Around the World in 365 Days: Fiji to New Zealand

Day 117, Feb. 13^th: Bula from Fiji! Bula is the local greeting, and the locals are a friendly bunch. We were very nervous arriving in Fiji, since as we approached the docks there was an announcement that the Ministry of Health required all passengers and crew to fill out a health questionnaire – exactly as we heard from Tonga. This time we had better luck, though when I tried to check on Doreen, Medical was closed and the lines at the desk were too long as people turned in their questionnaires before being allowed to disembark. We wandered the town of Suva in the morning. The air was extremely humid – technically, it was 82 degrees and felt well above 90. We stopped into McDonald’s for a soda and wifi – the wifi was fast and the soda sweet. We pressed on along Victoria Parade toward the Holiday Inn for tourist information, since the tourist office had been permanently closed. We had planned to get a bus or taxi to the beach, but found out the beach was close to an hour drive by car and three times that by bus, so we returned to the McDonald’s to look up what else was around. The Fiji Exclusive Museum was in the back of the Thurston Gardens – which were beautiful, well maintained, located opposite to the waterfront and the Grand Pacific Hotel (which was just past the Holiday Inn). The museum was a pleasant surprise. The Fijian who sold us the museum tickets played on John’s initial joke of “one adult and one child” ($10 FD -each, equivalent to $5 US- though did charge the two adults). The museum has a full-size replica of the outriggers that sailed the Pacific. Parts of the museum are air conditioned, others not. Fijian native arts and history are the main focus, with one room dedicated to local flora and fauna. After walking in the heat and humidity, I melted and returned to the ship for the afternoon and John stayed out to look for Indian food. In the evening we went out bar hopping with Liam and Alan – starting with a non-air-conditioned place called The Sand Dunes with disco lights and cheap beer.

The rest of the places had the decency to have A/C. All had similar driving dance music, but few popular US songs (except ‘Shape of You’). We made it back to McDonald’s – the one here has really good fried chicken which we enjoyed with a pile of French fries before returning to the ship.

Day 118, Feb. 14^th: Happy Valentines Day! The prediction for the day is rain – lots of rain. We almost got caught in a heavy shower just before our around the island tour. The one arranged by the cruise was 49 pounds a person, we got an identical one, in a much smaller air conditioned mini-bus for $25 each (so both of us for less than the cost of just one through the ship). The van took John and I and ten others to a Fijian village, where we were greeted by some young men in native garb,

who performed a welcome ceremony and danced. I volunteered to go up and dance (as did John) – which was fun, but since John also participated, I have no photos of my own – just the memories! Later, we were driven to a park area. We hiked down a steep path to a small waterfall where young men and women jumped into a deep pool using a rope swing (another plus of the minivan – our hike to the waterfall was a lot shorter).

The bus then took us shopping to two malls near the port where the ship was docked. I was surprised they were so reasonably priced (and picked up John’s Valentine’s present – a Fiji ‘Bula’ shirt with designs for the Fijian Rugby team). John went on and picked up two other shirts that day and I kept my mouth shut – we need to start getting new pieces for our wardrobes – it’s getting a little boring wearing the same sets of clothes. We dropped off our purchases and then off for lunch – John took me back to the same Thali place he’d been to the day before – Bombay Kabobs – which is about 6 blocks up and around from the ship. I would have a hard time finding it again on my own. It was OK, you had to add a lot of the chutney to get as much kick as I like. I came back to the ship to nap and blog. I still needed to try to load a lot of photos, so I ran back out to the Burger King and took advantage of the wifi before we set sail for New Zealand.

Days 119-121, Feb. 15-17^th: Sea days. We finally did the Talent Show with Joe’s Guitar Group – the opening chord on the first piece – “What a Wonderful World” ( the ‘Don’t know much about history one) caused huge, crashing feedback that pierced every ear in the place – I kept doing the same two back and forth chords until I could hear again and start singing. The remainder went OK, and the second set went much better. We fortuitously chose to do the British songs in the second set – and it turned out the second talent show was much more British. It started with something called “Morris Dancing” with the couple dressed up with tassled clothing and bells, and sticks which they clashed together in fake fighting through the dance. According to guitar Alan, it is a well over 500 years old and one of the few historical (pre-Elizabethan) activities still performed. There was also a Madrigal singer, a comedian couple, and a poet. On the 16^th we had the choir concert in the afternoon, so people sat and waited in the show lounge for over 30 minutes for our 20-minute concert. I felt like John was doing the parent role going to recitals and concerts, getting pictures. After a couple of rougher days at sea, it calmed on the 17^th with a wonderful breeze and dry air in the mid to upper 70’s, making walking on deck a pleasure. Technically both choir and the guitar group are on hiatus until after Sydney, but Alan, Guitar John and I have continued to meet just to have fun and play music. We may do a quick concert in the Atrium before Sydney.

Day 122, Feb. 18^th: Tauranga (actually, Maunganui), New Zealand. I’m going on an adventure! I went to Hobbiton, a little over an hour from the port. According to the guide, the original Hobbiton/Shire for Lord of the Rings was a temporary structure and taken down after the filming. When Peter Jackson returned to film The Hobbit trilogy, the town was constructed with permanent materials (solid wood), although the holes are only about 2-3 feet deep. The only structure made full size was the Green Dragon pub. In order to make the actors playing Hobbits look smaller, they have different sized doors – some, like the one open for us to get a picture coming out of –

are full human sized, others are very small so a regular sized person going through appears much bigger. The son of the farm’s owner is the general manager, and Hobbiton is the main employer for the area’s youth. I lucked out and was on bus 2 – bus 1 broke down – three times, and the participants returned 15 minutes before the Columbus needed to set sail at 5PM. I returned on schedule at 12:45, giving me time to do the other things I wanted to do – hike Mt. Maunganui – which offers beautiful views of the beach and the small surrounding islands (on clear days, locals say you can see White Island – the one where the volcano recently erupted, killing several tourists).

The hike also let me see some amazing local flora – in this case, ferns that look like palm trees.

I also checked out the little island with the blow holes – unfortunately the tide was not yet high enough to see the water erupting through them. I grabbed a ½ pint of Outlander Stout (very smooth, little aftertaste and not bitter – if you’re a stout drinker, strongly recommended), sat and caught up on some emails, then John joined me for a quick walk through town before getting back to the ship. We sailed away with friends on the back deck Oasis bar.

Day 123, Feb. 19^th: Only one day in Auckland, so we had to make the most of it. John and I took the Hop-On/ Hop Off Soaring Kiwi Tours bus. We took the red route around part of the city, and to the Auckland Museum (where they had a really interesting display and education on volcanos)

and War Memorial, which is in the Domain and near the Wintergardens. John needed to get back to the Sky Tower at 1PM to meet Stuart, while I wanted to continue wandering the gardens. The problem was that the Hop/On/Off only gives you one copy of the ticket for two people. I was OK walking back – it wasn’t too far, and allowed me to shop a little for our friend trivia Alan’s Birthday. He’s a fan (as much as I am) of New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs. I found a bottle at a shop near the Sky Tower where all of us planned to meet at 2PM for Alan’s mini-party. Alan hates a fuss being made for his birthday, but we did anyway. There is also a casino at the Tower (where John was already playing). I arrived 20 minutes before 2 so sat at a Monopoly slot machine and promptly got a bonus – and kept getting them. I was up $85 by the time I went to meet up with friends. The Aces bar in the casino was otherwise empty, so the eight of us took over for the next almost two hours – Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc, beers for some and Cielo had mojitos (the next day she wondered why she felt so sick, she decided it was due to the rough seas). John went back to playing cards at 3:30, and I pulled him away at a little after 5 to return to the ship (meanwhile, I got another 10 minutes and won another $75 on the same machine). We reconvened at the Oasis on board, continuing the party, dancing to music Liam and Cielo had downloaded on their Iphones.

We missed most of the show with Anika singing Karen Carpenter songs – we caught the tail end of it after dinner with the second show).

Onward to Australia!