Paradise and an Open Bar...

After 9 incredible days in the beautiful islands of Fiji, I had sadly reached my last day before heading back to Australia. Fiji was an exact replica of my idea of Paradise. The beautiful crystal clear waters dotted with tiny islands covered in palm trees and huts, combined with the friendliest locals I've met among my travels made this country very difficult to say goodbye to. I knew I should have accepted the proposal of a young Fijian man I'd met who'd offered to marry me so that I could stay in Paradise forever, but apparently I was not thinking clearly at that time.

So there I was, faced with the sadness of knowing that the next day I'd board a plane and bid farewell to my new favorite place on Earth, but at the same time excited for what the final day had in store for me. I was traveling with my cousin Jay, and we'd agreed that there was no better way to spend our last day than to go out to the islands and take in all of the sunshiny amazingness we could before we headed back to Brisbane. We were booked on a tour called "Whale's Tale", which consisted of sailing, snorkeling, general lazing around Schooner Island, and most importantly, an open bar, all day.

At 7 am we lazily dragged ourselves to the Denarau Marina to check in.

As we boarded our boat, the crew introduced themselves and then directed us to the dining area, where we were handed a glass of champagne (yes, 7:30 am) and offered a buffet breakfast.
It was a good start to a perfect day.

After breakfast we set sail through the Mamanuca group of islands, a beautiful group of idyllic islands surrounded by incredible coral reef systems. One of these islands was Monuriki, the island where Castaway was filmed. You can leave me stranded there for 4 years, I promise, I'll be okay.We lounged on the deck, took in the sheer beauty of the surroundings and found ourselves being handed a new drink whenever our current one reached the half-full point.

Eventually, we anchored just off the shore of Schooner Island, which would be our home base for the majority of the day. Upon arrival, we were invited to a traditional Kava ceremony. Kava is the official Fijian drink, made from the roots of the kava plant and is a mild drug/sedative. We began the ceremony by clapping our hands twice and saying "Bula!", and then proceeded to drink our kava, clap more, and say some other random Fijian words that I can no longer recall. Soon after drinking it from a coconut bowl, my tongue was tingly and numb, and there was an aftertaste in my mouth that was something like what I'd expect eating dirt to taste like. Despite this, the Fijians love their kava and drank what the cautious tourists left behind.

After the ceremony, we simply relaxed on the beach, forgetting about any troubles in our lives if only for a day. We went reef fishing, where to my pride and amazement, I caught a fish for the first time in my life. It was ugly and I was too creeped out to touch it, but I caught it nonetheless.

Lunch was amazing. I've never ate so much fresh fruit in my life. I couldn't stop myself.

I washed it down with more vodka, to the delight of our crew who promised that their only goal was to make sure we got our money's worth, by forcing excess alcohol consumption. Job well done, I must say.

After a full day of sailing and lying on the beach, it was time to head back to Nadi, where we were staying. We were sad to go, but at the same time completely satisfied with the perfect day we'd had. The vodka didn't stop pouring until we'd reached the marina.

As we slowly made our way towards the main island, we were in a state of pure bliss. The awesome crew added to my happiness as they sang us a farewell song. It's these moments that I'd dreamt of, and here I was living the dream. For a girl from small town Alberta, making it to Fiji was a pretty huge deal. If you want something bad enough, reach out and grab it, because dreams are meant to come true.