Lost in Transportation

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Happy New Year Everyone, deputy editor Tina at the keyboard today.We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed seeing us sunning on the beach with our Christmas message.

We had an interesting Christmas and New Year on the island of Kadavu in Southern Fiji and for me Christmas eve was certainly a day of calamity.
We arrived at our resort in Kadavu on the 23rd, just as it turned dark due to delays, but whilst we managed to get a flight to the island, on a little 12 seater our luggage did not quite make it. We had promises that it would arrive next day. I spent most of Christmas Eve re-enacting the scene from the French Lieutenant's Woman, staring out to sea for a boat with our luggage; as darkness fell it was clear it was not coming (calamity 1). As I returned to the bar I somehow managed to step on the only bee on the island. I had to hop to the office to ask the manager for a pair of tweezers to remove the rather large sting! (calamity 2). The manager and her daughter took great pity on me and persuaded me to use some of their clothes to enjoy the Christmas Eve party. Freshly showered and wearing the daughter's skirt I decided to take my glass of wine to where the villagers were preparing a Lovo (food cooked in an underground oven - delicious). As I stood there I could feel my right leg becoming increasingly wet. I looked down to see one of the Island dogs cocking his leg and peeing all over me and my borrowed skirt - I kid you not! (calamity 3). I think what was even worse was having to explain to the manager and her daughter that her skirt would be returned smelling of urine and please not to think it was me carrying out some form of dirty protest over our lost luggage!. At that point I could see the manager clearly wondering if there was a way she could get me off her resort before anything else happened. Thankfully after that the rest of the evening was fantastic with great food, good company and the local villagers visiting to sing christmas carols in their amazing voices.
The rest of our stay thankfully was uneventful but enjoyable. Kadavu is situated near the famous Astrolobe Reef and we had some amazing snorkelling experiences; Swimming with huge schools of parrot fish and having extremely large white tipped reef sharks swimming around us, swimming through stunning coral gardens.

We spent a lovely lunch time at a spectacular waterfall, which after a couple of days of rain was quite interesting to climb to - or more acurately slip and slide to, and there was nothing quite like sitting with your feet in the pool and drinking wine!
The beaches were nice, but it appeared that my lack of chocolate over the last few months has been getting to me as even the shells on the beach started to remind me of a box of Guylain chocolates (see picture). Although you can see from the size of the fish in the attached photo that going hungry was never going to be a problem.

New Years Eve was fun, sharing it with the locals, accompanied by too much alcohol, Kava and fireworks.
Whilst we had an enjoyable time, we were both quite pleased to be leaving the island after 10 days and get moving on to city life. We flew from Kadavu to Suva, the major city in the South and had a very pleasant day visiting the local museum, which houses artifacts from HMS Bounty and also from the age of Cannabilism. We visited handicrafts markets and managed to purchase a copy of a Fijian hunting axe and a fork that the cannibals used to eat human flesh.

Our last port of call in Fiji was back towards Nadi and a place called Stoney Creek on Sabeto. It was a fabulous place to end our stay, high up in the hills with spectacular views, friendly staff and fantastic food.
Yesterday we flew to Auckland and are staying with one of Daren's old friend's, Noddy, and for the next few days will certainly be enjoying home comforts before we pick up our camper van and hit the road - we look forward to updating you all on our journey as it unfolds.

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Photos

Pre-Drinks Dip
Enjoying the refreshing, if not cold, waterfall

Life is like a box of chocolates
If only they were real

Something Fishy in the Kitchen
That's lunch - what's for dinner?

Poni and his pipe of peace
New Year celebrations

Comments

[paul]

Finally Arrived
Well it's good to catch up with Bungle again.

[Danny T]

Happy New Years
Sounds like you're having a great time. Loved the picture of the packet of fags - good trick to use the spider as perspective. I was in Denmark for Xmas and New Years Eve, no lost luggage, small childrens clothing or dog pee (alas) but It sounds like we all had a good share of fish and fireworks.

[Helen Gray]

What a lucky pair!
Sounds fantastic. I'm getting increasingly jealous every time I read your blog. Think I'll have to persuade Mr Gray that travelling with babies could work. I spend my days up to my elbows in nappies and dribble (although that's not a complaint). Keep having fun and just think of everyone stuck here with the wind and rain. XXX