Bula!

Ni sa yadra!

(Good morning in Fijian)

Going back over the past days from the airport - we spent the day in the airport and were on the bored side, we got dinner which was a take away Chinese to share, very reasonable price actually and taught Laura how to use chopsticks again... We went down to check in which in itself was a hassle as pacific air who we were flying was bought by Quantas along with other airlines was renamed Fiji Air... We only found the desk by knowing our flight number! As we were lining up a lady came up to ask us if we would like to spend another night in LA, to which we replied no. She then offered $1600 and hotel accommodation to which we replied yes. The reason being was that the plane was oversold. So we waited for a couple of hours to see the outcome. We went back to the desk to see what was what and she said she still wasn't sure so if we wanted to wait in the departure lounge she would upgrade us to business class along with everything else to which we again replied yes! The plane was called to depart everyone boarded including us which meant that we didn't get upgraded as someone else didn't turn up... Brilliant. Oh well nothing in life is free! We sat down on a brand new plane which was lovely and given a free cookie! It was the maiden voyage of the plane with the new airline. The standard flight stuff happened which I can't be bothered to write about, the mood lighting came on and we left for Fiji. Myles fell asleep while taxing down the runway waking up when the engines spooled up, it was a perfectly still night so was a very smooth flight. We slept for a good few hours waking up when breakfast came round, this was a cheese and egg muffin and a cup of tea, it wasn't much but it filled a gap. We flew over the Fiji islands seeing the odd light or 2 and landed on the main island, It was the smoothest landing we have ever felt barley noticing we had touched down, well done pilots. We walked into the terminal which can't have been much bigger than a garden shed, greeted by some Fijianans singing and playing guitars, something you do not get at Heathrow!  We cleared customs and were collected by the chap from our hostel. A free taxi ride later and we got to our hostel, it was a quaint place, lots of palm trees sand, what you would expect really and a couple of Brits playing volleyball. As it was only half 7AM our rooms weren't ready so we left our bags in reception and investigated the beach. The water was warm although the small waves had stirred the sand slightly so it didn't meet Laura's rather high standards! We went for a walk along the beach, had a coconut drink which was opened by an old man who had just climbed the tree and carried on. A good while later we got back to the hostel. Bags in rooms and a quick sleep later we went downstairs. We had to have a sleep as the dime difference was quite large, I don't know what it is but I do know we took off on the 8th and landed on the 10th. Right now it's 09:10 here and at home it's 22:10 yesterday! We spoke to the hostel guys and got sorted our island hopping tour! A massive hassle but we got there in the end after Myles had run through all the numbers! We then returned to the beach for a swim in relatively warm water. A good swim and a sunbathe later we went for a walk down the beach to watch the sun set and spent longer than we should have done watching crabs run over the rocks. We returned to the hostel for a shower and dinner, tonight dinner was a bit special, it was oven roasted local food cooked underground on hot stones! The chicken was very good, the spinach not so and Myles found something very tasty, no idea what it was but it was good. There was also a rather good fish salad. We went for a quick walk on the beach to see the stars and return to our beds, falling asleep instantly as it was 4AM America time and 8PM Fiji time. We slept through until half 6 as we had to get a shuttle bus at 7 to go to the port. This is the start of our island hopping tour! All checked in we climbed aboard and this brings me to where we are now, me writing the blog and Laura feeling sea sick. Should have had her ginger biscuits. We shall update you when we can but as you can imagine WIFI is pretty scarce out here!

We shall update when we can.

Goodbye from paradise....! 😊 X

(Sorry if there are spelling mistakes and if some bits don't make sense but my editor is still on the ill side)