5 Days in Fiji

BULA!! (Hello/Welcome in Fijian)
Here is the first attempt at a blog for our upcoming adventures. Brace yourselves- This first entry covers five days on the islands!

We arrived in Fiji after a drama-filled flight from LA: an elderly lady sitting behind us had a heart attack which caused an emergency landing in Hawaii. Jen and I moved from our seats to avoid the smell of vomit and were then seated in first class for the remainder of the flight. (Can't complain about that!) We hated that it was in such a bizarre and unfortunate circumstance, but we were grateful for the additional attention, extra leg room, and celeb spoting of Nick Lachey! (We had spotted John Legend earlier in the day at brunch in LA!)

After the 10+hour flight to Fiji on Nov 1 we took a 2 hour ferry ride to the island of Malolo where we stayed at Walu Beach Resort. We were two of 6 people staying at the resort so we really felt like we were the only people on the whole island and it almost seemed like we owned the place. There were hammocks, white sand, palm trees, and aqua water galore. Can you imagine anything better?? We can only hope that our pictures do it justice. We rested, relaxed, swam, snorkeled, kayaked, and sun bathed. It was great!! The scenery was definitely not what we were used to in Atlanta!

After three days on our "own" island, we took the ferry back to the mainland. We checked into a hostel that didn't have anything close to the views we became accustomed to (but it did have some nasty critters) but at least it was close to the airport for our flight to Oz. After we arrived at the hostel, we booked a half day trip for a hike through the mountains to a waterfall and mud pool, which included lunch. If only we had known what lunch was going to entail.... We had to sit on the floor of a shack in the middle of nowhere and eat off of plastic plates from the Rainforest Cafe (who knew!) with plastic silverware (that I'm sure they reuse) and rabid dogs sticking their heads in the doorways which don't actually have doors. (Did I mention the mainlands aren't quite as resort-like as the private islands?) We picked at our food pretending to enjoy it in our "cleanly" surroundings and were eager to move on to the rest of the tour.

We hiked through the mountains and saw some fruit plants/trees and other natural surroundings (cows?) that were pretty cool and we eventually found our way to a waterfall. The whole time we were getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes even after we applied multiple layers of bug repellent, but we were troopers and eventually made our way back to the starting point where we were met by locals who then took us to to the thermal mud baths. It was a little scary at first, but once we got in and felt the mud ooze between our toes, we couldn't help but enjoy it. We covered ourselves from head to toe for a few pics, which hopefully we'll be able to post soon. After the hot mud, it was on to even hotter temperatures in the natural hot springs. And when they say hot, they mean HOT!!! It felt like a kettle that we stepped into. We eventually got used to the temperatures just long enough to rinse most of the mud off. (Though there was still plenty found in our bathing suits, ears, finger nails, etc. later!)

Yesterday we went on an all-day boat cruise that went to "Mystery Island" where we went scuba diving. We saw some cool fish including sting rays among MANY other fish which we have no clue what they're called. But we did find Nemo!! Unfortunately we got a little rained on, but it was the only poor weather we saw in 5 days and it was for less than an hour so we really can't complain. (Especially since we are WAY more tan then most of you back in the states.) =)

We leave for Sydney today which unfortunately (majorly unfortunate) I looked at the wrong time on the plane ticket and we have mutiple hours to spare here at the airport. My first major travel faux pas and I owe Jen big time!!!!
Wish us luck on our journey to Oz and all the unkowns that lay ahead of us. Stay tuned for more updates on our blog!

xoxo,
Kari & Jen