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Hey y'all

Greetings from the Feej!
Actually, we're no longer in the Feej, we're now in New Zealand, on the North Island. But more about that in a bit. Back to Fiji --

In two words, Fiji was Awe Some.
Sunny and toasty warm everyday, we went through an entire bottle of SPF 30 sunscreen in less than a week, and still got a few minor burns. We tried to update the blog a couple times, but the connections were less than fantastic you might say, due to ultra slow connections, and also because of the recent hurricane which knocked out a lot of communications.

Speaking of hurricanes, Mick was a real rolling stone. He came through NW Fiji (where we spent the whole week) the week before we arrived. It didn't do a lot of serious structural damage, but a lot of roofs were in serious disrepair, and the amount of debris (or rubbish, as the locals seemed to call it) in the water and around any waterfront properties was astounding. Check out the photo of the grounded sailboat, there was another good sized cruise boat that that was parked in very shallow water as well.

The first three days was at this low-key joint on Malolo Island, the Funky Fish. There was a wicked view from the dining 'room', although it was a bit of a climb up. Lots of snorkelling right off the beach, a little hiking, some swimming in the bure-side pool, and a little Kava drinking. Kava, for those of you that haven't been to Fiji, is the national 'celebratory' drink, which is somehow very popular with the locals and some visitors. Not these visitors though, that stuff is like dirty water. It does have a tongue numbing affect, and no doubt it gets better after six or eight drinks, but we didn't get that far...

We basically had the resort all to ourselves, it was awesome!
The owner is a former New Zealand All Black. This is the major sports team of New Zealand that kicks everybody else's a**, from what I understand. Anyway, not only did this guy play for six years, but he coached both the Fiji and NZ team as well. And I think Italy as well. Pretty cool, we had dinner with him a few times, not that we're dropping names or anything but it was Brad Johnston. Google it. (I haven't yet, I hope it's all true).

Then we hopped on the Flyer for a long ride up to our next joint, at Otto and Fannys on Tavewa Island. It also was a low key deal, with nifty bures on the beach. Uh oh, looks like our little internet place is closing soon, time to abbreviate: here's our second joint in a (coco-) nutshell: lots of snorkelling, crazy tradewinds blowing nonstop, super nice staff, dangerous falling coconuts, death defying boat trip to a freezing cold cave swim, lounging in hammocks, tasty delicious Indian foods, minor sunburns, and more awesome snorkelling.

'Fraid that's all for now!

We hope everybody is doing well, and Happy New Year!!

While I think of it, thanks everybody for the comments, keep 'em coming!

"Fransy" (my unfortunate nickname on Malolo) and Nancy

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