Escaping to Paradise: Bula! from beautiful Fiji!

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The three hour plane ride from Auckland, NZ to Nadi, Fiji gave me a chance to transition from my experience in NZ to looking foward to my time in Fiji. Flying over the south pacific, i was expecting to see a glimpse of several little green spots floating in a deep blue sea, which I imagined was Fiji in the Pacific. But as the plane approached, I was surprised at how large the islands really seemed! The main island, Viti Levu is quite large in comparision to the Islands I would spend most of my time on. FIji is comprised of 322 islands scattered in the ocean. he main island, Viti Levu holds the country's capital, Suva, and its largest city, Nadi.

Arriving in Nadi airport, I was instantly aware I was no longer in NZ because of the warm air, and the smell of salt in the breeze. As we disembarked the plane we were greeted by a troupe of singing and dancing and guitar/ukele playing fijians- sigh ...welcome to Fiji!

Here in Fiji, the fijians say BULA! with a huge smile and a friendly wave. Bula I have com to realize means everything from, Hey, how are ya? to Awesome, cool, sounds good, thanks a lot!

Nirmal, our driver helped us with our bags, and cheerfully told us about his country. Lauren was in the mood for some fresh mangoes, so Nirmal took us in his old white van (the airport shuttle) to the local fresh market. We were the only non-locals there, and it was such a great way to start the fijian experience...shopping for fresh fruit with th elocal fijians! Nirmal bought us a bag of passion fruit and jackfruit, it was my first time trying both.

We pulled up to our hostel, Aqaurius Pacific , around dinner time, and were able to catch the last glimpse of the sunsetting on the ocean behind the hostel. We laid in he hammocks, ate some dinner of fresh fruit and talked with Henry, a guy from the UK, before heading to bed.


Bula friends, shelly

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Photos

Fijian Paradise
The view from our hostel

Breakfast at nandi
We grabbed some breakfast before boarding the ferry to South Sea

Comments

[charles]

fake photo
that photo of "the view from our hostel" is so fake. stop kidding yourself; you couldn't have been anywhere as that beautiful!