welcome to our home

 

You might recall these were the words uttered the moment we landed in Nadi, and its fair to say we have found both welcome and a home since we arrived at the Beachouse. Let me give you a bit of a tour. 

toilet glimpse

Outside shower (limited hot water)

Outside bathroom

Outside toilet round the corner(just like the old days)

suitcase living (my preference, no wardrobes)

surprisingly comfy bed and a well used charge point

 

It should be said that it might have been our home for a lot longer than we anticipated as we got up today. Bryns passport had gone missing, and an hour of increasingly panicked searching failed to uncover. Some calls and checks with the consulate in Suva as well as online research is a word to the wise: don't lose your passport this far from home. Could take a number of days to get a temporary document issued, only some countries would allow you to transit through on route home, and you would probably have to book some brand new flights.  Suddenly a tycoons budget required, not a backpackers.  It then turned up in Chrissis bag - far too much relief to play the blame game.

Once that little drama had played out decided the a jog in what was a little bit of intemperate conditions (Fiji style, bit of light rain) and did another out and back 5k. Was another dog incident on the way out, he wasn't running behind me in the same way as the friendly villagers yesterday. Stayed on the other side of the road on the way back!

, 

Straight into the kayak after that and a little cruise around the headland. Just inside the reef and even in the kayak, you can stop, gaze in to the waters, and see all sorts of colourful fish, these damsel fish everywhere,  darting around. Even taking a few steps into the ocean and the odd shoal of fairly big natives swoosh around your feet.

Continued in full holiday mode today, going for lazy lunch and lazy hammock, reading and snoozing.

What a place this has been, I feel a full Trip Advisor Review coming up, the staff are just so friendly and part of the locale, the activities for all ages are constant, and that cross between backpacker and hotel feel, playing pool and table tennis, chatting with travellers, just relaxing and letting the world go by .. perfect. Fiji Time has been a good time.

Final evening meal with the family, Bryn's buddies off to their volunteering, so we could all share the evening meal. I went for a hatrick of fish, more traditional battered  version with chips. And Fiji Gold has been a constant today, definitely a gold star experience.  Bryn also battered me, at table tennis, should have put that on strava, didn't think!

(Carys)

Today has maybe been the most uneventful day for me yet, though I think I've said that a couple of times already - I think this may actually be it. I'm sure no one will be particularly interested in this, but today I'm attempting to get Taylor Swift concert tickets, so that has been at the forefront of my mind. Unfortunately, due to time differences, the sale isn't until midnight here, so today has been a day of waiting. I was up reasonably early for breakfast, and sadly, my wishes for improved weather had not come true. It was raining, but nonetheless, the beach still looked beautiful. 

My mind was temporarily distracted from the this format of stress, to a very different type, when Bryn's passport went missing - I'm not sure anyone drew much breath until it turned up again, as for a little while it seemed to become very real very quickly. When Bryn found it in mum's bag in her room, I think we both screamed a bit and scared the neighbours, but we were too relieved, and came bounding down the path to share the good news.

Panic over, I returned to my own personal panic about tickets, which sort of became my focus for the day. I spent most of it in the hammocks, distracting myself, but also trying to enjoy our last moments of Fiji life. Before this trip I thought I hated hammocks, but turns out, they're more than comfy and I'd happily have one in the garden at home. I spent some time with the dogs too, who I will sorely miss for being so sweet and friendly, and then went for a final swim with mum. It had stopped raining which was good but the clouds still loomed, but the swim was pleasant nonetheless, followed by a  quick dip in the pool. 

I got showered and sorted my things out at the room quite early, with not much else to do. Feeling fresh, I played Bryn at ping pong, which gets me frustrated since I am terrible. 

It's still good fun though. I'm better at pool, which I later played dad at, but obviously still not as good as him. Lunch was really tasty but basic - cheese toasty and the ginormous wedges they make. The potatoes have been very commendable here. Some reading and more relaxing later, it was already time for dinner, which for me was vegetable stir fry.

 I had a quick power nap and was back to kill some time before attempting for the tickets in the bar where there was WiFi. It's quiet here every night by around 9, so the wait was peaceful even though it dragged. I practised some pool, and then mum and I had a go at getting them. I managed to get some for Wembley next year, so I'm extremely excited. I'm sorry this has been the main focus of my part of the blog today, but in all honesty, it's been all I've really thought about, I'm glad my job is sorted now, so we went to bed to get some rest.