Farewell New Zealand, Hello Fiji
Nadi, Fiji

Well, we said good bye to New Zealand yesterday, and are now on the island of Nadi, Fiji. It’s quite a climatic jump once again, taking off in drizzly grey weather in Auckland, and landing in hot, humid weather in Fiji. We met Karen at the resort yesterday, and this morning Evelyn and Ken arrived from Vancouver, so it’s a mini family reunion of sorts right now.

We didn’t actually see a whole lot of the North Island of New Zealand in the time that we were there, as we pretty much drove from Wellington through Taupo, Rotorura and Matamata, across to Auckland. However, we enjoyed what we did see; the stop at Matamata was fun to see the Lord of the Rings site of Hobbiton, and in Auckland, a real highlight was spending time with our friends Gary and Steff and their 5-month old baby, Abby.

In fact, we were able to catch up with quite a few friends during our last few days in New Zealand; in Tauronga we had dinner with Cherie, who we met in Nepal; in Auckland we caught up with Vanessa who we also met in Nepal; we also enjoyed dinner with Jenny with whom we traveled in Laos, and even Gary and Steff we met overseas, while traveling in Egypt and Kenya four years ago. The connections that we have made around the world are truly amazing.

In Auckland, we enjoyed an aerial night view of the city in the Sky Tower, and a harbour-view of the city while taking the ferry in from Devonport. We also had a nice visit to Mission Bay, and hung out around Queen Street and the Viaduct area, home to the 2003 America’s Cup activities. It was a short but sweet stay there.

Now that we are in Fiji though, we are getting a distinct feeling that we’re turning the last corner in the trip; and the end of this week, we will be heading across the Pacific, connecting for a day in LA/San Diego, and will be starting exploring our last continent on this trip, South America. Only two months to go and then we will be home. The topic of home has been coming up a reasonable amount in recent conversation; we’re still loving every experience we’re having right now, but I think we’ll be ready to be home in July.

For now though, we’re going to kick back, try some kava, and explore this little tropical holiday destination that is Fiji!

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