And away we go...

To New Zealand that is. I'm currently residing in Nelson, at the north end of the South Island. It's a pretty nice little town, but I'll cover that in another post. I think I need to fill in a few details from Fiji..

Last time, I was at a sort of crappy resort called David's Place on Tavewa island. I think it's quality was a function of it's distance from the mainland (insert equation here). It was ok and I had a couple of good pictures (see below), but the next couple of places were better.

Heading out of nadi on the Yasawa Flier II

Boat ride into to David's Place on Tavewa

Very windy on Tavewa

The view towards the blue lagoon from a lookout on Tavewa

Me on the top of a lookout on Tavewa

Coconut Bay Resort on Niviti, the center and largest island of the Yasawas, was a pretty cool place but that was mostly due to the staff and the guests. The food was better than David's Place but there was very little fresh water and the water that we did have for showers came out as a dribble and tasted suspiciously like seawater. But, like I said, the staff and other people made it fun. The first day we showed up a group of about 10 of us all arrived at the same time, including a couple of guys from David's Place and some folks they had stayed with a couple of days earlier. The staff put on a pretty cool singing dancing show thingy after dinner which was followed by a bonfire on the beach, both nights. Needless to say they were sort of late nights (midnight is pretty late in the islands.) I got my camera out and the locals loved having there pictures taken and taking pictures as you can see from the few that are posted here. The staff at all these resorts are pretty impressive because they do a great job of learning and remembering your name, although they kept calling me Mr. Luke (maybe it was because I was the oldest of the group at Coconut Bay.) I had many of my most memorably active days at Coconut since I did three dives using the scuba method. It was great getting back under water, I hadn't dove in something like ten years. It was especially nice doing it in warm water where there is lots of cool shit to see. We even did some swim throughs which is where you swim through cave like features in the reefs. My last dives were in the chilly and not so clear waters of the beautiful Puget Sound, so this was definitely a step up. Even as amazing as the diving was, I think the most exciting thing was the snorkel trip we took on the morning before moving on. There's a channel where Manta Rays hang out during certain times of the year. This was pushing the end of the season but we were lucky enough to see one and swim right next to it. It was truly awesome. I was maybe 2 or 3 feet away from this thing that must have been 6 feet wide. Super cool. My adrenaline was pumping something fierce. They're big but pretty much harmless (not to be confused with the Australian celeb killing Sting Ray). They have these giant mouths that they open up and scoop up plankton while swimming against the current. There are also a few teeny little fish that hang out right at the Manta's mouth. I'm not sure how they avoid getting sucked in. I tried to take a picture of it from the boat but all you see is a big brown spot. Hopefully it still conveys the size.

Fijian Bula Dance

Fijian goodbye song

Beach party

Locals at the beach party

Manta Ray

Cool little Hermit Crab

Wayalailai (which means little Waya) Resort was the last stay and also had the most people. I now realize, especially being here in Nelson with probably 40 or more other guests, that I'm not so great with larger groups. It was pretty easy in Fiji because we all ate each meal together and some of the people I met on the first couple of islands traveled along with me to the other islands, but the last resort had about 20 people on it and I was feeling a little more out of place. Luckily I was able to meet a few cool people. Livia, a Swiss girl, Gill an English girl, and I, took a pretty cool hike to the top of the peak on the island and the view was magnificent. You might get a little feel from the pictures, but it pales in comparison to actually being there. I really dug Gill and it turns out she'll be traveling in New Zealand for a few weeks before going to South America for six months, so I hope I will meet up with her again.

Chillin' in a hammock

Sitting on the edge of a bluff above Wayalailai resort

Gill, me, and Livia on top of the island

Anywho....I got back to the mainland Sunday evening and just went straight to the airport. My flight left at 4 am on Monday so there wasn't much point in going to a hostel and staying for just a few hours. I arrived in Auckland and got pulled over the grill by the customs agents. I had 3 hours to catch my flight to Nelson and I only made it to the domestic terminal with about 40 minutes to spare. I think the customs agent must be a blast at parties. He must have asked me a million different questions. I think a lot of them were to try and throw me off or something but I had nothing to hide so I wasn't worried. I was truthful to him about a few of my past indiscretions and I think that opened up a whole can of worms. Taught me a lesson on divulging information.

I think Carolyn will get here tomorrow and then we'll go to the Abel Tasman area and do some Kayaking. I may not post again until after that so I'm sure I'll have plenty to say again.

I'll be very impressed if most of you actually read these entire posts, but thanks to all that do.

-Peace