Underwater in Fiji

Laid out on a massage table in Fiji, my face poking through a hole looking down at four red hibiscuses in a wicker flower basket, I close my eyes to soak in the gentle kneading of my back, and flash back over this holiday.

Fiji, a country of 300 islands in the Pacific, is a four hour flight from Sydney. The main cities of Nadi (airport) and Suva are on the largest island, Viti Levu. Sigatoka, where we stayed, is also on this island and about 90 minutes drive from Nadi.

Considering our choice of a resort was based on deal shopping over the Internet and checking reviews on tripadvisor.com, the quality of the Rydges Hideaway Resort has been a little better than expected. The main attraction for families with kids is the Kids Club, which runs supervised activities for the kids through the day, allowing ample quiet time for parents. Our boys were thrilled to be rid of us as well, and by the 2nd day, were quite happy to be off on their own to the main dining hall which has table tennis and pool, and the cinema room, which puts on kids movies at 6 pm. Other than that, the resort has a pool, a beachfront where one can wade far into the sea at low tide tiptoeing around brilliant blue starfish and coral, and generally offers enough to make one reluctant to venture outside, and hang around and soak in the laziness, in Fiji time.

Almost half of Fiji's population is of Indian descent - we met 3-4 taxi drivers, all fourth-fifth generation Indians, who seemed to have assimilated very well into the local scene. They all spoke Hindi, but with their own peculiar accent, which made it hard to trace them back to any particular part of India, and they do not seem to have any physical links now to the country of their ancestry, although are still deeply influenced by its culture (temples, radios playing the latest film songs, etc).

This was not one of those holidays where we got up purposefully each morning with a checklist in hand, and measured our success by how many things we had ticked off. On Day 2, I unknowingly found myself in the deep part of the swimming pool and was flailing about underwater for what must have been a good minute or so, before I attracted enough attention for some bystander (bless him) to help pull me out. It was a rather unpleasant experience that left me sick in the stomach for the next couple of days, and I haven't yet fully recovered my appetite.

So, we just decided to take it easy this holiday, sit back and let the kids enjoy themselves at the Kids club.

It's back to Sydney tomorrow, and a ten degree drop in temperature.