Bula! It's Fiji

Exit Strategy From New Zealand: Rotorua To Taupo To Aukland To The Sky

On our second last day of New Zealand we had a few things to do, so after browsing the town centre of Rotorua for an hour or two, we headed back to Taupo as we needed to return a faulty product. Fortunately, it wasn't far out of the way and we spent some more time in the Taupo centre. Hitting the road again in the afternoon, we headed up in an Auckland direction.

A quick stop in Hamilton was on the cards, which is another sizable city in the North Island. It loved it's one way road systems so it proved fun to navigate around. By the time we got close to Auckland, it was into the dark night and there was copious rainfall to boot.

We didn't actually go to Auckland itself though; we didn't have too much time left and we weren't exactly fussed about the city life in New Zealand anyway. We still had the urban sprawl of America to go. As the flight was relatively early, we got the campsite nearest the airport but it turned out to be extortionate pricing. Had to be expected though due to its proximity to the airport.

The next morning, we topped up our petrol and gas cannister and said a teary goodbye to our trusty camper van (got back our full deposit) and headed to the airport where we boarded our Fiji bound plane. New Zealand had been a lot of fun but we left during a thunderstorm and torrential rain, so it was going to be a relief to get to the sweltering climate of Fiji.

The Sweltering Climate Of Fiji: Nadi

It wasn't that sweltering in all honesty as it is "cool season" in this tropical country. Still a damn sight warmer than New Zealand though, so it was back to shorts and flip flops (yeehar). Having already booked a cheap hostel online in Nadi, we were unsure of our precise plans over the 3 days which we were spending in Fiji. It had originally been scheduled to be almost 2 weeks in our initial manifest, but our inflated time in other countries had to have an impact elsewhere.

Nadi is a district within the Province of Ba, located on the south-west coast of the island of Viti Levu (the main island) in Fiji. It's well known for its international airport, which has long provided a communication link for travellers from North America to Australia and New Zealand. Because of its proximity to the airport and a number of uninhabited tropical islands, tourism is the main industry in the district. It's not the prettiest place in Fiji to be honest nor has the magnificent beaches that tourism brochures boast about, but most people stay here on their first night in the country.

It had a hint of South East Asia about it which was very refreshing after some of the all-too-familiar development of Australia, even though it was still very tourist oriented. It was also cheap so Emma and myself felt like we were really on holiday again (travelling can be tiring work!) as we sipped on some Fiji Gold and listened to the island entertainment. A lot of Fijians are excellent musicians and singers too we noticed in our time here.

The following morning, we headed into the town of Nadi itself where we drank some Kava, a traditional Pacific Island herbal drink that the locals drink and apparently reduces the risk of cancer. It has similar effects to alcohol in large doses, but this wasn't going to happen as we were in the middle of a souvenir shop in the town at midday. We browsed the markets afterwards which involved haggling again and the local shops before having a "Mama's Pizza" which proved to be a beast.

After heading back, we organised our next two days in Fiji and booked two island day trips while still retaining our accomodation base in our resort. The island resorts proved expensive to stay in themselves so this seemed like a really economical option. A lot of travellers get the island hopping package, which can take in a lot of different islands for overnight stays, which sounded a lot of fun if we had more time and a lot more money.

Still, we were making the most of our time and the islands we were visiting sounded very promising...

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