We are Not Gay

Today Kirsten started her 4 day journey back to Angola and Chester had one last day in Fiji. As you can imagine the weather has gotten no better. following is a recap of her day. 8 am alarm goes off 9 am breakfast. We had to fight off the regby team just to toast some bread. They would load up all 6 slots and take them all. 10 a m Kirsten is off to the airport. Chester is sad and alone. 10:15 Chester packs for the next day 11 am raining, totally bored 11:15 did nails 11:20 totally bored again 11:30 read book on porch, still raining with no chance of sun 1:00 played cards 2:00 went for a walk on the beach. Rains on way back 2:45 The Fiji version of the movie Top Gun ... read more

The alarm went off at 6 am today. We were again hoping for a beautiful day in paradise, especially since this was the last adventure for the two of us. We put on our swim suits, packed our dry clothes and ate breakfast. Pick up for the rafting was at 6:45. Several people from our lodging were on the bus and we met up with several others at the main office. In all about 29 people were on the excursion. After we sign our life away we pile back into the buses and head for the drop off, this took 3 hours. They told us it would take 30 min Fijian time. We were not expecting that. It has been raining for 3-4 solid days and today was not different. It was a very rocky, bumpy ... read more

So we spent our first night at the Uprising Beach Resort. It was fine, we had to have all the windows and curtains open so we could get the slightest, lightest breeze into our hut. We both slept pretty well though (Chester sleeps because of Ambien, thank goodness) and woke up at 7. The outdoor shower was actually pretty cool and reminded us of an awesome camp site in Namibia that had very cool outdoor showers. After a breakfast of cornflakes in warm milk and some toast we headed to the lobby to get picked up for our 8:15 shark dive. The driver arrived and quickly told us we were on a different dive trip so we waited for another 30 minutes. Then Sammy, the driver, came back for us and said we were on this ... read more

Today started with a 5AM wake-up call to catch our flight from Brisbane to Fiji. We were graciously thanked for our stay by the Australia telecoms company by charging us $50 for 6 local phone calls, each call was less than 2 minutes. We had called around the find a fishing charter from the hotel phones after we had called reception to inquiry if there was a charge for this. Well there was not a charge for local calls, but a ridiculous charge for calls to mobile phones which are different than local calls. Not something the hotel would want to tell you when you specifically call to ask. We had a quick buffet breakfast and drove the hour plus to Brisbane. We arrived to a mother of all lines at the airport. After the Disneyland ... read more

Today we again got to sleep in which is always great when you are on vacation. We had planned to go surfing or kayaking today as this is Surfers Paradise, the Sunshine Coast, warm weather and sun and sand. But as we have hit Australia during the coldest and wettest winter in decades, we decided to change our plans. We planned to go on a half day deep sea fishing charter. We started the day with the always loved all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hotel. The marina was pretty close to the hotel so didn’t take long to get there. The plan was for a 5 hour tour. Good news, when we got to the boat, Gilligan was the first mate, a tall skinny young kid with a Gilligan hat. The boat was ... read more

Today started with sleeping in, which was a very welcome change. We caught a flight around noon from Cairns to Gold Coast. We have come to loath the Australian airlines and they have luggage requirements that are crazy as well as ridiculously expensive. So upon arrival to the counter, Kirsten instructed Chester to hide our backpacks as these along with our small roller carry-ons would put us over the weight limit and at $15/KG that can add up. All was looking good until Kirsten’s roller back was 3 KG over weight. So we had to get all of our bags and reorganize them to add more to the checked luggage and pay the difference. At this point we are not happy campers. We get everything switched around and had to throw out some stuff, like a ... read more

Today was our last day on the boat and we had the opportunity to do 3 dives before we headed back to Cairns. But this meant we had to be up and in the water by 6:30 AM. Chester reluctantly got out of bed to Kirsten’s nagging. After last night’s panic attack, Chester was adamant that she wanted a guide. She insisted it was not because she did not trust Kirsten but she wanted 2 people to be there to save her. So our first dive with the guide was really nice. But there was nothing worse than putting on the cold wet suit at 6:30 AM. But it was worth it when we saw a reef shark, some sting rays and turtles and an angel fish. Kirsten let Chester suck from her tank for a ... read more

Day 20 started with an early wake-up to catch a boat for a 2 night/3 day live aboard. This is a boat that will travel around the Great Barrier Reef that you do multiple dives from and sleep and eat on. We got a taxi to the Hilton to drop off our luggage for when we return and walked over to the boat that would take us out the Great Barrier Reef. We found the boat no problem, but were still skeptical of how this would all work as we had been given such conflicting information from our travel agent and the booking company. We boarded the boat and there were a number of people on board that were just there for a day trip. It also became blatantly obvious that this was not the boat ... read more