Fiji - leaving on a jet plane

23 Fiji - leaving on a jet plane (Tues. Feb 24)

One of the women workers that we have been talking to for the past couple of days (we had her try chocolate covered raisins - she loved them) was the receptionist at breakfast this morning. She had the singers (two men playing a guitar and ukulele and playing during breakfast) and four of the women attendants for breakfast come over and sing us a goodbye song at our table.

After breakfast I take pictures of the Resort's grounds as we head back to the room to finish packing. Around 11:00AM we head up to the reception desk and check out. Since our ride out of here isn't until 5:30PM, we leave our big bags in a lock-up (I have my back-pack with my computer and camera) and head out to the pool while we wait for 5:30PM for our pickup. Well Carmen goes down to the pool while I'm trying to catch up on the blog in the lobby on the top floor. The top floor overlooks the entire resort area and I get a picture of it, for your benefit of course!

While I am sitting in the lobby working on the blog (I paid for 24 hr connection so I might as well us it) there are a group of men playing guitars and ukuleles, singing island songs. Now this is what the South Pacific should be like! But, I am running out of battery so I'm going to shut down and head out to the pool with Carmen.

After a several hours by the pool, black clouds are starting to build up and in the distance there is thunder. In no time at all an attendant is asking people to get out of the pool. There is more thunder and it begins drizzling but we are under the "grass" umbrella, so we should be good right? All of a sudden the sky opens up and it starts pouring rain, I mean really hard. Water is beginning to come through the grass umbrella we are under so we pack up and walk, very quickly, to the restaurant area near us. On the walkway we are using there are places where the water is flooded to about 3-4 inches, good thing we are in our bathing suits and my computer and cameras are in the backpack.

After about 20 minutes, the rain was still coming down really hard, so we decide to brave about 20 feet in the pouring rain to the covered (grass hut style) walk-way that heads up to the main building. We get to the main building and change into dry clothes and hang out by the open windows (no glass in the windows by the way and no air conditioning) in the breeze until our ride comes. (At this point in the afternoon it is about 3:00PM.)

Remember the ride to the resort I mentioned a couple of days ago? Well this time we are doing the ride during daylight hours and not at night. We are able to see the countryside, the sugar cane crops, and the horses and cows on the sides of the road, and the houses and businesses along the way. We take a couple of pictures along the way.

We get to the airport around 7:20PM and have to wait about 15 minutes for the counters to open up. While we are waiting to get to the counter, one of the counter people (a woman) is taking about 20 minutes per person. Each one seems to be an issue with her. Well guess what? We get her. We present our passports and put our luggage up on the scales. She puts our tags on the bags and we are given our tickets and passports back and are then asked for our e-ticket numbers. What? We give the attendant our itinerary and flight information and she can not find anything. Guess what? She has an issue with us as well. She asks questions of the counter people to her side (no help), then calls her supervisor (no help) and then a Qantas person (from upstairs). He comes down, says the same thing; we do not have any e-ticket number and we have to go with him to his office.

I am up in the office with him and he spends some time looking up our information on the computer. Then he asks "how did you get here"? "What? We flew here on the jet just like the information indicated on the computer", I said. But then again, there is no e-ticket information for that flight either. All of the numbers I need to call are either to early (midnight the day before we are in now) or to late (after 6:00 PM in Australia) for other numbers.

I have him call Qantas for me so I can talk to them. I go round and round with the lady on the phone with the same information, I did not fly here because I had no e-ticket number; even though we did - you know "Catch 22". "Yes we flew here on Qantas. No we did not have a problem. Yes we gave the same papers to that counter person. Yes we got a ticket, Yes the computer has us assigned seating. What do you mean we do not have ticket numbers?"

So I ask the lady on the Qantas line what can she do for me because everything is right there in the computer. Her answer: "Pay for tickets to fly back to Los Angeles". Unbelievable. I do not have to tell you how very upset I was and made sure I mentioned it to both the Qantas person at the airport and the one on the phone, especially how very unhelpful they were. (And the poster over his desk says something like "We are here to please the customer"; yeah right.) My suggestion: if you can fly someone other that Qantas or Air Pacific do it.

This is taking some time and while the Qantas person is trying to get more information, I go down and get Carmen, who has been waiting. It has been about 20 minutes. Carmen comes back up with me and again we go round and round about our flights. Qantas is no help at all, even though all of our information is in their system. The solution: buy another ticket to get to Los Angeles!

So we buy the tickets again ($2774.00 Fijian) in order to fly back to Los Angeles, California so we can get our connecting flight to Orlando, FL. We go back down to the Qantas representative (we have to wait another 10 minutes for her to finish up with her current customer - again issues) and she prints out another set of tickets. THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME TICKETS! She gives us printed tickets and asks for the ones she printed earlier. I look and there is no difference between them. We even keep the first ones she printed! We were so happy to get out of that airport.

The flight back to the US was a little over 10 hours, but we landed early. (At least the flight went right.) The first thing we do after getting to the domestic counters is to call the Travel Agent, the Tour Company, and the Credit Card Company to stop payment. No they can not stop the payment, but if we do not get this resolved in 30 days, they will help us to get it resolved.
Our flight out of Los Angeles was on time (10:45PM, no hassles here) and we landed in Orlando 30 minutes early at 5:30AM. At least the flight time went smoothly.

We are now back home, yeah! Except for the flight home, the trip was fantastic!

Fiji - Day at the pool

22 Fiji - Day at the pool (Mon. Feb. 23)

After breakfast this morning our plan is to just spend the day at the pool.

The beach here at the Outrigger Resort is very narrow, only about 15-20 feet from the retaining wall to the water edge and for a beach it is pretty course sand. The ground under the water is hard with not much sand; it is mostly coarse coral pieces. The surf is breaking several hundred yards out and it is easy to see why; there is a shelf here and with the tide out you can walk almost all the way to the breaking water without stepping in any water, after that the water gets maybe a foot or so deep.

Since the beach is not very nice here, we decide to spend our time at the pool. The pool is quite large and has 4 different sections to it. There is a whirlpool that spills into a "river" of water which flows under a bridge and into the main pool. There is also a kids pool where the "wall" separating the shallow kids pool and the main pool, has breaks in it every 18 inches. The last section is a hardscape beach. This area goes from a horizon drain and slowly gets deeper to the left and right with rocks in the front about 10 feet out. Both exits from the "beach" pool gets deep and flows into the larger pool. The large section of the pool is about 50 feet by 150 feet with no square edges.

We were laying in the sun for a while but moved to more a shaded area with lounge chairs. We stay by the pool pretty much all day and then decide to go down the road to a restaurant. But after we change and before we head out, it starts to rain. We wait about 30 minutes for the rain to taper off to a drizzle then head out.

We go in the other direction this evening and find another restaurant at a different resort/hotel. As we end our dinner the sun is going down and it is an absolutely gorgeous sunset. Unfortunately, neither of us brought either of the cameras. You'd think we have learned by now! We try to hurry back to the resort by way of the beach hoping to get back to the room and get the camera before the sun goes down.

Oh, by the way, the people at the reception desk have told some of the others in our group that there are no other restaurants off the resort and also to not eat the food you might find because you can not trust it. There also is a sign by the beach that indicates that there are no restaurants off the premise.

We make it back before the sunset is completely over, although we did miss the most spectacular portion of the sunset. Oh well, that is what happens when you leave the room while it is drizzling and you do not expect the weather to be better. We took a couple of pictures, but the ones we got do not do the justice to the picture we could have had - palm trees in the foreground on a grassy knoll, the water glistening with the setting sun and the reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges (I know because Carmen told me) in the sky and clouds.

We head back to the room and start to pack. Tomorrow we fly out of Fiji heading to Los Angeles. Our flight is not until 10:00PM-ish so our ride back does not pick us up until 5:30PM. So, our plan is to check out by 11:00AM and leave our bags in the Resorts lock-up and spend time by the pool.

Fiji - Coral Coast Railroad

21 Fiji - Coral Coast Railroad (Sun. Feb. 22)

According to our "paper" itinerary we received with our original trip information, we are scheduled for the Coral Coast Railroad ride on Monday. The information we received with the phone call this morning confirmed what we heard last night from the others on our tour. The call this morning indicated the train does not ride on Monday, but on Sunday or Tuesday. Since we are leaving Tuesday, today which is Sunday, sounds like a good bet. Beside that is when the others in our tour group are going therefore so will we.

It is sunny this morning and we get to see the ocean and the beach area in front of the resort, but not from our room. We are at the tree top level, but cannot see over the trees to the ocean. We have to go up to the top floor to get a good view. This is a view from the top floor. The grass roof tops are various buildings including the cafe we ate at last night (the big one in the upper left corner. You can see where the "shelf" ends by the breakers.

A van comes to pick us up; much better then the individual cars to get here. The ride to the train takes us back the way we came last night, only now it is daylight. We get to see the country side. And yes there are horses and cows along the side of the road. I mean right on the side of the road. Some are tied with a rope around their necks others are free, because the rope broke.

The train we are going to take is a narrow gage train which during the sugar cane harvesting time (July to December), brings sugar cane to the processing plant. The "passenger" car is used during tourist season (January to June). The track is only about 24 inches wide and I'm not sure what the size of a regular narrow gage track is. In any case that is pretty narrow. The engine looks to be a diesel engine that will be turning the wheels. The car we are in is open, no windows, and not much for good seats either. Our destination is the Coral Coast Beach and a resort where we will have lunch.

As we go along our way we have to slow down or stop for horses and cows to get off the track. They are literally on the tracks. Besides the animals, dirt from the crossing roads piles up on the tracks and in one place the conductor had to stop the train and take a shovel to clear the track of dirt in order for us to continue.

We pass a number of small villages. Some of the houses still have the grass bundled roof coverings. There are also small children that come out to the train saying "Boula" and expecting lollys (candy) thrown to them from the passengers (which we bought from the train tour guide at $2.00 for a small bag). We throw candy to the little children, some of them are so cute. (Of course later when we are out of candy one older boy flips us the bird when we do not throw him any candy. Ah, I guess it even happen here.)

Our first "scheduled" stop is a cave. We head up into the woods a short distance and come to the cave. The cave is supposedly a sanctuary for local villagers during bad hurricanes. The cave was also reportedly used for years and was at one time used by cannibals. (way inside the cave was a beheading rock, if the rumor told to us by the train tour guide is true.) After looking around, we head back to the train to continue our trip to the beach and lunch.

The train passes villages and schools as we continue to the resort where we will have lunch and of course the beach. Like New Zealand and Australia, some of these schools have a uniform for students to wear.

We pass more horses and cows that are on the track and we pass them slowly so they will get off and out of our way. And we get glimpses of the ocean along the way. Besides all of that, we pass fields of sugar cane and as we near the resort; a golf course.

At the resort we go inside for a drink, a bathroom break, and then lunch. Lunch today is a barbecue with potato salad, hamburgers, chicken breasts, and lamb sausages. I try them all. Not so fond of the lamb sausage.

After lunch, Carmen and I head down to the beach along with some of the others. This is a very nice beach. The beach is maybe one mile long, maybe longer, with a nice curve so you can see the whole beach. Some of the resort "rooms" are individual huts complete with grass roofs. In any case the resort is very nice, at least what we can see of it.

There is a man at the beach with a horse. If you wanted you can buy time (10 minutes at a time) and ride the horse up and down the beach. One of our group goes for a horse back ride and she says it way really great.

Before to long we make our way back to the resort to clean the sand off and get ready for the train ride back to the station. The beach here is really nice and wish we could stay longer. The train has turned around and the engine is back in the front for the ride back. Shortly we are all back on board and heading on our way.

During our trip back we stop at one of the houses along the track for coconut milk. $2.00 for each coconut. A couple of men came down to the train, after we stop to see if any want a coconut. The coconuts are already cut down and are leaning up against a palm, and begin to cut up a couple of coconuts for the milk inside. (We are a little disappointed that they did not climb up to cut them down.) A couple of us get one, so do I even though I do not like the flavor, and everyone tastes the liquid. Well, not everyone. Carmen will not try it, she already saw my face when I tasted the milk. Anyway, afterwards, they chop up the coconut to get at the white fruit inside. We taste both the milk and the coconut and help with the local economy. Be a traveler, not a tourist as the saying goes. (I'll explain later.)

We continue on our way back to the "train station" taking in the scenery and still dodging the horses and cows. We were going along fine, when the diesel engine running the train throws a fan belt. One of the two drivers had to go back about 100 feet and retrieve the belt; then both drivers worked to put it back on. It takes about 15 minutes for the two of them to get the belt back on before we are back on our way. Everyone gets a good chuckle about the incident.

So we are back on the road, so to speak, still taking in the scenery, when we are within 100 yards of the station, the train car we are in derails. It was easy to tell, boom, boom, boom ... The ride becomes jarring like riding on a washboard road. Good thing we are only going about as fast than as running speed! No one is hurt.

Everyone gets out, check out the derailed car and when we find out it will take some effort and time to get the train back on track, begin to walk the rest of the way on foot. We have to cross a trestle bridge, on foot, that is about 15 feet over a stream. Everyone makes it okay, I didn't even trip, twist my ankle or fall through the beams; and some say I'm a such a klutz. Everyone agrees, this has been a very interesting trip back.

We get back to the "train station" and wait for the van to take a couple, not with our group, back to their resort. We check out the station and the other engines and cars. Interesting.

The van gets back and we pile in. When we get back to the Outrigger Resort, Carmen and I decide to walk down to road to another restaurant. Since it was drizzling out just a little while ago, we bring our umbrellas. As we are walking down the road and almost at the restaurant it starts to rain. Good thing we brought the umbrellas. We order a pizza, the same kind as last night, only this one costs $12.00 Fijian; half the cost as the one from the Resort. The restaurant is very clean and the pizza really good. And the soda was only $1.80 compared to the $4.00 at the resort, making it even more sweet.

After dinner we head back to the Resort. It has stopped raining, but we keep Carmen's opened because it is yellow, we are walking on the side of the road with no sidewalks and it is very, very dark.

When we get back to the room, it is pretty late and I start to download our pictures. Tomorrow, we have nothing planned except to sit by the pool and relax. Become a beach, or pool if you prefer, bum all day long.

Fiji - Coral Coast Railroad - Cont.

We have more pictures from our narrow gage train ride. The first picture shows the car that we rode in. Notice the seats! Iron bars for the back rest with a mat over it. Not the most comfortable, but fun non-the-less. You can see the train engine in the front ready to take us from the beach back to the station.

Speaking of the station, here is a picture of the station.



We pass several sections where the tracks come right up to the ocean edge. You can see the shelf very good in these pictures. You can also see the breakers out a ways from the land. The shelf probably gets no deeper then four to five feet deep at high tide (based on the shelf at Resort).




Besides the ocean views we also passed a number of small villages.

The next two pictures are of the beach (actual sandy beach here) and some of the individual huts at the resort where the beach is.

Onto Fiji

20 Onto Fiji (Sat. Feb. 21)

Today we end our regular portion of the New Zealand and Australian tour. We added on a few days in Fiji and today we fly there. The group of people we originally started with, split when we left New Zealand and again only seven (including me and Carmen ) of this group are going to Fiji.

Originally our flight was to leave at around 6:45 AM, meaning we had to leave the hotel around 3:00AM. However, that flight got canceled and our new time is around 2:30PM. So we do not leave the hotel until 11:00AM. Much better! While at the airport we change our Australian money for Fijian money, not much different. For $170.00 AUS we get $180.00 Fiji

We are flying on a 747 to Fiji and there is plenty of room in the jet so we are not cramped. It is only a 3 1/2 flight. We take off, fly and land with no problems. After landing we go through immigrations, again no problems. We grab our bags then onto the agriculture inspection, still no problems. We find the people who are suppose to be our contact here at the airport so we can get a ride to the resort. And guess what? We get a shell necklace. Almost very Hawaiian.

Knowing where to go, we check in with the transportation company and we head out with a gentleman that will drive us. I'm thinking that all of use on the tour (there are seven of us) would be going in one van or small bus, but I was wrong. The man drives up in a car and it will be only the two of us on this journey. As we head out the driver mentions the fact that Fiji has just dried up from flooding from just three weeks ago. The roads show it, they are bad and you can tell some of them were just quickly patched with gravel. The driver is weaving in and out of the road (they drive on the left side of the road here also) and slowly over pot wholes and mounds.

It takes us about one and 45 minutes to get to the resort. On the way we pass horses and cows in the road and right on the edge of the road. Scary since it is dark while we are driving to the resort. Carmen and I both remark about how riding in this car reminds us of several taxi rides we had in Cancun years ago. The car is not quite a rattle trap and we are happy to make it to the resort without incident.

Carmen and I were the first to leave the airport on our way to the resort, but we are the last ones to get there. We saw two white SUVs pass us when we were within a few of kilometers from the resort and they contained two of the couples that are with our group.

We checked in and decided to go down to one of the five restaurants and cafes on the property. We head over to the cafe that is next to the beach. While waiting to be seated, Frank, one of the people in our tour group, meets us at the entrance, so he sits with us. We order a 12" pizza (at $24.90) and two sodas ($4.00 each) and with taxes the total was around $39.00. Fijian dollars of course, but still, $25.00 for a 12 inch pizza, wow.

While we are eating, there is a private dinner on the lawn below the restaurant and there are three young kids in native dress. A couple of people are taking pictures of them and so do I.

During dinner, Frank mentions that he received information that the train tour we are suppose to take on Monday is now on Sunday. We see the other two couples eating at the same cafe and they also confirmed the day change for the train tour. So our plan is to be ready for the train tour tomorrow morning, at 9:30AM.

By the time we finish eating, it is late and we head for bed. Of course I take pictures on the way to the room and the pictures in this posting are from after we ate. The water lily, we find out later only bloom at night and close up around 10:00AM - they must have the night shift.

We are on floor 6, the ground floor is 5 and the reception area is floor 8. Backwards from what you would normally think, but we find our rooms okay. It is so dark out that we have no real idea of the grounds or beach area. We can not wait until the sun is up.

Tomorrow, if the information is correct, our Coral Coast Railroad tour ride. Boula! (Hello, goodbye, hey you look good, whatever, in Fijian!) See you later.