Bula from Fiji!

For those of you who don't know the story, a few weeks ago we answered an ad in the NZ Herald and are now housesitting a beautiful beachside home for a lovely Kiwi couple.  For 3 months!!

The house and location are just wonderful.  We're staying on the Coral Coast of Viti Levu, the largest of the Fijian islands.     For any of you who may have been to these parts, we're just a few minutes drive from Hideaway Resort in one direction, and the Naviti in the other.  The house has its own stretch of beach, so we only have to stroll down the sand and we're in the water for a snorkel around the coral.  Both Riley and Declan are now keen and competent snorkellers, although Flynn hasn't shown much interest to date. 

Flynn, however, has become a very competent little swimmer and can get around the pool by himself no worries.  Can't say his style is exactly textbook, but keeping safe is the main thing at this stage and he has definately mastered that.  Of course he wants to keep up his big brothers, and us having the time to supervise and encourage has been the key.

Much of the boys' time is taken up with finding and comparing hermit crabs, swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, and general beachcombing.   Riley is determined to climb the tallest of coconut trees before leaving here, and at the rate he's going he'll make it.  Paul has taken some lessons from the locals in the art of opening the green coconuts with a cane knife (machete) and we all enjoy drinking the fresh milk.

Declan had chickenpox when we arrived, and Flynn has had them since, but I reckon we got off quite lightly as neither of them were too sick or uncomfortable with it.

Twice a week we "go to town" to do our shopping in Sigatoka, about a 20 minute drive away.  It's an unremarkable but friendly little town (pop about 8000) and has most of everything you could want there.  We buy our fruit and veg at the market and have meat delivered, which is excellent quality.  I'm finding the whole gluten-free thing a bit of a challenge here, although there's no shortage of rice or potatoes to keep me from fading away.

We regularly go to one of the resorts for lunch and make use of  their facilities, and have checked out a few local sights, like the eco Park Zoo where we got to hold iguanas and a baby boa constrictor.  Today has been the first really wet day since we arrived, and we've been treated to a series of real tropical downpours - quite dramatic and exciting.

As you can tell from the lack of info, we have all slowed down to "Fiji Time" and don't really do alot.  Getting our new technology up and running continues to be a bit of a challenge, but stops us from grinding to a complete intellectual halt.  So far we've conquered the broadband installation hurdles and got the new still camera talking to the laptop, however skype is still alluding us and our new Sony handycam takes great footage but we can't download it.  Ahhh, the stress of it all!

On Christmas day we plan to go to the local Catholic church, which should be an experience, and then onto the Naviti for their special Xmas lunch.  I believe Santa will be making an appearance before lunch so it should be a fun day and very very easy for me as there's no cooking involved.

Will make an effort to keep this blog happening now I've started it.  Merry Christmas to you all, and a Happy 2008.

Mich, Paul, Riley, Declan and Flynn.