Fiji!!

On Tuesday we took a 3 hour bus ride from Rotarua to Aukland. There are only 4 million people in New Zealand, and 1 million of those live in Aukland. I guess we didn’t find the party because we went to dinner, and Dad went to bed and Jake and I watched Pineapple Express (love it!). We pretty much just used Auklanad for its international airport to get to FIJI!! Woohoo! The plane ride was one of the bumpiest I have ever been on. So naturally, when the drink cart came around, Dad ordered a red wine. Just so you know, my dad needs to wear a poncho when he eats or drinks anything on the ground. So up in the air on a bumpy flight with him wearing a white sweatshirt and sitting next me in my off white fleece… let’s just say I was worried. But he was a champ! He waited until there was some smooth air and drank his wine in 2 gulps. It was a Fiji miracle! I was so proud it brought a tear to my eye. Of course, 2 minutes later he opened a packet clearly marked “sugar” thinking it was a wet napkin and sent sugar flying for about 3 rows. Still, it was better than being covered in shiraz.

We are staying at the Sofitel in Nadi, Fiji and it is amazing!!! If anybody is looking for a beach vacation and can stand a 14 hour flight from LAX, this place is so worth it! Yesterday we went out diving. I don’t know if I got off the dive boat in the middle of a school of razor blades or something, but I hadn’t gone down 15 feet before I had cuts all over my hands and arms. Not good, decent size cuts. Tiny little painful paper cuts. And then I got to soak in salt water for the next 45 minutes. Rockin’. I really have no idea how I got so cut up. I must have bumped into some coral or something, but I don’t remember it. Then again, we had unlimited mimosas at breakfast so anything is possible.

The dive was a wreck dive, and the dive master kept trying to get me to swim into the boat and come out on the other side. The visibility was really bad, and I could only see about a foot in front of me, so there was no way I was swimming inside a dark boat. I shook my head “no” at the dive master. He motioned for me 3 more times to swim through the boat and I just kept shaking my head “no.” Apparently he doesn’t know that is scuba speak for, “Hell no I’m not swimming through there you crazy Fiji SOB. But thanks for asking.” Dad kept thinking it was funny to throw stuff at me - like a giant sea sponge. I am the kind of diver who likes to look and not touch. I kept screaming underwater and wasting all my air. So after that, I skipped the second dive and opted to hang with BFFs Paul and Edna on the beach and drink beer. Dad said it was "the best dive ever" but I'm sure he was just saying that since I didn't go.

Last night there was a cava ceremony before dinner. Cava is some drink they have in Fiji that looks and tastes like mud, and it is supposed to have hallucinogenic effects. I was going to try it, but I'm looking for a job, and you never know when you might have to take a drug test. No telling what would show up in your system from that stuff. I wish I could find somebody to send me some this summer during Bonnaroo. Those dirty hippies would go crazy for that magical mud!

So the boys are off to play golf with all our pals from the tour, and I'm heading to breakfast to meet all the ladies for unlimited mimosas, laying at the pool, and the spa. I heart Fiji!