Catching Waves and Kayaking in Fiji!
July 23, 2023
Bullaaaa from Fiji 3B! Today marked the start of our time in the Nambukelevu village. For breakfast, we had a buffet of toast, eggs, and pineapple. Next, we headed back to our rooms to pack for our village and rafting adventure. The kids packed quickly and once they were done our outfitters picked us up on the bus to head on our way.
Once we made it to the village, we were greeted with kids smiling faces! We all worked together to carry our things up to where we were staying. Will, Tison, Porter, and Henry all helped tons with heavy loads. Once we organized our dry bags, we gathered around the table for a group game of spoons! After spoons, we played speed and continued tying bracelets. Porter even taught us how to tie bracelets into a fish shape! We hung out all day and ended the night with music with Reid’s guitar while everyone sang along.
We woke up to the roosters on our second day in the village. Once given the OK, the boys all took a polar plunge to start the day! After watching the boys we ate breakfast. There were lots to choose from: eggs, toast, bacon, fruits, and got to try Fijian pancakes! After, Eliza pulled her beads and string out and everyone made rings and bracelets before getting ready for the day. Once it was time, we got the opportunity to enjoy a Fijian church service. The choir sang beautifully to “how great thou art” while we all listened in awe. After, we ate a chicken alfredo lunch and hung out for the afternoon. We played more cards, talked, and made more bracelets. In the later afternoon, we all made our way down to the creek to cliff jump! Will, Henry, and Tison were first and Sarah was not far after. It took a bit of encouragement, but Grace, Eliza, Presley, and Maggie all jumped too! Porter followed after a quick shower in the water. We all followed Porter and showered in the creek and took Mohawk pictures. Then, we had some playtime with the kids and got ready for dinner. We got a little sunset to end our rainy days with a beef stew dinner! Next, Reid got out the guitar and we all sang along to feathered Indians for our new friends. We closed the night with a sweet moon-up led by LODs Maggie and Will.
After a good night sleep, we woke up a little early to another plentiful breakfast mixed with a polar plunge. Sarah, henry, and Tison all jumped off the cliff! After drying off, we put our sulus on and headed to Sunday service. We heard beautiful Fijian hymns sung by the villagers and their kids. Once the service was over, our crew went on a scenic (and muddy) hike! We had quite the number of wipeouts by henry, eliza, and sarah. On our hike, we pulled cassava root out of the ground to cook for dinner. Porter and Will were both successful collecting the cassava. Hiking back to the village, we all carried firewood for our traditional lovo oven dinner. We helped carry cinder blocks up a hill as well since the village is in the process of building another house! After, we all jumped in the river and washed our hair. The girls all used Reid’s shampoo and we made Mohawks with our soapy hair. Katie and Presley were nervous to jump but with the encouragement of our group with the village kids they conquered their fear and jumped in! After our time in the river, we all hung out at our house’s dining table and made bracelets, rings, and anklets while having hilarious conversations. Next, the boys went to help set up the lovo oven while the girls learned how to carve coconuts. Grace caught on quick and carved while we all talked and laughed. The kids all made bracelets for their new village friends once we finished preparing for dinner. Dinner was delicious! We had chicken, taro leaves in coconut cream, rice, and roasted cassava that we picked earlier in the day! After dinner, we had to say goodbye to our village friends. It was an emotional time leaving the place we called home for a couple of days. After leaving, we went on an intense bus ride singing mamma Mia to our campsite for the night to kick off our rafting section! We were all pretty tired from the big day so we closed the night with a quick moonup led by LOD’s Porter and Presley.
We woke up early the next morning to start our rafting section! For breakfast we ate eggs, PB toast, bacon, and coffee. Next, we picked up our paddles while Tison and Grace pretended the paddles were guitars and made a rock band. We had a small jungle hike to the river then we all jumped in the water before heading on our 17 miles journey. The trip was filled with views of the jungle trees and rock craters that lined the water. The kids watched in awe at the sights. Along the way, the boys made many jumping stops. We stopped on a nearby beach for a sandwich lunch and shortly after made our way to our next village stay. We were greeted with waves and smiles! We warmed up in our new house and all played cards before we went to an opening ceremony! At the opening ceremony, we laughed and danced with the villagers and got the chance to all share our favorite parts of Fiji so far. We had a blast hanging out with the Fijian people before we got ready for moonup led by our LODs Katie and Henry. We talked about who we’d want to spend the day with dead or alive and then said goodnight before heading to bed.
The next morning, we got ready for another trip down the river! This time in duckies. We ate breakfast, cleaned up and packed up, and went to pick out paddles. The trip was short to our next stop for lunch and a waterfall! Katie and Presley went ahead of the group secretly to surprise the others under the waterfall once they got there. The waterfall was strong that day and we all laughed as we tried to balance in the water. It was a WOW moment at the waterfall. The kids all jumped in the water from the top of the rock after walking out from under the waterfall then we headed back down the muddy trail to enjoy some lunch. We had sandwiches again and then finished our last leg of our kayaking adventure. Once we finished our journey, we went back to our outfitters office and they said goodbye to us with a sweet song and cookies. Next, we went to the location of our surfing section! Sarah and Eliza went sea shell hunting and we all showered and chilled out. We ate a variety of options for dinner then concluded the night with moonup under the stars led by LODs Tison and Grace. We all laughed about the most embarrassing place we’ve ever farted and sang songs!
The next morning we got up bright and early to start our surfing section! The water was clear blue. Grace, Sarah, Maggie, Henry, Tison, Presley, Porter, and Eliza all stood up! It was a fun morning with lots of wipeouts and swimming around. Porter vlogged while we all goofed around. Maggie even found some blue starfish! We swam into shore and all went to shower off the salt water and went to lay out in the sunshine. Rain started to come in so we all snuggled up on our favorite couch and watched the hunger games. Afterwards, we ate a variety of dinner options with pasta, fish and chips, and steak. The boys went to play ping pong while the girls played a question game. Eventually the boys joined too. We shared lots of laughs in between before joining together for a makeshift moonup. After moonup, we went to sleep and got ready for another morning of surfing!
We got up early once more for our last day of surfing. This time, everyone stood up! Porter vlogged again and the boys all did handstands on their boards. Grace did a hang 10! It was a sunny morning so we were excited for what the day was going to bring. After surfing, we all hopped on a boat to another island! We saw tons of dolphins and a turtle on the way. We spent the day snorkeling and taking beach photos. For lunch we ate chicken, beef, fruits, and cooked veggies. After, we created a hermit crab arena and named it the coral colosseum. On our snorkeling adventure we saw lots of Nemo’s and different types of little fish. Henry was on the hunt for a white tip reef shark but had no luck. After our island stay, we hopped back on the boat and went to the other side of the island. The boys and Sarah did backflips off of the boat while Maggie, Eliza, and Presley snorkeled more! After a long day out on the water we drove back to the beach house and got warm cookies and banana bread at the cafe! The sunset was super beautiful so we took more pictures and hung out on the beach. After we all showered we played ping pong and had dinner and ice cream. The day ended with moon up and stargazing on the beach led by Lilly and Will. We were so sad to leave the beach house but everyone is super pumped for scuba!!!
Mole!!!!!
Thank yous
Sarah: Hi mom and dad! Thank you so so much for letting me come to fiji. Y’all know how much I’ve wanted to go here, and I really appreciate y’all letting me come. This has been even better and more exciting than I could have imagined. I love y’all so much, and I’m excited to see y’all. Give bella some hugs for me.
Henry: Hey mom and dad, thank you so much for sending me on this trip. This is the most fun I have ever had and I don’t want to leave.
Maggie: Hi mom and dad!!!! Thank you so so so much for letting me come to Fiji, I am having so much fun and I have met so many amazing people. ALSO thank you for letting me shark dive, I’m so excited and I can’t wait to tell y’all all about it. I love and miss y’all so much and can’t wait to see you. Give Will and the dogs a hug for me please
Will: Hi mom and dad thank you very much for sending me to Fiji, it has been a life changing experience. I will tell you all about when I’m home in a few days. I’m not homesick at all.
Tison: Hi mom and dad thank you so much for sending me on this trip. It is so much better than I expected it to be, this is one of the best things I have done in my life and everything here is perfect. Love y’all
Grace: Hi I am having fun. I miss y’all and I miss Hardy a lot. I’ve pooped once this whole time even with laxatives so I’m kinda turning into Hardy. I hope fun is awesomeness and I can’t wait to tell y’all all about my trip.
Porter: Hey Momma and Dad. Hope everything is going well. This trip has been insane, the local people here are so nice and my group is really good. I’ve been having a great time and I want thank y’all so much for letting me come here. Love you both and can’t wait to see you. (Give skeet some love for me(BB too))
Katie: Hey Mom and Dad, I am having so much fun in Fiji. Thank you so much for letting me come on this trip. So far we have visited two villages, white water rafted, snorkeled, and surfed. Today we are starting scuba diving. I miss y’all. Tell Mabel and Hairy I miss them too.
Lily: Family! I miss all of you so much but I never want to leave Fiji! It is the most beautiful place I have ever been- thank you for sending me on this trip! I have met so many funny people and I’m having the best time. I can’t wait to tell you all about it when I get home! Also I hope Evelyn’s foot is ok! Tell Emery and Lily I miss them too!! I love you!!! Love, Lily
Presley: Hey mom and dad. I miss you so much. It’s been fun so far. Everyone cried when leaving the village because the kids were so fun and we got so close to them. Surfing was also super fun and I want to do it when we go back to the beach. It’s been a little rainy and cloudy but yesterday we went snorkeling and it was sunny. We are about to start scuba diving and I’m scared because they have seen huge bull sharks. Also, dad is there any way we can go to rockmont the weekend before school, I really want to go. Fiji is so pretty and the water is super clear and blue. I have made some close friends and my counselors are so fun too. I love and miss you a lot and give Sully lots of kisses for me. Love, Presley.
Elizα: Hey mom and dad! I miss you so much and I hope you guys are having fun in England I hope everything is going well for Charles and his big adventure and I hope helen is good and well! Wish Charles a happy early birthday for me! And please tell my friends I miss them so so so much and hope they have having lots of fun lol . I’m having so so much fun and I love my group! Fiji is beautiful and everything I could have imagined. Sadly it has been raining a lot so that’s unfortunate but it’s okay we have had a lot of time together and it is so fun being with lizzy again!!
Bula!
July 14, 2023
Our very first Bula from FIJ 3B! Our crew has landed in Nadi with smiling facing excited to get to know each other and what this trip will hold for them! We’re ready for our last go around with Will, Porter, Tison, Henry, Katie, Sarah, Eliza, Lillian, Maggie, Presley, and Grace!
We started with an opening speech to welcome our group of 11 with a name game learning spirit animals and what sports everyone plays! We have a good handful of lacrosse players and cross country runners. It was cool to see what we have in common.
Next, we had a continental breakfast with fruit, yogurt, cereal, banana bread, and much more. After, we were on the way to our first stop before we head to the village tomorrow! We had a car ride full of games of mafia and karaoke.
For lunch, we ate an assortment of options from our The day was full of friendship bracelet making and resting off the big travel day.
For dinner, we ate burgers and pizza at a local food stop. Then, we circled the kids up for our first moonup of the trip! We went over rules and expectations and got the opportunity to share why we’re all here to experience moondance.
It was a great start to our final section of the summer and it’s incredible to see strong friendships forming on our first day!
Until next time!
-Lizzy and Reid
Moondance HQ apologizes that this update was originally posted under Fiji 2B which is the reason for the delay!
Safe Arrival in Fiji!
July 13, 2023
Hello Fiji Families!
We heard from our leaders and the group has landed safely in Fiji! The trip is off to a great start, and we cannot wait to hear more stories from their adventure.
Please remember our leaders and students will be unplugged during their trips but we will be posting up to three trip updates throughout the next couple of weeks! This will allow you to follow along with the trip and the students will also give a special shout out mid-way through! You can also follow us on Instagram, @moondanceadventures, to see more of what we are up to this summer!
-Moondance HQ
