Finally Fiji

We got up early to finish packing and get the camper ready to return. This included sweeping, draining our used water and refilling with fresh water, filling our propane tank, and throwing out all our trash. By 10:30am we were on the road to try and find this return site near the airport. The map of Auckland we were given when we picked up the camper was missing quite a few key streets, and we were lost for a while before pulling over and getting directions from a gas station. Since we were running late, a staff person at rental site just drove us in our campervan to the airport since all our bags were ready to go inside. We were happy to see such short lines at both check-in and security, and that made up a little bit for the fact that we had to each pay a $25 “departure fee”. The plane was about 20 minutes late taking off, but the ride was a nice and smooth 3 hours before landing in Fiji. There was a long line for immigration before getting our bags, and we made it out to our hotel’s van at around 5:30pm. We were staying the night in Nadi since the last boat to our resort left in the afternoon, and our resort made the booking for us at the West Motor Inn. The name didn’t really get our hopes up for anything nice, but we were pleasantly surprised when we pulled in the driveway. There were about 20 rooms on 2 floors which flanked two sides of the swimming pool, and on the third side was a nice open air restaurant. After settling in, we had a good meal and swatted about 25 mosquitoes at the hotel restaurant. Back in our room, we turned on the TV, and luckily one of the 5 available channels was ESPN. We watched some weird sports (the horse racing version of Baseball Tonight, cricket, boxing, and an American karate competition), and then some awesome things (World Series of Poker, Sportscenter, and an NBA season roundup, which did a special on the Pistons). After that wonderful treat, Susan fell asleep and Nathan made strong progress on the 4th Harry Potter.