Aukland, New Zealand (Kelly) (actually the 19th)
We made it to New Zealand early this morning after waiting in the Nadi Airport for 8 hours. I took a 4 1/2 hour nap when we got here considering I didn't get but maybe an hour sleep while on the plane. We just met back up with Jayne and Robert, the English couple we met back in Fiji. They are going to be here for two weeks so we decided that it would be more fun to travel together. Okay...now it's time to back track to Fiji...I know many of you back home are probably wondering what we have been up to for the past week...actually, quite a bit.
I actually have a million journal entries from the week but fortunately I am only going to pick out the highlights so you guys back home don't get totally bored.
1/12/02-1/14/02
BULA from Fiji! This means Hello, Nice to see you, Good bye...any form of a greeting!
We went to the island of Robinson Crusoe today...thought it was going to be the picturesque image of Fiji however, due to the rainy season, the waters had been turned up which made it a lovely brown color with lots of debris on the beach...we were actually a little bit taken from this. We had originally booked 6 nights here but we only stayed 2. I think we would have gotten "island fever" if we had stayed any longer. We had a blast though. We met some lovely people...two American boys and a couple from England that we actually traveled with for the rest of the week (all 4 of them.) The island consisted of sand volley ball, which I did play and made a complete embarrasment of my self. The ball rolled into the ocean from a foul ball and I went to chase it down, fell in a hole and face planted...this is what I call a classic "Kelly" move...everyone back home should know what I'm talking about :-) We took part in a traditional Kava ceremony, which is a narcotic grown, aged, and crushed into a powder (illegal back home) which is then mixed with water. Looks like a soupy mud water mix...let me tell you...it tasted as bad as the description! The islanders performed some native Fijian dances with lots of vine wrapped around their stomach and heads...looked like a Hawaiin Hula dance if you ask me.
On Sunday we wound up going to a Methodist Church service in a small village. This was definitely an educational and cultural experience. The chuch was one room with wooden pews that very easily came off the floor. The walls were painted teal and the alter was decorated in white "doily" looking cloth. The men sat behind all of the women and the children sat on the opposite side of everyone else. The service was done in Fijian so of course we couldn't understand anything but the music tunes seemed to be pretty similar to the one't back home. After the service we all went back to a lady's home that was a member of the church to wait for the bus to take us back to Robinson Crusoe. She gave us some juice and cake while we sat on the floor and watched a "football" game. We returned to the island and went for a quick snorkel beyond the reef that surronded the island...it was fun other than the stupid sea lice that kept biting everyone. This was pretty much it for the two days on the island before we headed back to Nadi.
1/15/02-1/16/02
Chris and Rody (the American boys), Jayne and Robert (the English couple), and Phillip and I rented a minibus for the next two days...we like to call it the "Magic Mystery Bus"...there were definitely some adventures to be had over the next couple of days. We toured around the majority of the island over the next two days...went to see some sand dunes, an actient fort where canabalism took place, went to Suva (the capital of Fiji), saw some markets (these reminded me of Mexico markets...lots of very pushy sales people), drove into the mountains where again I made an idiot of myself (you'll see the picture), and got a flat tire. This was definitely a fun little adventure.
1/17/02
Phillip and I made our first ocean dive today...scuba style, off the coast of Nadi Bay. We loaded onto a boat and went out about 30 minutes, strapped on our gear, and dove backwards into the sea. The under water life was amazing. We saw a baby shark under a coral, lots of beautiful fish, a yacht wreck, swam through some caves (we didn't know we were certified to do this but it was very cool), saw a sunken light house, petted some really slimy sea animals that were attached to the coral, and of course took some pretty crazy pictures...can't wait for more...next dive will be the Great Barrier Reef in Ausi.
Well, this is all for now...we just arrived in New Zealand and will be here for the next 3 weeks. We will be in touch!
Posted by Admin at January 18, 2002 10:29 PM