Day 66: Arrival in Paradise (oops I mean Fiji)‏

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Our Air Pacific flight was good; the warm and friendly staff wear bright floral 'Fiji' uniforms and we even got dinner on our 5 hour flight! We stepped off the plane at 5am to a 'Bula welcome' with a band in floral shirts... Hello Paradise! Even though we were very early for check-in the hotel staff (Bedarra Beach Inn) poured us a welcome drink, popped a flower in our hair and had the room ready for us by 10. After a quick snooze we headed out to the beach. Horses roam up and down the beach (horse-rides too) and when the tide goes out you can walk out to the reef! We had a quick swim in the pool, followed by a happy hour cocktail (again being serenaded by a Fijian band), watched the sunset go down over the reef and finished the evening with a beautiful dinner on the terrace. James gets all the credit for picking the hotel; 10 steps to the beach, beautifully quiet, it only has 25 rooms and the staff are so smiley and helpful they really help you relax and get into 'Fiji time'. In fact, all the people we had seen today were so friendly and said 'Hello/Bula' to us. I'll say it one final time... Paradise!

Baileys bit: As we had missed breakfast we headed out for lunch to a small restaurant around the corner. One of the choices was a challenge called the 'Bula burger', finish the burger bu yourself and receive a free beer... challenge accepted! The burger contained two burgers, chicken, 2 eggs, beetroot, pineapple, salad, cheese all on a huge bun. A Canadian and American turned up and also ordered one each before I received mine, when they saw the size of it and who it was going to, one shouted out 'wow and its going to the skinny guy', clearly they did not know my eating prowess. 15 minutes later I finished the last tasty morsel and claimed my prize. The two boys looked as though they were struggling as we left!

Daily mileage: 2.5 I went out around 5 pm, roughly 5 hours after lunch but I felt awful and throughout the run was burping up the taste of the burger. Oops!

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