Yoo 453 - Fiji...Getting Back

We woke up on Sunday, January 13th knowing full well it'd be a long day. There were bags to pack and organize, a city to be enjoyed one last time, customs in two countries to get thru, and 8,712 miles to travel.

Good thing we had 43 hours in the day!

The first time we organized our luggage was on a side street in Auckland. That was easy.

Then there was the airport, wherein we were quite over the luggage weight limit and had to fight for parking space at a busy scale making many a "go" and "no-go" decision for half an hour. We escaped with only a few casualties.

This was about the time they tried to bump us to a direct flight, which we were really stoked about, but suddenly, disappointment and we were in the air on our way to an 8-hour layover in Fiji.

Our lives are so trying.

 ^^ do you have in your possession, holy water?

Fiji could have been paradise but it was Sunday (everything still closes on sunday) and we'd exhausted our trip budget by this point. Also, we were stuck with our wheelie bags as part of a drastic decision during the redistributing-of-luggage-weight fiasco. So we grabbed those wheelie bags that were supposed to be in the belly of a plane and just started hoofing it in search of adventure.

If there's anything I learned about Fiji during this excursion....it's that it's HUMID. And everyone honks at you and wants to be your taxi. EVERYONE. Like even people on bikes. Honking.

But back to the humidity. We were dripping sweat after 2 1/2 minutes and marveling at how no one else seemed to be hot. It's like they were used to it or something...

So we played sweaty tourist and stumbled upon a grocery store that was actually open.

^^ suddenly cake mix seems like a delicacy...

 ^^ seems legit.

 ^^ buy jam...get toothpaste free!

 ^^ greg-sized pot (and that was the smaller one...)

Then I got it fixed in my mind after consulting the maps of google, that we really weren't *that* far from a beach, and we set out to find it.

But we actually were pretty far from it and our spirits dropped after we'd walked for an hour and realized we weren't even halfway there.

So we turned around and headed back to the airport. But the sky post-rainstorm made it worth our while!

 ^^ double rainbow!

We got thru a surprisingly lax Fiji customs and back to an enclosed airport environment were we realized that we stunk. Real bad. And decided something had to be done before our upcoming 10-hour flight.

Did you know there are free courtesy showers in the airport in Fiji? It's like this has happened before. I was desperate enough but unfortunately had "redistributed" all of my shower supplies and most of my spare clothes to my checked bag...

"Alright Kyoo, you have a clean t-shirt, another pair of socks, face wash, a disposable toothbrush, and a bar of chocolate. Time to be creative."

The shower was successful enough? At least no one gave us any weird faces...to our face.

^^ pooped

^^ hello, california

It was, literally, the longest day of my life, and completely surreal to finally crawl into my own bed when it was all said and done. And then get up 4 hours later and go to work for the first time in 3 weeks...reality is rude.

But we made it! And what fond memories to have until we're old and senile and looking back on pictures wondering who those crazy yungins running around New Zealand were!

I officially declare this travel dump over.

Have a great day :-)