Fab Fiji and Sonny

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Fiji comprises 300 islands - we're at Wananavu Beach Resort on Viti Levu. Customs, Immigration and baggage collection was a breeze - it took 15 mins to get through and everyone was cheerful and helpful - the US system could learn a lot from it. Sonny, our transfer driver, met us so Harry was very smug that his arrangements had all worked out - until he saw Sonny's battered van that is. Now Harry doesn't make a good passenger at the best of times, so when Sonny screeched to a halt to allow a cow to cross the road 2 mins after leaving the airport, you'll get the picture. After that Sonny stopped for nothing and nobody. Fijians drive, like us, on the left - except for Sonny who drove just as much on the right. Harry was gamely hanging in there when he asked Sonny how long the transfer would take.To his credit the smile never left his face when Sonny said "two and a half hours"! I was enjoying the scenery whilst Harry kept his eyes permanently fixed on the road ahead looking for hazards that Sonny didn't appear to see - children, other traffic (both directions) and buses that he overtook on blind bends and hill brows. He chatted loads and pointed out lots of interesting things - but he tended to look at the interesting things himself for alarmingly long periods and given that the road was, for the most part, reminiscent of a farm track, Harry said later that he thought 100 kph for a tad enthusiastic. To Sonny's credit though, he got us to the resort before nightfall - which was a result under the ciurcumstances, and to be fair to him his van was no more decrepit that a lot of others, and a lot of the time he drove with a view to avoiding potholes and landslides. He also kindly stopped at a town so we could buy water etc because our resort is so remote - so we do actually have fond memories of him. Anyway, we might be really lucky and get him on the return journey! We're having a great time here adapting to 'Fiji time' which involves a lot of eating, sleeping and generally not doing much at all. We'll do another Fiji blog when we reach NZ and upload some photos - this connection is ridiculously slow, so we'll wait until we get a better one. Thanks to all who have contacted us. It's always nice to hear from you. PS: Happy belated birthday Debra. Love to all - A & H XX

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