Last few days in Fiji

This is probably going to be a very short post, as our last few days in Fiji were spent back where we had started, Bamboo hostel just outside Nadi. 

Our days were spent swimming, doing some washing and walking along the beach and to the nearby shop for some slightly cheaper bottles of water. The weather wasn't even that great so we couldn't even sunbathe. We also had a few good meals at the hostel restaurant and enquired about getting Fijian tattoos, although we thought £200 was a little steep considering our financial situation. 

The day we left was an early start as we needed to be at the airport for 6:45. We arrived, checked in and browsed the shops in departures, spending our last Fijian dollars, waiting for our flight. Eventually we boarded the plane and set off towards our penultimate country, but one we were probably most looking forward to, New Zealand. 

Pacific Harbour

Our next stop was in pacific harbour, about an hour West of Suva on the south coast. The resort was really nice and, after much confusion, we ended up staying in an 8 bed dorm. We got a free breakfast which was amazing, but we still spent alot of time on the beach, in the pool and eating.

One morning we spent on kayaks going up and down along the beach which was fun. There was also a small town 5 minutes walk from the resort where we had a few great dinners.

There was a cat who kept visiting out room. We decided to call him Oliver.  We fed him most days and gave him milk to drink. He often spent the evening sat on our laps while we played cards.  On the last evening,  as a goodbye present maybe, he decided to poop all over Jays lap. It was quite funny really!

After enjoying the sun as much as possible it was time to head back to Nadi. So we took a public bus for 3 hours to enjoy a few last days of sun before heading to colder climates in New Zealand!

Taveuni

Our journey to Taveuni started with a three hour minibus to the capital Suva. Once we had got there we bought our tickets for our ferry trip on the boat and had a few hours to see the city. It wasn't a particularly great city to be. There were lots of people trying to sell us souvenirs and trying to lure us into their shops. After stopping at a food court for some lunch and picking up some snacks, we returned to the dock to board the boat. The ferry was pretty basic but did have a cinema room, which is where we set up camp. After watching a few questionable choices for films on a boat and trying to eat some snacks in the restaurant, which wasn't easy as we were both feeling a little ill from the rough journey, we found a spot on the floor in the tv room to try and get some sleep. This also wasn't easy as we weren't really prepared for a nights sleep on the floor of a ferry. It was very cold and extremely uncomfortable. After 20 hours on the ferry, a quite forgettable experience, we arrived on Taveuni and were picked up and taken to the resort via a supermarket to pick up some provisions. Once we arrived, we took our things to our dorm and spent the evening chatting to people we had met on our journey over. 

On our first day there we decided to pay to tag along on the organised day trip, which was to a natural water slide. We left the hostel around 10 and made our way to the slide via a stop off at the international dateline, which was very cool to see, and possibly means we were at the furthest point we could be from England. After stopping at the drivers house we walked through the forest for about 10 minutes to the stream. There was a bit of a rock pool at the top of the stream which we were all able to swim in before trying the slide. The slide looked quite scary at first but once we got started it was very cool, especially the last section. The locals that were there were even surfing down on their feet, something we didn't try. After a couple of times down the slide, we headed back to the drivers house for lunch. Not before Luca, our guide from the hostel, decided to climb a coconut tree to retrieve a coconut for each of us to have with lunch. After lunch we went back to the hostel and chilled out with everyone, and enjoying a bit of kava time. 

The next was mostly spent chilling out by the pool at the hostel and wandering to the local shop to get food as we were cooking for ourselves. The evening was spent chatting and playing cards with everyone.

On the Saturday we went on another day trip, this time to one of the other islands, Qamea. We left fairly early and had a 45 minute drive to get to the boat. After playing touch rugby with some local children, we headed out on two little boats. The journey was quite wet and rough but we arrived on the island in one piece, waited for the other boat and went back out to sea for a bit of snorkelling on a nearby reef. This was quite an experience as it was quite far our, so very deep, and the sea was a little rough which made snorkelling a little difficult. We then went back to Qamea to visit a local village. Once we got there we had to go and see the village chief to see if we were accepted into the village. Thankfully we were. Afterwards we had lunch at one of the residents houses and then went and watched a rugby 7's game which the guys from our hostel were playing in. We had more kava before leaving to go back to Taveuni. The boat journey back was a lot rougher and much wetter, especially as it started raining just before we got back. After getting back and sorting ourselves out, the evening was again spent chilling out. 

We spent the next few days relaxing, sunbathing by the pool and swimming, before heading back to the main island, not before another painfully long ferry trip, however we were much better prepared for the return journey. 

Fiji part one :-)

We landed in Nadi early in the morning at about 5.30 on Wednesday. We were picked up by the hostel and taken to where we would be staying; Bamboo hostel. It was a peaceful hostel by the beach and we waited around for a few hours in the sun until we could check in.

Our room was a bit like a hospital with rows of single beds on each side. It needed a bit of a clean. The showers had clumps of hair and the beds needed a clean underneath. We chilled out for our first day, making good use of the hostels cafe. There wasnt alot to do around where we were so we spend many days sunbathing, walking along the beach and eating.

On our second day we went on the "town tour" which consisted of being left in a gift shop for almost an hour and walking through a market to get the bus back. Not so great but apparently that was all there was to see. We soon learnt fiji was for the people with more money than us. There were lots of divers and people doing water sports.

We booked a few nights on an island called Taveuni which was the third biggest island on the East side of the main island.

We spent the days leading up to this island trip just chilling out and also doing some laundry. The weather was lovely so it wasn't hard to spend hours at a time reading in the sun.

On monday morning we left for Taveuni...

LA

As we had both stayed in Hollywood during separate visits in the past, we thought it would be good to stay in an area we hadn't been to, and so settled for Hermosa Beach. And because it was also very cheap compared to some other hostels closer to downtown LA.
After returning Seamus the Chevrolet to thrifty we caught numerous buses to get back to Hermosa. During the journey we thought we had missed our stop, so got off at the next one and walked back up to where we thought we were staying, only to realise we had actually got off too early and were in Manhattan Beach. So after a 45 minute walk along the beach we eventually got back to our hostel. That evening we went for a walk into town and came across a nice little vegan restaurant where we had dinner before returning to the hostel.

The next day wasn't very extravagant. We went for a walk along Hermosa Pier and also the beach. The houses on the sea front are ridiculously nice. Some would put sandbanks to shame. As our hostel was in the centre of Hermosa, which was just off the pier, there were plenty of rowdy bars and restaurants, so we decided to go for nice drink in the sun before returning to the hostel to cook dinner and chill out.

As our hostel provided cheap bike hire we decided to spend our last full day in America cycling up the coast to Santa Monica. This was to be a 30 mile round trip, so quite a mission for us. After getting used to our bikes we set off. The cycle path runs along the sea front and is relatively flat so was very pleasant for the first half of the journey. It wasn't until we had to navigate round a harbour when it got a little interesting as we had to use a combination of cycle paths and the roads. It wasn't long until we got to Venice Beach on the other side of the harbour. It was very busy here, with lots going on along the front and cyclists, pedestrians and skaters everywhere. Some people being quite rude, although we happily carried on our way another 15 minutes to Santa Monica. We left our bikes just off the pier and walked to the main street as we were starving. After a good burger, we did a little shopping before going back to the pier to have a look around at the theme park and stuff. We then started our long journey back, both already tired from the way there. We stopped in Venice Beach and went for a walk to find the flagship Toms shop before returning to our bikes and cycling back. We were both pretty dead after the journey so the evening was spent doing very little.

Our last day involved a lot of sitting around watching TV as we had checked out and were waiting for a suitable time to go to the airport. The afternoon was also spent in the company of an annoying 40 something guy who worked in the hostel, who not only interrupted the film we were watching by putting ice hockey on, but couldn't get it into his head that we weren't that interested in hockey in the uk and he wouldn't shut up about it, and was constantly chanting for the NY Rangers. Thankfully they lost.
So after getting to the airport and, after a bit of a mix up which meant we needed to buy our plane tickets from Auckland to Melbourne otherwise we wouldn't have been allowed to fly, we boarded our flight leaving America, and what has been the best part of our trip so far, heading for Fiji.

Part Six - Pacific Highway

After our few days in San Francisco the last part of our journey was the road to LA, the pacific highway, with numerous stops along the way.

The first destination after leaving the city was Monterey. We arrived around 6ish and headed to the local trader joes for some food. After getting a little lost and finally getting back to the motel, we spent the evening eating and watching tv before bed. The next day we got up, had breakfast and made our way to the Monterey Aquarium, which is apparently one of the best in the world and it didn't disappoint. There were lots of different things there to see, sharks, jellyfish, manta rays, sea otters etc. we also managed to watch the penguin feed which was cool. After the aquarium we headed back to the town, via trader joes, for dinner and to chill out for the evening. The next day we travelled further down the coast. After leaving Monterey and driving on the highway for a bit, we eventually got to the coastal road. To say the views were scenic would be an understatement. There were impressive views around every corner, with numerous viewpoints along the way, allowing us to stop and take it all in. The road followed the coast twisting along the cliff side. There was one last viewpoint before we stopped for the day. This was a beach which, for a certain amount of time each year, gets completely overrun by elephant seals. This was very cool to see them in the wild, although all they seem to do was sunbathe and wrestle each other. Not long after, we reached our stop for the night in Morro Bay. This was a nice little town on the coast. After wandering around looking for a restaurant to eat, we eventually found one which could cater for both of needs, and also over looked the water where more seals could be seen and heard. 

The next day we left Morro Bay and continued along route 1 towards Santa Barbara. We took a detour around lunchtime for some food on the sea front in Pismo Beach. After a walk along the pier, we were back on the road, although still making sure we stopped along the way to admire the views. We arrived in Santa Barbara around 2ish and after checking in to our motel, we headed out for a walk along the beach. The weather was nice and the beach was very tropical with palm trees lining the road along the front. We walked along the beach, onto the pier and through the town before getting some food and heading back to the motel. 

Our last day with our car was spent making our way back to LA. We had to try and return the car as close to empty as possible so decided to drive to our hostel to drop off our bags first. After taking the wrong exit off the freeway, driving for an hour through heavy traffic on the wrong road, we eventually found our way to Hermosa Beach. We checked in, dropped our bags off and made our way back towards Thrifty at LAX, to bring an end to our road trip, which has been one of the best experiences of our trip so far. However we weren't quite done in America. We still had a few days to spend in Los Angeles.