To FijiNov 11, 2005
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Photos Captions Later
Auckland, NZ to Nadi, Fiji - 2:45 hours flight time
We had a bus pickup at 0930. Having learned from the "Kiwi" experience of the main group yesterday, Frank & LInda - our Fiji Group coordinators - ordered it early. I've concluded that Kiwi's do not consider scheduled times to be important. Almost every bus we had scheduled arrived late, and every one in Auckland was late, to uncomfortably late. Checking and boarding were uneventful. NZ & Fiji not rigid about checks. We had a very long walk to the loading gate, apparently due to renovation in progress. My cold has returned and my head felt like a basketball as we descended. Never could clear one ear. The rain and low clouds that had been forecast greeted us on arrival. They had experienced a real frog-strangler just before we landed as water was running everywhere and standing in the fields.
A resort bus picked us up for the 20 minute drive to the ferry doc for transfer. The route looked just like we were traveling through old Mexico. Same houses, plants, and poverty. Sonaisali Resort is on a small island about 1/2 mile long and maybe 600 feet wide in the middle. We arrived just prior to sunset, but I missed photos while checking into our beachfront room.
Despite our "Culture Cup" already overflowing, a fairly unsuccessful effort to stuff in more followed our arrival. We were greeted by the standard songs of welcome by the resort staff, and the traditional musical instrument of the ancient Fijians, the acoustic guitar. Later group dressed in native costume provided an hour of song and dance. Good performance, just unfortunate timing as this was the only time the chorus was scheduled to perform during our stay. Our day had been a bit too full to give the performance it's due.
Full day on tomorrow's schedule.
