Fiji
For the New Year I met my brother, Tim, in Fiji! (I’m thinking that since I was in Fiji for this New Year’s, I should go to Hawaii for next New Year’s and have the longest year in the world!!)We had about 11 days there and had a lovely, relaxing beach vacation — it may seem weird, but after Ecuador, I did feel like I needed a little vacation! Getting there from Ecuador seemed a little convoluted at first (spent one night in LA and then one night in Auckland), but it actually made the long trip very manageable (although if I hadn’t had people to stay with in both places, maybe it wouldn’t have been quite so easy — Thanks Grandma, Grandpa and Dad! Thanks Jennifer!).
The second I got to the hotel in Nadi (Tim was already there), I find out that Tim has horribly sunburned himself just waiting around for me that day! So, we spent the first few days just lounging around in the shade doing a lot of reading and playing cards and eating ice cream, which was fine by me and seemed very appropriate for a Fiji vacation. But then he was on the mend, more or less, so we took a little trip and spent one night on one of the smaller islands (Mana). I went fishing that night with “Moses” a HILARIOUS big Fijian guy and a huge afro and the funniest laugh I’ve ever heard. He pointed out the island where they made “Castaway” and then told us all about how Tom Hanks stayed on Mana and where he stayed and how much he loved Fiji water — ol’ Moses obviously still got a pretty big kick out of the whole thing! And, i caught a little blue-fin Trevelly and then I caught a BIG blue-fin Trevelly — which they cooked up for me for lunch the next day (although this annoying irish guy who I was just being polite too ate almost half of it!!). The next morning Tim and I did a little snorkeling, which was lovely, and then we headed back to our home base. One more day of swimming and reading and playing in Nadi and then it was off to Suva, the capital city. There we stayed at a hostel that was near the rainforest outside of the town. It was a lovely setting (although the food wasn’t the greatest or the cheapest). With our full day we went into the rainforest and went to the pools that are there. The first pools we went to were furthe rinto the forest and there was whole chain of them — the main one was pretty crowded and full of other people doing their thing, but we looked around and found another, more secluded (quiet) one to spend a few hours and that was great time. It was gorgeous with all the rainforest trees and birds and whatnot hanging over the water and all these little waterfalls connecting the pools, just lovely. (At some point I will be able to connect my photos to this site…I know, I know, I’ve been saying coming soon for a while, but it’s true!)
The next day we just tottled around the city for a little while, which was bustling like you wouldn’t believe! And, then we took the bus back to home base and it was time for Tim to go the next day (and me the next)! The hostel Tim found in Nadi was great (Aquarius) — very clean, cheap (enough) food, right on the beach, some really friendly people, some really quirky people, a good home base! So, that was Fiji, a short-and-sweet trip!
NEXT STOP: New Zealand
January 19, 2004 in New Zealand/Australia
