Day 20 - 6th Mar 2009

Got up early to catch the flight to Sydney. Managed to share the taxi to the airport with two other people so halved the cost of that. Adam got some breakfast at the airport while I spent my breakfast money on a new wallet! (Luckily we also got a breakfast on out flight so I wasn't going hungry for long.)

Arrived in Sydney and had lunch at the airport at our favourite international restaurant, McDonalds. Then we got a shuttle to our hotel, which ended up cheaper than getting the train. The hotel seemed pretty nice, the room has a small kitchen in it so we can cook meals and have breakfast here. And there is a view of the harbour, not the harbour bridge and opera house part of the harbour, the other direction, but never the less it is nice and we can see lots of sailing boats.

We then set off to see some sights. We had a nice walk through the botanical gardens to get to the opera house. Whilst walking through the gardens there was lots of loud screeching noises, we looked up and started to notice bats hanging in the trees, first just a few of them but the more we looked the more we saw. The were loads of them having an afternoon nap, just hanging around the trees. Every so often a couple would get annoyed at each other and one would fly to a different tree.

We then arrived at the opera house, it's kind of weird for me being back here as I've seen it before, it's still amazing and with the bridge in the background looks awesome, but it's strange to think I was looking at that before I even knew Adam. We walked round the opera house and then along the quay side before heading back to our hotel. The city is pleasant and just nice to wander around.

We called in at the supermarket opposite our hotel to buy some food for dinner. We decided to have pasta in a tomato sauce with pepper, mushrooms and salami. We also bought stuff to cook breakfast.

Cooking in the kitchen was a bit odd, I'm not sure it was actually designed to be used! There isn't really any room to do stuff, the sink takes up pretty much all the space. Anyway we managed and Adam cooked our dinner whilst I wrote the blog for the day before. And we had a nice dinner whilst loooking out of our window watching the sail boats move about.

Day 19 - 5th Mar 2009

Another early start to the day to catch the bus at 7.15 to take us to the marina. Our boat trip round the Mamanuca started at 9 and lasted about 3 hours. We first went to South Sea Island, where we had previously spent the day, then onto Bounty, then Treasure and Beachcomber, then Mana, Castaway and Malolo before arriving back at Denarau marina. It was fun to see different islands, some were quite different to the one we had spent a day on which was the smallest of them all. Malolo Island seemed fairly big, in comparision to the others and had hills and was very green.

The trip which we'd booked included pick up and drop off at our hotel so we got on a bus which we assumed would take us back to where we were staying. Adam was doozing on the coach whilst I was looking out the window when to my horror we went sailing past the turning for the road to our hotel. I nudged Ad gently to wake him up, I'm not sure what I thought he could do but I thought he should know. Luckily the pulled in not too far down the road at another hotel, he then said that this was the drop off for all Nadi Bay area hotels, which was us. To start with we sat there hoping we'd misheard but then realised he was going to next go to the airport, we knew we definitely didn't want to go there so we got off. It then looked like we were meant to get a taxi to our hotel, as other people we going to the same area we just sort tagged onto what they were doing. They was one man with a taxi trying to organise the whole thing, however there were about 12 of us and he only had one car! He decided to call a mini bus to pick up all the people for a hostel next to ours, so I thought well maybe we can just get in that. The mini bus turned up and only had enough room for the people going to the other hostel. By this point Adam realised no one had mentioned the amount this would cost so he asked the guy if this was free, he looked puzzled and said no. We then tried to say that our trip included getting us back, he asked us for a voucher to prove this which we didn't have. He said unless we had a voucher he couldn't take us unless we paid. Adam was a little bit put out by this as we definitely should be getting a lift back, and we knew how far it was to walk and we knew how hot it was, so really we had no choice. Thankfully the guy decided to try and sort it out with the company we'd booked with, the only problem being he couldn't understand our surname, Riley. No matter how many times we said it or spelt it out and even when he said Briley and we were like take the B off, he just couldn't get it. He then decided to take the remaining 2 people to their hotel and said he would come back for us, so we were left there under a tree, waiting. But then before he'd managed to set off the people said the only had a $50 dollar note, the driver didn't have change for this and they couldn't get any so they got their bags and said they'd walk. So he reversed up and was back to help us. He then got the company on the phone and was trying to say our surname to them but wasn't getting on very well, so he put Adam on the phone, he had to do the whole surname thing again, really I didn't think it was that hard! Finally they agreed that we should be taken to the door of our hotel free of charge. So we were on our way. The driver trying to explain it wasn't his fault but the bus driver should of done this and that. Eventually we made it back loooking really hot and tired.

We had a lunch of potato wedges by the hotel pool, which was actually empty and we soon realised had at least 2 people underneath the lining of it trying to fix it. How they didn't die of heat exhaustion from being under there I'll never know!

After lunch we went for a walk along the beach. We then relaxed reading books and playing on the DS; Adam then seemed to be flagging slightly and he had to go and lie down. I went to find him to let him know the sun was setting and we should go out to look at it. But he wasn't right, I think perhaps a case of too much sun and too little drinking of water. The sunset was really nice though!

We had a lovely dinner at the hotel, Ad had chicken curry, his favourite, although very different from our English curries, it was really dry. But really nicely spiced.

We then went up to our room to pack, or rest in Ad's case. I kept making him drink water and in the end made him have a cold shower to try and cool him down. Eventually we got to sleep and had packed our bags ready for our early departure to get our flight to Sydney.

Day 18 - 4th Mar 2009

Today we had planned to go to the local town Nadi and have a look round the shops there. So got up at a much more lesiurely 8:30 and went down for breakfast. While waiting for our breakfast to arrive I decided to ask the front desk what time the buses were into town. I was told that there was one in 5 minutes and then the next one was at 11:30. Well 5 minutes was no good as we wanted to eat breakfast and 11:30 seemed a long time to wait to start our day. So I asked how long it would take to walk, the lady at the desk looked a bit dubious at this idea and seemed to want me to take a taxi, but said it would take about an hour to walk depending on how fast we walked. Well an hour seemd ok to us, it wasn't quite upto 30 degrees celcius out yet and we'd take plenty of water. So after finishing breakfast we set off on our walk. Like the other evening we had about 5 different offers of taxis within the first few hundred meters (some licenced cabs, some not) I'm not sure people could actually believe that we wanted to walk. The last unlicensed cab even tried to tell us that it wasn't safe to walk, in order to get our business, but we carried on. A little further up the road the free airport shuttle from our hostel pulled up and asked us where we were walking and when we told them, offered us a lift to the main road. This we gratefully excepted as it almost halved our distance. I think the pickup drivers thought we were a bit crazy to want to walk and said the journey would be "interesting" and also warned us to watch out for touts trying to get us into their businesses. So after they dropped us off at the mainroad we continued our walk and it was fine. Intereesting was probably the right description for it, there wasn't really much of a pavement for a lot of the journey and where they had roadworks there was no allowance made for pedestrians at all, but we made it to Nadi fine and you get to see much more of the local surroundings on foot.

Nadi is an interesting town and quite difficult to describe. The best concise description I could come up with is that it is trying to be a touristy town but doesn't really have mnay tourists. When we arrived it was really quite busy, but we seemed to be the only tourists around, everyone else was either of Fijiian or Indian descent. As a result all the owners of the tourist souvenior shops wanted us (seeming the only 2 tourists in the whole town) in their shops. We soon met the touts that the pickup driver had mentioned. I think they must have all learned at the same tout school as they all seemed to have a very similar technique: They were friendly enough and greeted you with a Bula (hello in Fijiian which is common enough everywhere), then it was "Where are you from?", "England" we'd reply, (At this point the instructor must have said make sure you shake their hands so they have to stop) "Ah" they say "the motherland", and then the instuctor must have said improvise a little, and we got a quick snippet of why they liked England, ranging from "they had a friend there" to "it's great because of colonisation we're not canibals anymore!". Then it was back to the script and "you don't want to buy anything from all these shops on the mainroad, they're all run by Indian's, you need to come to my shop down this side road or up these stairs". We politley declinded their offers and to be fair they weren't too pushy. It just got a little tiresome playing this script out with various different people as we made our way up the street.

We eventually made it to a little outdoor handicraft market at which we had fun bartering for various necklaces and bracelets. We seemed to get some good deals, maybe due to the lack of customers. We then carried on down to the end of the town and had a look at the Hindu temple there. We then returned to a cafe for lunch, before catching a taxi back to our hostel (by this time the midday sun was out and we decided it was too hot for walking). Like so many foreign taxi drivers he refused to turn his meter on, but the 7 dollar fare we agreed seemd reasonable enough to us.

Spent the afternoon relaxing around our hostel. I went for a run along the beach, while Liz paddled, but found it hard work in the heat so didn't go very far.

Had dinner at the hostel, where I had some local fish which was very tasty.

Day 17 - 3rd Mar 2009

Early start today to catch the 7:15 pickup from our hostel to take us to the Marina. We had booked on a full day trip to South Sea Island, a small atoll about a half hour boat trip from the mainland. Liz was a little bit worried about this as she isn't really one for lazing around on beaches, so a whole day stuck on a tiny desert island didn't seem completely her kind of thing. Luckily though there were plenty of activities to do to keep us entertained!

First thing we did was to go on a ride on a glass bottomed boat around the island, we got to see lots of coral and fish. Then getting back from that it was time for snorkeling. They took us out on a boat to a good spot and we got to see lots of fish again. This was much better than the glass bottomed boat as the colours were much clearer and you could swim round where you wanted to go.

After snorkeling we found ourselves a nice spot on the beach with a shade and some beach chairs and enjoyed a drink (unlimited drinks were included as part of the package!) and read some of our books.

It was then time for lunch which was a barbeque and buffet. We both ate well and there was some traditional Fijian dances to entertain us while we ate.

After lunch we had a bit of a rest before taking a couple of kayaks out on the ocean. Then it was time for afternoon tea and another snorkeling session. After that time for one more drink at our spot on the beach before it was time to catch the boat back to the mainland.

We had had a great day, a little tired and our backs a little sunburnt from snorkeling, but all in all we had really enjoyed ourselves.

As a slightly sad ammedum: on returning to the hostel I found that I had lost $30 (just over £10) from my wallet. I don't really know where it went, I can only assume that somebody took it from my bag while we were in the sea. A bit strange as they didn't take all my money. Think I perhaps was feeling a bit too relaxed and shouldn't have left my wallet at all. Guess I was lucky in some ways that everything else was still there, and need to be more careful going forward (As Bee's Dad would say "stay on orange"). Unfortunately that took a bit of the shine off our day...

Day 16 - 2nd Mar 2009

We landed in Nadi just after lunch and met our free transfer. Unfortunately the other 2 people who were catching the free transfer with us decided they were going to go into the tourist office and book some tours, which meant that we had to sit around and wait for them...

Eventually they were finished and we were off to our hostel. Fiji is very different to Hawaii, where Hawaii was much more developed than I had imagined, Fiji seems to be less developed than I had thought it would be. Arrived at our hostel without any problems and had some lunch in their restaurant. The hostel is right on the sea front, so we sat outside with a nice view of the sea. It was quite hot weather, I think about 30 degrees celcius!

We then went out for a walk along the beach. It's quite pretty but there is a lot of mud on it from the estuary which flows into it. Got back to the hostel and went for a walk up the road to see what else there was around. As we walked people kept stopping and asking if we wanted a lift, we weren't sure if they were just being friendly or would want money, but we wanted to walk anyway so turned them down. The answer to our question of what else was around was not a lot. We came upon a rather strange shop. It was the type of shop which I always refer to as a New York shop as that was the first place which I saw one (though I have since found that there is one in Kimberly, Nottingham) and baically when you walk in the door the whole shop is in a big cage (or alternatively you are in a smaller cage, depending on which way round you want to think about it) and the shopkeeper is in the cage with his shop and you have to ask for what you want and he brings it to a small serving hatch. I guess it is good for security and stops shoplifting, but I always find it a bit strange. But the shopkeeper was quite friendly and was keen to emphasise how much cheaper his beer was than at the hotels. So we bought a couple of bottles of the local bitter and some water, before heading back to our hostel.

Back at the hostel we booked a couple of tours for the next day and for later in the week, before having dinner and heading to bed.

Day 15 - 1st March 2009

Well there isn't a huge amount to say about today, it ended almost as soon as it began! We got up really early to catch our flight to Fiji, we were picked up from our hotel at 4am! Slept a bit on the coach to the airport but we kept stopping to pick other people up. We arrived at the airport in good time so checked in and headed through security. The airport seems to be going for an open air feeling, as in they don't seem to have any doors or windows, it's all kind of open. Boarded our plane on time and took off. It's not the busiest of flights so we were given a row of 3 seats to the 2 of us. Once we were in the air they told us that the time in Fiji is 2 hours behind Hawaii but a whole day ahead, so that was the end of that day.

Day 14 - 28th Feb 2009

Woke up pretty early due to the early night last night and also the time difference. Adam went and got a McDonalds breakfast for us which we had on the balcony looking at the ocean. Then headed off to look for a bank. After trying several ATMs realised they were probably all going to charge so settled on the first one we'd tried near our hotel as this was the cheapest. Whilst searching for the ATM looked in a few shops and bought a present for Chloe. I hope she appreciates the fact that I've now got to carry it round for another 7 weeks! I think everyone else can have things from Delhi! Anyway the shop gave us a voucher for buy one get one free at the ice cream shop next door, you will hear more about this later...

We then decided to walk up to Diamond Head. Most it would seem either drive there or get a bus, so we walked all the way. Diamond Head is a volcanic crater which was used as a military command centre during wars. After paying our dollar each to get in, it was then quite a steep walk up to the top. This also involved a few stairs, some were pretty step and there were 99 of these then after this there were 54 spiral stairs. And not just spiral but metal steps which you can see through and which have gaps between them. Anyone who has previously accompanied me up stairs like this will know that I really don't like them. And to make matters worse there was only one set for going up and down, so you had to either time your ascent carefully or pass people on the stairs. Basically I was petrified but as I had been walking for well over an hour to get to the top I wasn't going to just stand at the bottom of the stairs. So I started my ascent but after about 20 steps there was a ledge where you could stop and let people past, so we stopped, and waited and waited. People kept coming past obviously wondering why I was just waiting on this ledge. I was stuck for a while, I really didn't want to go any further up but I also didn't want to go down! I'm sure my brothers and Mum and Dad can remember this situation well from previous family outings when I was a child. Eventually Adam decided to carry on up and take pictures and then collect me on the way down. Adam started the next flight of stairs and then stopped to say he could see the top and it wasn't very far, so I went for it, I didn't give me brain chance to think about it and just walked up the steps. A couple of turns in staircase later and we'd made it. It's so funny to see little kids just walking up and down with no problems at all and surely they more likely to fall through the gap than anyone!

The views from the top were worth the climb. So after a while looking around we heading back down. We walked all the way back to our hotel, figuring if we'd managed to walk there we could walk back. We were pretty tired by time we got back and it was pretty warm even though it kept spitting with rain.

Decided to head to the beach for a swim and then go and look for dinner. I managed perhaps half anf hour on the beach before getting restless so we decided that was enough lazing about for one day.

Had a thankfully small dinner before going to check out the ice cream shop. Of course with our voucher you had to buy like the biggest ice creams to get the one free, so that's what we did. Adam had a Mint mint chocolate chocolate and I had a strawberry supreme. Adam's was made from a scoop of mint ice cream which then had a chunk of chocolate brownie added to it and some chocolate chips and then some chocolate sauce. This was all mashed together and then put into a chocolate wafer cone. With hindsight I'm not sure we need the cones aswell! Mine was strawberry ice which then had strawberrys and pie crust mixed into it, as I didn't want the whipped cream and caramel I was give double strawberries and pie crust, this was then put into a chocolate wafer cone. It's hard to describe the size of these ice creams, but I couldn't manage all of mine! Adam did pretty well, just leaving some of the wafer. We got a few comments from passersby over the size of ice creams! To be honest I think the ice cream is probably the highlight to my trip to Hawaii, it was amazing.