seemed to think it was much better this way! This island has the only resorts owned by a local village. There are three resorts all owned by the village, and it works really well for them. They put 25% of money from the resort back into the resorts to
maintain them etc, and the other 75% goes directly to the village. They have a primary school, and then all the children are sent for boarding school on the mainland paid for by the village, and then university if they like, which they 
are very proud of. I think all the resorts should be owned and run by the village as it helps them to support the whole village. After enjoying the view for a while and waiting for the sun to come up a bit higher we made our way back down. We had forgotten to 
put any mossie spray on so were a bit worried as it was all through bush etc, but luckily it wasn’t too bad at all. Here's the view of the resort from the top, our bure was the 2nd one in from the right on the front row.We went for breakfast and got admiring looks from others who realised we had done the sunrise walk! We had heard about a shark feeding snorkel trip they run daily at 9.30, so we decided to sign up for that since all the trips the day before had ended up not running! So we went off in two boat loads to the reef quite far out! It has been ages since I last snorkelled, I think maybe Western Australia was the last time, so I was a bit nervous, but after a few minutes it felt really natural again and I was comfortable. The guide speared a few fish and began feeding the small reef sharks that were around. There were a few pretty fish, and seeing the small sharks was pretty cool, but we have done much better snorkelling. I was glad I did it as I got my confidence back for snorkelling.
When we got back it was nearly lunch time, and then Ben decided to go diving. I was already feeling pretty tired at this point, but he seemed to have boundless energy! So off Ben went for his first dive in 6 months, while I stayed on the balcony and caught up on blogging! Ben had a good dive and saw some reef sharks. The diving and snorkelling here is not as ‘ethical’ as we have known previously, the dive master broke off some coral to put in Ben’s pockets as he needed extra weight which horrified us, but he didn’t seem to understand. He also speared a fish and broke it up to attract the sharks, and the proceeded to hold a shark’s tail to let Ben take a good photo, so it was a rather surreal experience for Ben! Sadly the camera’s underwater pack was all steamed up so the shark close ups weren’t great.
Even though Ben had done diving in top of everything else, I was the one who took a nap after afternoon tea! Afternoon tea here is just the tea, no cakes or biscuits etc, except there are dry cream cracker type things if you want to eat those! I had a much needed nap while Ben played on the computer, and then we got ready for dinner. It turned out that the Fiji National Rugby team coach and his family was staying in the bure next door to us, as the team are going to train on the island in a couple of weeks for the up coming world cup! So they put on a special evening for them which was nice. The ‘Bula Boy’s did some dancing, and fire dance which was amazing, where they twirl sticks on fire around at great speed and perform all sorts with the fire! Then it was the audience participation part, where we were required to help with the ‘weather dance’ for sunshine the next day! It was similar to the ‘Macarena’ and almost everyone got up and joined in, it was really funny. Then we got into a conga line, with one of the Bula boys at the front, and one of the local ladies who works at the resort at the back, and we had to follow them, it was hysterically funny, especially when we changed direction and followed the lady, she was such a laugh! We didn’t have too late a night as we were both sooo tired!
When we got back it was nearly lunch time, and then Ben decided to go diving. I was already feeling pretty tired at this point, but he seemed to have boundless energy! So off Ben went for his first dive in 6 months, while I stayed on the balcony and caught up on blogging! Ben had a good dive and saw some reef sharks. The diving and snorkelling here is not as ‘ethical’ as we have known previously, the dive master broke off some coral to put in Ben’s pockets as he needed extra weight which horrified us, but he didn’t seem to understand. He also speared a fish and broke it up to attract the sharks, and the proceeded to hold a shark’s tail to let Ben take a good photo, so it was a rather surreal experience for Ben! Sadly the camera’s underwater pack was all steamed up so the shark close ups weren’t great.
Even though Ben had done diving in top of everything else, I was the one who took a nap after afternoon tea! Afternoon tea here is just the tea, no cakes or biscuits etc, except there are dry cream cracker type things if you want to eat those! I had a much needed nap while Ben played on the computer, and then we got ready for dinner. It turned out that the Fiji National Rugby team coach and his family was staying in the bure next door to us, as the team are going to train on the island in a couple of weeks for the up coming world cup! So they put on a special evening for them which was nice. The ‘Bula Boy’s did some dancing, and fire dance which was amazing, where they twirl sticks on fire around at great speed and perform all sorts with the fire! Then it was the audience participation part, where we were required to help with the ‘weather dance’ for sunshine the next day! It was similar to the ‘Macarena’ and almost everyone got up and joined in, it was really funny. Then we got into a conga line, with one of the Bula boys at the front, and one of the local ladies who works at the resort at the back, and we had to follow them, it was hysterically funny, especially when we changed direction and followed the lady, she was such a laugh! We didn’t have too late a night as we were both sooo tired!
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