Bula!

As promised, I am now going to start attempting to blog about my fantastic trip this summer. I'm working in reverse though, so that means I'll be starting in Fiji! 

We flew from Auckland to Fiji (I don't even remember how long it took- I think it was 3 hours or something) and got off the plane in a sweaty, humid Fiji. To make the first day short, I'll just say that we had a relatively short bus ride that felt ridiculously long due to the heat, and we were well-fed that night. 

The next morning, we headed to our island! I had to buy sunglasses at the pier because I left mine in the States. The woman at the shop was incredibly friendly and kept handing me pair after pair to try on, even if they were children's glasses.

I think I'm going to let the pictures do the talking now...

This is my friend Karen right before we got on our boat.

Yeah.

This is Alex and Julie on the front of our boat. It was stifling hot on the inside of the boat, so they let us sit on the front of the boat for the duration of the boat ride. It was so lovely to finally be cooled down but to start tanning at the same time.

Interesting story about why I'm wearing glasses...

So me and this other kid, Will, have the same funky contact solution and case. He couldn't sleep in his room at the motel the first night because his roommates were too loud, so he slept in my room. We both set our contact cases on the sink, but I purposely set mine behind my face wash. He woke up before me and, you guessed it, put my contacts in. I told him, and so he just took my contacts out of his eyes and put them in a fresh batch of solution. The eye solution I have takes six hours to neutralize, so that's why I'm wearing glasses.

As we pulled up to the dock on Malolo Island, the workers were singing and clapping, welcoming us to our temporary home. It was super awesome!

The served us a fresh fruit drink, and it was just indescribably delicious.

I added an effect to this picture, but I just like palm trees. 

They make you feel happy inside.

Our group stayed in the six lodges on the island. I signed up my group in Lodge 6, which happened to be the Lodge the farthest up the hill. Hiking up was just unpleasant. But we tried to convince ourselves that the view was definitely worth it. I believe it was :)

Karen, Joanne, and I went kayaking to fill our time. Yes, I still had my glasses.

We kayaked a ways into the ocean (okay, it felt like a ways away), and then it got shallow again. I jumped out an took a picture of one of the dozens of blue starfish littering the ocean floor.

This is my very first dive into the ocean. I had previously waded into the English Channel, but I'd never been swimming in the ocean. I always thought of the ocean as cold, but the second I jumped into the Fijian ocean*, it was the absolute most perfect temperature to swim in. So perfect.

A little later that day, one of the workers stopped us and asked if we wanted some fresh coconut.

Well of course we did! 

So that's it folks, my first two days in Fiji. I have the other days waiting to be shared with you, so stay tuned!

*not the actual name of the body of water surrounding Fiji.
I failed geography.