week 1: arrival and orientation

So finally after about 6 months lead up I boarded the plane to Fiji.  I thought at this time reality would have hit, but it still hasn't. The plane trips were uneventful, with the occasional bragging of who got the most excess baggage through for free. (most certainly wasn't me, but i wasn't the worst. phew. had a few other dilemmas to sort out at check in). 

The arrival in Nadi was... hot. After delicately re-balancing my swathe of bags after the security screen I was pulled up for a suspicious jar object in me bag.  After a lot of shouting across the arrivals terminal and miscommunication the offending bag and pocket were located and inside was found an innocent jar of survival Vegemite.  Sega na lega (no worries) we were waved through.  on the other side I was met by a cold bottle of Fiji water and a lovely but itchy flower neck decoration and introduced to our Fijian mum and dad, Lice (Lithe) and Dan.

The next 2 days were passed uneventfully in Nadi easing ourselves into the heat and culture. We visited the ridiculous creation that is Denerau Island, tasted the local dishes and sweated out more liquid than was possible to replace.