Early on Thursday morning, I caught the shuttle bus back to the Melbourne airport. I have never spent so much time in airports when traveling. But, there I was again. For the second time, I did not have to show my ID. No passport at the bag drop counter, no passport or driver's license at the security check point...nothing. Very laxed here is seems... My flight was good. I was happy to be flying during daylight. All of my flights in Fiji and here have been at night so I can never see anything. Finally, some from the air perspective! It was about an hour flight and since it was very cloudy, my sightseeing was cut very short. I didn't see anything again until we were on our approach near Hobart. Hobart sits on the southeast ... read more

Well, my departure from Fiji was uneventful, which is always nice. I forgot to mention on my last Fiji blog that I've had the first causualty of the trip. After many years with me and traveling to many countries, my watch has died. The band broke and the alarm stopped working so I am not armed with a new watch that I got for a pretty good price. Now, I can tell time and wake up for all the activities in Australia! My flight landed in Brisbane at 10:30 PM. Through a friend of mine, I had connected with a friend of his and ended up with a place to stay and tour guide of Brisbane. I hopped in a taxi and had a very nice 30 min drive or so to Jason's (the friend of ... read more

Here are some of the photos that I was finally able to upload. These are from my farewell party at the school, my weekend in Pacific Harbor, my last day at school and then my final weekend at Manta Ray Island Resort. Enjoy! CJ... read more

Well, after my last entry, I decided to take a walk to the Hot Bread Company where I heard they sold these sausage roll pastry things. O...M...G!!! Yeah, they were so good I had two! Thank god I did not discover these earlier in my trip! To explain, its a lamb sausage in a croissant like pastry. Or, a little slice of heaven in a roll! I've had several since my discovery... Thursday night I went home with Teacher Shavin to her home and had dinner. It was SOOOO good! I met her 14 yr old son and played with her 4 yr old daughter, Crystal. She's also in the kindy with us, so I see her every day, but all day at school she was talking about me going to her house. Some of the ... read more

So on Friday night, my host family turned on the TV to watch the rugby league that is regional teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. It's official...I'm an addict! I was so into the game and I didn't even know which team was which! Now I want to learn how to play - don't worry mom, I won't do that while I'm traveling :-) On Saturday I woke up leisurely....well as leisurely as I could with the roaster. I really don't like that bird! I decided to spend the day in Suva seeing the sites that the city had to offer. I took the mini-bus into the city and at first tried to find a regular bus to take me across town to the museum. It was raining and I wasn't in the mood ... read more