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Fiji

Monday - March 3, 2008 - Fiji

I didn’t take notes while at Fiji so, I will not have as much information as some of the other stops. Several of our group stayed an extra day in Auckland and also left a day early out of Fiji, so we didn’t get to spend much time with them at all. The group that spent five days in Fiji was Marilynn, Monty, Tom, Connie and myself. We landed in Nadi, the Capital city of Fiji and their main International Airport.

From there we headed to our resort, which was about 45 minutes away from the airport. We arrived at the Sonaisali Resort together. You have to take a boat from the road over to the island where the resort was located.

We all felt so sorry for the fellows handling our bags. Here we were in Fiji were we didn’t hardly need any clothes at all and we all had at least two large bags apiece. It was a lot of work for them, but we finally got everything across and drove in large golf carts to our bure. Each of us had a separate bure on the beach with a front porch that included a hot tub. The rooms were quite nice and large, all with king size beds and room service 24 hours a day, WOW! We may have to check that out!

We all had a great time. The first day after arriving about 7PM, we decided that we would hit the swimming pool all of the next day, as the weather promised to be warm and beautiful and as it turns out we were right. That night we each did something different for dinner. Some went to the dinning room, but we decided to eat in our room and use the Hot Tub on our front porch, which turned out to be a great idea. We had the best hamburger for a relatively small amount of money and spent the rest of the evening enjoying the warm evening air and listening to the Gecko’s. Each night they would call to us, as the sun was going down, to turn on the porch lights, as it brought the bugs for their dinner. It was really cute to watch. One night we had well over six or seven or them and they were big guys, maybe 4-5 inches long, including the tails. Of course the biggest one chased everyone else off so he could have all the bugs for himself. Strangely the bugs didn’t bother us, only went for the light.

Tuesday - March 4, 2008 - Fiji

We were up about 8-9 AM and headed out for breakfast. We decided to go with the dinner packages that the hotel offered. It seemed like a better deal then eating at the main restaurant, which was very costly, according to Tom & Connie. As it turns out we ran into almost everyone and were able to have breakfast with most of the group. From there we all still agreed just to take the day off and spend it in the lovely pool at our resort. They had one of the loveliest pools many of us had seen. It looked much like a small natural Laguna on the coast of a beautiful clear ocean.

The hot tub over flowed into the water helping to make it warm and comfortable. And of course the best of all, was the walk up poolside bar; which we all spent a fair amount of time at, just chatting with all of the others quests from around the world. It was amazing how many different countries we represented just in this swimming pool. The pool, by the way, was the second largest in Fiji and you could swim from one end to the other and then under a walking bridge and into the children’s shallow pool area. The entire restaurant surrounded the pool and you could sit and eat while watching everyone else swim.

We all decided to join up for dinner that night, so we had all eleven of us together. This was nice to meet up with the other group and find out what they had done in Auckland. After that hard, hard day in the pool, we just went back to our rooms and went to bed. Boy how could we be tried, but we were.

Wednesday - March 5, 2008 - Fiji

That morning several of us had decided to go out on a boat to one of the outer islands for a snorkeling cruise. So we headed out to the main harbor and marina of Denarau, located just the other side of Nadi.

I hope someone still has the flyer from this trip, as I don’t remember the name of the boat or the island that we went to. I wasn’t feeling very good so didn’t go snorkeling with any of the group. But I understand the people that did go out really enjoyed themselves and thought that some of the snorkeling was the best ever. They provided a very nice lunch for everyone, and then headed back to the marina.

Since I was feeling really bad by now, I decided to ask at the front desk if there was anyway we could get to a doctor or have a doctor come out to the hotel. They made arrangements for a doctor to come to the hotel and we were so surprised as she arrived within an hour. Just amazing, some times at home you can’t even get into their office in less time then that. She brought some medicines with her and had the rest of the medicines sent out to the hotel for me. It was fantastic service and amazing, not all that costly. Once I was able to get started on meds, I knew that I would start feeling better. I also felt a whole lot better about the ten to fourteen hour flight home ahead of us.

Monty and I just stayed in the room and had dinner there. I didn’t feel like eating, just wanted to sleep. Everyone else was planning on going out on a sailing ship the next day, but Monty cancelled out, and stayed around the resort with me. I’m still sorry that he didn’t make it out on the ship, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Thursday - March 6, 2008 - Fiji

Afraid that most of this day is just a waste for me, as all I really did was sleep, which was the best thing for me. Monty went swimming a little and read most of the day. I guess he enjoy the peace and quiet a little bit. Everyone else had headed out on a huge sailing ship for a day long cruise around the islands and snorkeling at several different locations.

Both Connie and Marilynn were taken out by one of the Fijians for a very special snorkeling trip, which they enjoy greatly. I think we ate dinner in the dinning room, really don’t remember. I spent some of this day packing up to get ready to leave the next day.

Friday - March 7, 2008 - Fiji

We were up early this day, as Monty, Connie and Marilynn wanted to see if they could book a Jet Ski trip out to the islands to the west of us. It included snorkeling and they had been told from Karla that it was one of the best snorkels she had ever been on. They all were so lucky and did manage to get out with a small group. So they left about 9AM, right after breakfast. I went back to the room, took a nap finished packing and then went for a swim at the pool and waiting for them to return, so we could all have lunch together. They got back in about 1:30PM, with some of the biggest smiles I think I had seeming weeks. They just couldn’t stop talking about the coral reefs and the sand bars and how fantastic the water was. It was warm and clear and more fish then any of them had ever seen anywhere. Connie decided that she more then likely would be disappointed with Hawaii on the next trip, as she got spoiled with this jet ski/snorkel trip. It sure sounds like they had a great time and the pictures seem to show the beautiful that they were able to see.

We would be leaving our resort around 7PM that evening, so we all pretty much just finished our packing and laid low for awhile. Some went swimming again for a short time.

They managed again to get us and our entire luggage across the bay and on to the bus for the short ride to the airport. We ended up waiting around for several other people who arrived a half hour late. We had a great deal of time until our flight, so it wasn’t a real problem, other then just sitting in the bus waiting. As it turned out, Monty was getting all excited because he had seen some native dogs and then some of the large native frogs, so he had to get out and check everything out. We all started calling him froggie after that, it really was quite funny.

The flight from Fiji to Los Angeles was long, but quite smooth, so most of us were able to get a fair amount of sleep. Once we got to Los Angeles, we would have another couple hours of waiting and then a four hour flight into Seattle. The flight from LA got all screwed up and we had to change plans in Portland, which was a big pain in the butt, but oh well nothing we could do about it.

The really interesting part is that we left the resort in Fiji at 7:30PM Friday evening and arrived home at the SeaTac Airport at 7:30PM Friday evening. Even with 24 hours of flying it was still the same day, isn’t this world amazing.

It was a fantastic trip of a life time and we enjoyed ever part of it and all of the fantastic places and animals that we got to see.