Bula (hello in Fijian)! Aah, so it was Easter break, and there have been a lack of posts. I apologise. However, it wasn't exactly an eventful two weeks before Easter Break, so there hasn't been much missing, just some papers and what not.

But on to Fiji! Mickis and I have been looking forward to Easter break for a while (thanks to the aforementioned papers), and so we were very excited when we finally got to Fiji on Saturday. And then slightly shocked. Very hot. Very very hot in Fiji. And their airport is not air-conditioned. I don't mean to sounds like a spoiled little brat, but I thought that most airports in the world were air-conditioned, and that made the 45 minute wait through immigration and then the half an hour wait through customs that much more unbearable. Have I mentioned that I get VERY cold on airplanes, and thus always fly in jeans and long sleeve shirts?

Anyways, got to our hotel just around dinner time, but we weren't feeling too hungry and it had been a rather long day, so we just settled in for the night. Again, because of those darned papers, we hadn't had too much time to research anything to do on Fiji--of course, we knew the obvious ones, but we didn't know where to go and what not, so we spent Sunday wandering around our hotel area. Including an hour "trek" to KFC for breakfast/lunch, which we had seen on our way from the airport the night before. It had seemed like a really short car ride, but it took us a good half an hour or 45 minutes to walk there. The lady who ended up helping us book our tours seemed really surprised that we were even walking that far. In scorching sun. Mickis got a nice tan, though! =)

So, the tours. We went on two main "tours". The first was a whole day on a TINY (I mean tiny--we kayked around the island a couple of times) little island about a 25 minute catamaran ride from Port Denarau, which is the main port around Nadi, I think. It's called South Sea Island, and we went on an appropriately name South Sea Cruises tour. It was a gorgeous little place, though, and they really welcome you onto the island with a little group of people singing, with hibiscuses in their hair (if they're girls) and guitars in hand. Ahh, how happy. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of their welcome, but Mickis did! Check out her photoblog: photoblog.com/mixpix (for things before and after Fiji, too!)

Then we went kayaking--I think it is my new favourite thing to do. I wonder if I can go kayaking in San Diego? If I'll ever have the time to do it? I shall look it up. Anyways. Lack of pictures in this department, as well, until I get pictures from Mickis. The coolest thing was that the kayaks had this clear part where you're sitting, so you can look into the water, a little less affected by the sun and waves than if you look over the side of the kayak. Also, good exercise! Luckily, everything aside from the scuba diving was absolutely free (after paying for the day on the island), and so we took the kayaks two or three times throughout the day. Like I said, we like to kayak.

Of course, there was also lazing around on the beach, and an hour and a half of snorkelling. The water around the island is SO clear, and it's a coral island, so while it hurts to walk around on the beach in bare feet (since the coral is in such huge chunks), there's a bunch of coral reefs around the island. The fish are literally in such shallow water that if you sit chest-deep in water, there will be fish swimming around you.

The best part of the snorkelling? There was this little yellow fish that followed me around the entire time. No kidding. I didn't see any other fish like him, so I don't know if he was lost or what. We left the water a couple of times, too, to adjust our flippers or masks or what not, and whenever I got back into the water, there he was, right in front of my mask. Too cute! I wanted to take it home. We don't own underwater cameras, so there are no pictures of said fish or of us snorkelling in existence. Quite a pity.

One of the other activities they have is the semi-sub. You basically sit in a submerged chamber that they drive through the water. It was really cool, but unfortunately the pictures are very bad. I tried, I really did.

Tuesday, we went to downtown Nadi. It was really the only day of the trip where the weather wasn't good. And even then, it was only raining, but the temperature was still quite warm. As you can see, downtown Nadi isn't much. I don't know if Suva (the capital) is any better, because it's about a three-hour drive from Nadi, and it wasn't "safe" to go there. By safe, I meant that there's a travel advisory for Fiji because of "political unrest," not that we saw any of it.

Wednesday, the weather brightened up again and we went for a tour/trek of a more traditional village. The man is Adam, our tour guide, and behind him sit some of the cutest kids ever. The village he belongs to (whose chief was also met) has about 70 people, with 11 houses for 11 families. The chief actually has two villages, the second of which has a population of 900, and he current lives there (alternates between the villages each year). This is kava, made from dried yaqona (sp?), which is a traditional Fijian drink. Apparently, you can drink lots and that's how Fijian people party. For my part, however, I don't really know...we all tried a little in a "traditional kava ceremony" and I didn't enjoy it that much; it just made my mouth a little numb. But I digress.

We traipsed through some scenic creeks and some muddy paths (it was particularly hard for Mickis and I due to our slippery sandals and flipflops, respectively), passed by a "cave," which I thought was a huge boulder, but the Fijians call them caves because you can live under the sides, and reached this waterfall. Yay, waterfalls. I swam under a Fijian waterfall. It was awesome! The water was cold, crisp, and really clean--you can drink it, and so I had a small mouthfull of real Fijian water. So there, all you people who drink Fiji water. I drank real Fiji water! Of course, I also bought my first bottle of Fiji water in Fiji. Just thought I should, you know.

Trekked back through all the vegetation and mud back to the village for lunch. This was the cutest little kid in the village, who kept yelling "Bula!" at us, and smiling from behind doors and walls. And then there was lunch. Aside from the two plates of meat and the two plates of tapioca (the white stuff), the other five plates were all spinach, made from a SINGLE SPINACH LEAF. The spinach in Fiji is ridiculous; they're huge! So a single leaf feeds a family for a day? Maybe a meal and a half. Anyways, it was actually really delicious, and the tapioca was really good, too.

Thursday, we decided to pretend we were rich people and go play at one of the beachside resorts. We actually almost stayed at the Sheraton, where we went (stupid Virginblue, not having any open vacations during the Easter break!)! Anyways, there was this little boy who climbed a palm tree, and then lay there for a good ten minutes or so--he knows how to enjoy Fiji. Then, after his mommy told him to get down and they left, a couple more little boys tried to copy him, but he definitely got the farthest. We brought our reading for school to Fiji, and we were actually pretty good about doing some reading: here is pictorial evidence.



Then, we spent the last night with our feet against the walls, lying there listening to music! Much fun.

Friday, we said goodbye to Fiji, and left! There was an "adventure" at the airport, though. Being ridiculously absent-minded, I bought some souvenirs at a duty free shop outside of immigration and customs, then left without taking the bag. We went through immigration and customs before I even realised it, and then I had to ask the security people and customs people to help me get it back. I am stupid. Travelling makes this fact doubly clear.

Anyways, am finally back in Sydney--it was a very nice and relaxing trip. If possible, I am even tanner than before. But this picture (taken at the Sheraton Resort) sums up my Fijian experience quite nicely.



Oh, and my mother is arriving in Sydney tomorrow morning! Yay! And my sister is visiting Mid-May. I'm excited. =) And happy to see them!