Paradise Found

Here it is, the first entry in this blog-type dealie. My last 5 days have been in Fiji, that island paradise in the sun, and it is everything one might expect from pictures. After flying into the country after a rousing eye-opener flight from LA of only 10.5 hours, I disembarked to be accosted, assaulted, bamboozled, and generally bothered by travel agents, taxi drivers, and other individuals latching onto my wide-eyed innocence (so quickly extinguished) like an eagle grasping a fish in its curved talons. The ubiquitous and omnipotent expression for everything is "bula" (boolah) and covers hello, goodbye, thanks, nice backward lateral (or whatever they call the rugby equivalent), my toe hurts, that island is beautiful, and, most important, "I'm going to hand you trinkets, carve your name on them, and expect payment for services rendered". If I never hear bula again, I probably won't shed more than a couple tears.

Anyway, the manipulations of a nefarious travel agent resulted in my bounding my way across open seas, passing picturesque islands with names like Beachcomber, Bounty, and Manta Ray, aboard the Yasewa Flyer (aptly named for its service to the Yasewa group of islands northwest of Fiji). After an 1.5 hours, I arrived at my home for the next 3 days: Wayalailai resort.

On the boat to the resort, my Swedish friend blocking the view but providing one of her own.

The resort is exactly as you might expect: paradise. Clean, perfect beach, little huts (bures, pronounced "burahs"), Fijians lying around doing not much of anything, great snorkeling, and a large amount of boredom after about 3 days. I met tons of people, as I am wont to do, and definitely enjoyed myself out there. The water is amazing, not too warm but juuuust right, and the island was beautiful...the natives on it own the resort and grow everything there on the island to provide for the guests. Cows, goats, chickens, papaya, cassava (a fibrous potato), bananas, pineapples, coconuts, etc. Dinners consisted of the aforementioned items and was announced by a cook bludgeoning a hollow log to death with wooden cudgels. I played barefoot rugby with the natives (resulting in much learning and some frenetic "teaching" by my teammates), hiked to the top of the island with a guide and then guided a couple of Canadians a couple days later (but not for the $10 I shelled out...gotta help out a neighbor ey?), and lounged on the beach. Good times.

Up and at 'em.

Sooooo, 2 days ago I came back to the main island in Fiji to meet a couple Germans, Nina and Philipp, and the next morning I headed out to Suva, the Fijian capital, with them in our little POS car, a Toyota Starlet along with another friend, Kay. Ha, what fun! We swerved, gunned, and somehow managed to make it across the 190 km in our 50 HP car without getting into a head-on collision with the crazies that seem to populate the highways of Fiji. Seriously, they are nuts! Passing whenever, wherever, with little to no regard for anything except their imminent arrival (in a casket). I loved it!

Suva is as most big cites: large, noisy, tumultuous, and full of buses disgorging large amounts of dark, lung-coating fumes. Enough said about Suva, it was the cute little Fijian kids waving along the way (bula bula bula bula!), the papayas picked from trees at the beach, and the laughter at the random things along the way. Such small differences but it results in knowing you are somewhere other than the States.

Skipping ahead to save time (bus leaves in 10 minutes), here I am, one day into my stay here in Auckland, NZ. Going on a tour of the city at 10 (free w/my stay at this sweet hostel, Xbase), going up Sky Tower (tallest tower in the southern hemisphere), and then heading out of the city tomorrow either by bus, car, hook, or by crook (hitchhiking perhaps?), as the saying goes. A couple Austrian girls, 2 Germans, and I are going to buy a car. If all goes as planned, I will be traveling with them for a few weeks and then transferring possessions, allegiance, and money for fuel to a new caravan with friends from home, Keif and his girlfriend Blythe. If we can somehow get in touch, that is...