The past few weeks have been amazing. I am now in L.A after having spent 9 days in the beautiful Fiji islands.
Last week I stayed at Nagigia Island, which is off the south-west tip of Kadavu, 1 hour south of Viti Levu. I didn’t know what to expect when I reached Fiji, maybe similar to Bali I thought, but maybe more remote. I arrived in Fiji on the 8th and then flew to Kadavu in a tiny 9 seater propeller plane and took the 1 hour boat ride to Nagigia Island resort, an exclusive hotel.
I can’t over-emphasize how beautiful and peaceful it was there. You are so removed from the rest of the world, with only New Zealand seperating you from Antarctica. I met some really cool people on the island, the Dominator Crew from the Mornington Peninsular, the Gold Coast boys, Bao (and family) from Brazil, the Canadian crew and the Yankee’s. Everyone was so friendly and we had such a great time, both in and out the the water. The week consisted of surfing, snorkelling, swimming, eating, dancing and generally exchanging stories over a few beers.
The waves were some of the heaviest and biggest I have ever surfed, with one day the faces being 10ft and resembling something like a mini-Teahapoo, really intimidating stuff! There were a few days when we couldn’t actually surf as the white water from the breaks was 20ft thick. If you looked to the horizon you could see what looked like islands floating across the horizon, these were actually offshore bombies, with 30 feet faces, the likes of which would challenge even Laird himself.
We all got down and funky a few nights to some traditional Fijian dancing with a Kava ceremony to get us going! The local people from the village of Nabukelevu-i-ra are so friendly, happy and easy-going, hopefully I will take away some of that chilled vibe back to the UK, god knows they need to smile more down in grey old London.
Snorkelling over the reef was amazing, the water was so warm, clear and once you had ducked your head under the surface you were transported into a beautiful world of coral, fish and amazing underwater landscapes.
I left Fiji on the 18th and had a mamouth journey from Nadi to Auckland and then on to L.A. I was a little aprehensive about coming to the USA as it is so big and L.A is just so huge, but I have had a lovely time here. The surfing was crap this week, with super small waves and cold water, but the weather has been nice and I have met even more lovely people here at the Orbit hostel.
I have been staying up on Melrose avenue in West Hollywood and have cruised down in my hire car to Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Muscle Beach, Malibu and along Sunset strip and generally had a blast. Tomorrow I am off to San Francisco where I will hang out for 3 nights before heading off to Chicago and then over to the east coast.
Hopefully I will get some better waves up in SF, home to the notorious Mavericks down at Half Moon Bay. It is only just over 3 weeks until I will be back in the UK and back to normality and work etc.
This trip has been amazing so far, and I have seen so many beautiful places, met some amazing people, ridden some great waves and most importantly seen a little bit more of what is out there and what can be achieved if you look outside the box and get away from London and the rat race.
I am already thinking about doing a working VISA next year to somewhere like Oz, as I always said to myself that this trip would be the warm up for something more adventurous.
Anyway time to crash, living the dream, loving life and all is cool!
PS: Have uploaded the latest photos from Fiji, got some good ones from LA so far, will update soon!
Love to all the special people I know around the world!