This is going to be the longest day of my life.
I eat my first meal of the day at the hotel restaurant, where we have coupons for free continental breakfast. There is a ton of food to eat, which we do. We'll need the
energy for all the traveling. After packing up the car, we head to the airport, making a pit stop to fill up the tank along the way. We ended up filling the car's gas tank four times during the week, each fill-up costing about NZ$60 or $70, which turns out to be about $40 or $50 in our dollars when I get my credit card bill back at home. So gas was definitely more expensive there but not prohibitively so. That's the moral of this trip: Just because New Zealand is far away doesn't mean it is expensive. I found the whole trip pretty affordable, and that means a lot because I don't have a lot.
We check in o
ur bags (phew! they don't weigh too much!) and set about spending the last of our New Zealand dollars. We sit down for one last flat white -- a very Kiwi coffee drink, it's basically a cappuccino but slightly different, and better. They serve it in a cup with some of the top foam mixed in with the coffee to form a design. Usually it looks like an apple or a rear end, depending on your perspective. But the cups we get at the airport look like hearts! Yes, New Zealand, we heart you too.
Off to Fiji!
When we get there, my hair immediately indicates that it is still humid in Fiji. We have just over six hours to fill so we get some advice from the travel expert lady in the airport a
nd she sends us to the Sheraton. For just $44 Fiji dollars our cab driver will wait for us while we go in for an hour or two, sit by the water or the pool, and then head back in time for our long flight to L.A. The cab drive is about 20 minutes long and feels sketchy -- especially when the guy pulls into this closed convenience store-type thing, knocks on the door and hands someone something -- but then we get to the resort.
It's about six or eight familiar-name resorts, golf courses, and all the stuff for
the wealthy foreign tourists, all off the same driveway. We walk into the hotel and see the beach. It's amazing. I've never been in a tropical vacation place, never mind somewhere like Fiji!! We sit at the outdoor bar, get some sort of frothy drinks (mine is green and has a pineapple and a cherry on a stick) and relax.
Then, the best part: the sun starts to set. I never thought I'd get to see the sunset in Fiji! We take photos and I, appropriately, reach the end of my camera's memory card. I also receive about 20 mosquito bites that are sure to be irritating on the long, long, long flights home.
But, nevertheless, this has been such an amazing trip!
I eat my first meal of the day at the hotel restaurant, where we have coupons for free continental breakfast. There is a ton of food to eat, which we do. We'll need the
energy for all the traveling. After packing up the car, we head to the airport, making a pit stop to fill up the tank along the way. We ended up filling the car's gas tank four times during the week, each fill-up costing about NZ$60 or $70, which turns out to be about $40 or $50 in our dollars when I get my credit card bill back at home. So gas was definitely more expensive there but not prohibitively so. That's the moral of this trip: Just because New Zealand is far away doesn't mean it is expensive. I found the whole trip pretty affordable, and that means a lot because I don't have a lot.We check in o
ur bags (phew! they don't weigh too much!) and set about spending the last of our New Zealand dollars. We sit down for one last flat white -- a very Kiwi coffee drink, it's basically a cappuccino but slightly different, and better. They serve it in a cup with some of the top foam mixed in with the coffee to form a design. Usually it looks like an apple or a rear end, depending on your perspective. But the cups we get at the airport look like hearts! Yes, New Zealand, we heart you too.Off to Fiji!
When we get there, my hair immediately indicates that it is still humid in Fiji. We have just over six hours to fill so we get some advice from the travel expert lady in the airport a
nd she sends us to the Sheraton. For just $44 Fiji dollars our cab driver will wait for us while we go in for an hour or two, sit by the water or the pool, and then head back in time for our long flight to L.A. The cab drive is about 20 minutes long and feels sketchy -- especially when the guy pulls into this closed convenience store-type thing, knocks on the door and hands someone something -- but then we get to the resort.It's about six or eight familiar-name resorts, golf courses, and all the stuff for
the wealthy foreign tourists, all off the same driveway. We walk into the hotel and see the beach. It's amazing. I've never been in a tropical vacation place, never mind somewhere like Fiji!! We sit at the outdoor bar, get some sort of frothy drinks (mine is green and has a pineapple and a cherry on a stick) and relax.Then, the best part: the sun starts to set. I never thought I'd get to see the sunset in Fiji! We take photos and I, appropriately, reach the end of my camera's memory card. I also receive about 20 mosquito bites that are sure to be irritating on the long, long, long flights home.
But, nevertheless, this has been such an amazing trip!
