Forest Rugby Fiji Tour 2023

Day 8 Mash up

Beachcomber Island Day Trip
Final Night Fun
Home Sweet Home

Beachcomber Island Day Trip.
*Cue Gilligan's Island Theme? (Too much?? 😂)
Ticketmaster Tour Dad literally ferried the boys on to the aptly named "itsawlgood" bound for Port Denarau, then a quick 40 min ride out to Beachcomber Island. Once on the beach, the boys received a briefing on the activities available such as snorkelling, fish feeding and coral viewing. A day of activity for all boys to round out the tour 😎😎🌅.

Final Night Fun.
Frog races!! The lads participated in the classic frog race. It wasn't really a case of which frog won; it was more a case of catching the slippery little suckers. Game completed, the staff sang a farewell song to our very tired lads, and it was pack your bags for the final sparrow fart wake up at 5.30am bound for the breakfast room, bus, then Nadi airport by 6.30am. One last photo opportunity and it was farewell Fiji.

Home Sweet Home.
Yep, nothing like it. It was a very quiet flight home (maybe because I slept for 75% of it 👍). The boys watched the inflight entertainment, some slept, some chatted, mostly it was subdued tiredness on the way back 😊. One final responsibility for the pod leaders to get those flaming immigration papers done and pens down.
Customs were pretty efficient with 31 players with football boots I must say. A well organised customs staff inspected every pair of boots, took aside those that were not permissible and washed them before we were allowed to exit the area to waiting family members.

With grattitude and special thanks to our sponsors.
Tokoriki Island Resort https://tokoriki.com/
Aspen Australia https://aspenpharma.com.au/
North4Constructions https://north4.com.au/
Rothshire Pty Ltd https://www.rothshire.com.au/
Liquid Promotions https://liquidpromotions.com.au/

Final thoughts...
When asking a few of the boys what they enjoyed most about the tour, it was overwhelmingly the chance to meet the Fiji players and spending time conversing with them. They are normal young men like ours, sure we are of a first world culture but at the end of the day that was not a barrier to the friendships formed from time spent with them.

We should all be very proud of our young men. As the Fijians say, “Win or lose, Rugby is always the winner”. So, Forest Rugby Fiji Tour 2023 for the WIN !!

Thanks to the Pod Leaders
We did it !! Special thanks to those on tour. A real team effort to manage the boys with excellent outcomes, greater bonds between players, and experiences none of us will forget.

To the team, Tom H, Tom D, Yanina, Andrew, Stu, Marty, Daz, Russ, and to the families entrusting us with your boys.

Vinaka vaka levu 👊👊🏉🏉🙏🙏
Cheers, Jono

Hi all. Please do not click on any links not posted by me. Especially comments on the tour. They are phishing links. Thanks Jono

Day 7 mash up

Game day - Ba Provincial
The Forest Rugby Pod Olympics
The Boat Shed Restaurant

GAME DAY - "Rain, rain go away, come back again some other day...." The view from my balcony this morning was 🌧🌧🌧☔️☔️☔️

Unfortunately, Game 3 was cancelled due to flooding at the Ba Provincial High School.

With the game cancelled Andrew, Johno, Charlie and Ollie were tasked with delivery of the last bags of donations. They met with some of the players and school principal. Mission sans le jeu completed.

Meanwhile back at the resort, the brains trust were hard at it looking for suitable replacement activities for the boys....
"And the scramble is on !!! Whatsapp pod leaders chat has come alive 🤪.
Phones were scouting locations, bus availability, pricing you name it was if you could hear legendary race commentator John McCririck calling the race live.....

"Water park currently way out front with confirmed pricing at circa @$57 per head. Fishing is a late scratching as it's pulling up a bit windy. Retail therapy back at Port Denerau is bringing up the rear but could be a late challenger at the posts...🐎🐎🐎"

And the winner due to "Nobuses taking out the entire field in one foul swoop....💥💥🤬☢️ is....

"THE INAUGRAL FOREST POD OLYMPICS 2023"
⛔️ Pod against Pod.
⛔️ Mate against Mate.

Who will be the champions and take home the hardware and bonus junk food?

EVENT 1 - KAYAK RELAY, Featuring the team of Ben "The Haymaker" Heaton & Owen "Stay out of my way" Dalton
EVENT 2 - COCONUT SHOT PUT featuring "Ben "The Hammer" Hawker.
EVENT 3 - HEAD, SHOULDER, BALL featuring Nathan "The Cobra" McInerney vs Jack "The Mongoose" McCreedy
EVENT 4 - SWIMMING RELAY featuring Jack "The Butterfly " Dalton and Kai "The superfish" Naylor
(Videos a bit all over the place but will be posted at some point 👍).

THE BOAT SHED- VUDA MARINA
The team donned our tribal sarongs this evening for our 2nd last night's dinner at Vuda Marina. What a stunning location and restaurant. It was as though we had stepped right off the plane back in Oz. The service was super quick for such a large group most likely because of Tour Dad's pre-ordering and 6Ps approach AND because it was 1/2 price pizza Tuesday so the kitchen was in twin turbo mode.

Beachcomber Island for our final day tomorrow .
BULA VINAKA 🙏🥥🏆🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧

Here's the cover photo in original resolution that you can zoom in on 😃

Day 6 mash up

Wallabies v Wales 😳
GAME DAY - Forest v Natabua High School 🏉🏉
Yanina's birthday 🍰🥳🕺

7AM
The great breakfast room silencer.... Wallabies v Wales. We sat down to breakfast for two highly anticipated events. The game, and a continental breakfast. Sadly, failed in both events. Oh well as a host nation in 2027 at least we don't have to qualify to play in the pools 🤫 AND bacon and eggs when we get home in a couple of days will never be taken for granted again ✅️

GAME DAY
For those not aware, our two back to back games are today and tomorrow. Natabua High School and Ba Provincial. Coincidentally, both schools made finals in their "campaign" which we learnt speaking with the players after the match. Our tour guide Sai (no not gangnum style) was kind enough to share with us the two teams are top of the competition and will be "challenging opponents" but they haven't trained for the last 4 weeks 🤣🤣 These players heavily compete for a position in their school team and to be fair were a combination of 16s and 15s. Our boys thought more like u21s 😳😳. One of the boys is on a scholarship to Japan. His mother was extremely proud and sad at the same time as he will be leaving his family in hopes of a professional rugby career. No question he will make it.

Let's be serious here. These players probably would have given the Wallabies a hard time if they played their best game and fielded their strongest team against us. Our boys gave it their all as you will see in the video. Not going to post too much here as you can watch the game but what I will say is that after the game it was an absolute pleasure to see our young men interact with the Fijian Team.

There is a post game video well worth watching once it is uploaded. The interaction with our boys is truly heart warming and I have to say we have raised some pretty awesome lads as well. Nice one men 👏👏💪💪

Neen's birthday.
Surprise!! The men, yes, us, arranged a spa treatment for Neen's this morning before the game. You can ask her directly if we did good or not 💯🏆😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁
Neen's birthday part deux.
The restaurant was decorated with balloons and a Happy Birthday banner. A surprise birthday serenade from the staff followed with a very cool rendition of Happy Birthday "Fiji Style" mixed in with the melodic overtunes of super enthusiastic 15 year old men and joyous pod leaders was truly something to behold 🎶 🎶 🤣🤣. To be uploaded as well.....Cake was served and the lads were off the hook.

All in all a fulfilling day. Rugby, followed by rugby, food and cake for the birthday girl (and of course a spa treatment). Whilst we didn't come home with the win on the field today, we had so many greater wins off the field with our Fijian brothers. You will see for yourselves with these pics. Another WIN for the tour.

Some "hits" from today's game 🏉🏉😳😳🙏🙏
Some of the new friendships formed ♥️♥️

Day 5 mash up

Ireland v South Africa
Fiji Zip Lining
Port Denarau
Anchorage Beach Resort

7am. Outta Mango Bay Resort with only a couple of minor hiccups, well done boys and pod leaders and Tour Dad engaging the principles of 6Ps.

Prior Planning Prevents P**s Poor Performance 👍💯

What more could you ask for than a World Cup Rugby match live streamed on a laptop en route to our next destination for a rugby mad tour bus??

Well, how about an Irishman and South African sitting next to each other on the bus of course 😁😁
Nice work Neens even with the drop outs, switching to 3 phones then down to one, the battle for signal strength was as real as the rugby !! 🙏🙏🏉🏉 And bad luck South Africa 😥, sorry Russ...

Not too long later we arrived at Momi Zipline. The boys and a few more enthusiastic pod leaders geared up for Zip Lining which was a gas (apparently, I wouldn't know but was told 😃). I did however, learn how to play the piggy game which was a blast and Neens, Tom H, Marty & Russ learnt a couple of new card tricks which was cool ♠️♥️♦️♣️

The team shot off the first Zip, of which there were 6 in total to reach the top for the return 10 on the way back down. Yeah didn't mathematically make sense to me either until I heard about the extra flights of stairs required for the mathematics to work 🏃🏃👣👣 faith restored.

Photo/video credits to Andrew W and Tom D today. The boys made it to the top to a cave which was used for hiding the women and children from warriors whilst the men protected them from outside. Some early graffiti puts a time stamp circa 1958, 1964 and 2014 ( the village owners of the land). A hearty meal and some purchasing of souvenirs completed the deal. Videos to follow upload speed here is even worse.

Our next stop at Port Denarau was a well overdue retail extravaganza for the boys. Pretty much everyone enjoyed this 60mins of civilisation and the lads enjoyed emptying out their wallets of Fijian cash for some great merch. Most impressive was how many were buying gifts for family and friends. Some Fijian culture osmosis for the win !!

So long Mango Bay- HELLO ANCHORAGE BEACH RESORT !!

Curtis earned the position of our new Captain by leading the singing of both stanzas of "Advance Australia Fair) as we descended to the Anchorage Beach Front to check in. Chookas Curt, hopefully we will know it as well as our Fijian counterparts do by the start of tomorrow's game 🎶🎶👍

The accommodation at Anchorage Beach Resort is great. Nice clean rooms, a wonderful buffet dinner this evening and an awesome pool for the boys to cool their jets down to cruising altitude. 💯💥

Happy birthday to Harrison, and chocolate mousse cake smashed in a couple of minutes. Reminded me of the hungry hungry hippo game but at the speed of seagulls after the last chippie...

Game 2 tomorrow against Natabua High School hopefully, as it is bucketing outside 🌧🌧🌧☔️☔️☔️

And Go the Wallabies 🏉🏉

Day 4 mash up

Sigatoka River Safari – jet boating to Natawatawadi Village (which means "Always quiet") which it probably is when we're not there 😅😅

Our day started at Sparrow’s fart at reception and after a pretty awesome breakfast burrito and hash brown, the buses took some fairly tired looking boys to Sigatoka Rive Safari’s head quarters where they found the ice cream bar and the pod leaders found the coffee bar !! A few “must see" signs followed by a little bit of retail therapy, several bags of chips and assorted snacks later, we jumped on the Jet Boat buses to head to the pier for a briefing.

Tour Dad was voted by the boys to be “Chief” for the day to perform the ceremonial duties with the Natawatawadi Village Chief as if we were a neighbouring tribe.

Heading up the river our Captain introduced herself to us as “Josephinny” or “Captain Finney” as she is known 😊. Geez, this Captain can drive and we learnt that she had been piloting for 10 years, which was pretty clear. When Finney started, she was required to wear a sarong and at the end of her shift, required to women’s cleaning duties and others which she still maintains out of respect after 10 years.

Captain Finney told us that in the olden days the Chief had 4-5 wives to which Tour Dad thought this was a fun notion. In fact, when the Chief died, the wives were buried with him alive out of respect. Tough gig that one !! It was abolished around the time Christianity took over as was cannibalism circa 1850s.

After some pretty tight bends through the river, we stopped at the base of “Mata Nah Vatu” (Eye of the rock) mountain where the last tribal war ended, a sacred cave with elder’s bones were kept and marble stone is at the base at the river’s edge. The elder’s have been approached to mine the marble but they won’t as it has a lot of history and they get clean drinking water from under it and also services neighbouring villages.

We were welcomed into the Natawatawadi Tribe through the kava ritual, food and dance. Tour Dad did us proud and embraced his role well (as expected) including the 2 full bowls of kava (Tourist mix) he was presented with. The boys that wanted to try had their tourist mix as well and all participated in the dance celebrations. (Video to be uploaded, stay tuned). In fact, the Chief’s next in line, true to the tribal way of life, managed to catch his dinner upon our return to the resort, which was impressive regardless of having it cooked by the resort. Nice one Prince Cam 😊. The Natawatawadi Village Chief concluded the ceremony by welcoming us all into his tribe which meant that we are now family, and welcome to visit any time and there will be a bed or floor to sleep on, food (we will not go without). A truly authentic and enjoyable experience for the Team 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Surprise, surprise, we are up at sparrow’s fart again tomorrow to trek over to our zip lining adventure and final base camp at the Anchorage resort. Will be interesting as we haul everything out and up the hill again to the tour buses with another forecast of rain 😊

Day 3 mash up
Game One - Nasikawa Vision College

After overnight rain and a massive sleep in to 8am, the boys loaded up on breakfast ready for their eagerly anticipated, Game One of our tour with Nasikawa Vision College.

Lunch (yes lunch in fact burgers) was served at 11am and well received even though breakfast had just ended not long before.

The tour bus was due to pick us up at 12pm from reception which gave the boys a few hours of free time of which several explored the coral coastline snorkelling and to work off brunch.

Meeting the bus at reception is tour code for hiking 1.5km up to the main road with your footy gear in the rain 🤔 more like a legs warm up.

We were given a very warm welcome from the school with food and entertainment. The Assistant Principal was very kind to provide us with some history of past pupils from the school and village being Fiji Internationals in fact some of the players we were to meet on the field today were direct relatives. *boys faces and mouths drop to the floor 😳😳

After the Fijian and Australian national anthems were sung (mainly by the Fijians, as they knew both of the stanzas of Advance Australia Fair), the school performed a dance and invited our boys to participate which they did !! Video evidence will follow at some point 🎶🕺🕺 (*now posted).

Game One.
29-5 victory played in muddy, wet conditions.
A fun mixed game of 7s followed with both forward packs of each team paired up with the opposing team. A lot more tries scored by the local boys in this game 😃. An exchange of gifts, handshakes and bro hugs later and we were back on the bus.

Back at the resort for a jersey and shorts wash in the sea, quick change of clothes and a BBQ dinner.

Trivia night followed AND now we are watching Game One off the laptop. Gotta love technology.

Off to sleep early lads. Sparrow fart start for Jet boating...