November 22, Thursday & November 23, Friday (Country # 28)

November 22, Thursday   &   November 23, Friday  (Country # 28)

Thursday:  Rested and sorted out my luggage, repacking both suitcases to ensure good weight distribution.

Another great sun set.  Last one in New Zealand !

Friday:  Checked out of the hotel at 7 am in order to return the car rental and get to my flight with Air New Zealand at 10 am.   Everything went fairly well if I don’t count the fact that the lady driving the airport shuttle bus from the car rental area jammed the van awkwardly between two parked cars and had to get the car rental guys to come and help her out.  Got to the airport by 7:30 and proceeded to the check in area.  I was told to ensure that my on-board luggage did not exceed a certain weight, which it did, but I explained that I had my laptop in there and had no choice.  No problem.  The lady who was checking in my luggage processed my bags, first the new soft sided bag I had purchased in Picton, them my huge one.  “Sorry, but you are overweight with this one.”  I explained that I had purchased an airline ticket that would allow me 2 bags, 23kg each.  The total weight of both bags together did not exceed the limit.  Unfortunately, she had not noted how much the first bag weighed and it was now long gone along the moving belt.  “You should have put on the heavier one first” she tells me.  I just looked at her and said “What do I do now?”  “Well, it’s too late now” was her only response.  Thankfully she called her supervisor to deal with me. This lady took my boarding pass and jotted down my luggage number and said that she would get someone to return the checked-in bag to me and that I would then have to redistribute the weight in my luggage.   I waited more than half an hour but finally spotted a man walking towards me with my black bag.  I smiled at him, put my hands together in prayer, and bowed my thank you to him.  He smiled and said “No problem Maam”.   While I had been waiting, I had started removing as much of the heavy clothing and items out of my large suitcase, so I just had to shift some light clothing from the smaller bag to the larger and replacing those with the heavy items.  It took just a little extra juggling to ensure that I was .5 kg away from the limit on the big bag.  There was absolutely no space left in the smaller one.   I still had a bagful of brochures in my luggage and I shifted those to my green tote bag which I kept on my shoulder.  I then shoved my purse in the green bag as well so that my carry on was my black backpack on wheels and the now extremely heavy green tote.  The man who had brought up my bag had told me to bring my luggage to the “fragile” belt to check it back in and I was quite happy not having to deal with the first lady again.  No problems.  Huge sigh of relief.   I just hoped that both my bags would make it to Fiji on the same flight I did.   There was only 1 hour left before take-off so I made my way to the indicated departure date.   They started boarding people who were sitting from rows 40 to 60 first.

40 to 60 ?  How big is this plane?   This was the most luxurious air plane I have ever been on and I soon found out why my ticket had been so expensive compared to the one I had purchased from Air Pacific.  I was sitting in one of the luxurious seats. 

WOW.  Now this was REALLY comfortable, like sitting in a lazy boy leather chair with a curved back providing privacy from other passengers.  The flight was 3 hours long and we landed in Nadi, Fiji after being served a nice meal of fresh salmon.

The hotel I had booked was with ACCOR instead of through Booking.com.  The information indicated that the Novotel Suva Bay Hotel was about 28 km from the airport and that there were shuttle buses available. I made my way to the transportation desk but was told that this was for pre-arranged transportation only.  I was redirected to a man standing just a few feet away.  He explained that I would have to take a taxi, or take the local bus to get to Suva.  When I asked how much the taxi would be he indicated $180 to $210 Fiji dollars, depending on the driver.  That is extremely expensive so I asked about the bus.  The bus would be too much of a hassle with all my luggage so I indicated that I would have to take a taxi but I needed to find an ATM machine.  When I got back there was another couple there as well and they were heading in the same direction I was.  The man organizing the transportation asked if we would be willing to share the cab, and we all agreed. 

The couple in the cab with me needed to stop at an ATM machine so the cab driver stopped at one of the banks.  I must say that I was not impressed with the streets I was seeing, and was glad that I had opted for Suva, rather than Nadi for my hotel selection, hoping that it would be a lot better.  After about half an hour of driving, I asked the driver how much further the hotels were and was told “about 2 ½  hours”.  “WHAT? The hotel info said 28 km from the airport.”  The driver explained that it was about 200 kms between Suva and Nadi.  I have to admit that I had not done much research on how big or how small the island was since it had always been a destination where I was planning to rest.  The taxi driver finally figured out that the 28 km reference was probably to the Suva Domestic Airport.  CRAP !   Oh Well…..

 The drive from Nadi to Suva

 The houses are not elaborate, but they aren't shacks.  And the yards are well tended.

 
 
There are even hills in the distance

I didn’t much care at this point. It had been a difficult day and I just wanted to get to the hotel, shower and go to sleep. We dropped the couple off after about one more hour and drove on toward Suva.

FIJI (Country # 28)  
It is an island nation of more than 332 islands of which 110 are inhabited. There are two major islands, the one I am on Viti Levu, and Vanua Levu. Had a nice discussion with the driver, who was of Indian decent.He told me how the British had high-jacked many Indian people right off the streets and brought them to Fiji to work on their plantations.Others who had agreed to come and work here had been told that there were pre-established plantations to work on and a good quality of life.They were lied to; when they arrived here they had to start with deforestation to clear areas so that plantations could be established, and they were treated as indentured slaves.

We finally arrived and I checked in to the Novotel Lami Bay Hotel .

 My room, very modern, clean.  Could use some bright colours though.  GREY, GREY, GREY.   Looks really nice and the room is quite comfortable, although nowhere to place my luggage, so I open them up on the floor.  

 The views from my balcony

 
I went to the open air dining room for my evening meal and noticed that many of the menu items were Indian.  I ordered the special for the evening. Curry Chicken and a nice fruity drink to go with that.  Strange that there is no rum in the drinks since they grow sugar cane here; most drinks were gin based.  Still.....
    I'M   IN   FIJI     ! ! ! !