Fiji is Fun Fun Fun!
We left Auckland on March 13th for Nadi, Fiji, and arrived there around midnight. Once we finally made it to our hostel we were welcomed with a kava ceremony. We drank some Kava, learned about the customs of the ceremony and met some of the hostel staff and fellow travellers. The next day we took the local crowded open air bus into town. Once in town we were approached by lots of friendly locals asking us where we were from. Then we found out most of them were shop owners who wanted us to come into their store and to give us their business card for us to give to friends and family if they come to Fiji. We did end up getting suckered by one place who invited us for a kava ceremony and then we ended up buying some overpriced souvenirs. Oh well, live and learn!
We also visited the Nadi market. They had tons of fruits and vegetables for dirt cheap, which were neatly stacked into little pyramids. It’s neat to see the different fish, fruits, and vegetables from other parts of the world. We stocked up on avocados and what we thought were limes. They were actually un-ripe mandarins we think.
The next day we took a plane the next day to Malolo Lailai Island. We were the only ones booked on the tiny 8 seater plane. It was quite interesting because the pilot found us lounging in the lobby 1/2 an hour before the flight was supposed to leave and told us we were going. We’ve never had a flight leaving 1/2 hour earlier than scheduled but the downside is that they didn’t inform our luggage, which subsequently stayed in Nadi for the rest of the day. They did get it out to us on the next flight to the island, but we had our swimsuits with us, and just lounged by the pool drinking beer and coconuts.
The next day Eero’s parents, Ia and Andres, showed up. We spent the rest of the week lounging around, swimming, snorkelling and scuba diving during the days while the evenings were washed down with beers, rum, tequilla and coconuts. Basically we were living the beach life. We also got to do a little bit of sailing on a hobie cat one afternoon. Sarah still knows her way about a sailboat, I guess it’s like riding a bike. Sarah also went to a coconut demo with Eero’s mom, so they’re both coconut experts now, and can not only fetch, shuck, and cut up a coconut, they can identify different types, and tell you more than you need to know about them. While that was going on, Eero and Andres went for a walk, wading to the neighbouring island and met some fishermen working away, having a good laugh with them. We also took a boat trip to shell village, on the next island to see how the native Fijian islanders live, which was quite interesting.
The last day we had a bit of an adventure with leaping geckos. As we were sitting down enjoying lunch, talking to a family from the edmonton area, a huge gecko crawled out from their table and jumped out at the chair Eero was sitting on. Noticing that his escape path was blocked and the fact that Sarah tried catching him, he dropped his tail off. It’s apparently a defense mechanism they have. It continued to wriggle on the ground for the following ten minutes, while the gecko made his escape.
We then had a nice long delay waiting for the aircraft to fly us back to the main land, because they couldn’t find the pilot… or the plane. It was apparently the second time that week that had happened, so the airline wasn’t too happy with the pilot. So we got to sit in the airport bure, which was meters from the beach, and relax on “fiji time” while they finally found the plane. But we had books and just lounged around on the beach. If all airports were like that, people would acutally enjoy flight delays.
To see some photos of our trip to fiji go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/andres.teene/Fiji2008?authkey=TJib9haFjUU
Tags: Pictures, Relatives, Travel
