October 29
We finished up work on Thursday and drove out to Darlington. All of our stuff was packed and we had a few errands to run before our flight. Our friend Kaye joined us on our holiday as she celebrated her 32nd birthday. So, we jumped in the car, picked Kaye up and headed onwards to the airport. Or flight left around 11 or so.
October 30
We arrived in Sydney quite early, jumped on a train and headed down town to the harbor. It was a beautiful day and we had about 6 hours to burn before our next flight. We had a quiet breakfast by the opera house, a walk in the botanic gardens and then headed back to the airport. We then flew to Nadi, Fiji. We arrived and met up with an old student I taught about 4 years ago, he visited us at the beginning of October and was finishing up his month there. He spent the week with us. It was nice as he knew a little more about the place and was able to show us where he worked etc. First thing first we got to our resort and had to have a few drinks and dinner.
October 31
The first day was all relaxation, and let me tell you it was well worth just lying by the pool doing nothing. We were on Denerau Island, which is nothing like Fiji itself, its a resorty place for people to go, but shows no indication of what Fiji is really like. The one thing about Fiji is its people, they are the friendliest people I have ever met.
November 1
Sam took us to the village he lives in and teaches at. We attended a church service here, it was really nice, pretty sure it wasn't a Catholic church, but the village was quite excited that we came to visit. The service is pretty much come and go as you please between 11 and 1. I couldn't understand one thing because it was all in Fijian, but it was quite lovely learning a little more about the people in the country. Prior to church we visited the place Sam lives and the group he works for called Rustic Pathways, very interesting and a great experience. After the village, and church we headed down to Natandola beach near the southern side of the island. It was a nice beach, big waves clear water (minus the seaweed in the area we chose to swim). Oh, I forgot to tell you about Rocco. Rocco was our taxi driver, he was very nice, we just hired him for the day. We could have rented a car, or hired someone local to take us, which is a pretty easy day considering he was able to take a nap while we were all on the beach.
November 2
Chill day number two. Yes, it was kind of a chill day, we walked to the port where all the boats take off to the other islands. Had a look around and headed back to the pool. Kaye and I had a visit with the pedicure tent and Joe managed to get an hour massage ( good thing, because I couldn't be bothered to rub his back). We had a look at the trips and planned Tuesday.
November 3
Seaspray Sailing Adventure - 9 am we left the port for our day trip to a few of the other islands. We boarded a sail boat at Mana Island about an hour away from the port, from here we began our adventure. So, we thought that it would be a sailing adventure, but really they only threw up the sail to humor us as the motor stayed on the whole time. Our first stop was the island they filmed the movie Castaway on (not to be confused with the island called Castaway). It was actually a pretty neat island. The reefs around it were pretty amazing, and the sand was so very white. There were a few coconuts consumed, snorkeling and exploring. The next stop was an island next to it that had a village of 600. It didn't appear so big, but it is a chance for the people that don't venture out on the main island to see Fijian villages. There was a Kava ceremony (a welcoming to their village) where they drink this brown water with a specific mashed up root which totally numbs your lips and is a narcotic of sorts, or so we are told. So, the only one experiencing that was Sam as Kaye, Joe and I are all tested for narcotics randomly at work, who knows what that would show. After that we "sailed" back and caught the ferry back to the mainland - that was pretty much the whole day.
November 4
Beachcomber Island - we did a half day trip to Beachcomber. We took the morning to chill out and caught the ferry at the port to the island. We arrived had some lunch and then snorkeled. The reefs here were alright, but the trip was more for relaxation. Not much was done here, I think the boys consumed some alcohol and Kaye and I managed to be pretty much really lazy. We returned from the island showered up and headed out for our first major dinner outing at the Westin - in honor of Kayes birthday. We had a great meal with some acoustic guitarist playing in the background and a lot of fun spending our last night there.
November 5
Back to Perth. We left at 9 am on Thursday and returned around 7 pm (there is a 4 hour time difference). It was nice to see our house and not think about work for a whole week.
November 6
Recoup from the relaxing vacation
November 7
:( Back to work!
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