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| Erin at the edge of the infinity pool |
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| Natadola Bay, Fiji |
We
get the decent night’s sleep we were seeking after 10 days of erratic sleep,
schedules and travel. All this knowing that we have a full day+ of
travel ahead of us. Given that our flight is later in the day, we
have a few more hours to enjoy the grand Intercontinental Fiji Resort. Despite
being amidst the sun of the South Pacific for nearly 10 days, neither of us has
much of a tan to show for it. It was rather cloudy during our
initial Fiji visit and we shot from place to place in Australia without being
in the sun much. So we decide to hit the adult pool for our final
day. As I mentioned earlier, the pain of Fiji is that it’s marketed
as an exotic beach vacation for couples to those of us in the U.S. or Europe,
but in Australia, they market it as a nearby beach Disneyland where you should
bring packs of young screaming kids. So, Fiji caters to both and at
the Intercontinental Resort they balance the two pretty well. Our
pool requires you to be above 16 and is reserved for “quiet” use of the pool.
It’s the best pool as it borders and faces the main beach and crashing waves
are only a few yards away.
The morning
sun is bright and hot in Fiji. It’s distance from the Equator is much
like Miami, so it’s a real direct sunlight. It’s Spring in Fiji and
today is a hot day. The adult pool is not too crowded and we soak up
real rays for a few hours while grabbing an early lunch. By early
afternoon, we realize we’re getting cooked, so we head back to the condo to
finish up packing and do some email. Before we leave the hotel, we
grab an early dinner at pool area for one last look around of the
property. The waves look amazing and are now big enough for a couple
of surfers to enjoy. Outside the main building, they are doing a
ritual Kava ceremony. Kava is a root-based drink with deep Fijian
ties, so we watch a bit of the ceremony before heading to get our bags. We
have too much stuff to pack, we over-packed and grabbed the requisite number of
cheap souvenirs at each place we really enjoyed. LikiLiku, Sydney,
The Opera House, Cairns, The Great Barrier Reef, the Tropical (Koala ) Zoo and
now the Intercontinental Fiji. Plus, it’s World Cub Rugby season
held in nearby New Zealand, so we pretend to be Rugby fans… at least for the
souvenirs.
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| Making "kava" - a native Fijian drink - at the Intercontinental Resort |
We
pack and say goodbye to beautiful Fiji and the great Intercontinental
Resort. We arranged for a better ride to the airport and depart with
a group of Fijians singings traditional songs. Our driver is nice
and gives us a perspective on the rather poor looking communities along our
drive to the airport. Sugar Cane is their big industry and it’s 15%
the price of what it was 5 years ago. Workers are shipped in for
weeks to harvest the crop from other poorer islands. Fiji will have
40% unemployment by the fall and large families live together and most live off
the land. Tourism is the main boost to the economy and our driver has
a lot of pride about his job—in his country, he’s upper middle class and does
pretty well taking care of his young family. But the Fijian people are
struggling and there is no such thing as unemployment insurance here. If
you are over 65 you get $35 a month—that’s all. Fiji is actually a
poor, simple, rural country. Tourism is the big industry that gives
them an opportunity to exit what is relative poverty. But, the
people all seem relatively happy. They like their island, their climate, their
people, etc. Poor does not equal sad in Fiji. It’s interesting that
in most U.S. media, poor does mean sad.
We
arrive at the small but bustling Nadi airport, the only international airport
in Fiji. Our Air Pacific flight departs at 10PM Fiji time, but they request
that we be there by 7PM. Long waits await. Our business class status
helps us skip the main long and painful looking check-in line with literally
hundreds of people waiting and about a thousand bags to check.
After
going through the short and rather superficial security… you can keep shoes on
and whatnot, it’s pretty simple compared to the full body search in the
U.S. We wander a few shops to gather some final mementos in the
over-priced, but convenient airport shops. We retire to the Air Pacific
first class lounge, call Tabua Lounge—still not sure what Tabua means. The
internet works and we find it odd that bottles of booze and beer are open to
grab at will. I guess Fiji is just not that regulated. A loud 80
year-old couple is playing dice near us, so I opt for headphones… dice is not a
good spectator sport to watch or listen to, I discover.
We
board nearly last knowing that we have bin space reserved for us and 11 hours
or so on this 747-400, so why rush to be on the place an hour early? Our
flight is pleasantly uneventful for the next 11 hours. I am struck
with how massive a 747 is and how when this monster of a plane shakes with
turbulence—it must be a serious storm/wind/updraft. We hit a few
serious bumps near the equator, which cause me to visualize what large Pacific
Ocean storms must look like. Ouch. This 747-400 is 25 years old and
it has not been upgraded much, so it just reminds you of how much water is
40,000 feet below you. The 747 travels over 600MPH ground speed for most of the
trip, which is probably 625-650 MPH factoring in altitude. Outside temperature,
even by the Equator is (negative)-57F. Wow.
Having
never traveled South of the Equator, never traveled West of Hawaii and never
crossed the International Dateline before—these many firsts really make this
trip a full-fledged adventure. We land in L.A. and maneuver through
the many cumbersome customs processes, even for citizens that make the U.S.
seem rather out-dated, but I guess somewhere in this maze of paperwork—we are
protected from unwanted terrorists and whatnot.
After
a short wait, we board our American flight for St. Louis. Having flown on
countless “new” airlines to us over the past week (Air Pacific, Virgin Blue,
Jet Star, Pacific Blue)—we are comforted to get our platinum status upgrade on
a nice AA 757 heading home. Ah, home. We love to travel and we equally
love to return to home. Our 10 days were filled with many adventures
and highlights. We learned a lot about ourselves, our assumptions,
our world and where it all takes place. Great trip! Thanks to my new
wife for making it a spectacular 10 days of memories!
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