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Bula from Fiji!!
It took until the final boarding call for it to sink in that I was actually going for six months! Had a few tears though!!
I got to Melbourne and the line was horrendously long for everything! Was pleased that my bag weighed 16.4 kgs though-was expecting worse for it's size!
Air Pacific flight was freeeeeeezing but I got an exit seat and managed to sleep a fair bit of the 4.5 hour flight.. Landed in Fiji and knew things had gone too smoothly for disastrous me that something had to happen!!! The customs lineup was an hour long- I was meant to get a bus from the hotel to the marina at 7:15 so missed that! But south sea cruises do a bus from the airport to the marina so i got that! But while changing at the airport I realised
a) my sleeping bag was no longer attached to my backpack
b) I couldn't get into my bag except for a tiny opening at the bottom compartment.. Being the size it is, this has been VERY inconvenient, I must have accidentally reset the combination and not known!!! And that was my main/expensive/good one!
But i got to the marina (soooooo sick of queues) and thought id have to lug my backpack around for the day but they offered to store it for me. Boarded the catamaran and took off to the Mamanuca Islands..
We stopped to drop passengers off at south sea, bounty, treasure, beachcomber and mana islands which was annoying but got to see all the islands! We got to castaway island..but I had got chatting to Martina- a lovely Italian girl who'd been in australia for 12 months, and we didn't hear or see the people getting off into the little boat so we were stuck on the catamaran! They said it would be okay to get off at the next island- malalo and someone would drop us there. We sat around and had a drink brought to us, music played and shell necklace presented before we tried to sort out how to get back to castaway island. The lady was gay and told us in the end we had to pay $20 australian each for a little tinny to drive us 2 minutes back! But it was our fault for not paying attention i guess! I just hate unnecessary expenses like that! We could've stayed on malolo but castaway was just that bit more picturesque and we would have to leave malolo 3 hours earlier if we stayed.
Castaway island was just beautiful. It has a max day visitor limit of 15 people.. I'd actually seen it in a cosmo magazine photo shoot!! It was truly paradise.. And the delicious buffet lunch helped also!!!! Lots of yummy salads and tropical fruit as well as burgers etc for the american tourists! Good healthy food is often hard to come by when you're travelling on a budget!
Went snorkelling but wasn't much to see! Some of the other islands had wicked reefs and there was an awesome outer reef but didn't want to swim out there because there were boats around.
We were meant to get back to denarau marina at 6 but didn't till 7:30.. They are running on island time like almost every other island ive been to! Just glad it wasn't the next day when I would be late for my flight!!!
The stupid Smugglers Cove hotel charged me more than I expected to pay but couldn't find my receipt to prove it! Went to bed pretty early as I was pretty exhausted- had been a long day!
Today was spent planning, getting a tan before Canada and relaxing. Tried to practice a bit of Spanish too for central and south america! The outdoor area at the hotel is pretty good! But the beach is crappy and brown!!! Not like the idyllic islands from yesterday!
I was disappointed I had to go to the airport before the Fijian performance came on at the hotel, bcos it'd be cool at night with fire.. But I've seen a similar thing in New Caledonia that was a genuine local kanak (indigenous people) show not for a hotel. Had a long chat to an English girl while sitting outside, and then headed to the airport! Of course the taxi driver asked if I was married- I told him I had a boyfriend so his response was - so still hunting then?? Haha!
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