Our first weekend back from Fiji and NZ we had organised a party for Dre’s 30th. We started at In Situ, a cocktail bar in Manly, then went to a Thai restaurant and then back to our place for birthday cake and partying. Most importantly Dre had a ball and it was awesome to catch up with everyone post Xmas and New Year. We got plenty of photos and you can see them here.
We have a very busy wedding season coming up this year, and Anita and Sean kicked it off with their wedding on 10th Jan. With a beautiful vineyard setting the day was lovely and it was great to see Anita and Sean happily married. To see a few photos click here.
Karen’s parents took us on a walk at Goat Island and it was really cool to see the typical NZ landscape and lots of flaxes in flower! A sight we miss living in Sydney. We then went to the reptile park which had heaps of cool turtles and lizards and even some monkeys and birds. A really good way to spend the day! To see our photos click here.
While staying at Karen’s parents place we did the walk up the mountain beside their house. This pic above is their house from the walk. Below is one of the views along the way, it was very beautiful.
After Fiji, we stopped in NZ to see our families, and also to celebrate Kate’s 21st and Anita and Sean’s wedding. We had an awesome dinner and Kate got lots of cool pressies!!
Our last view of Vanua Levu til next time.
We were so lucky on the day we flew back to Nadi and then onto NZ as it was a perfectly clear day so the whole 1 hour flight we got amazingly beautiful views of the lagoon and reef and then the mountains on Nadi. It was a nice reward for arriving at Savusavu airport at 11.30am for our 12.30pm flight, only to be told that the plane had broken down and we might get to fly out at about 2pm. As 3pm approached and the engineer still hadn’t arrived from the neighbouring island to repair the plane, we had to start bargaining with the airport staff to let us on the next plane so that we didn’t miss our flight to NZ. After about half an hour of him calculating baggage weights, he informed us that we could go on the plane but that our luggage couldn’t. In the end we managed to bump some other people off the domestic flight, who had a later international flight than us, and we flew out of Savusavu just after 4pm and had the most beautiful flight of our lives.
We celebrated New Year’s day the way everyone on our beach in Savusavu did. We went down to the ‘blue lagoon’ the local swimming hole, even though it was only a 5 minute or so walk, it took us a long time as every group of Fijians we walked past wanted to offer us beer and food from their Lovo’s (the traditional style of cooking, slightly similar to a hangi), and just generally talk and hang out with us. Every group also wanted to have their photos taken with us, so it ended up taking an enjoyable hour or so to get there. It was a really fun day and a good way to spend our last full day in Savusavu.
On NYE we went into town and had a mega seafood feast, where Dre ate 6 lobsters, several fish and crabs, sea snails, kokoda (raw fish marinated in lime), and Karen managed much smaller portions of all of the above. We partied with the locals, mainly our new-found friends Adi (pronounced Andy) and her partner Geoff. Needless to say, Savusavu isn’t much of a happening place at the best of times, here is a pic of the only street just after midnight.
We still had a ball though and welcomed in 2009 in a great little town. It was quite special to be here and we have been so lucky to meet some amazing people and experience the wonderful culture here.