Bula!
After 2 weeks on Rarotonga, I headed for Fiji where I spent 2 generally lazy, sometimes highly frustrating weeks before I got itchy feet AGAIN and moved my flight up to New Zealand. I spent a week on Mana Island and saw some incredible sunsets! Also ate lots of rice and taro leaves, so once back on the big island, my travel buds of the moment and I decided to splurge and go out for pizza! L-R: Sara (Welsh), Louisa (English), Me, Suzanne (Scottish) and Kirstin (English)
We then headed over to Nananu-I-Ra for another week where there was nothing to do but sunbathe and snorkel. Needless to say, I got VERY tan.
Fiji, however, was not quite what I had expected. I was expecting more of what I got in the Cooks which was spectacularly lush and beautiful islands. Fiji is drier, hotter and more barren. It looks like the Rockies just sunk into the Pacific. The barren, treeless tops of the Rockies. The beaches weren't as white and the flora wasn't as beautiful, but call me a spoiled brat after Raro. It was still quite nice though, in spite of the mozzies. I think the most difficult thing for me to adjust to was the attitude of the locals which I was getting very frustrated with by the time I left. Let me explain; everything in Fiji operates on "Fiji time" which means basically that if you are scheduled to leave at 9:00am, you may leave anywhere between 9:00am and noon. Enough said.
The water, however, in Fiji was absolutely divine with some great coral and heaps of good snorkelling!
Here we are on Honeymoon Island. Talk about some blue, blue water!