Fiji time

After the whirlwind of the week around the wedding, we headed off to Fiji for our honeymoon. Our trip was booked 6 months in advance, and thank goodness for the (accidental) foresight. We had months of dealing with wedding preparations and the minutiae that seems to come with it, from deciding on the colour of the ribbon on the cake, to the types of lollies for the lolly bags for the kiddies (sorry to those parents who then had hyperactive littles running around), and on top of that the last three weeks balancing work and catching up with family members who had come from overseas for our wedding and hoping they are having a good time. After all that, I was ready for a rest. REST.

Fiji gave us just that. From the time we arrived at the airport, and were ushered to our coach, which dropped us at the Outrigger on the Lagoon Resort , we hardly had to exercise a brain cell. Or too many muscles. After checking in, a porter picked up our suitcase and drove us to our bure in a golf buggy, even though it was only 300m away. We spent the first afternoon eating room service sandwiches as we couldnt be bothered to go out to hunter-gather. We spent most of the next day lazing by the pool. The most strenous thing I did on day 2 was a scuba lesson in the pool.

On our third day, we headed out on day trip to an island. Even that was easy, we were picked up from the hotel lobby, dropped at the jetty and ferried to an island where we snorkelled, lazed about and later opted to have a massage on the beach. Later in the week, we were interested in learning a little about village life. We asked at the front desk, and instructed to come to the hotel lobby at 10am the next day, at which time a minibus drove a small group of us to a nearby village. There a village elder showed us around, told us about the way of life ("Life is good, you can fish, you grow vegetables and we have Sky TV") and took us through a kava ceremony. Many of the villagers were employed at the Outrigger.

Activities on the resort were anticipated, pre-organised and set up to be easy so you could do whatever you wanted. You could choose from taking part in volleyball matches, water polo games, yoga, meditation, or head out to the lagoon and snorkel or kayak.

On a couple of days we ventured out of the resort, to check out Sigatoka and get some fruit from the market (we bought and ate our fill of bananas and papayas). But on the whole it was easy to spend days relaxing in the resort, pottering in our bure, reading by the pool, relaxing in the hammock, then sitting in a deckchair and contemplating the ocean.

I think I'm sold on the resort holiday. You wouldnt do it if you wanted to see a lot of sights, or feel proud of the fact that you're an intrepid traveller, but you would do it to rest and recharge, and I guess, to indulge. And I think Sydneysiders could learn something about relaxation from the Fijians.