Fiji

- Bula!
Fiji just wow. What a place. I'll try and explain what I was doing, the how the why and the where, but I don't know if I can explain the 5th dimension that Fiji has. I liked being there a lot. It was just incredible to actually be on this trip. So much time has passed since I decided I wanted to see the world. And here I am. Sitting in the Auckland city library. But more on Auckland later.


- Nadi
I flew into Nadi (nan-dee) early in the morning. It was still dark. I slept most of the way. It was a nice flight. By the time I got through baggage and customs it was light. I met with the driver who was waiting for two other couch surfers. They came and got dropped off at a different place than me. One of them was Melvyn, a French traveler who will pop up later in the story. Since it was early, my hosts were sleeping off a kava night, but they woke up and we chatted and had a typical Fiji breakfast of sweetbread and shit loads of butter. The water there was safe to drink, which was nice. Most places in Fiji, this isn't the case. (Good think I have my water purifier!) Fi and Api are really nice people. They host travelers all the time. They have a map of where their couchsurfers have come from and it goes to 11 in pins. I added mine to be the first Texan! WOOT! I took a wee nap (damn jet lag) then I went with Api to the market. I love markets. The best way to see how a city lives is to see where they buy their food. We bought a giant fish for dinner and I got some peanut butter and crackers (woot staples!). Fijian people eat a ton of greens and fish. After that comes curry, probably a borrowed item from the large Indian population that lives in Fiji. Ever driver I had in Fiji was an Indian man. I never saw any women drive come to think of it. It is a male dominated culture, and the children do some serious minding.


Fiji, like any other group, thinks they coined the term "_____ time", meaning in their case "Fiji time". Of course there is "Unitarian time", "Ultimate time" and "Mike Smith time". Every group has a few people who use this phrase all the damn time and they think it is just hilarious. I don't know why. I hate that expression. Yes. Everyone is late, especially buses. Get over it.

Fi is actually a part time travel agent (like a million other people in Fiji I think) and she wanted to sell me a travel package to the beach resorts that Fiji is famous for. At first I was a little skeptical of being railroaded into buying a few days of really expensive touristy hotels, but after looking at the maps, brochures and prices I felt pretty good. I had 5 nights to spend in the islands. Most people I met were doing at least 10. Now that I'm in NZ, and with that greater goal always looming, I'm really glad I only spent 5 nights. It was the perfect amount. And it cost less than 100 Fiji dollars a day, including the boat, meals and being in fucking Fiji! (1 USD = 1.77 FJD). The next day I got up early to catch the bus to the outer islands. The Yasawas to be exact. The boat was really cool. I took a ton of pictures and was pretty much just grinning the whole time. I caught more than a few weird looks for this, but I didn't care. The view from the top deck was worth a million dollars. I'll never forget cruising up my first tropical island. WOW! Even now it makes me feel the warm sun on my neck. A lot of people were sleeping or reading, I don't know if they're from a place where sun, islands, and the sea are normal, but I think they really missed out. I also saw a lot of people that I would learn to avoid later on the islands. Teenagers and rowdy Brits mostly. They were just there for a party. I was more interested in being in this paradise and making sure that I got the most out of it.


- Safe Landing
My first stop was Safe Landing Resort. It is really far north, about 7 hours by boat. B/c it is so out of the way, and at the end of the loop, it is very basic. It had about 10 tourists at any time max. I met some really cool Brits there who I'd see around. I have a good movie that I took of myself that will explain Safe Landing a lot better than I can now. The food was good, the beach was the best, and the staff was really nice. The weather was perfect for my two days there. Two guys who I met there were so unhappy that they ran up a $580 bar tab. 4 nights, 5 dollar beer, and two really pessimistic dudes, what a waste! When those guys left I told the girls that they couldn't force me into a bad mood with all the tea in China. Did I mention that coconuts are different and better in Fiji? I opened more than a few and ate every last bite. The white part almost tastes like pecans. Delicious!



- White Sandy
At White Sandy Beaches Resort, they don't really have white sandy beaches. But they do have a cool little hut with cheaper beer and lots of nice people. Besides not having the greatest dorms (the beds were a little damp) they had some serious coral and seaweed stuff that made real swimming difficult in the low tide. We went to bed with a pretty serious storm that we thought would pass in the night. Instead it pulled a Dru like camping move right on our heads. I spent an hour listening to the loudest thunder I've ever heard. It was mind boggling. There were lots of times when there were no seconds to count between the flashes of light and the shuddering cracks of thunder. I wish I had recorded it with my camera, but I was having too much fun! A lot of the people in the dorms were afraid or upset, but I was enjoying it so much. Nothing like being on a speck of sand while the sea turns upside-down. At breakfast it kept going and going. We had pancakes and fruit for breakfast and I tried to tell everyone that the rain would clear out when the sun got stronger. Most people were prepared to play cards all day, which they did. I didn't want to face you dear readers without being able to say that I was in the ocean everyday I was in Fiji, so I went back to the dorms, put my suit on and took a little swim in the rain. At some points it was so heavy that I could hardly see the shore, and I never knew which half of me was in the water and which was being rained on. It was all the same! But I was right about the rain and after 10ish, it went away and it was a windy and cloudy, but really nice day. I was glad to only spend one night there, there were really nice people, but the resort was not as nice as Safe Landing, and I had a feeling that Kuata would be better.



- Kuata
And I was right! Kuata Natural Island Resort was really amazing. Farther south than the other two, it had more people and more stuff to do. I went on a shark feeding snorkel dive (I got to pet a shark!!!!!!!!!!) I went on a walk around the island, and I went snorkeling with a German guy and a Swiss girl who ended up being really cool people I'll hopefully travel with again. At Kuata, like at White Sandy, we had lots of entertainment from the staff at night. Fire dancing, traditional Fiji dances, limbo contests, dance offs, and all that jazz. I'm sure if you've been to a tropical island resort you know what I mean...what's that? You haven't? Oh sorry, I thought everybody made it at least to Fiji. Well, you still have time.
I took a ton of pictures at Kuata, so I'll let them do most of the talking.



- Wrap Up
Sometimes I didn't have my camera, and sometimes it wasn't appropriate to take pictures, so there are hundreds of stories that I've left out of this post. As I put the pictures up, I'll try and caption the most interesting ones, so make sure you check for that! My facebook account is messed up right now, but when I fix it I'll make sure to put the pictures there too.

Fiji was a precursor to my main goal of being a Kiwi, but now that I've written it down and thought a little bit more about it, I think it was more special than that. Part of moving to to NZ is about me not liking the sea. I don't really like fish, and I don't like being in the ocean very much, I'm not a guy who likes to sit on the beach catching rays (but I do currently have a baller tan). Fiji was the perfect catalyst for changing those "don't likes". I already have a fonder image of being in the ocean than I did only a week ago. Thanks Fiji. Or, as they say, Vinaka!

***NOTE***
I can't put all the pictures up yet. Damn net cafe's and their crazy file transfer restrictions. But I will. Keep an eye open for this post to be updated.