Blogs from Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji, Oceania

The world should be sketched out by engineers and scientists but shaded and coloured by artists and linguists. Of course being one of the former means I get frustrated when I see a framework having being made up by creatives leaving my “square headed” brain to overheat. This is never more the case than when learning a language; the rules taught are never actual rules unless your mind can access that esoteric rationale that only polyglots have access to. Being over-analytical I mentally try to explore those synapses linking all the obscure rules to somehow relieve my mind. Imagine that scene from A Beautiful Mind where the protagonist is madly mapping the positions of pigeons. (Here’s to hoping that my uni mates will someday, far in the future, give me their bic pens in ... read more

Bin genau zur richtigen Zeit aufgewacht, also gegen 8h ohne mir den Wecker zu stellen. Ein gemütliches Frühstück bei beginnendem Sonnenschein hat schon erwarten lassen, dass der Tag ein guter wird Ich hab noch ein anderes Mädl, Luna aus Holland beim Frühstück getroffen, und sie hat uns begleitet, weil heute ihr letzter Tag war und sie sowieso nirgends großartig hinfahren hat können. Um 9h waren wir dann alle versammelt. Scherz. Kann ja nicht sein, dass alle Frauen pünktlich sind. Aber auf Fiji gibt’s sowieso „Fiji Time“. Das ist wirklich ein gebräuchlicher Begriff hier, den auch die Einheimischen verwenden. Und zwar bedeutet das, dass man die Zeitangabe nicht wirklich genau nehmen darf. Wenn ein Bus um 4h Fiji Time kommt, dann kann man schon mal mit halb fünf rechnen. Ist sehr entspannt und gut so, sobald man ... read more

We made it to Fiji for our honeymoon adventure! It was quite an adventure—an hour flight from Raleigh to DC, a 2-hour layover, 5 hours to LA, a 3-hour layover, then 10.5 hours to Nadi, Fiji (with a dose of Ambien to help get through that flight). We were then picked up by a driver in an older, black Mercedes and driven 2.5 hours to the south side of the island. By that time it was 10am Fiji time, and we were supposed to be met by a boat to get us to the first island where we are staying, but we were told the water was too choppy for a small boat, and all 3 of the big boats were out on dive trips. So the driver dropped us at a resort called The Pearl, ... read more

BULA! We arrived in Nadi International on the mainland Fiji, 6th March at 6:00am. We had a short transfer to the Hostel, which was more like a hotel than a hostel with two pools and two restaurants, a movie room and games room. We quickly felt at home! As we started early we lazed around in the sunshine by the pool. After recovering from some jet lag, we lost the 5th of march, it never happened, we had dinner in the restaurant which was really good food and cheap. We re-packed leaving some heavier thicker clothing at the hostel on the mainland. Our island hopping adventure started at 6:30am; after breakfast we jumped aboard the window less bus to take us to the marina. Denarau port was very pleasant with a golf course winding between the ... read more

Dear all, Here I am in Fiji! Yes I am in paradise and so you would think that I would be feeling blissfully relaxed..but sadly it was not to be! We flew in two weeks ago and after spending two nights in Nadi we went down to the Coral Coast. We stayed in a room in the village of Korotogo. For the first three days we hired a car as there was some diving that we wanted to do which was a couple of hours away. So we drove to Pacific Harbour and did a days diving on Shark Reef in Beqa Lagoon. We dropped down to 30 metres and sat on the bottom and then the divemasters let out a mixture of fish guts which attracted a lot of fish! There were huge trevally’s but ... read more