Life in New Zealand: The Rest of Fiji and Arriving in New Zealand

So this post is long overdue and for that I sincerely apologize. It's also exceptionally long and for that I also apologize. Hopefully you wont find reading it too mind-numbing. Enjoy! (If you don't want to read it there are pictures at the end)

Also note that I started this post about two weeks ago and just now got around to finishing it, so some of the timing in the references to things might seem off. Again my apologies.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to actually sit down and write anything meaningful. Turns out wifi in Fiji isn't all that easy to come by. Who would've thought that a third world country wouldn't have abundant, reliable internet access? Fortunately I've vacated that godforsaken archipelago for the greener pastures of Dunedin, New Zealand.

I, of course, am completely kidding. Fiji is absolutely stunning and I am immensely sorry that my obligations forced me to depart so soon. The islands are pristine, the people are amazingly accommodating as well as phenomenally friendly, the weather is perfect, the flowers are beautiful, the kava is ever-flowing; it's really quite difficult to find any negative words to say about Fiji. In a nutshell, the place is paradise. The laid back attitude of the people further contributes to the blissful relaxation that the South Pacific imparts on its visitors. Time, as a construction, ceases to exist. It's always the same time in Fiji, and that time is Fiji time. Although I believe it would do the western world a great service to take a page out of the book of Fijian lifestyle, the concept of Fiji time, which I came to love so much, also paradoxically caused quite a few headaches along the way, as I will explain soon enough.

I last left off at the Coral Coast. My that seems like a long time ago now. So much has happened since then! (You're going to have to bear with me, this is gonna be a long post....) Our remaining time at the Beach House was nothing short of brilliant; the weather was absolutely excellent and the snorkeling was astounding! Rachel had a close encounter with a barracuda which, understandably, scared her well more than half to death. Naturally Reid and I have spent a good portion of our time singing Ooo Barracuda since the incident. We spent much of our time playing pool as well, while interacting with the various characters staying in the hostel, and wow were there some characters. We met a strongly opinionated Canadian by the name of Luke, who had spirited political views about Fiji as well as a thirst for Fiji Bitter (domestic beer) and an appetite for Thai prostitutes; a handful of missionaries from Europe and the States, one of whom who's a geologist skeptical of both radiometric dating techniques and evolution; a couple from Switzerland who have spent 6 months traveling and will continue to travel for the next 6 months; and a few other less animated people from the various corners of the earth. It made us sad to leave, but all good things must come to an end, and we were quite eager to head to Taveuni. It is on this journey that we came to understand the true meaning of the term "Fiji time......."

It all began Friday morning when we called Henry, our friend from Bamboo and acting budget travel agent, to ask whether or not his friend Melee (pronounce Mel-ee) would still meet us at Beach House and travel with us to Suva in order to catch the ferry to Taveuni. He assured us that Melee had left this morning and would arrive at Beach House around noon. Well, noon came and went and Melee never appeared. A little put off but not thinking too much of it, Reid, Rachel and I went out to the street to catch a bus, which turned out to be a run-of-the-mill minivan. The drive took about 1 hour through gorgeous countryside along the coral coast. Upon arriving in Suva, we purchased tickets for the 6:30 ferry at the company that Henry had recommended and proceeded to wander around the docks looking for a place to eat. After a delicious meal of cheap chinese food, we headed back to the docks to check in for our ferry and who did we bump into along the way but Melee accompanied by some other Taveuni-bound Bamboo patrons. He explained apologetically why he didn't meet us at Beach House (I can't recall what his reason was at the moment) and then told us to buy a ticket for the ferry run by Consort Shipping. Henry, unfortunately told us to buy a ticket from Bligh Shipping, which turned out to be delayed by 2 hours. After attempting, unsuccessfully, to get a refund from Bligh Shipping, we reluctantly went to wait for our ferry while Melee and company boarded theirs.

More than a little frustrated at this point, Reid and I ventured out into Suva in search of beer, as Maqai Beach, our final destination, sells none. Fortunately, the dock is but a stones throw away from the Fiji brewery. Although skeptical that the brewery would sell beer, we figured we had nothing to lose. We wondered around the building until we found a door and as soon as we entered (a security guard had to buzz us in) we were sure that they did not sell beer; the plush leather couches and blasting A/C indicated as much. They kindly directed us to the yellow building next door. We cheerfully thanked them and headed that direction. To our surprise, however, we arrived not at a convenience store, grocery store nor even a liquor store, but rather a auto parts store that specialized in hydraulic hoses. Very confused, we entered and hesitantly inquired about their brewski selection. The man behind the counter directed us to a shady-looking alley around the back of the building where we found four men sitting in a pick-up truck next to a wall of empty 750 ml bottles of Fiji Bitter. After asking them if they sold beer they spoke among themselves in Fijian for maybe 5 minutes before one man said "come with me." He and a compatriot led me and Reid through an a side door protected by iron bars and up a dark staircase. Needless to say at this point we were fairly apprehensive about the situation that we'd gotten ourselves into and found ourselves evaluating potential exit strategies should the negotiations turn sour. The men led us into a room full of an odd assortment of alcohol and antiques (really strange combination of stuff) before disappearing into a back room that appeared to be a kitchen. About 10 minutes later one of the men reappeared mid-cell phone conversation and paused briefly to ask Reid to read a number written on a desk.
"43.55" Reid replied
"That's how much for one case. Do you only want once case?"
"Yeah one case should be plenty."
"Alright, only seven of them are cold though. Sorry about that."
We payed the men $43 FJD, they carried the case outside for us and off we went in complete disbelief of what had just happened. I've had a lot of a crazy experiences buying beer in my day, but that one definitely takes the cake.

After getting back to the docks and laughing for a while about the whole beer-purchase situation the ferry finally began boarding. While in line to have our tickets checked, though, the locals informed us that we could not bring beer onto the boat. We frantically stuffed 12 750ml bottles into our luggage while a crowd of Fijians curiously looked on. We successfully concealed the contraband, however, and made our way onto the ferry to a row of seats. Relieved, we settled in. Little did we know that we would spend the next 27 hours riding ferries and arrive in Taveuni 12 hours later than expected. Due to mechanical difficulties we had to switch ferries when we reached the second largest island of Vanua Levu, which added another 2 hours to our already delayed journey. To top it off, the man sitting behind us on the first ferry snored SO LOUD and slept literally the entire trip. His snoring was so loud that he occasionally woke himself up. I really hope that he's not married, because I would never wish the experience of sleeping in the same room with that man upon any human being. Ever.

Once we finally arrived in Taveuni, a driver named John picked us up and took us to a hostel in Lavena for the night, as it was too late to catch the transfer to Maqai Beach (which is located on Qamea, a small island off the coast of Taveuni). The drive took about 1 1/2 hours on the dirt road (there is only one road on Taveuni) through many little villages. We eventually reached Lavena and John took us into the hostel, which was pitch black and had no electricity (many places turn off their electricity when they don't need it and there were no other guests there). "Have a seat," John said before getting back into his truck with all of our luggage and driving off into the night, leaving us alone in the hostel with no belongings and no source of light. Fortunately Jonas, one of three Danes that we were traveling with, had his camera and was able to take pictures of the room until we found a candle and some matches. About 10 minutes later some flashlights appeared in the distance and some locals from the town arrived to check us in and give us rooms. John also eventually returned with our luggage, relieving us of our fear that he had taken off with it. People really trust each other in Fiji, which is a really amazing thing, but also a bit nerve-racking for us from the western world who have been taught that strangers shouldn't be trusted....

Anyway, everything worked out in the end and the next morning we got picked up by Bill, a employee at Maqai Beach, in the village boat and taken over to Qamea. My goodness what a beautiful island. There are no roads on Qamea and it is completely uninhabited except for four small villages and a seven star resort (that's not a typo, it's one of only two seven star resorts in the world, but more about that later) that's on an island near by. Maqai beach is amazing as well. It's located directly on the beach and consists of 10-15 small tents that contain anywhere from one double bed to 3 sets of bunk beds, an outdoor toilet and an outdoor shower. The main common area consists of a few couches and tables set directly in the sand underneath a gazebo type roof. The place had three different rope swings as well, one of which allowed you to swing right out over the water at high tide. Interspersed throughout the property were many banana and papaya trees, among other types of fruit. And my god were the stars amazing out there. I have never in my life seen so many stars. I wish that normal cameras could take pictures of them but, alas, they can't. The people there were also quite cool.

The absolute coolest thing about Maqai Beach, though, was the trip to Nanuku Island. Picture the most stereotypically beautiful tropical island surrounded by reefs, crystal clear aqua blue water and blindingly white sand and you're picturing Nanuku. It took on average an hour and a half to get there via boat (2 and a half hours there, 45 min back due to the wind and the waves) through the open pacific. We saw so many flying fish on the way, it was really amazing.

On our way back from Nanuku, Melee took us by the 7-star resort, which has hosted such celebrities as Oprah, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mel Gibson, among other extremely wealthy patrons. With a price tag of $35,000 USD a night, you can bet that the list of celebrity guests is quite long. The villas at the resort were absolutely amazing, built into cliffs looking out over the ocean. The island also had a golf course and a marina filled with a number of gigantic yachts. As we weren't technically allowed to be near the resort though, we were only able to check it out from a distance.

Eventually, and quite unfortunately, it came time to leave the white sand of Maqai Beach for Nadi so that we could catch our flight to New Zealand. Wanting desperately to avoid another ferry catastrophe, we decided to catch a flight from Taveuni to Nadi on puddlejumper of a plane. Upon arriving at the airport, aka a small hut next to an airstrip in the middle of a field, the man checked out tickets, weighed our bags and then weighed us, in order to ensure that he sat us in such a way that wouldn't wildly throw off the weight of the plane. The flight itself was quite amazing though. As the water is so clear you can see all of the atolls and reef chains from the sky, which was absolutely stunning.

After landing in Nadi, we headed back to Bamboo for one last night before departing the next morning. It was nice to see everyone at Bamboo again and to have one last night of drinking kava with everyone. Henry took us to the airport in the morning and bid us farewell, but not before receiving news that his friend's baby had died. This was the second instance that I had heard of death occurring that could of been easily prevented in the western world (the other death was due to appendicitis. My dad takes out appendices all the time), and it makes me feel truly blessed to come from where I do while simultaneously so terrible that there are places in the world that don't have access to the excellent medical care that we do. The fact that people in the states are actively trying to deny tens of thousands of people medical care by vehemently opposing a public heath care option is ridiculous. We should be trying to help more people around the world with our amazing medical technology rather than further restricting the pool of people who can access it. It's a travesty that people value money more than human lives, but I digress.

The flights from Nadi to Auckland and Auckland to Dunedin were excellent. Air New Zealand is a wonderful airline and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to, from or within New Zealand. Going through customs in New Zealand was a bit crazy, though much easier than customs in the states. I had to have much of my hiking gear irradiated and cleaned in order to prevent me bringing foreign soil into New Zealand. They were nice enough to clean my boots for me though, which was pretty sweet. After 5 hours of flights and 6 hours of layovers, I finally landed in Dunedin, my final destination. The airport here is also pretty funny, as it's literally in the middle of a paddock containing what seemed like hundreds of sheep and cattle. I caught the shuttle from the airport to the proctor's office to pick up my flat key before making my way down castle st. in the dark. I had the address to my flat, but little did I know that the flat was set back off the street by about 100 yards. I ended up wondering around my block for 15 minutes looking for this phantom flat, until some old woman came out of her house while I was prowling around her garden. I quickly apologize and explained that I wasn't trying to rob her but rather was looking for my flat. She laughed and pointed me down the dark alley directly next to her house. I stumbled down the carrying my bags and finally, with the help of campus watch, managed to find the flat. At last I had reached my home for the next 5 months.

My time here so far has been great. I will put up another post soon pertaining to more recent events. Until then, though, enjoy some pictures :-)