Fiji

One weekend morning when I was still living in college 2 years ago, I saw a piece about the Fiji Swims in the paper and decided that I had to do it. The 18k relay swim from one island to another in teams of 5 sounded really interesting. The only drawback was it's usually held on a Thursday in the middle of August each year, not during semester break, so ILP year was the perfect and only ever year to do it! Jane and Joyce were the only people I could find who wanted to do the event too, and before we knew it the day had arrived.

You'd think that with all the enthusiasm and 2 years to prepare I would have trained to swim better and faster instead of sticking to the pathetic uni pool with its 25m laps. I did not try to swim in the ocean either. After all they did say Fiji waters are so calm it's no different from swimming in a pool... so even after registering for the event I still stuck to running mostly, with only occassional dips in the pool. The longest session was with Jane where we did sprints over 2 hours - sprinting for her at least.

We woke up at 4am to go to the airport on the Wednesday only to have our flight delayed by more than half an hour, it was a killjoy. The flight to Nadi (pronounced Ne(h)dee, not like awesome bahasa baku or the Spanish way) felt really long as there was no in-flight entertainment. I read my storybook and played with the baby who was in the seat in front of mine. Oh I braided Jane's hair too haha.

Fiji reminds me of the kampungs in Malaysia, but a lot more dry land. Those small one-storey houses with the typical glass windows,the coconut trees, and the smell of smoke from people burning dead leaves in the open... The sun was wonderful! Fiji time is about 1 decade behind the rest of the world though, judging from the cars on the road and the songs on the radio.

Big old yellow taxis

We stayed at Capricorn Hotel for one night before the swim, which was a lot cheaper - or so we thought. We had to take cabs to the beautiful 5 star Sofitel where the pre-race briefing was held, and after taking into account transport we should have just paid a few bucks more and enjoyed the comfort. Taxi drivers are like those in Malaysia too. They don't use the meter- they state their price upfront. Either that or they put on a show of turning on the meter, and switching it off 5 minutes later after saying "You know how much it's going to cost right?" We were too tired to bargain.

At the registration we felt really embarrassed. My 1k timing was pathetic and we were saying it in whispers when asked haha. Ocean swimming? Err... no? It was a good thing that we signed up for the noncompetitive team (the organisers named it Team Bollywood, don't know why), so no pressure. My aim was to have fun, so I decided to be thick skinned and just do my best the next day. We were the only asian representatives (I was the sole Malaysian yo!) :D Our other teammates were really nice and humble people. Leslie used to represent New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games (:O); Annie said she was 'slow and a beginner' - that was with 6 ocean swim events under her belt; Stuart represented his uni; Rob's bilateral knee replacements weren't stopping him; Michael had previously swam in this event; Peter's an uncle with a 6 pack who's an active member of the North Bondi surf club. And there were the three of us haha. Joyce (triathlete) and Jane are faster swimmers than I am, but oh well, too late regretting and being overambitious!

The event started in three waves with the slowest teams first. We had all clambered onto our boat and went out to sea while our first swimmer started the race. With so many swimmers in the open waters we had a bit of trouble locating our teammate at first, but after we did we were happy! The waters were not so kind though. The current was moving us at around 1.6 knots, so much for calm waters. My first swim was quite a shocker. I jumped in, tried to swim fast, kicking and kicking, trying to follow the kayak that was guiding the way. I felt breathless trying to fight the water, and small jellyfish were biting my arms. After all that effort I was going off course anyway -.- I got up the boat after barely the planned 5 minutes. My quads feeling like lead and I felt really bad for slowing the team down. Learning curves are always fun though. During my next few turns I learned how to relax into the water, going with the flow rather than fighting it. I think I actually moved forwards a bit! (If I did not everyone was really really TOO NICE to say so to my face :P)

The one hour advantage we had was no big deal as all the strong swimmers (some of them swam the whole thing themselves) just powered through the water and left us behind. We had to do a bit of 'maneouvering' to keep up with the other slower teams too. We were supposed to tag each other when changing swimmers, but forget that! Boat moving forwards by about 50m with no one swimming? Legitimate! It was quite funny.

Halfway through I became seasick and threw up every time I was not swimming. The feeling of one's stomach just wringing itself even when there was nothing left to throw up was not an enjoyable experience to say the least. The weather was really nice too, which was a shame.

When we were near the finish 5.5 hours later we actually managed to come close to another team! We decided to swim even faster in short bursts and change swimmers more frequently. That pace was actually a lot more fun, and my nausea went away. About 150 m from the finish all of us had to swim together to the beach, with the team time recorded when the last swimmer reached. It was when I was nearing the beach where the waters were really clear and I could see the ocean floor with all the corals that I realised that I was actually swimming in really deep waters - yes, strange as I was happily jumping into choppy waters that were even deeper earlier in the day. I guess it was all the adrenaline, plus one does not think too much when one cannot see anything in the dark waters. Seeing all that made me swallow gulps of water, probably from going OMG! literally.

Beachcomber

YAY!

We weren't the last to reach Beachcomber Island! The last team was, ironically, The Winning Team. Lunch was bad but the Fijian beer that we had to buy made up for it. After that we waited around, sunburned for our boat to bring us to Plantation Island.

Plantation Island is catered for families (baby stalking! :D) and the service there was really good. We spent the next 2 days just lazing on the beach, kayaking and snorkelling. Joyce and I did 4 dives too. The highlights were a few reef sharks, a turtle and big Spanish mackerel! My last dive was 2 years ago, and it took a while for me to get used to things again, and learn not to panic and hyperventilate. The sites were not bad, though I personally still prefer the ones in Perhentian.

The rest of the time we just lazed around, enjoyed the beach and stalked little babies . At night the sky was amazing. Without light pollution we could see so many stars! Orion's belt was so visible, and the other two swear that the moon looks bigger in Fiji. Our last night there we had a romantic dinner for 3 at an adults only restaurant, haha. Oh yes, Fijians love their coconut. They put it into everything! Spinach in coconut cream is an acquired taste methinks.

Our holiday ended too soon. I was just warming up for more dives, but we have work to do back in Sydney. It was definitely a good break, and I have decided to swim more seriously. When I'm not too lazy that is.

Oh yeah.

P.S: Fun fact: The Fijian Dollar is stronger than the Ringgit. I found it quite interesting.