Bula! It turns out… getting to Fiji from Pennsylvania takes a really long time. Our journey began with a flight to Los Angeles that left Philadelphia around 4 pm and landed at around 6 pm. Then… we had to wait until the Fiji airways ticket counter opened because our flight was the only flight leaving that day. We talked to a nice man from Australia who was just using Fiji as a stopover point (which blew my mind! Fiji is just the stopover!) His family was originally from Fiji so he filled us in on a few details of what to expect when we got to Fiji. Afterwards we made our way to the Star Alliance business class lounge (even though Fiji airways is basically a OneWorld airline… oh well) where we got some beers and ramen and Adela took a nap. We also had to move because someone was kind enough to sit down in front of us and just talk loudly on their cell phones. It was weird.
The flight itself was awesome! It was a little weird being served dinner at essentially 5 am though, but we managed. We also both managed to sleep – probably because we had already been traveling for about 12 hours by the time the flight even left. Our flight landed in Nadi 30 minutes early… which meant that we totally could’ve made our original flight itinerary. Instead I had panicked and changed our flight to Taveuni to later in the afternoon. And I had hired someone to drive us around and show us the sights. However that someone was operating on Fiji time… so we began the weirdest tour of all time. The first stop was Port Denarau to kill an hour until everything opened – which actually was nice because I got a mince and cheese pie which really hit the spot. Afterwards we were shown such great sights as the Sheraton AND the Radisson Blu. Although it was pretty cool and enlightening to drive through some of the parts around Nadi that we did – to see how Fijians actually live as opposed to what the resorts are like. And to be fair we did stop at a pretty cool garden that had some beautiful plants and a nice little walk. After that we just hung out in the airport for a few hours before our flight to Taveuni.
The airport in Taveuni might be the most adorable airport I’ve ever been in. Really gave me like old-time movie vibes. Because the airport is seriously just a semi-enclosed building and a runway. We were met by a driver from Matangi resort who accurately identified us as the only couple on the plane and drove us to where they moor their boat. We were joined by a few women who were also going to Matangi (or Qamea) and began the 20 minute trip over. They had a really cute “Big Bula” welcome for us when we got there, but I am a little fuzzy on the details because I was operating on like 4 hours of sleep and 15 hours of awakedness at that point. Our first task upon landing was to pick out our dinner order (Adela chose better) and we learned that the excursions are based on what day it was and we missed the Pearl Farm tour, shucks, we’ll just have to come back some time.
We managed to stay up until 8 pm! We felt exceptionally accomplished at doing that. And we got a mere 11 hours of sleep after rolling out of bed at around 7:20. Breakfast was really good (Adela chose better again) and we put our lunch and dinner orders in for the day. Which we promptly forgot what we chose so it made mealtime very exciting. We joined in on the morning activity – a guided kayaking trip around the island. Luckily (for some of us) they had tandem kayaks… Overall it was about a three mile round trip that ended at the islands Bat Cave! Batman unfortunately does not reside there. However we did hear all the bats chittering which was pretty cool. The trip back wasn’t nearly as fun as the trip out because we were both pretty tired. Which meant it was time for our favorite vacation hut activity – naps in the day bed. After an adequate nap time we geared up for some snorkeling. The resort has guided snorkeling trips of more remote reefs but we decided to start with just the reef outside of the resort. And it was amazing! I haven’t seen so much coral in a really long time. And tons of fishes, even some that looked like they were looking at us. Which was kinda creepy. Sunset in Fiji this time of year is around 6 pm – so we posted up on a hammock overlooking the ocean to read and watch the sun set. The hammock proved to be quite the challenge for some people to get in to/get out of. For a change I managed to choose better for dinner this night! AND we managed to stay up until around 8:30-9 pm.
