Bula! Vi Naka! Fiji!

I arrived in Fiji in the afternoon, and got picked up by my hostel's shuttle. I stayed at Nomad's Aquarius, and I was so relieved when I walked in to see the ocean out the back. I had heard that sometimes you can be quite far from the ocean. When I walked over to check it out though, I realize why everyone says get out of Nadi. There was a beach, just out the back of the hostel past the the pool, but it wasnt nice at all. It was sand, but kind of dirty and you wouldn't want to swim in the ocean there. But there was the pool, and there were hammocks that you could lay in and look at the ocean and it was still really beautiful. And the sunsets were everything you could hope for! This guy rode his horse down the beach every night, and this little pony would follow after them, it looked like a postcard.

My hostel was in a group of hostels and hotels, about 5 minute drive out of the city. There weren't any stores or anything out where I was, you had to take a cab into town if you wanted anything. And there was no kitchen or anything, so you had to order all your food from the restaurant in the hostel, but it wasn't expensive and it was pretty good.

The first night I was there I met this really cute, sweet couple from England. Their names were Huw and Jemma (anther Jemma with a J!). They told me how they were going to check out the islands and showed me some of the brochures and stuff they had. Originally my plan had been to just stay at the hostel, but seeing the beaches on the island and how amazing they looked made me want to go check it out. I didn't want to be on a boat for any length of time, but Jemma and Huw's first stop was called Bounty Island and it was only 20 minutes on a boat. We had dinner that night, and they left the next morning to head out there. We decided to meet out there the following day, and I booked a day trip to the island.

The day they left was a pretty lazy day. I love tropical places, its the only place you are allowed to lay around and do absolutely nothing and feel like that is what you are supposed to be doing. I did go into town, to go to the grocery store. I shared a cab with this Irish girl I met, and we wandered around a bit. The people there are beyond friendly, but I can see as a woman by myself it could be a bit much when the guys all yell and stare at you. They ask you were you are from, and what is your name, and all that. Fiji is the most underdeveloped country I have ever been too, so it was new, but I wasn't shocked by it.

This one guy walked with us a few blocks, and then convinced us to come into his store. He said he wanted to do a welcome ceremony for us, since we had just arrived. We sat down on a mat on the floor. I could tell this girl I was with was freaked out, saying 'Get me out of here' under her breath, but I figured we were in a public place with people around and it seemed fine. We did this quick ceremony with their national drink called Kava that makes your mouth a little numb. It is made out of the root of a pepper plant. They said you have to drink the whole thing, which is poured into half a coconut shell. I just threw it back, it wasn't too bad, tasted (and looked) a bit like dirty water. When this girl took hers though, she started gagging. Then she threw down the cup and jumped up. I looked at the guy and he said they weren't finished yet, but we could stop. In the end these guys tried to scam us into buying these necklaces, putting them on us saying they were a gift, then asking for money right before we got out of the store. I kind of expected that, and gave it back, but the girl just threw money at them and ran out of the store.

I don't blame this girl for how she acted, obviously she was put off by the whole thing. It just seemed a shame that the only Fiji she wanted to experience was the hostel and the tourist spots. I guess that is what most people want out of these kinds of destinations, but I was glad even for the chance to talk to local people and try their drink and learn a bit about them. Not that I would have wanted to stay in town much longer, but really the people there are so generous and kind.

The next morning I caught a bus to the boat, and then headed out to Bounty Island for the day. Jamma and Huw were waiting there playing pool. Instantly I was so glad that I had made the decision to go out there. It was a stunning, white, perfect beach, and Jemma and Huw were awesome company. We laid on the beach, we snorkling, we ate a great lunch and hung out and chatted about our love of monkeys and turtles. We walked to the other side of the island and saw the remains of this English show called Celebrity Love Island that they had filmed there. We found a jellyfish washed up, and Jemma and Huw had been told the jellyfish around there didn't sting out. We were sure but we picked it up anyway for the photo opportunity. It felt so weird, and left this purple slim on me.

Then we went snorkling again, and Huw found a sea cucumber for me to play with. I had see tons of them, but never picked one up. I suggest it to anyone playing in the sea, they are pretty cool. Then we just stayed in the water. I realized that this would be my last time in the ocean (especially bath tempurature ocean) for a long long time and I felt so sad. In Sydney I was 30 seconds from the beach, and I didn't go every day. What was I thinking? This trip changed a lot of my feelings about being outside. I now love the sun, where before I would always hide in the shade. And not only am I ok wearing a bikini, but I am acutally posting a pic of me wearing on! *gasp* I just feel like I appreciate the outdoors and sun and warmth more now. As I am writing this from home, it is cloudy and rainy outside. But the rain will bring green things, and soon I will get my second summer this year, and I am going to enjoy every single second of it!

As we were sitting in the ocean, the boat came early and I had to race out and get changed. I guess it was like ripping of a band-aid, just leap out and get dressed and don't look back. Huw and Jemma stood on the beach waving goodbye, and that was the last real day of my vacation. The next day my flight wasn't until almost midnight, so I lazed around the hostel reading and listening to all 72 of my Bob Marley songs. When I finally got on the plane, I was definately more excited to come home than I was sad to leave. This trip was an astonishing, astounding, surprising, stunning, staggering, shocking, startling, stupefying, breathtaking, awesome, awe-inspiring, sensational, remarkable, spectacular, stupendous, phenomenal, extraordinary, incredible, unbelievable, informal mind-blowing, jaw- dropping, wondrous once in a life time trip, and I can't wait for the travellind adventures I will have in the future!!

Bus It, Sword It, Luge It, Glow Worm It

So I booked it through the south island in only ten days, and then had ten days to do the same on the north island. New Zeland may be small, but it was still a lot of bus time. The day after we left Wellington was one of the longest bus rides, up to Taupo. We did pass Mount Doom on the way, although it didn't look nearly as ominous as I thought it would. Dave suggested photoshopping some flames into the picture I took.

Taupo wasn't too eventfull, but it was a nice little town. We stayed two nights there, going out to the pub. I did meet two people from Calgary, which actually shocked me because I have met hardly any Canadians. All the English people I meet (who are the vast majority of travellers I talk to) say they have met tons of Canadians. But the Canadians say they have met hardly any. I have no idea what that means. Anyway, it was nice to talk to people from home, and to compare where we have been to places in Canada.

The next day we headed to Rotorua, which was only a short drive. Rotorua has hot thermal mud pools, and we stopped on the way up there to look at some. The smell of sulphur is overwhelming from them, and Rotorua can smell a bit like rotten eggs, but it wasn't horrible. This place was, but it looks really cool. The pools are extreamly hot, over 100 degrees, so no jumping in. But they are constantly bubbling up, and the mud is shooting in the air. There are mud hotsprings that you can go into, they are filled with naturally heated water and the mud is at the bottom. I wanted to check it out, but it was fairly expensive in Rotorua, and my tour guide told me I wouldn't smell very good after.

We arrived in Rotorua two days before St. Patrick's Day, and I was stoked that it would actually be warm out for a good day of drinking. At home we always wish for that, and I remember years when it was plus 8 out and we would be walking around outside wearning t-shirts. Kate and Louise decided that they were going to continue on to Auckland on the 16th, so I was sad that I missed celebrating St. Paddy's Day with the Irish. But Rotorua turned out to be one of my favorite stops on the trip.

The first night we went to the Tamaki Maori Village for a dinner and some Maori heritage. We went out on buses to this village, and they came out doing a traditional greeting. We walked around to different stations where they were explaining different traditional Maori ways of life, from cooking underground to spinning poi (who knew the Maori spun poi?). Then we filed passed into a meeting house. The men dressed as traditional warriors stood outside the building, making faces and sticking out their tounges and bulging their eyes, basically showing ways the Maori warriors would intimidate others. As I filed passed, one warrior called me over to come an take a picture with him, and I felt pretty honored, becuase everyone else was taking pictures as they walked past, but weren't in the photos with them.

Inside the house they did lots of dancing and singing and spinning poi. Their poi are shorter and used to hit the hand and back to make a sound that they use in there dancing. It was really interesting. After that we got to have the most amazing feed. The meat was cooked underground in the traditional way, and there was chicken and lamb and muscles and veggies and it was the best meal I had eaten in ages. After the meal they got us to hold hand and sang this song to say goodbye. Overall, it was pretty cheesy and there were just so many people (I'd say about 200) who were just watching it though the lens of their camera. But I am still glad that I did it, beacuse where else are you going to see that and learn about it. And the people were so friendly, so even though it didn't exactly transport me back into the histroy of the Maori, I got to learn a bit about their culture and their traditions.

The day after we arrived, me and some people went black water rafting to see glow worms. Now, its not really rafting, but it did not disappoint. We donned wet suits and miners helmets with flash lights on the top, and carried inner tubes that we would ride on once inside the caves. Nerida had told me that I had to see the glow worms, but I had no idea what to expect.

The north island was formed by volcanic activity, so the land is all hills pushed up by the movement. We went out to Waitomo on a day trip, where under the hills there are miles and miles of caves. So we went in at ground level, but they stretch up way above your head. We were walking through the caves in the water; in some places it was deep enough to ride on the inner tubes, other places we had to carry them. We got to this spot where the roof was pretty low, and there was a group of glow worms, maybe clustered in a group the size of a coffee table. The guide stopped and told us a bit about them , and we got to look at the pretty close. I thought that would be it for the glow worms, I've learned not to expect too much out of tours. We kept walking and riding in the tubes, and then suddenly we looked up and there were tens of thousands of these green lights above us. It was incredible. They just went on and on, and as we rode down the river, we could lean back and just watch them go by. It was what people try to accomplish with outdoor lights, but so much better. That ended up being one of the more memorable things I did in New Zeland, I highly recommend it to anyone.

The next morning after Kate and Louise left I met some of the other people that were staying in our room. There were Jemma and Karl, who were brother and sister and from Oxford in England, and Daniel and Erik, two friends from Sweden. I was really glad that they ended up in my room, just another twist of fate that brought me together with really cool people. I hung out that night with Jemma and Karl at our hostel bar, and they were trying to convince me to come luging with them the next day. I wasn't really on board, but the next day, which was St. Patrick's Day, I decided to give it a go.

It ended up being such an awesome day. We took a bus out to the hill, and then rode the gondola up to the top. It was a beautiful view of Rotorua. Then we went luging. It wasn't what I thought it would be. It was sort of like mini go kart, and you ride them down these roads. You can see it hanging from the bottom of Jemma and Karl's lift in this pic. When you go down, you can pick what level of difficulty you want, which is really how fast you go. They don't have engines or anything, and you just pull back on the handles to let go. It was so fun! At first I was nervous, and then we were flying down. We went twice, and then this couple ended up giving us extra runs so we went some more.

After that we went down and caught the bus to a place where you go zorbing. I'm not sure how to explain what this is. It basically looks like a giant hamster ball that rolls down a hill. You can either get strapped in it, or they put you in with some water and then you get tossed around inside it while you go down the hill. Well, Jemma seemed to think this sounded like a good idea, so me and Karl watched her. She chose the water, which was green for St. Paddy's Day, so she would get bounced around inside as she went down. We pretty much just stayed at the bottom of the hill and laughed at this, but when she got out she said it was really fun, so you never know. I filmed a little video of her going down, but here is a pic of her right when she got out that I think is really cute, especially in her zorb outfit.

After our big day of fun and adventure, we decided that it was time to get down to some serious St. Patrick's Day business, and get really drunk really fast, since it was already mid afternoon and we were getting a late start. Jemma and I went shopping for some supplies, and we bought wine, and then cranberry juice and this other green juice that you can only buy in New Zeland to mix with vodka. Then we went back to the hostel and sat out in front of our room on the step with our drinks and watched the sunset. Karl and Daniel and Erik joined us, and then it starts getting a bit hazy from there.

I do remember Jemma busting out my markers and decortaing Daniel up for the occasion, and I did get Erik a bit, but he wasn't as enthusiastic as Daniel. I did get Erik a fabulous hat from somewhere though, which he brought out at the bar and looked great. Our hostel had a bar about ten feet from our room and we hung out there. We were dancing for a bit, and busted it out for System of a Down.

I think eventually we figured that we should try to go to an Irish pub, and went on a walk to find one, but of course the line up was around the block. Not sure if this was the same time that we thought we should go get something to eat, but around 3 am we found ourselves in this weird little cafe ording hamburgers. This was the funniest place to me; it was packed with the most interesting characters. We had some good food (although Daniel and Jack's hambugers had no burger on them, not sure what that was about), and then started walkin back to the hostel. Jemma and Jack got a little side tracked picking up some pilons, and then explaining to the police why they had them, but we made it back to the hostel safe and sound. It was a really fun day, one that I will hold the rest of my St. Patrick's Day's up to as comparison.

The next day I said goodbye to my four roomates as I headed to Auckland, with plans to meet them there on my last night in New Zeland. We drove to Auckland and stayed in a hostel called ACB that I quite liked. We arrived on a Saturday, and the next day we went to a huge outdoor concert. There is this New Zeland band called Fat Freddy's Drop, that you hear absolutely everywhere you go. We were so lucky that we were there on the weekend they were doing a free concert in a local park.

We headed down no sure what it would be like, and it was packed. There were people everywhere, laying on blankets and drinking and eating. We hadn't been sure if we were allowed to bring alcohol, so we didnt' have any. It didn't matter though, because they started playing less than half and hour after we got there. I went with a few girls right up to the front, and danced my ass off as they played for about two hours. It was such a great feeling, dancing on the grass in my barefeet under the sun to great music.

That night, a bunch of Kiwi Bus crew went out for dinner, as the last night that we would be together. It was a group of people that met up a week or two before we met them, and you could tell that they had really bonded in that short of a time. It is amazing how quickly you get to know people when you share a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen with them. You can learn more about a stranger than you know about someone you have been friends with a home for years. It is an inspiring thing to see. Here is a pic in front of the Auckland tower after we went out for dinner. That was a really good day.

The next day was my final full day in New Zeland. I did a day trip up to the Bay of Islands, in Paihia. The driver recommended that I take a 15 minute ferry ride out to a town called Russel, which was the first capital of New Zeland, but now is just a really pretty, tiny town. I said goodbye to the crew I had been travelling with for the past week, and got on the ferry. One of the reasons I was so keen to head out there was that the bus driver told me that there was a nice beach, and I couldnt wait to get into my bikini (which was very under-used since leaving Sydney). I stopped at a cute fish and chips place, and then headed to the beach.

The beach was on the other side of the island, so you had to walk up a hill and down the other side to get there. It only took about 15 minutes, and the view from the top was beautiful. As was the beach when I got there, so I spent a very relaxing few hours chilling out there, listening to music and reading. Then I took the bus back to Auckland, for my last night in New Zeland.

First I met up with Kate and Louise, who were staying at another hostel. We met in the pub downstairs just for one drink, cause they had to get up at 3 am or something to catch their plane. It was nice to see them, it was awesome travelling with them, andit was good to see them again. It didn't get too emotional though, because this group of guys came over and invited themselves to sit down with us. (notice one of them peeking into the corner of the pic). I think thats the only thing that stopped the waterworks. I was sad to say goodbye though, but hopefully they will be one of the many people that take me up on my offer to come visit me in Canada, or hang out with me when I make it to Ireland one day.

After they left, I met up with Jemma, Karl, Daniel and Erik. We didn't have quite the session that we had on St. Patricks Day, but I couldn't have asked for better people to spend my last night with. We did get a pretty entertaining night, first with two guys kissing to win a bungy jump, then with two guys next to us kissing just for fun.

I actually had to get up pretty early the next morning, even though I don't think I got in until after 2. It ended up that I was the only one left in the hostel room, and I had no alarm clock and they wouldn't do a wake up call, so I pretty much had to stay awake until 7 am to make sure that I went and caught the air port bus on time. And it ended up that my flight time had changed, so I got to the airport 5 hours before my plane left. I wasn't too upset though, cause I was on my way to Fiji, and how can you be upset when that is your destination. I felt like New Zeland had been a compelete whirl wind, but it was a fantastic time in a stunning counrty with incredible people.