Author: sage

Monday 6th August

After getting up and loading things into the car, we drove to the airport parking and got into Auckland airport for around 11am. Checking in, Bhavni had to use her old passport as the British Passport did not contain the return Visa – luckily fiji allows all the Commonwealth countries in. Our flight was at 12.55 and was quite quick – Bhavni and I got talking to the man sitting next to us who was a Fijian Indian who had moved to New Zealand.

Arriving in Fiji, with a quick customs check – (what is risotto rice), we got our transfer to our hotel, which took around an hour to arrive at the Shangri-La (or the Fijian as it is locally known). We got a nice room with a sea view and high ceilings on the top floor, of the ocean wing. We were a little hungry so we had our beetroot risotto from yesterday, before venturing out for a walk around the hotel. We had quite a peaceful sleep that night.

Tuesday 7th

We woke up to a bright blue sky day, with a lovely view out to sea. After getting ready we headed for breakfast just after 9am to the main restaurant, this was really busy with a queue to get in. We got a nice table overlooking the sea, and enjoyed our breakfast, though it was quite noisy when helping ourselves to the food. After breakfast we headed to the Adults only pool and just relaxed for a while. I read and Bhavni slept.

Late afternoon we had a walk along the beach, before heading out of the resort. Crossing the bridge from the resort there was a tourist train and when investigating one of the locals offered to drop us into the local town (Cuvu) as the lot of them had finished for the day. From the town, a really small place, we walked back towards the resort, stopping by Ghekkos resort and booking a table for dinner on Friday. We got to Bilbos bar in time for the Sunset (though as always there was a bit of far off cloud). For dinner we went to the Italian restaurant, not really impressed with the main meal – pasta and gnocchi, but the profiter rolls were amazing.

Wednesday 8th

It was cloudy when waking up, turning into a little drizzle. We got to the main restaurant a little earlier (8.30am), so we did not have a queue, but it was still quite busy, especially as we could not sit on the deck due to the rain. We decided to take the sugar tourist train tour to Sigatoka from just outside the resort as it was a wet day. We met the local from yesterday – who got us a little discount for the tour. The train travelled slowly at 14kph, and we got a look at the local coast line and forest areas with a full commentary. The train stopped at a kindergarten where we were treated to dancing and singing from the 5 year olds in Fijian and Hindi. At Sigatoka we were taken to a tourist shop (where I booked a trip for Friday) before being allowed our own wondering time. Bhavni and I went to see a temple (Here Krishna) that was here before heading back to get our pickup to the resort, where we chilled until the evening. We went to the Asian restaurant, where they gave us a special meal with soup and a vegetable curry, though Bhavni just enjoyed the Pad-Thai more.

Thursday 9th

Today we decided to eat at the adult only breakfast restaurant – what peace. The plan was to go the the activities center to do the snorkeling in the morning. However they said to check back at 10:30am as they were not sure how the conditions were. So we sat by the adult pool and chilled for the morning, but eventually we found out there was not snorkeling. So we sat for a little longer by the pool then went for a dip in the infinity pool – freezing. We went along to the main pool for 3 as there was free diving lessons, so Bhavni had a go and loved it – so much so that we decided to book a dive for Saturday morning (we were ok to fly out). I managed to say that I had done PADI openwater before but had not dived for a few years and they were happy with that.

After getting  ready, we decided to walk to Cuvu to see what the local restaurant was about – it was pretty much dark when we got to the town centre. We had some corn from a street vender before going to the restaurant where we had a passable dish of steamed vegetables. When we emerged from the restaurant it was raining so we got a taxi back (fj$3). We went to the italian resteraunt and had profiter rolls for desert.

Friday 10th

As we had booked a tour, we were in the adult restaurant by just after 7am, and at reception before 8am for the pickup. The pickup took us to Sigatoka to where we got on the main tour – which had only 9 of us – driving inland along the river. This eventually led us to the two 4×4 vehicles. The guides drove us further inland, showing us the nice scenery and the “salad bowl of fiji”, until we came to the village.

For some reason I got nominated as the Chief, so had to present the kava root to the village priests. We then had to have the kava ceremony and I had 2 bowl fulls of kava. With the ceremony over we were led into the cave part of the tour. We had to walk through a low entrance way with knee high water to get in – Bhavni chose bare footed, but I had sandals. This is where the locals lived during the British Conquest in the 1800’s and we were shown the areas where items were stored and even human sacrifice took place – there was no light at all when we got deep in the cave so it was a little eerie. We fond out that the water for the kava had been collected in the morning from this cave!

After emerging back in the light, we got to the village and had a lunch – sandwiches before heading back. On the return journey we had a blow out – big stick in tyre, and without a spare, the guide had to phone up for rescue – he kept appolgising even though all of us said no problem. We walked down to the river, my feet got covered in mud as we had to walk through a little quagmire and I did not want to get the backpack dirty. So we sat near the river until our rescue boat came (with a tyre for the guide to fix the 4×4). We however took the boat back, and the guide went back at full speed down the river – was brilliant. The ride to Sigatoka and the resort was uneventful after that.

It was nice to have a shower and clean our selves up after that, then we chilled until 6pm where we made out way to Ghekkos for dinner. The dancing started at 7.30pm and they did quite a few island dances – finally culminating in the fire dance. We walked back to the hotel, I was amazed at the starscape – I could even just make out the Milky Way!

Saturday 11th

Again we were at the adult restaurant early as we were told to be at the diving centre by around 8.30am. When we got there, we were briefed, Bhavni was to do a first dive, while I was to swim with the Dive Master and was in charge of my self (still buddy system). It was only Bhavni and I for diving, so wearing our wet suits we headed to the boat for a quick ride to the dive site – over the coral reef. I went first with the dive master leaving Bhavni to enjoy her dive. I was underwater for a while seeing a number of fishes and the colourful reef – visibility was really good. We saw and gave a little pat to a sea turtle, I did not know but this was the deepest point of our dive – 19.7m, no wonder we had to take our time going up. We were back after  37 minutes underwater, Bhavni arrived a little later having been out for 44 minutes, and having an adventure – especially getting under the water. She had a good dive eventually getting to just over 10m.

After getting back to the hotel we changed and went to the pool for a while – it had started clouding over. We walked along the beach all the way to the small chapel on the resort where lots of couples get married, before getting to the cafe for some chips for a treat.We then went kayaking on the sea in the late afternoon. In the evening we went to “Sacred Point” to watch the sun setting, before heading to Bilbo’s bar to have a drink – including a fresh coconut in the twilight. For dinner we went to the grill.

Sunday 12th

We woke up to a beautiful day and had breakfast in the sun at the adult restaurant. Sitting by the pool we relaxed until late morning when we went back to our room then checked out, but as we had a while we then went to Bilbo’s bar to chill outside until our 2.30pm pickup. This got us to Nadi airport for around 3.30, so we had a while after checking in to meander through the shops. Our flight was as 6.15pm. and we got to Auckland after 9pm. We caught the pickup to where the car was parked – I got a little drenched as it was raining heavily. Off then to home.

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Tuesday 5th

In the morning we woke up early as we had some tasks to do before Shamil arrived. We went to the post office near Green Lane to give in the passport form, but apparently they would not accept the new form number… After a little messing around we decided that it would be easier to go to the British Consulate in the city later in the day to get to the root of the problem. We drove to Sandringham and the market near there, getting some fresh food getting back early enough that I thought we should go to the Library and get our Library cards – they are really helpful here. We managed to get home dropped off the food before heading to the airport. We arrived in time as Shamil had just cleared customs and come out. It was pouring by now – Shamil had definitely brought the weather with him – so we just headed home and made ourselves comfortable and had pumpkin soup for lunch. We were going into the city to sort out the passport issue but Shamil was a little tired so we let him rest and left (he wasn’t impressed with the weather!), but luckily Bhavni said lets try another post office – the Newmarket one. I don’t know what the person behind the counter did, but somehow she managed to get the system to accept the form. So we were back home sooner than thought – only to find Shamil pretending to sleep in a our cold house! (its the NZ homes!) Dinner at Home – I made Beetroot Risotto.

Wednesday 6th

We left at around 8.30am catching the SH1 and SH2 south. We stopped at a disused gold mining area somewhere near Kaimai Mamaku Forest, where there were some ruins across a bridge. Here Shamil and Bhavni took lots of photos till I had to drag them away so we could carry on. We headed past Tauranga, (the sun had come out and the beaches looked inviting), stopping at Wairu to buy a MP3 connector and finally with Shamil’s choice of music (oh oh) we carried on to Rotorua (mmm the smell of sulphur!). We checked into the Kuirau Lodge. Now that we were late…we decided to forego lunch and head to the Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, getting there just in time for the afternoon Mouri culture show (where Shamil convinced us that we were having a private show just of the three of us…only to find that we were the only ones waiting outside for a show that was already in full process indoors). We had a tour of the village (Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao meaning The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao) and the use of the thermal waters for cooking and daily life. We saw the famous gysers erupting, but the weather had started closing in so the skys were grey. (all Shamils Fault – for bringing us the great British Weather, in addition to all the goods we had asked for especially the Velan)

When we finished we went to the Polynesian Spa, where after catching a quick bite to eat we spent the next 3 hours in 38-42 degree hot water watching the light fade away by the lake Rotorua. After getting to the hotel and changing it was dinner time and after much contemplation we settled on the Mexican restaurant called The Mexican – fresh torillas yum, The yet hungry – Bhavni and Shamil wanted deserts so we went to a posher place afterwords. Back at the lodge in the British spirit – we watched the Queens Jubilee Concert.

Thursday 7th

In the morning we went for a walk around Kuirau Park looking at the thermal pools there which were really nice, then having got some food (award wining pies apparently), we drove down the SH5 and SH1, where we stopped just near Toupo at the Huka falls. 7 Olympic sized swimming pools of water per minute. Just outside Toupo there was a look out point where we got our first real look at the lake and how massive it was. We carried on past to Turangi where we stopped for a late lunch – toasted sandwiches and chips. There was a tourist I-Site here and when taking to them we were advised to go into the national park on the mountain drive, and not just drive past on the desert road as we originally planned. Driving there we stated to get glimpses of the mountains (well volcanos) – they were sheathed in cloud but everynow and again parts were visible. When we got to the village on Mt Ruapehu we changed and went on the waterfall walk there, which was meant to be a 2 hour walk. Shamil and Bhavni went into photo overdrive here! The walk was brilliant – rugged terrain, sweeping vistas and forests. We got to the falls (9m high) and had a sit around though we got slowly wet with the sprey. When we were nearly back, Shamil realised that a part for his tripod attachment had gone….

As it was getting to sunset I drove further up the mountain road, but still driving we were nearly into the clouds so the view below was disappearing, so we headed back down towards lake Toupo. Getting to the main roads, the view of Mt Ngauruhoe was brilliant with the cloud disappearing and the red reflecting of the snow, so we took many photos. Driving to the Omori villages and checking in, we warmed up and got ready for dinner which was at the on site restaurant. It was a slightly strange meal (well I enjoyed it – but it was incomplete), grilled Holoumi and fried Camembert with salad. I enjoyed the wine and the deserts we nice. Well they threw the bottle of wine in after we pointed out the weird food. We had a really amazing view of the moonlight on the lake.

Friday 8th

We woke up early to catch the sunrise over the lake. After checking out we drove north stopping at Taumarunui for some food at a cafe, before driving to the Waitiomo caves, stopping at a few places where the scenery was amazing. We bought tickets to two caves – first the Glowworm cave. As we were waiting, Shamil being Shamil suddenly said ohh no – looking at him he looked in a small panic and said he forgot his glasses – he was wearing his prescription sunglasses, but it was too late to go back. In the cave we had a guide showing us the cave and some of the formations before we had a boat ride in the dark seeing the expanse of blue light from the glow worms – well Shamil trying to see through his Sunglasses. After we went to the Aranui cave (Shamil had got his actual glasses on now), which had some really large stone formations and was quite a large cave.

After the caves we went to a place which did horse riding, but it was too late in the day as it would be an hour trek and the horses took an hour to get ready. Its something for the future. We drove back to Auckland, stopping at a small Cafe for some dinner.

Saturday 9th

After a lazy morning we drove near to The Domain and we went to museum spending a bit of time there. I made Shamil walk all the way to Queen Street, which was a bit of a distance, but we got to a camera shop in time for him to get the tripod part. We caught the bus back to near the car and got ourselves take away Thai from De Grande and got ready.

Driving to Sky City we had a couple of drinks before we entered the theatre to watch the play “A Shortcut To Happiness” by Rodger Hall, which is a comedy “Ned’s life is just tickety-boo. Sure, he’s adjusting to retirement and life on his own, but he’s very comfortable with his lot. All that changes with his offer to sort out the financial woes of Natasha, an attractive Russian immigrant.” It was a funny play – lots of local humour – though we got nearly all of it. Afterwards we had a little drive around the city and across the harbour, but the rain reduced the views somewhat.

Sunday 10th

Being the last full day, we did not want to do too much running around, so we drove around to St Heliers Bay and parked there, slowly walking to mission bay, as Shamil was teaching Bhavni about using the SLR. At Mission Bay we stopped for a bite of lunch – Italian. On the way home we went shopping for some ingredients and made home made pasta – ricotta and spinach tortellini.

Monday 11th

Bhavni and I woke up early as it was her first day at work. Shamil woke up to say hello and bye to Bhavni before she left, before going back to sleep. After dropping Bhavni I had a couple of hours at home, before I had to drop Shamil to airport.

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