8/16/12
I recently quit my job and am due to start a new position Sept 4th. As a way of celebrating and in honor of our 5 year wedding anniversary Alex and I headed off to Fiji for a 2 week scuba diving vacation. As with all of our vacations it is bound to be a bit unorthodox but a lot of fun.
Just to get to our first resort we had to do the following:
1) 1 hour drive to Denver Airport
2) 2.5 hour flight to LAX
3) 10 hour layover in LAX
-Bomb threat at LAX and domestic terminal was closed. We decided to take a chance and call a luggage storage place to come get our bags. Then we took a cab to the Santa Monica Peer. There we walked around, enjoyed the beach, had an amazing dinner at a Tapas restaurant, had a pint of beer at a bar and then took a cab back to LAX where we called the luggage people and prayed that they would actually bring our bags back to us. And they did Thank God!
The Pier at Santa Monica
Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica Beach
Don't we look happy?
4) 10 hour flight to Nadi, Fiji on Air Pacific and its REALLY cramped planes.
5) 6 hour lay over in Nadi
-We once again tested our luck by putting our bags in storage and then took a cab to downtown Nadi and wandered the market, bought some kava powder... still not so sure what to do with it but according to local custom it is suppose to make you calm. I think it is just a natural form of the KavaKava herb capsules we sell in the states. After wandering downtown Nadi for a few hours we headed back to the airport where we attempted to take naps by trying to lay down in metal airport chairs.
Oh my aching swollen cankles - how hideous.
6) 1 hour flight in a plane that had only 12 seats on it - including the pilot and co-pilot. The cockpit was open and it was really neat to watch them actually fly the plane. The veiw of the water below was AMAZING! And just as we were boarding my loving husband said to me "Oh by the way, did I mention to you that after we land we have to take a boat over an hour to the resort?" I just looked at him and said, "YOU ARE KIDDING ME RIGHT!?!" Nope he sure wasn't. As it turns out the boat ride was well over an hour but was absolutely stunning!
Airport on Kandavu and our plane.
Beautiful ocean water - the picture doesn't do the water color justice.
Beautiful!
The "town" - this is the hospital, post office, police station and grocery story all in one. It was an hour by boat away from where we were.
7) We left our house Tuesday morning and finally arrived at Papaganue Resort on Kandavu Island, Fiji Thursday afternoon. It really was only about 36 hours in total but since we crossed the international date line we lost a day.
And boy oh boy was the 36 hours of travel worth it!!! The view from our bure is spectacular. After lunch today we took our time unpacking and then sat on the beach all after noon. I have sat on many beaches in my life time but this is the only one I have ever been where as I sit and watch the water, fish are literally jumping out of the water in front of my eyes. It is really cool. The color of the water here is unbelievable! The contrast between the white sandy shores and the deep turquoise water is stunning.
Tomorrow we start the next part of the adventure and are going diving! Can't wait.
The resort overall is fairly small and is "all inclusive" - this just means they provide us with our meals which are what ever they cooked for us. It kind of has to be as there is literally nothing else on the island. The food so far has been great and they cook all organic and grow all their own food. We only get a choice of what one dish they made that meal. I may actually loose a bit of weight on this trip, doubt it! There are two other couples here, one is from Italy and are about my parents age, on a vacation around the world, and the other is a couple from Toronto with a 6 year old boy and 4 year old little girl. We all sit around the table to eat and try to converse in English.
So far it has been a great start to what will be undoubtedly a wonderful and memorable vacation.
Our Bure
The inside
Welcome Drinks
The Beach outside out Bure
Alex chills on the beach. They have 4 pet dogs at the resort and we befriended them quickly. The one closest to Alex to took to calling Petunia because she was only a year old and a bit of a spaz like our petunia.
View from our Bure
View of some of the resort grounds.
Where I spent several of my afternoons relaxing.
If I wanted a nap I walked down the beach a bit and rested here instead.
A Pineapple growing on the grounds.
so nice!
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