The “where the hell are you?” emails finally motivated me to catch up the ‘ol blog.
My one-nighter in Fiji turned into two when I missed a flight for the first time in my life. Two hours early for my flight at 7:15 when the ticketing agent kindly informed me that the 17:15 flight was taxing away from the gate.
All was cool though as my best good ‘ol Texas smile discounted my ticket change from $190 to $30. On the flight I was able to sit down next to none other than a GM from an Auckland ad agency. (Awfully handy as that is the industry I trying to get work in). A wonderfully nice guy that gave me invaluable info into who, what, & where of the Auckland creative scene – then he even gave me a ride home from the airport.
Checked into a filing cabinate for 20 year olds on their first trip from home. Was ecstatic to find fresh vegetables again after the tomatolessness of Tonga, as I spent a day walking the city to find a better place to stay.
I’ve checked into a beautiful hostel in the neighborhood of Parnell which is a 10 minute walk from downtown. The hostel is an old Victorian home, once belonged to the queen of Tonga, and the innkeeper brings in fresh European breads from the local bakery every morning and afternoon. In the ½ mile of the main strip there are 4 shops with umlauts in the title, over 20 art galleries, an Apple shop, and a disproportionate amount of Italian food restaurants. Parnell happens to also be the home to all the ad agencies, needless to say, I’m loving it. (Parnell is also rather high rent as I’ve seen a Ferrari or Lamborghini daily for nearly two weeks now)
I then jumped headlong into job acquisition mode. Cleaned up my resume and wrote cover letters and actually did cold calling straight into offices. I have a contract computer job on Monday along with two interviews, I’ve applied for jobs in Antartica, and tomorrow I’ll start my winter job options. I have to laugh at the prospect of molding my CV to make me look like a good candidate to be a “Ski Rental Assistant”. My cover letter probably shouldn’t say, “I’ve never been a skier, but come on – I’m not a freakin’ idiot.”
I was lucky enough in my job hunting to run into two local lasses in a coffee shop who have taken me under their wings to show me around. Dinner, drinks, trips to the museum, and introductions to their friends in the ad agencies. I attended the dawn parade on Anzac day (Australia and NZ’s memorial day). It was really a wonderful experience to be at such a patriotic event as a foreigner. I am also impressed that the Anzacs celebrate an historic loss, not a victory – they emphasis the futility of war instead of glorifying it. Definitely a lesson we could learn back home, as our patriotism makes frightening shifts towards nationalism.
And in true traveler style, a German girl (we’re going to a Hip Hop show tonight) invited me to join her in the Cook Islands next week… so I took her up on it. Twist my arm and drag back into the South Pacific.
Miss you guys at home and hope you all are doing great.
Happy Belated Birthday to Audrey! (Email me because I don’t have yours)
Happy Birthday to Whitney on the 8th, love ya and can’t wait to see you in Bangkok!
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Current Count
As I've arrived to a country for a year stint, I though a count of the past few months was in order:
6 Countries
9 Airlines
5 Local Languages
14 Countries represented in dinner companions
18 Hostels
Countless memories, amazing people, and an ever growing excitement for tomorrows in foreign lands.
6 Countries
9 Airlines
5 Local Languages
14 Countries represented in dinner companions
18 Hostels
Countless memories, amazing people, and an ever growing excitement for tomorrows in foreign lands.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Tonga Photos Also
I've got my Tonga pictures uploaded as well. (Thanks to hacking free internet from my hostel in Fiji) Click here to see some paradise.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
One-Nighters
Due to the fact that the domestic airline ran out of fuel, I left a day early to Tongatapu on a charter Air Polynesia flight. I realized I am not immune to boredom, as much as I would like to think the opposite is true. I stayed my last night at the transit lodge again in a village near the airport and had nothing to do but sit around from noon until I wanted to go to bed as it was pouring down rain outside.
Watched Ferris Bueler’s day off and was reminded that my brother Colin is the slightly more grown up embodiment of Ferris Bueler – he gets away with anything, and you gotta love him for it. For lunch I had a McDonalds Hamburger which was as repulsive as I remember. I would never buy one, yet Francis the 20 year old son of the people that live at the homestead offered it too me, and I hate to refuse a gift. I noticed that it was reheated, but that effected the taste little. Upon thanking Francis for the burger he smiled a big smile saying his father brought them from New Zealand the night before. It was only then that it clicked in my head that there are no McDonald’s in Tonga and more importantly I realized the generosity of this young man to give me something that was obviously very special for him. So I still hate McD’s burgers, but I was touched by the underserved generosity.
Read 600 pages of a bad spy novel without moving and crashed only to be kept awake by mosquitoes nearly all night. Slept in to make up for quality with quantity, discovered a New Zealander that had checked in, and enjoyed a conversation in unbroken English for the first time in about 5 days.
Bounced over to the airport and enjoyed the open-air, islander style of the place. No air-conditioning, nearly all of it without walls, and people walked around comfortably without shoes.
Hoped on the plane, a proper 737, and was taken aback at first with the strange quality of the air – then I realized it is just air-conditioned and I really haven’t been in that much over the past 3 months.
I’ll land in Fiji and stay another one-nighter before waking upon my travel’s three month anniversary to head to New Zealand where I feel a whole new adventure cresting the horizon – living in another country instead of just walking through it.
Watched Ferris Bueler’s day off and was reminded that my brother Colin is the slightly more grown up embodiment of Ferris Bueler – he gets away with anything, and you gotta love him for it. For lunch I had a McDonalds Hamburger which was as repulsive as I remember. I would never buy one, yet Francis the 20 year old son of the people that live at the homestead offered it too me, and I hate to refuse a gift. I noticed that it was reheated, but that effected the taste little. Upon thanking Francis for the burger he smiled a big smile saying his father brought them from New Zealand the night before. It was only then that it clicked in my head that there are no McDonald’s in Tonga and more importantly I realized the generosity of this young man to give me something that was obviously very special for him. So I still hate McD’s burgers, but I was touched by the underserved generosity.
Read 600 pages of a bad spy novel without moving and crashed only to be kept awake by mosquitoes nearly all night. Slept in to make up for quality with quantity, discovered a New Zealander that had checked in, and enjoyed a conversation in unbroken English for the first time in about 5 days.
Bounced over to the airport and enjoyed the open-air, islander style of the place. No air-conditioning, nearly all of it without walls, and people walked around comfortably without shoes.
Hoped on the plane, a proper 737, and was taken aback at first with the strange quality of the air – then I realized it is just air-conditioned and I really haven’t been in that much over the past 3 months.
I’ll land in Fiji and stay another one-nighter before waking upon my travel’s three month anniversary to head to New Zealand where I feel a whole new adventure cresting the horizon – living in another country instead of just walking through it.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Leaving Tonga
Sitting in plastic lawn furniture on the spacious second story balcony of “Adventure Backpackers”, I’m enraptured by the sounds of Nora Jones while watching the sunset light storm clouds afire and silhouette tiny Tongan islands. Stubborn spots of sky breaking through the clouds slide from yellow, to red, to green; palm trees standing above native trees standing above rusted corrugated steel roofs as the last stragglers of the day mosey home, moving as slow as the sunset – you can only see their motion if you look away for thirty seconds.
From my vantage point above Vava’u’s harbor I sip tea and reminisce over my “firsts” experiences here in Tonga. It has been my first time to see more of a place underwater than above with 12 dives over the last 8 days. My first night dive, on a wreck, at 100 foot depth with only 6 feet of visibility. My first, second, third, … fifth, … tenth time to swim with sharks. First time to swim within a hands reach of 6 foot sea snakes and countless lion fish. First time to worry about my laptop’s apparent ant infestation. First time to have a hostel completely to myself – definitely my first time to love that. First time to spend an entire day getting a cable to plug my iPod into a stereo because it required being hand soldered by a German Marine electrician. Without a doubt, my first time to have my flight canceled because the entire airline ran out of fuel. First time to lay on a sandy sea floor at 130 foot depth surrounded by Garden Eels, look back and distinctly see the whole structure of the tiny island we dove from rise from that sea floor, and finally to look up 130 feet and see the ripples of the surface clearly through the aquarium clear water – the distance only punctuated by the minutes it took my bubbles to reach the surface.
Tonga’s been great, Va’vau a fantastic happenstance choice. I’m off to the Mermaid (my favorite of three restaurants due to it’s placement on a pier and also acting as the local yacht club) for my last dinner here. Get my last Tongan small island gossip about the prince and the airline that seems to cancel more flights than it makes. Say good-bye to the folks I’ve met and get ready for another country switch. Tonga is so relaxed it forced me to sit and find yet another level of calm, I could ask for nothing more.
From my vantage point above Vava’u’s harbor I sip tea and reminisce over my “firsts” experiences here in Tonga. It has been my first time to see more of a place underwater than above with 12 dives over the last 8 days. My first night dive, on a wreck, at 100 foot depth with only 6 feet of visibility. My first, second, third, … fifth, … tenth time to swim with sharks. First time to swim within a hands reach of 6 foot sea snakes and countless lion fish. First time to worry about my laptop’s apparent ant infestation. First time to have a hostel completely to myself – definitely my first time to love that. First time to spend an entire day getting a cable to plug my iPod into a stereo because it required being hand soldered by a German Marine electrician. Without a doubt, my first time to have my flight canceled because the entire airline ran out of fuel. First time to lay on a sandy sea floor at 130 foot depth surrounded by Garden Eels, look back and distinctly see the whole structure of the tiny island we dove from rise from that sea floor, and finally to look up 130 feet and see the ripples of the surface clearly through the aquarium clear water – the distance only punctuated by the minutes it took my bubbles to reach the surface.
Tonga’s been great, Va’vau a fantastic happenstance choice. I’m off to the Mermaid (my favorite of three restaurants due to it’s placement on a pier and also acting as the local yacht club) for my last dinner here. Get my last Tongan small island gossip about the prince and the airline that seems to cancel more flights than it makes. Say good-bye to the folks I’ve met and get ready for another country switch. Tonga is so relaxed it forced me to sit and find yet another level of calm, I could ask for nothing more.
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Relaxed to the point of shallow breaths
Last two days having been filled with diving. The water is fantastic – warm and clear. Highlights include: a wreck of a 300 foot freight liner 90 feet below where I swam through the holds with snapper half my size, swimming in a cave with 8 sharks, and seeing an eagle ray swim by at full tilt. It is very relaxed here, but I find myself more and more excited about New Zealand. More and more excited about being in one spot for a couple months straight. Thankfully this desire is not fed by loneliness, but just a desire to stop moving for a little while. I want to know where the good grocery store & café are, and visit them more than once.
I’ve met a number of New Zealand ex-pats here (they run the dive shop and internet café) and I’m confronted with the question: “Could I live here?” It is very slow and reasonably isolated, yet completely lacks any smidge of stress while living quite literally in paradise. I’d half to say no though, I feel like I need some stress in my life to know I’m still breathing. My fidgetiness is possibly a shortcoming, but I can’t be this stagnant long-term – it’s really a challenge to do it for the few weeks I’m here. Maybe all this will change over the length of this trip, but only time will tell.
I’ve met a number of New Zealand ex-pats here (they run the dive shop and internet café) and I’m confronted with the question: “Could I live here?” It is very slow and reasonably isolated, yet completely lacks any smidge of stress while living quite literally in paradise. I’d half to say no though, I feel like I need some stress in my life to know I’m still breathing. My fidgetiness is possibly a shortcoming, but I can’t be this stagnant long-term – it’s really a challenge to do it for the few weeks I’m here. Maybe all this will change over the length of this trip, but only time will tell.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
A great Thursday
Chartered a trimaran with the two Brits and an American girl I met the day before. It is literally postcards everywhere you look. Some snorkeling, pictures, and a walk around a tiny island and we’ll call that a day. Back to the hostel for dinner with my sunburn and time to rest up for a day of diving tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Tonga, day 2
Up at 6:30, breakfast server by the ever so grandmotherly Susanna. The Taxi driver shows up at 7 for my 7:30 pickup and then proceeds to listen to radio loud enough to ensure that I know he’s there. By the way, Tonga has one, count ‘em one, radio station that will play Karma Chameleon back to back with 50 Cent (like John Ailee in Austin, but admittedly worse). Tonga also has one TV station that plays movies from pirated DVDs, even included the caption “Not for Distribution, For Award Consideration Only”.
Made the 5 minute drive to the domestic terminal at the airport. The sign reads “mest erm nal”, but you get the idea. After all there are only three buildings to choose from: the international gate, the Tongan Air Force, or the domestic terminal – all together are smaller than an HEB. Luckily I make the 8:30 on standby and I’m in for a treat. A 1953 DC-3 (picture coming soon). I thought it was fun to drive in a 1953 Ford, here’s to flying in a 1953 plane. We take off and I’m aware that the FAA isn’t in Tonga when they just leave the door open to the cockpit. The flight attendant then tells me during flight I’m welcome to walk into the cockpit and put on a headset to chat with the pilots – you better believe I didn’t pass that opportunity up! Then it was a long walk back to my seat in row 6 out of 7 where I find myself a bit chilly from the A/C. It takes a minute for me to connect that there is no A/C, the wind is hitting my hip, and I’m in the emergency row. That’s right, the breeze is coming through the emergency door. This leads me to walk to the back to check out the main door that you can see light coming through around the entire thing. Now I’m convinced I love Tonga.
We land at the smallest airport I’ve ever seen. It’s about the size of an ice cream stand. The baggage claim is a long hole in the wall and the airport consists of a single 15’x15’ room (I’m curious why we just didn’t carry our bags from the plane?) Nonetheless, it is labeled the Vava’u International Airport.
Caught back up with an English girl I met on the plane from Fiji and her boyfriend who has just finished a med school rotation in Tonga, we’re all staying at the same hostel – the only one – and share a cab. Check in, meet the other 3 people in the hostel, meet the other 1 tourist in town, and put around for the day until we find the a local bar on the water and watch the sunset with a cold drink. I pose the question again, “Trey, how are you ever going to go back to work?”
Made the 5 minute drive to the domestic terminal at the airport. The sign reads “mest erm nal”, but you get the idea. After all there are only three buildings to choose from: the international gate, the Tongan Air Force, or the domestic terminal – all together are smaller than an HEB. Luckily I make the 8:30 on standby and I’m in for a treat. A 1953 DC-3 (picture coming soon). I thought it was fun to drive in a 1953 Ford, here’s to flying in a 1953 plane. We take off and I’m aware that the FAA isn’t in Tonga when they just leave the door open to the cockpit. The flight attendant then tells me during flight I’m welcome to walk into the cockpit and put on a headset to chat with the pilots – you better believe I didn’t pass that opportunity up! Then it was a long walk back to my seat in row 6 out of 7 where I find myself a bit chilly from the A/C. It takes a minute for me to connect that there is no A/C, the wind is hitting my hip, and I’m in the emergency row. That’s right, the breeze is coming through the emergency door. This leads me to walk to the back to check out the main door that you can see light coming through around the entire thing. Now I’m convinced I love Tonga.
We land at the smallest airport I’ve ever seen. It’s about the size of an ice cream stand. The baggage claim is a long hole in the wall and the airport consists of a single 15’x15’ room (I’m curious why we just didn’t carry our bags from the plane?) Nonetheless, it is labeled the Vava’u International Airport.
Caught back up with an English girl I met on the plane from Fiji and her boyfriend who has just finished a med school rotation in Tonga, we’re all staying at the same hostel – the only one – and share a cab. Check in, meet the other 3 people in the hostel, meet the other 1 tourist in town, and put around for the day until we find the a local bar on the water and watch the sunset with a cold drink. I pose the question again, “Trey, how are you ever going to go back to work?”
Monday, April 04, 2005
On the ground in Tonga
Well the airport was a bit larger than Suva, this one had two hangers: one for the headquarters of the local airline Peau Vava'u Limited and one for the “Air Force” which is housed in a small one story building. I was surely scammed for the 3 dollar cab ride to the Peau Vava’u Office that was a mile away (driver didn’t mind being paid in Fijian dollars). So expecting to buy a ticket for the morning or even today I was a bit disappointed. Today’s afternoon flight was canceled due to low attendance. I found this out after waiting an hour (my patience feels almost unlimited at this point as I have no appointments at all) and somehow both flights are booked tomorrow. So now I’m on standby tomorrow. So the same slightly scam artist taxi driver took me to the local accommodation where I have my own room for T$ 30 per night. The place is clean and quite nice. The structure appears to be a store, 3 rooms, and a house – out of which I’m the only guest. My room is really just a room off of the owners house (hoping to enjoy some Tongan family life tonight) and upon trying to charge my laptop I was informed that the village power is off from noon until 5 pm, to which I smile to myself thinking I might be getting off the beaten path. After all, the Peau Vava’u guy, upon questioning, told me proudly that the airport I was going to was not only paved – but had lights also… that’s right it has lights. The large pig grazing around in front of me as I type on my iBook makes me realize I’m getting pretty far from home. So I’ll sit back, watch the lack of traffic, read my Economist, and wait for Susanna’s nephew to drive into town to pick up her granddaughter and so that I can see what Nuku'alofa looks like.
Once evening rolled around...
Spent the afternoon putting around until the van overheated. Just like back home, all the guys strut around the vehicle trying to diagnose it (myself included). Picked up a hitchhiker, but this is far from an unusual way to get around for anyone here and cruised back home.
Spent the evening watching “Garden State”, which every time I see this movie I’m more convinced it is one of my favorites. Yet, sitting here on a porch of a local family in the Kingdom of Tonga I’m struck by two themes that really hit home for me in that movie: sense of home and being present and courageous with ones’ own life. During a pool scene, there’s a great dialogue about how part of coming of age is the lose of the sense of home as you go out into the world to create your own home. (A great line being, ‘Maybe that’s all a family is, a group of people that miss the same imaginary place’) Thoughts of home, putting down roots, and coming into my own definitely pass through my head as I travel, now for 3 months and looking at another 21 ahead. I feel a need to dissect my own desire to lay down roots, even as I look at working in New Zealand – I have to be sure that I don’t lay any roots out of insecurity. I hold an expectation for myself to not settle somewhere just so that I’ll have less fear of some unknown - of what could happen tomorrow. I think the desire to seek security and predictability leads people to fall short of living their life fully. When someone feels comfortable enough with their life that they no longer have to pay attention, they begin let it slide by unconscious of it’s marrow. So to ensure I don’t do that; I’ve left a very comfortable life to challenge myself with ever changing environments. I just have to stay on top of myself and make sure I don’t let myself slide back into comfortable numbness, because I want to take full advantage of every second of this life I so lucky to lead… it would be a waste to just follow it instead.
Once evening rolled around...
Spent the afternoon putting around until the van overheated. Just like back home, all the guys strut around the vehicle trying to diagnose it (myself included). Picked up a hitchhiker, but this is far from an unusual way to get around for anyone here and cruised back home.
Spent the evening watching “Garden State”, which every time I see this movie I’m more convinced it is one of my favorites. Yet, sitting here on a porch of a local family in the Kingdom of Tonga I’m struck by two themes that really hit home for me in that movie: sense of home and being present and courageous with ones’ own life. During a pool scene, there’s a great dialogue about how part of coming of age is the lose of the sense of home as you go out into the world to create your own home. (A great line being, ‘Maybe that’s all a family is, a group of people that miss the same imaginary place’) Thoughts of home, putting down roots, and coming into my own definitely pass through my head as I travel, now for 3 months and looking at another 21 ahead. I feel a need to dissect my own desire to lay down roots, even as I look at working in New Zealand – I have to be sure that I don’t lay any roots out of insecurity. I hold an expectation for myself to not settle somewhere just so that I’ll have less fear of some unknown - of what could happen tomorrow. I think the desire to seek security and predictability leads people to fall short of living their life fully. When someone feels comfortable enough with their life that they no longer have to pay attention, they begin let it slide by unconscious of it’s marrow. So to ensure I don’t do that; I’ve left a very comfortable life to challenge myself with ever changing environments. I just have to stay on top of myself and make sure I don’t let myself slide back into comfortable numbness, because I want to take full advantage of every second of this life I so lucky to lead… it would be a waste to just follow it instead.
Heading to Tonga
I’m on the plane from Fiji, where Fiji water is cheap. I’ve split my bag up so that I’m now traveling with 2 pair of shorts and some T-shirts (I’ll be back to pick up on my day back in Fiji returning from Tonga). Looking at the south pacific below and blown away at the look of islands even from this height. The overhead announcement of arriving in “Kingdom of Tonga” in one hour only continues the excitement of watching the airports getting smaller as I go from Nadi to Suva, Fiji. Suva was already a one-gate international airport. Gotta love taking the stairs to the one plane on the tarmac.
My plan is to get my resume together while sitting on the beach in Tonga and I have to wonder what effect that will have on the style. In thinking about what work to do I really conflicted between a proper IT job where I’ll be paid more, but be in an office. Or to be a waiter and try something different – I’ve made the mistake of padding my resume instead of doing what I would really enjoy before, yet somehow I’m not convinced to just have fun with work. Maybe I’ll just do both: 3 months of IT work for the money, then wait tables at a ski resort for the ski season. Then in the summer (October), I’ll hopefully get down to Antarctica.
My plan is to get my resume together while sitting on the beach in Tonga and I have to wonder what effect that will have on the style. In thinking about what work to do I really conflicted between a proper IT job where I’ll be paid more, but be in an office. Or to be a waiter and try something different – I’ve made the mistake of padding my resume instead of doing what I would really enjoy before, yet somehow I’m not convinced to just have fun with work. Maybe I’ll just do both: 3 months of IT work for the money, then wait tables at a ski resort for the ski season. Then in the summer (October), I’ll hopefully get down to Antarctica.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Bula!
Holy Cow! I realize that I can't capture in words or pictures how amazingly beautiful Fiji is, possibly I could only hint at how far I am from being able to do so.
Anyways, Bula is Hello in Fijian and it is spoken with vivacity and a big smile over an over again everywhere I've been from the Airport to the Resorts to the Supermarket on the mainland.
Left Melbourne, Australia at 1:00 am lost three hours and landed in Nadi, Fiji at 8:00 am. A bit knackered (I’ve been hanging out with some Brits for the last 5 days) went to the pickup spot and found no van… well we are on “Fiji Time”. So I sat down and figured if it didn’t show up in an hour I would call… someone. Then a couple in their thirties sat down beside me with the most adorable 2 year old who’s curls seemed straining to keep up with her heads rapid motion. Macy as it turns out, and her parents were also headed to Octopus Resort. Macy’s dad was in a bit more of a rush, and called to find out that the van was on it’s way. We three piled into a van with four already aboard and headed for the main office, yet before we made the 10 minute trip all were introduced and already chatting away. Paid up ahead and then went to the resorts boat for the trip out. A gorgeous day and we ran out in there 30 footer at about 30 knots and arrived within an hour. We did not however, arrive before I was knocked out of my chair by how incredibly beautiful Fiji is. Moored off this amazing white beach (a Conde Nast top 10 in the World!) in brilliant clear water that seemed to glow blue green, hoped onto a skiff for a beach landing only to be met by Fijians singing us in.
The next 5 days were full of getting my dive certification finally, seeming amazing coral, snorkeling off the beach, hiking the island, good food, great drinks, and even better friends. Hung out the entire time with the poms (British) I came on the boat with. Laughed out loud more times than I could count. Chatted about everything from Religion to Sex to Coca Cola products while watching the sunset. Shawn from Cumbria made me laugh to no end. Angela, shawn’s girlfriend’s smile was contagious. Ricky’s dry humor was kept me rolling when Shawn was sipping Fiji bitter. And finally Carina, Ricky’s better half just about made me fall out of my chair with her directness that seemed perfectly posh to me as it was delivered with an English accent.
Food was included in the resort rate, so everyone was feed together at long tables in the open air dining room with a sand floor. The entire resort comprising about 40 people (Of which their appeared an endless supply of twenty something, tan, left-ear flower wearing women – have I mentioned the word “Paradise” yet?). We had an island to ourselves, great diving, and fantastic company; as holiday’s go – I don’t think it gets better than that.
I was given a proper send off with hugs all around and waves all the way to the larger boat and even waves following me out of the bay. We then got a roller coaster ride on the way back in 4 foot seas – but it was a blast. Checked into a hostel hear and am awaiting my 5:30 am rise to go catch my 8 AM flight for Tonga! Just found out how to get where I’m going in Tonga, which will include a flight on Peau Vava'u Limited Airlines DC3’s. I’m crossing my fingers for a grass runway landing. We’ll see though.
I can’t wait for Tonga, can’t wait for New Zealand (Harriet another English gal at Octopus gave me fantastic notes and got me ridiculously excited), and can’t wait for tomorrow and seemly everyday after that. It really feels like everyday is Christmas, and they just keep coming. Now I’m even looking for a trip over to Antarctica while in New Zealand, how’s that for a bit of adventure. As if the ice climbing I’ll do in New Zealand isn’t enough!
Anyways, Bula is Hello in Fijian and it is spoken with vivacity and a big smile over an over again everywhere I've been from the Airport to the Resorts to the Supermarket on the mainland.
Left Melbourne, Australia at 1:00 am lost three hours and landed in Nadi, Fiji at 8:00 am. A bit knackered (I’ve been hanging out with some Brits for the last 5 days) went to the pickup spot and found no van… well we are on “Fiji Time”. So I sat down and figured if it didn’t show up in an hour I would call… someone. Then a couple in their thirties sat down beside me with the most adorable 2 year old who’s curls seemed straining to keep up with her heads rapid motion. Macy as it turns out, and her parents were also headed to Octopus Resort. Macy’s dad was in a bit more of a rush, and called to find out that the van was on it’s way. We three piled into a van with four already aboard and headed for the main office, yet before we made the 10 minute trip all were introduced and already chatting away. Paid up ahead and then went to the resorts boat for the trip out. A gorgeous day and we ran out in there 30 footer at about 30 knots and arrived within an hour. We did not however, arrive before I was knocked out of my chair by how incredibly beautiful Fiji is. Moored off this amazing white beach (a Conde Nast top 10 in the World!) in brilliant clear water that seemed to glow blue green, hoped onto a skiff for a beach landing only to be met by Fijians singing us in.
The next 5 days were full of getting my dive certification finally, seeming amazing coral, snorkeling off the beach, hiking the island, good food, great drinks, and even better friends. Hung out the entire time with the poms (British) I came on the boat with. Laughed out loud more times than I could count. Chatted about everything from Religion to Sex to Coca Cola products while watching the sunset. Shawn from Cumbria made me laugh to no end. Angela, shawn’s girlfriend’s smile was contagious. Ricky’s dry humor was kept me rolling when Shawn was sipping Fiji bitter. And finally Carina, Ricky’s better half just about made me fall out of my chair with her directness that seemed perfectly posh to me as it was delivered with an English accent.
Food was included in the resort rate, so everyone was feed together at long tables in the open air dining room with a sand floor. The entire resort comprising about 40 people (Of which their appeared an endless supply of twenty something, tan, left-ear flower wearing women – have I mentioned the word “Paradise” yet?). We had an island to ourselves, great diving, and fantastic company; as holiday’s go – I don’t think it gets better than that.
I was given a proper send off with hugs all around and waves all the way to the larger boat and even waves following me out of the bay. We then got a roller coaster ride on the way back in 4 foot seas – but it was a blast. Checked into a hostel hear and am awaiting my 5:30 am rise to go catch my 8 AM flight for Tonga! Just found out how to get where I’m going in Tonga, which will include a flight on Peau Vava'u Limited Airlines DC3’s. I’m crossing my fingers for a grass runway landing. We’ll see though.
I can’t wait for Tonga, can’t wait for New Zealand (Harriet another English gal at Octopus gave me fantastic notes and got me ridiculously excited), and can’t wait for tomorrow and seemly everyday after that. It really feels like everyday is Christmas, and they just keep coming. Now I’m even looking for a trip over to Antarctica while in New Zealand, how’s that for a bit of adventure. As if the ice climbing I’ll do in New Zealand isn’t enough!
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