My last day of work was on Tuesday, August 22nd. The next day I went and confirmed my flights to Nadi (Fiji), Los Angeles and finally Toronto.

On Thursday I moved out of Uenuku Lodge, the hostel in the suburb of Ponsonby in Auckland where I had been living on/off since May and moved in with four friends who recently decided to share a house together, a few blocks away in Herne Bay. For the rest of the week I basically did nothing but sit in the house doing crossword puzzles and watching t.v. waiting for everyone to come home from work. Well, actually - I did do a bit of housekeeping and cooked dinner for 7 people one night so I wasn't being completely lazy.

On my last day in New Zealand, my friends and I went out to dinner. We found a nice Italian restaurant called "Portabellos" which was conveniently located just around the corner.

On Friday, September 1st I flew into Nadi, Fiji. I had booked a package deal with Awesome Adventures. The name of my package was "A Lazy Threesome". The package included all accomodation, meals and island transfers. My trip would consist of two island stays and a live-aboard cruise. The funny thing is that the brochure seems to imply that you have some choice regarding on which islands you stay - and whether you'd like to go on the cruise or stay on another island instead - but that's not true. The Awesome Adventure people choose for you. But that's cool. I didn't really have a preference.

I arrived at the Nadi Beach Resort Hotel in the evening and was pretty tired. I decided to shower and discovered that there was no lock on the bathroom door. That's not exactly reassuring when you're sharing with 9 strangers. Yeah - I was in a 10-bed dorm room and 8 of my dorm mates were guys. Anyway, no one walked in on me so all was okay. After my shower I decided to just go to bed and read - didn't even eat dinner.

The next mornng I was up at 6:15 am so that I'd have time to get ready and eat my free breakfast in the hotel restaruant before the bus came to pick me up at 7:30. First I was served fruit (pineapple, banana, pawpaw with shredded coconut) and a cup of coffee. Then I was served wet scrambled eggs on top of a slice of toast. It was pretty yucky.

Two buses arrived to transport us to the Denarau port where we'd catch the Yasawa Flyer - the ferry that transports people to the various islands in the Yasawa and Mamanuca groups of the Fijian islands.

Denarau Port

Yasawa Flyer

After a 4 hour journey I arrived at my first destination - Coral View on Tavewa Island. About 10 of us all arrived at the same time. We were given a group orientation and then led into the dining room for lunch. The islands in the Yasawa's do not have restaurants. The cost of your accomodation includes 3 meals/day and you eat whatever they serve you. Also, meals are at set times so if you miss a meal it can be a long wait before you get to eat again.

Lunch consisted of ground meat in gravy (which looked frightengly similar to dog food) served on a large sweet bun. It was pretty vile - but perhaps not as vile as the canned spaghetti on a bun that was served to one of the vegetarians in our group. During lunch, I got to chatting with some of the others and as luck would have it, I happened to meet a girl from Austria - also travelling alone - who had exactly the same itinerary that I did. Later the two of us met a couple from Germany who also had very similar plans. So it was pretty cool to know that I'd have people to hang with during my Fiji holiday.

In the evening, our hosts sang a welcome song. Over the next several days we'd discover that (a) Fijians love to sing and (b) there's no chance of ever seeing "Fiji Idol" on t.v. anytime soon. The Fijians are passionate but pretty hopeless singers.

I spent 2 nights at Coral View and didn't really do anything other than lie in a hammock on the beach the whole day. There really isn't anything else to do there but I'm not complaining. On the second day though a few of us were taken a short distance to Blue Lagoon which is located on the island of Nanuya Lailai. (It's where the movie Blue Lagoon was filmed). We spent about an hour there before being taken back to our island.

Coral view has one dorm room with 18 beds (which is where I stayed) and a number of huts with double beds. Everyone shares the showers/toilets. And oh yeah - the islands don't have hot water and the tap water is not safe for drinking. So I learned to shower very quickly and spent $4 (Fiji) a day on a 1.5 litre bottle of water.

Tavewa

Blue Lagoon

I left Tavewa on Monday, September 4th. We were transported back onto the ferry for a two hour journey until we caught up with the Wanna Taki - a 24 metre catamaran. (From the outside it looks a lot like a smaller version of the Yasawa Flyer).

Wanna Taki

I spent 2 nights on the Wanna Taki and quite enjoyed it. The level of comfort on this boat was a lot higher than what I had experienced during my Australian sailing adventure. The dorm room consisted of 24 beds. In addition, behind the dorm beds were three double beds separated by a curtain. It was air-conditioned which was really nice - but perhaps a bit too cold at night. The boat is also had hot showers. And oh yeah - the food on the boat was much better than the food at Coral View.

Activities on the boat included swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, visiting nearby islands, scuba diving and lying on the deck. For those who wanted a break from fun in the sun, there was a DVD player in the air conditioned lounge area.

Crew from Wanna Taki singing us a song

When our stay on the Wanna Taki came to an end, we were once again taken to the ferry and sailed two hours until we reached our next destination. Couples were taken to Bounty Island and singles were taken to South Sea Island. (So this is where I said "see  ya later"  to the German couple I had met). South Sea Island is the tiniest island I have ever seen. You can easily see from one end to the other. I loved it! I felt like my own little private piece of paradise. I was one of only 10 overnight guests on South Sea Island.

View of South Sea Island

The food here was really good too. After dinner, Dave the manager, divided us into two teams and gave us a quiz about Fiji. The winning team would win a bottle of white wine. It was funny though because Dave put 4 people on one team and 6 people on the other team. Also, the team with 6 players consisted of two people who had already been on the island for 3 nights. Since the quiz was conducted every night - with the same questions every night - of course, they already knew all the answers. It's pretty obvious which team won the bottle of wine.

After the quiz Dave hosted drinking games. I sort of played. I participated but made a strong attempt to not get myself into a position where I'd have to drink. When I did need to take a drink, I just took a small sip. By the end of the game I had only consumed one can of beer. (I was flying to L.A. the next day and really didn't want to have a hangover). After the games, several people kept drinking - including Dave who was properly legless. It got to the point where being sober amongst a bunch of intoxicated people wasn't fun anymore so I went to bed. (By the way, I wasn't the only wet blanket in the group. Three others chose not to drink either and also went to bed even earlier than I did).

The next day was spent cruising on a sem-sub boat to see the coral and fish, snorkelling, swimming and basking in the sun. At about 4 pm it was time to shower (in a cold saltwater shower), get dressed and pack. The ferry was arriving at 5 pm and from the port I needed to head straight to the airport to catch my flight to L.A.

South Sea Island

The flight took off on time but then about an hour into the air, the pilot announced that there was a problem with the plane and that he'd have to return to Nadi. He also said that before doing so he'd have to dump fuel. A flight attendant assured us that there was nothing unusual about this but nonetheless, a number of us were a bit nervous. After we landed safely, the woman sitting next to me said that she was very tempted to grab my hand at one point but was afraid that it might freak me out if she did that.

Anyhow, eventually we took off again and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Luckily, I was able to sleep for nearly the entire duration. By the time I woke up we were due to land in 2.5 hours. (It was a 10 hr flight). We landed in L.A. about 3 hours later than the original scheduled arrival time.

In L.A. I took a shuttle to my hotel, called mum, ate dinner, showered and went to bed. The next morning I got up and went to the airport to catch my flight to Toronto. I was so anxious/excited the flight seemed longer than 4.5 hrs.

And now - after nearly 10 months of being away - I am finally back home. 

P.S. Since I've been away I've become lighter and stronger. I lost 4.5 kg (10 lbs) and...when I left Canada for my trip I had to lighten my bag from 16 kg (35 lbs) to 14.5 kg (32 lbs) because I couldn't even pick it up. Well...coming home I had 21 kg (46 lbs) and had no problem picking it up. (In fact, until a few moments ago I was convinced that I was coming home with a lighter backpack - ha!)