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Our last night in New Zealand was spent at Auckland airport. The flight to Fiji was early in the morning which meant check in was even earlier. Amy managed a few fitful hours sleep on a bench in the observation lounge which was far quieter than any where else. I failed to sleep and spent the time randomly wandering and reading a book.
We landed in Nadi to be treated to some glorious sunshine and heat! This was hugely welcome as the last few weeks in New Zealand had been getting cooler and cooler as the seasons moved into autumn.
We had arranged pick up to our hostel. On arrival at Nadi Downtown Backpackers we were pleasantly surprised with the room, despite the bed having springs which dug in all the wrong places.
We settled our bill for the room and the fun began! Unlike Asia, where if they have scams running, they trust each other to fleece the tourists and then settle the profit between themselves. In Fiji the bill was split down into the various cuts that each person involved. As a result you ended up paying 2-3 different people until the final balance had
been settled!
They had craftily tried to put the price of the boat to the island resort up by $20 each! We got it sorted but it resulted in us almost staging a sit in until it was sorted!
Having sorted monies we headed out on to their high street to check out the area. Being out of practices we (Rob) were (was) enticed into a shop which was completely in the opposite direction that we had been walking to sample some traditional Fijian Kava and hospitality. We were quite please to see another couple had also been ‘snared’! We settled in for some Kava. Kava is a drink which is prepared from the ground kava root which is then washed through a cloth bag in to a big wooden bowl. The stuff tastes as grim as it sounds, it has a very peppery taste that leaves your tongue tingling! After this you are then invited in to their shop to just have a look! We managed to escape with only a loss of $20 (£6). Later in the trip we met a couple who parted with close to £30 for a bunch of stuff they didn’t really
Loads of food
Not normally a problem, but this sized plateful was served breakfast, lunch and dinner! like.
We rose in the morning to catch the ferry to our island resort. The ferry only heads out once a day and it took close to 5 hours to get to our drop off point. We transferred to a rickety motor boat and headed to our island.
We had booked to stay at the Seaspray Island Resort in a beach side thatched bure. We were greeted with huge smiles from our hosts and ushered into the dining shack. Here we met Sam and Lindsay a couple from Devon. They sat there with knowing looks as we were brought out our lunch! The plate was huge! We were served a massive portion of rice and dhal. A major theme of our stay was huge portions of food being served up at breakfast, lunch and dinner! Any crazy notion of possibly losing weight on our tropical desert island evaporated rapidly.
We were disappointed with the beach but were assured that just around the bay was the famous blue lagoon from the so titled film.
We wandered round to the lagoon to find crystal clear waters teaming with fish and spent the days snorkelling and lounging on the
beach willing our bodies to digest the last meal in preparation for the next!
The resort was basic with no electricity and the evening light supplied by the moon, stars and a gas lamp. The entertainment was provided in the form of a toddler with no fear and a few cute and cuddly kittens. The kittens spent the days chasing butterflies and could occasional be seen with the tail of a lizard sticking out the corner of their mouths whilst looking really chuffed with themselves!
The only nightmare was the bugs in the sand that massacred our feet. With a couple of bites, we then began rubbing our feet in the sand as a scratching method. This only caused more bites and boy they were itchy. At one point Amy had sat on the sand and ended up with 41 bites on her bum - so attractive!
On the 30th April I put into action my Master Plan and asked Amy to marry me whilst we were snorkelling in the blue lagoon. I had found a shell and placed a ring (cheapie) inside and placed it on the ocean floor. When Amy swan over I pointed at
the closed shell and dived down to pick it up. I handed it to Amy indicating that she should open it. Prior to this she had given it a shake and then almost dropped it. It wouldn’t have ruined the master plan but it would have knocked the wind out of it!
As the shell was opened I asked her to marry me. With a grin and talking via a snorkel I got the answer that I was after! This was a yes followed by a cough and spluttering fit. In hindsight proposing in water out of our depth may not have been the best idea!
We made best speed back to more manageable depths.
With nobody else staying that night at the resort, we dined by ourselves and on leaving the resort a few days later the only people that had been told of our news was the toddler and a kitten we had named Scraggle!
We left Fiji with smiles on our faces to our final country before heading home.
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Lesley and Eric
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Brilliant News - Congratulations
Well Congratulations you 2. Fantastic News. That's got to be the top of the list of Proposals Rob. All the Best - Love Lesley and Eric xx