After a good Turkish meal out on Friday night, we were up early on Saturday morning and hopped into a taxi to the airport. We were ridiculously laden with bags, since we couldn't post stuff home in Auckland due to National Holiday issues. Grrr!
We treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast at the airport. Unlike in British airports, Kiwi airports's main aim isn't to rip you off, so a cooked breakfast cost just over three quid, including coffee! The flight was only three hours long, and they served us a cooked breakfast. Doh! Like good Hobbits, Anne and I dutifully ate our second breakfasts and felt stuffed. It was an amazing feat that managed to get the whole thing on the tiny tray. As well as the cooked portion, there was muslei, fruit, a roll and a danish. (Anne gave me half her danish.)
I tried to watch some terrible looking romantic comedy starring Dr Greene from ER, but the headphone socket at my seat wouldn't work, so I entertained myself with the international edition of The Guardian. Feels like we're coming home now!
We landed at Nadi (pronounced Nandi) airport, and found it was hot. Very hot. We worked our way past the people trying to book us into accommodation and got a taxi to the hostel we'd booked. They were supposed to pick us up at the airport, but they forgot. Things work differently (not at all) in Fiji, by all accounts.
The hostel's a bit odd - there seems to be no one else staying there. They do have some cats though, and there's a fridge, TV and ceiling fan in our room, so it's not all bad. There's little to Nadi other than a high street - the beach is miles away so we've not gone there. We've mainly lay in our room. I seem to have spent the past day sleeping or reading on the bed beneath the fan in my pants.
(NB: There is no fan in my pants. That was just a poorly cast sentence.)
The hostel has no cooking facilities, so we're doing what tourists do in hot countries - eating odd things at odd times of the day. Mainly bits of bread, though today we supplemented the bread with a tin of sardines. I also bought some malted milk biscuits. And lots of liquids.
On Saturday night we ventured out to find some food once the scorching sun had retreated. Most of the restaurants were closed, but we managed to find a pizza place open and had a nice (though very greasy) pizza. Walking down the street means trying to get past lots of people saying "Bula" to you. This means hello. Many of these people are just being friendly, but most are trying to get you into their shop or taxi. When you say you don't need a taxi, some are very persistent. It's as if they think that if they offer a good price you'll change your mind and decide that rather than walk 200 yards down the street you'll choose to go in a hot taxi instead. Still, they're not too pushy, which these types can be in some countries.
The aim now is thus:
- first thing Monday morning we rush to the post office to see if we can send some stuff home. If we can't we'll be trudging around like pack-horses in the heat for the next fortnight.
- get a bus to the coral coast and stay by the beach for a couple of nights
- on to Suva, the capital. This is on the "wet side" of the island where it rains all the time.
- then back to the west side of the island, from which we'll get a boat to one of the smaller islands.
Some of the places we've booked have air conditioning. Fiji has a power crisis on at the moment and our fridge hardly keeps things cool. If the air conditioning works it will be a joy beyond joy.