Blogs from Fiji, Oceania - page 6

Our boat leaves the harbour at 830am, which meant we had to be up for our bus ride to the harbour before that, and eating breakfast well before that. I slept hard in my air conditioned room, the last for a week. I was going to miss that luxury. It gets very hot and humid out on the islands. Smuggler's Cove breakfast was a buffet of random things like fruit and instant coffee. I hated drinking instant coffee in the Ireland hostels years ago- this is what that reminded me of. I normally drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day back home, so my one solid cup of coffee was being downgraded further lol. Oh well, when in Rome. The big modern bus drove a hoarde of us to the harbour for our water taxi. We ... read more

A big 'Bula!' to everyone today from an extremely friendly Fiji. We write poolside, in the shade, after a misguided day in the sun yesterday left us resembling a couple of lobsters. We also write as America, 17 hours behind, goes to the polls after nothing short of a brutal campaign. By the time this post is written however, H. D. R. Clinton will inevitably be the new President. The last week has seen its fair share of travelling as we headed trans-Pacific, leaving behind a month of magnificent memories in Latin America, and arriving in Auckland after fast forwarding a day through crossing the date line. Despite hearing mixed reviews about Auckland as a soulless metropolis that didn't represent the true Kiwi spirit, we were very pleasantly surprised. With the sun shining we strolled through ... read more

Geo: -17.61, 177.45With the Melanesian Championships finished and Fletcher's course complete we had one day where we could just be tourists. Fletcher had made sure we could have a night to go to First Landing, a resort just north of Nadi on the road to Lautoka.. He had been there several times before and wanted to take me to dinner there. Last week we decided to stay there too so I went online and booked the last available roo, Tis happened to be a Villa which originally was priced at $236. Though that was more expensive than we would usually pay the description of the place told me there were two King sized beds, a living roo and kitchen. So I thought it was worth it. It turned out that the price quoted was in US ... read more

Geo: -18.1333, 178.417The weather has remained cool and overcast during the past three days. The temperature has been in the low twenties but the annoying light rain and cool winds have made outdoor activities unpleasant. Fletcher and I went over to the Peninsula Hotel on Saturday evening to have a drink with the course participants. There are several Aussies and New Zealanders as well as coaches from Tuvalu, Samoa, Tonga etc. Andrea, an American now living in Guam, bought us the first drink. She is a lovely lady and we had a great chat about American politics as well as other topics. I had gone into the library earlier in the day to try to find out how the Australian election was faring. It is much closer than I thought it would be and it looks ... read more

Geo: -18.1333, 178.417Fletcher was asked to run a Jumps Coaches course in Suva leading up to the Melanesian Championships and so I was pleased to be able to go with him. It must be at least 20 years since I have been to Fiji so it was time to revisit a country I had enjoyed previously.We first flew to Brisbane where after a short wait we boarded a Fiji Airlines plane for Suva. It was full and we were seated around the middle which meant that when the meal was served we were one of the last to receive it. Fortunately it was only a 3 hour flight so the time passed quickly.Om arrival at Nadi we had to change terminals to catch a plane for Nausori, the airport which serves Suva. Here we ran into ... read more