Farewell Fiji

Fijian sunrise

The day we left, the ferry was scheduled to pick us up at 2 pm. This meant we had time for breakfast and lunch. Both meals I sat with different people, trying to mix it up a bit. But before lunch, one of the TEAN staff went over some places to visit in New Zealand. She is from the south island, but uh, I don't remember any of the places she said. Good thing we have google, right? Then I packed up all my stuff, which wasn't much, but my sneakers and a few of my other clothes were still kind of wet from the days prior. I needed a washing machine pronto (I wouldn't get to wash anything for a while). Then we all paid our tab. Mine was only 30 Fijian from the snorkeling trip I went on.

Though I didn't talk too much with the group I had sat with at lunch I did learn something. There was this German dude, that I guess is the manager of Botaira Resort. To make a long story short, he actually has a condition that people rarely survive past 50 with, but he was 50 when he found out he had it. Basically, if he didn't cut out the stressful things in his life, he would die, so he came to Fiji and they needed a manger, so that's what he did.

Afterwards, I got my things and they sang us the farewell song again. Everyone got their pictures, and as I lined up to get on the boat I started reflecting on my experiences there. I wish I had talked to the workers more. If I had the opportunity again, I would like to go back there. I think some of my family and friends would like it too.

Saying goodbye. Credit: TEAN

On the ferry I sat by myself, but I was pretty much the first one on. Most people went to the top deck, but I stayed on the middle deck because I wanted to stay out of the sun but still catch the breeze. For most of the way, the ferry was running off of one engine, because one of them blew shortly after we began the journey to Nadi. It took a lot longer to get back, but when we got to the hotel they gave us juice. I was sooo good. I want to know what kind of juice it was and how to make it, because that stuff was the bomb.

This is what my room looked like. Credit: google images

There were two people per room. I was wondering how they would organize it, but it appeared to be alphabetical. I guess that is the easiest way of deciding. So my roommate and I went right to our room, and I waited for her to take a shower before we decided to check out what the dinner situation was... Then we found out that almost everyone had already ate. Oh well, we still got to eat, so in the end I guess it didn't really matter. After that, I called it quits. I wanted to sleep, but I also wanted to check out the wifi. But then I couldn't get it to work, sorry Mom and Dad. (Oh yeah! I forgot to mention how nice the hotel was. I tried to find pictures of it. I wasn't that successful).

The Radisson. Credit: google images

Flight Day!

I felt like I finally had my appetite back, and had a relatively big breakfast. Did you guys know that chocolate pastries were a thing? I didn't

It took a little while to get out of there, but we checked out and bused to the airport. We only spent one night at the hotel, but it was nice and sweet. I think everyone was excited to get to New Zealand anyway. Airport stuff is boring, but for the sake of the story, it took us about an hour to get everyone checked in. After that, we all gathered in the lounge and me and another girl got interviewed about our stay in Fiji, I wonder if they ever get any bad reviews.

On my first flight experience, I had determined that flying was probably my least favorite form of transportation. You have to plan it in advance most of the time, it's strict, it costs money, I'm broke... haha, but this was a different story, my friends. On this plane I didn't get nauseous, they gave us complementary food, and I even watched a movie. I don't know. Maybe it was because I wasn't alone, it was a shorter flight, and I was just really excited to get to New Zealand, but it was just a much more enjoyable flight compared to the others.

Nobody had any issues going through customs, we found our bags easily, and pretty soon we were on a bus again. Next stop was dinner, but because we arrived early, my first experience in Auckland was a stroll around the city. Not bad.

Team Togs Photo Credit: Rachel Fenton

The restaurant we ate at was a different than any other eating experience I've had. They served us different plates of food that you would share with everyone sitting around you. I didn't know what most of the food was. All I knew was that it tasted good. It's not very hard to please me when I'm hungry. I just shut up and eat it.

The hostel we stayed at was pretty nice. When we arrived, we got out room assignments. I was in a room with 6 other girls. I got stuck with a top bunk, so I wasn't thrilled about that, but we were only ever in the room at night, so it was all good. We also got our cheap little black phones. They are honestly not much more outdated than the phone I already have, but it was still amusing listening to everyone else's reactions to them. This place also had wifi, but once again it wasn't really working out for me. You can probably guess what happens next... I went to sleep. The next day, we were going canyoning!

The view from my room