Au revoir Auckland, Bula Fiji!

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Today it's time to hit the next country - Fiji - so I'm up early to pack and get ready to leave Ray and Monique's. They've been such lovely hosts for the last few days that it's a shame to go, especially as the Auckland weather picked up yesterday after the previous days of rain rain and more rain.

After a stop to pick up a trailer for Monique and Ray to move furniture about today, I said a sad farewell to them at the airport before checking in for my flight to Nadi. At check in, I was greeted by a less than friendly face who was rude in asking for proof of onward travel as well as telling me there wasn't a vegetarian meal to be had en-route for me. Great. Not a good start. Having wrestled through my bag for proof of me leaving Fiji for Hawaii in just over a week's time, I carried on upstairs to get a couple of presents and a bite to eat before the flight.

Just before boarding I went to find my phone to switch it off.

Cue panic.

No phone to be found.

The Swiss army knife of backpacks failed to produce the goods. The phone wasn't there. Cold sweats, hot sweats - I had the lot. The phone that has all 300 of my numbers, all my photos for the last 2 years and over 2000 (yes I know - should be better at deleting them) text messages, full of incriminating evidence, gone.

The sleep I was planning for the flight didn't happen as a direct result. Far too stressed to sleep. Panic stricken about its whereabouts and unable to call a soul, I was given my inflight meal of a chicken sandwich. Great....just gets better...

On arrival at Nadi and it's like a different world. Firstly, after the cold of NZ, the heat and humidity hits you. And then you have no idea where to go. No signs to tell you where to leave, and people grabbing you asking where you're going. Having travelled to certain places in the past where revealing this information is almost definitely committing traveller suicide, I refused to part with any. Turns out my suspicions were totally unfounded. Overly cautious me nearly missed my courtesy bus as a result. Hopeless.

I met a couple of fellow lone travellers on the bus to Smuggler's, my backpackers in Nadi. They are island-hopping for a couple of weeks while I've made no plans beyond tomorrow. Fly by the seat of my pants, me. I'll wait to hear island recommendations before sorting any of that out. The bus took us through the barely-tarmacked roads lined with coconut palms to the place I'll be calling home for two nights.

The backpackers is great - there's a spa, pool and a beachfront (although admittedly the beach isn't all that, and the water is murky, but from afar, looks pretty and like paradise). I'm in a 4 dorm with a dodgy Australian and a Swedish couple who tend to wee together in our en-suite bathroom. I'll say no more.

This evening's entertainment is a dancing troupe who specialise in bringing dances from all the Pacific Islands to us backpackers, including juggling with knives and fire dancing. They left the latter two best bits until last, and danced for their lives for over an hour and a half in the most humid of conditions before that. The lads in the bar turned away as the male dance troupe gave it their all dressed in their traditional sarongs only, then came crawling back to the floor when the Tahitian girls turned up to shimmy their backsides in their direction...

Fiji looks like paradise, even though I'm told the mainland isn't great and I need to get to the islands. I feel in paradise already, however I know the best is yet to come. Tomorrow I'll decide where I'm heading but for now, it's time to kick back, enjoy some sunshine after all the cold of NZ and try to get a tan before I go home. Here's hoping...

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