Vinaka vaka levu means thank you very much in Fijian. We arrived in Hawaii on Saturday evening after eight days on the island of Denarau in Fiji. They call Denarau an island but it is basically part of Viti Levu, which is the biggest of the Fijian islands. Getting to Fiji from New Zealand was yet another adventure. We booked our flight from Christchurch via Fiji Airways (FA) and knew that we had a layover in Auckland but didn’t realize what a cluster cuss it would be. The first thing we didn’t realize was that FA booked our connecting flight to Auckland on Jet Star which basically is the Spirit Airlines of New Zealand. For any of you that know how bad Spirit is about nickel and diming everything, imagine that. The first annoyance was when we had to pay $300 to get our luggage to Auckland because of bag restrictions. We had no choice, we had to get our luggage to Fiji, and had we known that they were going to have astronomical fees, we would have booked our own flight to Auckland on a more reputable airline. In all the flights that we have taken we’ve never had fees that high. It is what it is, and we allowed for three hours in Auckland before we boarded our flight to Fiji, so we figured we could just consolidate our bags once we got there because FA had a more generous bag allowance.
We arrived at the Christchurch airport three hours early and we noticed right away that the two other Jet Star flights that were scheduled to depart before ours were already delayed…not a good sign. As our flight kept getting delayed, and then delayed again, we began to get worried about making our connection. We ended up being two hours delayed so by the time we landed we only had an hour before our flight left. We had to grab our bags from baggage claim; three rolling bags, a giant backpack, and four smaller backpacks and run 15 minutes to the International Terminal in 80 degree weather. When we arrived at the International Terminal it said the bag check was closed. Dave said we had to try because on top of all of this there is only one flight per week to Fiji and if we missed it we were basically SOL. We started praying and God sent an angel to the bag check that let us check our bags, for another $300 because we didn’t have time to consolidate, and informed us that she graciously gave us express boarding passes for security because our flight was already boarding! We ran to security, got through after the x-ray belt stopped working for ten minutes, and then ran to our gate and by the grace of God made our flight! Whew!
Everything else went smoothly arriving in Fiji and getting to our resort. I can’t say enough about how incredibly friendly and generous the Fijian people are. We have a few milestones coming up that we told them we were celebrating and they really showed us the love! The next morning it was pretty nice out so I was able to walk along the beach, explore around the property and visit the port while Dave finished up work for the weekend. Before we arrived we knew that we were visiting toward the end of Fiji’s rainy season, which is November-April, and when I asked Google about it it said that it doesn’t rain all day everyday and most people reported nice weather. Well there just so happened to be a very slow moving, non-threatening, cyclone about 400 km south of Fiji that created a major weather event, and starting Saturday afternoon it basically did not stop raining for the next four days! Initially our plan was to stay in Fiji for two weeks but after two full days of being holed up in our hotel room, we knew there was no way we could take 13 more days of it, so we decided to change our plans and leave a week early. Luckily we were able to change our flight, for a fee, and we were able to cancel the second place we were going to stay without a penalty. I am proud of us for pivoting and giving ourselves what we needed.
Luckily the weather improved sometime around Wednesday evening. We were able to get a couples massage at the spa one day. Another day we rode the Bula Bus around Denarau and visited the port. Then the day before we left we took an incredible island hopping/ snorkeling tour to the outer islands. It was pretty special to finally get to see the amazing blue waters that you see in all the pictures of Fiji, and that you only get when you are off of Viti Levu . We saw beautiful sea life and white sand beaches which made it a pretty magical day. All in all we’re very happy that we went to Fiji and would love to return some day just not during the rainy season. 🙂
We are now in Hawaii for the next three weeks. It is nice to back on Oahu, in Waikiki. It is fun being somewhere we’ve already been and not having to do a ton of research. It is funny, even after only a week in Fiji, how much we missed being able to do laundry and go to the grocery store. It’s the little things amiright? It is also wild being on this side of the International Dateline for the 1st time since Sept 20th! We have definitely been experiencing reverse culture shock. Just a few of the questions that we have asked ourselves since arriving are; what day, time, year, month is it? What continent are we on? What side of the sidewalk are we supposed to walk on? And the one I have found the most comical is, what is $12 in USD? 🤣 I’m sure it’ll take some time to adjust. At least the time change hasn’t been too hard on us even though we went back a day. And we still didn’t know what day it was after six months on the other side of the International Dateline so who knows?!
I’m glad we’re easing back into our time in the US starting in Hawaii while continuing to embrace “island time.” It will be interesting for me to return to having to be hyper aware of my surroundings, specifically when I’m solo exploring, especially after being in the countries we have been in the past six months and feeling more safe than I have ever felt anywhere we have traveled. I’m sure there will also be some adjusting to the sticker shock of how much things, like groceries, have continued to increase in price. We still haven’t decided where we’ll go after our visit to the Midwest in May and we’ll just continue to trust that the Universe will guide us where we’re meant to go.
I hope that this finds you happy and well wherever you are!
Love, Alison
