Leaving Kiribati Behind

Bright and early, I got up and had to wake up someone from the guesthouse to take me to the airport. I got checked in and then onto the plane. It almost looked for a minute as though I wouldn't be leaving Kiribati today. There was some problem with the count of passengers against, presumably the manifest. We were delayed for quite some time, and I thought maybe we were going to have to get off the plane to be counted somehow manually. But they shortly got it all sorted out and we were off. It was quite a full plane, with maybe more than 50 on board. That's compared with less than twenty on both the flights from Brisbane up to Kiribati, on the same plane that continues on through to Fiji. There seemed to be an entire soccer team (I think it was soccer), on their way to Fiji, maybe for a tournament. In any case, I had a little girl sitting next to me, and I think it was her first flight. She was all agog with what she could see out the window. It was nice.

I had originally planned to land at Nadi and then find someplace to stay and figure out what to do in Fiji and where to go after that. But I had heard about an island here that has a marker for the international date line. It is no longer truly split by the dateline, I understand, because Fiji decided that was ridiculous and just moved the dateline east of the country. But the marker is still there and people can pretend that they are jumping from today to tomorrow (or is it yesterday?) by hopping over the line. It sounded like a good place to try and go. So when I got to Nadi airport, I went over to the domestic terminal and asked if there was a flight today. There was and I got on it. And then I was treated to a really fantastic view. The plane was a twin Otter. There were only 7 of us on the plane and it was easy to get a good view out the windows. The sun was shining and the reefs were stunning to look out upon. I was amazed.

When the plane landed on Taveuni, I went into the terminal and there was a cab driver waiting for newbies. His name was Suk (I'm not sure how to spell it). He was one of those very eager sorts that is usually trouble. But I went with him anyway. He started telling me about really expensive resorts in the area. But when I told him cheap was what I wanted, he eventually told me about a place that is 25 Fiji dollars a night. That comes to about 13 dollars. To get there was about an hour's drive and that would cost 40. Hmmm... It sounded a bit like a disaster waiting to happen, particularly if he were shading the truth a bit and then I had to come back. But I went with it on faith. And he was true to his word. The drive out along the coast of the little island was truly magnificent. It is called the Garden Island of Fiji and it is very green and lovely. We got to this little lodge in a little village, and it really is 25 dollars a night. The people here are super friendly and helpful and it is quiet and by the ocean and really nice. I'm happy to be here and I will go on a kayaking trip to see a couple of waterfalls tomorrow.

Fiji is already very pleasant. And CHEAP!