FIJI at Last

This was written on January 26th, and now it is January 30th, the first time I've been able to upload from my computer.

OMG – we’re in Fiji!

The flight took almost 11 hours, but I slept off and on for about 5 ½ hrs of that time. Got to watch a movie, Bandslam, which was entertaining if not the best movie I’ve ever seen. I also read and finished an easy read book, nothing great or I’d tell you about it. What can I say about airline food? I’d ordered a gluten-free meal and my dinner was smoked salmon on two rice cakes with a leaf of lettuce. I took the salmon off the white rice cakes and put it on one of my millet, brown rice, flax seed crackers from Sami’s Bakery, which I order on line. They have great pizza crusts and a nice spinach wrap I use too. My breakfast then consisted of eggs with a bit of chopped tomato and a bit of chopped spinach and was tasty, much to my surprise.

We arrived at 5:15AM at Nadi Airport in Fiji. Our hotel, Club Fiji, sent a van to pick us up. By 6:30AM we were in our room, Bure 4, (a bure is a small place, some have walls and some don’t) as I had booked our room for the night before, so we could have early check in and have a place to put our heads down for a bit before the day really started. We slept for another hour and a half, got dressed, and went on a ½ day tour, which took us to the Sleeping Giant Gardens, which Raymond Burr, who played Ironsides, had planted. You can’t imagine the colors of all the orchids. Art snapped photos of maybe two dozen compositions I’m going to play with when I have time using my Chinese inks and brush painting. Then, the tour, we were in a taxi for two, took us to Laukota, a small city, to the market. It was really two markets, one fresh veggies and fruits, and the other handicrafts. I was impressed with the food but not the handicrafts. Not that they don’t have beautiful hand made items here, but the market was really small and I saw very little that was of interest. Although, I did like the tapas which were made from tree bark; we just don’t have anywhere to hang one. We also stopped at First Landing, which is now a resort, but is the place where Captain Cook first landed in Fiji, at least I think it was Captain Cook. They’ve developed the small island, just of the mainland of Fiji, into the shape of a left foot. Very picturesque to see. Glad we stopped. Back to the hotel for lunch, where there was very little on the menu for me to eat, so they made me a piece of grilled MahiMahi and some salad on the side – wonderful.

We had made reservations for massages on the beach for late afternoon. It was so peaceful and there was a lovely breeze under the bure (here it was open with a thatch roof). And best of all, it was relaxing. After my massage, I went first, I went back to our room and took a nap. Traveling is tiring. Art came back after his and we both slept a bit more, showered, dressed and went in for dinner. The main area of Club Fiji is all open. You first go to the reception area in the front and to the left is an area with a wide screen TV for sports or to watch DVDs. Next to that is the restaurant. The chairs are really comfortable and each has a bolster cushion to lean against. Many of the views are of the beach, water, other islands, and the sunset, which was a bit disappointing after the spectacular sunset we saw from Brian’s kitchen our last night in LA. Here, there were a lot of clouds and no fabulous colors; in LA, the oranges had a touch of pink to them and then as they started to dissipate, the orange intensified and so did the pink to a deep fuchsia, which I’d never seen before. We did not get a photo of it, I’m sorry to say.

WE ordered only Fijian items for dinner. I had two appetizers for my meal – one was Kokoda, which is a local white fish marinated in coconut milk and lime juice with a bit of spices and raw vegetables in it; it was served cold and was wonderful. My second item was Palusami, which consists of tomatoes, onions, and spices wrapped in taro leaves and steamed. I envisioned these packets of leaves folded around the inner ingredients, but it was a soft mixture of the steamed items, almost a mush but a nice texture, served with white rice. This was very tasty too, and Art liked this item better than the marinated fish. He order a dish called Ika Vakalolo, which was also the local fish cooked in coconut milk with lots of vegetables in it, served with fried cassava on the side. It was extremely flavorful.

After dinner, we checked out, as we have to leave for the airport at 6AM tomorrow morning and reception will be closed. We’re now back in our room, Art is sleeping, and I knew if I didn’t start writing things down, I’d never get to it. So, off to bed for now. I’ll write more later, as I can’t post this until I have an internet connection.

Reminiscing about LA:

Our last night at Brian’s was a delicious one. I was feeling really tired, so I took a nap, and he cooked dinner by himself, which he usually does with Grace as his sous chef, except I usually work with him when we’re visiting. He made my lemon Chicken recipe, so easy and delicious – I’ll write it down at the end of this blog entry. With it he made broccoli rabe in olive oil and sliced garlic – wonderful, and I love the flavor of a bit of bitter in the greens. Then, I had roasted an eggplant earlier in the day, and Brian made a pasta sauce, as he had a friend over who was vegetarian, of eggplant, zucchini, onion, red peppers, and fire roasted diced tomatoes which he served over my rice pasta; I can’t think of the pasta brand, but it’s very good as it doesn’t get soggy. I’ll have to add the brand at a later date. Dinner was yummy.

On Sunday the 24th (we flew out at night on a 9:20PM flight), we met our oldest friends for brunch. It's been so long since I wrote that I may have already written about this, so I won't again.

Wednesday, the 27th

We flew on that early morning flight to Auckland, a three hour flight; after our other flight, this one felt as if it went very quickly. Luckily, it was uneventful, the best kind.

We were picked up by our car rental company and it proceeded to take 2 hours to get our car. We went through three before we were satisfied. The first had a wet trunk and we felt it wasn't a good idea to travel that way. The second one wouldn't start so they changed the battery, and it still wouldn't start. Not an auspicious beginning. Finally, the third car came and it's fine. I do have to tell you - DON'T RENT FROM QUALITY CAR HIRE, as their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

Finally, we were on our way to Meryl and Michael Hartshorn's home. They're members of ATC (Affordable Travel Club), a  good group to join., which allows you to stay with people for up to 4 nights at 20.00-30.00/night. Our hosts were lovely and spent a great deal of time helping us deal with the issues of finding a cell phone and planning out our trip. Although we're still winging it, they made lots of suggestions. When we first got to them, we were too tired to do any sightseeing, so we rested a bit and then went out for dinner by ourselves. They provided breakfast both mornings we were with them.

Art and I really like staying with people. We've been members of an organization called Servas since the early 90s, which was first formed after WWII, to promote peace around the world. Servas members are either hosts or travelers, and you don't have to be one in order to be the other. Joining them allows you to stay up to two nights in people's homes; no money is exchanged, and they provide two breakfasts, one dinner, and you either take them out for dinner or cook for them in their home. It's a wonderful organization. We first joined when we were going to Italy and we were travelers. We had such a good time that when we came home, we joined as hosts and have been host ever since. For the last 3 years we've been day hosts and haven't had anyone call. Oh well. Hopefully they will this year! Staying with people really gives traveling a whole different flavor, one we really love. Some of our most treasured moments were because of Servas hosts making suggestions of what to see and our changing our plans to follow their suggestions.

I'll write about our first sightseeing day in Auckland a bit later. Off to bed for now.