Bula!

Our trip has started out relatively well. We haven’t lost any bags or ran into other travel-related trouble. We got into Fiji on Wednesday morning (Tuesday afternoon in Colorado). After flying into Nadi, on the main island of Viti Levu, we caught a bus to our hostel - which was really more of a resort with bunk beds. Apparently, there was a British reality television show filmed there about a year ago, and the crew came in and made many upgrades. The beaches weren’t fantastic (like the beaches you see in the photos of Fiji) since we were on the side of the island with the coral reef, but a beach is a beach. There were dozens of hammocks that came in handy for reading and snoozing. There were also many activities put together by the hostel - horse back riding at low tide, coconut jewelry making, hiking in the jungle, volleyball, sea kayaking, etc. It felt very much like summer camp. If anyone heads to Fiji, we both recommend staying here. It’s cheap, clean, and fun.

We met a lot of really nice people who were staying there. Every one seemed to be just wrapping up their travels in New Zealand and Australia or just heading down there. One couple from north of Auckland offered to have us come to their house for New Years Eve. We planned to be up north anyway, so I think we might go visit them. It will be nice to have some plans for the holidays in another country.

The Fijian people we also extremely nice. They're such a happy group of people - always smiling and yelling "Bula!" to everyone they come across. Brody met a girl on the bus from Nadi named Swastika. Caught us off guard, but apparently its a common name in Fiji. She was very informative and told us to try many different things while we were in the country - Kava (a traditional drink in the pacific islands, made from roots. we never had any, but we heard that its non-alcoholic, tastes like muddy water, and makes your tongue go numb). She also recommended something that sounded like Lowvel. They mix meat, veggies, and seasonings and cook it underground. We didn't get a chance to try this either, but we've been told that there is something similar in NZ called a hangi. Kiwi's often eat hangi on Christmas, and we've heard you can get it at road-side stands. I think we might try it out!

I have to run for now - we're getting kicked out of our hostel in about 45 minutes. We'll post more soon!