FIJI AT LAST

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No blog yesterday as it was not the greatest day. We were travelling all day, leaving our hotel at 8:30 a.m. and going to the Queenstown airport for a flight to Auckland. It’s not a very long flight but, of course, early check in is required and then you sit and wait for your flight. On arrival in Auckland, we had to take a shuttle bus from the local terminal to the International terminal. It was easy enough to find the Air Fiji check in and get through that.

However, the next step was horrendous. After walking a very long way to find the gates, there were hundreds of people lined up to go through Fiji security. Our plane was boarding in a few minutes and we were at the back of the lines. I convinced a guard to let us get in through an open spot and Sheila and I were able to bypass at least 150 people sliding in wherever we could find an opening.

With my artificial hip, I always get the physical pat down and they had to search my bag for some unknown object that didn’t materialize. But I finally made it onto the plane and was able to relax while we waited for all the rest of our group. The last few people of our group arrived looking very hot and flustered. At least the take off was delayed until everyone was on.

The Fiji Air flight was a good one and they served us a nice little lunch meal late in the afternoon. That was a good thing because by the time we landed and got to our hotel it was 9 p.m. Just after our plane landed, a tropical storm hit at the airport and they quit unloading the luggage from the plane because it was raining so hard. Which meant that we waited for over an hour for the rest of the luggage to start coming though. In the end, two of our group didn’t get any luggage (being delivered the next day).

9 pm & we are still trying to get our rooms. Patience is a virtue - we are on island time now

So now it is Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. and I am sitting on my little patio facing the pool with a coffee enjoying the birds and other critters. I just watched a little mammal that resembled a ferret wander across the lawn - must remember to keep the screen closed on my room! I watched a bird devour a moth that almost as big as the bird itself.

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