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Monday April 24th
Bula from Fiji!
Today we got a fairly early start and headed out with Tawaki and Maureen on a trip to buy some souvenirs. We also went to the time / date line and a natural waterslide.
The souvenir shop is called Ross handicrafts, and I guess Ross was the guy who served us. He’s a really big guy, looks Samoan, but talks with a really soft voice. We bought a few things there, with the biggest piece a huge turtle with a shell for a lid. I’m not sure where it’ll go at home, but it’s nice! We also got a throwing club and a cannibal fork. They’ll be great conversation pieces. We left the shop, leaving the items behind to get wrapped up.
Next on the agenda is the dateline. Also know as the 180 degree meridian. We’re exactly on the other side of earth as Greenwich, England. On the west side (left) we’re on today’s date, on the right side we’re yesterday, exactly 24 hours behind. You can time travel here! This is the spot on the earth where it’s the new day first. There was a huge celebration
on Y2K here, and every New Year gets a gathering!
From the dateline it’s a very short drive to the “waterslide.” It’s a natural phenomenon, where there is an approximately 300 foot section of river that is very narrow and has smooth (relatively) rocks. We walk up a narrow path, beside the river and it comes into view. At the end of the slide there is a large pool, approximately 8 feet deep. The water here is super clear, and very refreshing! The kids are in heaven I must say. Paulina is being Paulina and at first didn’t want to go in, but Maureen fixed that! Wataki says he comes here 3 or 4 times a week, and he looks like a kid now. I’ve never seen him smile so much! The kids did the slide a few times, and jumped off the rocks. Even Jason with his burnt back did the slide, and jumped off the rocks. They really had a great time. If we have time here we’re gonna come back! When we were leaving Kirk almost got washed away. He came too close to the edge of the pool and the water whisked him away, down
the river about 15 feet. The look of fright on his face, oh my god it was funny! He was in no danger as Tawaki jumped down the rocks to grab him, but it was quite the sight!
So we stop by the handicraft shop, pickup our stuff and head back up the coast. We stop at a restaurant called tramanto, order some pizza and steaks and the food was amazing. The pizza was Hawaiian. The food took a little while, we didn’t know when you order steak they go down to the store and pick it up lol. Anyhow it was fairly late, around 4:30 by then, and we figured that this will be an early dinner / late lunch. The evening was spent with the kids playing with Vika while Jason and I went out and watched the greatest show on earth - the starry night here, you can see the Milky Way. It’s an awesome sight!
More tomorrow!
Lee
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