BULA!

Hello!

First of all, to all my family who have been trying but unable to reach me--despite the rumors, I am still alive! Please do not forget that my phone is often off or out of reception, and there are no internet cafes in the woods or on the beach, yet, thank god. Just assume no news is good news. ;-)

I put writing this off for too long, so now I have to remember the past two weeks as best as I can...

Peter and I left Seattle on January 6th, and arrived in Nadi, Fiji, on January 8th (2 days later because we crossed the international date line). We got off the plane and the mosquitoes were promptly informed that I was in town--they then called their friends in New Zealand to let them know a feast was on the way. Nevertheless, Fiji is gorgeous! Here we are jet-lagged after 20 hours of traveling. And here is our Doli saying goodbye for now!

I <3 Doli

Nice clouds on the plane

Our ENORMOUS overseas jet

Me & Pete

We were picked up on a shuttle from the airport and went to take a boat from a marina to Waya Island, on the Yasawa Islands chain. My favorite part about the ride were the flying fish that kept jumping out of the water and soaring through the air!

A very bumpy two-hour ride later we arrived at the island. There are three tribes on different parts of the island, and many of them work at the Octopus Resort where we stayed. The culture is an interesting mix of very old traditions and modern very conservative Christianity. They are forbidden to drink or to show much skin, but this was not an issue for those staying at the resort unless venturing to the local town areas (which we were not allowed to do on our own). Normally, in order to enter an island like this you need to bring an offering to the chief (like cassava or kava), but to simplify tourism, the resort does this once a week so we were allowed to stay there. Everyone seems to speak both Fijian and English, but they use a lot of Fijian words when speaking English. You're good to go once you know bula = hello. They had a welcoming ceremony for us involving singing and drinking kava--they were amazing musicians and very nice people. EVERYTHING that does not grow in their plantations has to be brought to the island, so our boat was full of supplies--mainly beer and toilet paper...

Kava welcome ceremony--it makes your mouth tingly and numb!

Casually throwing beer. These guys are really strong, they carried our heavy bags ashore wearing three at a time--one on back, one in front, and one on the head!

The beach was beautiful! Unfortunately, it poured every single day we were in Fiji, so many of the activities we wanted to do were cancelled (like night snorkelling and a mountain peak hike). Nice luck. But there were some good sun breaks so we still got to enjoy the island. We got to do some snorkelling on the reef right off the resort, which was full of colourful fish and corals. One day a local guide took us on a hike through the hills around the resort. He showed us where the plantations are--they grow bananas, coconut, mango, papaya, cassava, kava, and more, and they have some farm animals and the sea for fishing. He told us he works very hard on his crops and at the resort so he can send his six children to the mainland for school, because the island does not have a high school. The resort helps to support the primary school and seems to be their main source of income.

A view of the local village from our hike

We got to take a boat to one of the villages for a Sunday church service. We read about this months ahead of time because it is such a cool experience. The church was very simple, and the service was three hours long! Most of it was in Fijian, and the preacher was very animated, waving his arms, and even though we didn't speak the language we had ideas about what he was talking about--he had the entire church in laughter one minute, looks of horror the next. From what he translated to us, we should be pretty worried about burning in hell on a daily basis. The choir was wonderful and sang throughout the whole three hours--it was unlike anything I've ever heard. Towards the end of the service, everyone (excluding the tourists) went to the front of the church and chanted and meditated--many people were crying, and one woman was howling at the top of her lungs--it was very moving, and nice of them to invite us into their personal lives.

The food was absolutely amazing! They used as many ingredients from the island as possible, so everything was really fresh and seasonal. Continental breakfast with fresh baking and fruit and omelettes, menu lunch, and set three-course dinner, all for $30 a day. They always had something vegetarian for me. I tried fish a couple of times, and hated it more each time! Oh well. The dining tables were shared so we got to meet lots of people from all around the world. There were about 70 people staying at the resort. We met our wonderful friends Chris and Yuki, who are from New Zealand (Yuki originally from Japan) on the boat ride to the island, and they invited us to meet up with them once we got to Auckland! We also met an interesting man, Jim, who was staying on the island for a month--he travels five months out of every year!

We stayed in a shared dorm the first few nights, and as a surprise I upgraded us to a beautiful private hut for our last night. The roofs are made of palm leaves and the inside has exposed logs, which I think look really cool. We had a shower with no roof so you can look up at the sky!

Huge bugs! These fist-size moths were my favourite. We also found a (dead) fist-size black spider in our room one morning!

We had a great time at the Octopus resort and were sad to leave, but excited to start our next adventure in New Zealand! They sang a goodbye song as our boat left the island.

We spent one day on the mainland in Fiji, where it rained some more... but we took a nice long walk and befriended some local stray dogs and got really good Indian food--there are a lot of Indian people there due to a history of indentured servants, which has caused some tension as you might imagine.

Then on to NZ!

<3 Christina