Big Trip

At least the flight was at a civilised hour, meaning that we could have breakfast before leaving. We got lost at least twice on the drive to the airport, which led me to suspect that, since there are few really compelling reasons for staying in Auckland, they just try to make it hard for you to leave. Anyway, all went smoothly and we landed safely in Fiji. In pouring rain. Well, it is the wet season. It's hot & humid, and there are occasional heavy showers. We're on the dry side of the island here, on the south west 'coral coast'. That just means that we may get a shower every couple of days instead of rain each afternoon.
Our drive from the airport was beautiful. It reminded me of Tanzania in some respects - there were many people sitting by the roadside selling fruit & veg. In many cases they were neatly stacked into pyramids, or set out in tidy piles on a cloth. There were also lots of groups of young men sitting round by the roadside, apparently with very little to do. Perhaps they're just working on Fiji time. There were mountains visible in the distance across vast plains of sugar cane, all of it very green and lush, the clouds hanging at different heights over the peaks & valleys. Our driver, Mr. Singh, didn't speak a great deal of english, but occasionally would say 'sugar cane' or 'Outrigger' (the resort name) loudly, and at random intervals.
We arrived after an hour or so at a beautiful resort right on the beach, with palms, hibiscus and jasmine, and all sorts of other native plants whose names I don't know, to another reminder of Tanzania. When I climbed Kilimanjaro, pretty much everyone you met along the way would say 'jambo!', 'hello' in Swahili. Here it's very much the same, except that the greeting is 'bula!'.
After a little shuffling around, we had dinner and settled into our room, which is based on a traditional thatched bure (boo-ray), or Fijian village meeting house.