"One Trip to Rule Them All"
Preface: Fellowship of the Trip
Jon Hunt was my roommate in college, and his wife Shauna grew up near Linette, and we have been friends ever since we all got married and started having babies and stuff. In June 2017, when Linette and I were in Italy for our 25th anniversary (feeling a little guilty for having been on so many trips lately), we got a text from Jon and Shauna saying that they were thinking of going to New Zealand the following February, and asking if we wanted to come. We laughed at the irony of asking that while we were on this exotic trip. Then we texted back and said, "Yeah, probably."A tumor had been found in Jon's brain about 4 years before, and the surgery removed about 1/4 of his brain (most of the left frontal lobe). He was still doing remarkably well, but it was still probably good to have some more people along on a big trip like that, so we joked that "really, this is a service opportunity."
Fiji Airways was offering $800 flights to New Zealand (via Fiji, from L.A.), and it didn't cost any more to get off of the plane in Fiji for a couple of days, so we booked the flights for February 9-20 (along with flights on SouthWest to get from SLC to LAX and back), and then started many weeks of planning what to do and where to stay. One evening we got together with the Hunts in Lehi for dinner, and then went into the new FamilySearch building so that I could show them around. We also selected a nice big conference room with two monitors and huge white boards to review options for the trip, which looked like a high-tech war room. It was kind of hilarious.
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| Linette, Jon and Shauna at the FamilySearch/"NORAD" Travel Planning Center. 10 Nov 2017. |
Passport Snag
On the morning of February 9, 2018, I attempted to check in online for our Fiji Airways flights, but hit a snag: Apparently your passport is supposed to be valid for 6 months after the end of your planned visit to Fiji, and Jon's expired in 5. I called Fiji Airways, and they said they were pretty strict about that and might not let him on the plane. That freaked me out, because the whole trip was Jon's idea, and this could ruin everything! My new quote that day was, "There are no snags quite like passport snags."They said to call the Fiji Consulate, so I did, and left a message. About that time, Linette arrived home from teaching Spanish that morning, and the Hunts arrived to pick us and the Lyms up. I told them what was going on, and we all agreed that the only thing we could do at the moment was to go catch our flights to L.A. and worry about it at the Fiji Airlines desk. And pray.
As I was going through security for that first flight, I got a return call from the Fiji Consulate. I had to call her back when I was through security, and she said that they could issue a letter, except that the office in Fiji was already closed (since it was Saturday there), and her office (in D.C.) closed in 30 minutes. But then she said to send her a letter just in case she could do anything.
So I took a picture of Jon's passport, Airdropped it to my laptop, connected that to the Internet via my newly-acquired hotspot capability on my phone, and wrote a letter asking for permission to enter Fiji and included our itinerary. I sent it off with a hope and a prayer.
A few minutes after the D.C. office closed, I got an e-mail back with a PDF file of an official, stamped letter inviting Jon to enter Fiji. What a blessing! That was such a relief!
So with that reassurance, we boarded our SouthWest flight from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles.
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| Rob and Melissa Lym. |
Linette and I sat next to a very nice lady with a baby, and we had a wonderful chat with her. She and her husband (visible across the aisle) and 3 kids had been in Park City for a week and were heading home to L.A. One of my favorite parts about the trip was all of the nice people we met from all over the place.
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| Over the Great Salt Lake |
Speaking of meeting interesting people, Shauna had a special talent for striking up conversations with everyone. She talked to this fun gal from France who had an awesome colorful backpack.
The gal apparently travels all over the world. She seemed like the kind of person who would secretly be magic, like Nanny McFee or something.
Linette got us memory foam neck pillows for the flight. We were really tight on space, so I crammed both of them into this little fanny pack that I had, assuming that they would expand to full size when released, as memory foam tends to do.
Luckily, it turned out to be true.
The gate we were waiting at had a big counter with only one pair of outlets on it. So I pulled out my triple plug adapter and a 2-USB-port charger and we shared with whoever came by needing to charge their phones.
Then we boarded our Fiji Airways plane, and enjoyed the movies and even a little bit of sleep on the way there.
We left at 10:30pm on Friday, and landed in Nadi, Fiji at 6am on Sunday. A Greek guy across from the aisle from us had a birthday on Saturday, but on our flight, that only lasted a couple of hours, and everyone slept through it. "Dude," one of his friends said, "You missed your birthday!" That was hilarious.
But don't worry, because Linette got everyone in our section of the plane to sing to him anyway.
When we got off the plane, these 3 guys were singing for us.
The bathroom icons there had cute Fiji accents.
We rented a junky Toyota "Noah" minivan, and Rob was our designated driver for almost the whole trip. I navigated, since I had done so much of the planning and thus knew the lay of the land a bit.
They drive on the left side of the road in Fiji (and New Zealand), so Rob had to practice making "far right turns" and "close left turns". He did amazingly well. Except that, as my friend at work predicted, he kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. We all laughed every time, and Linette kept yelling out the count. "8!"..."13!". I told him that if he had grown up in Utah, this wouldn't have been a problem (because he wouldn't use the turn signal ;).
In Fiji, you say "Bula" for hello (and sometimes good-bye and whatever). It literally means "life". They say it all the time. The other main word to know is "Vinaka", which is how they say "thank you".
We stayed at the Sheraton Fiji Resort on Denarau "Island" (it's only separated from the main island by a river). The people there and throughout Fiji were amazingly kind and gracious.
The view of the swimming pools at the resort was really amazing.
The beach was ok, but the water was dirty from the runoff of nearby mangrove swamps, so nobody really swam in it. We learned that to get to the pristine waters, you had to go to one of the smaller islands, but we didn't have time to sleep at one of those and make it back for our flight two mornings later, so we just did a day trip for that.
It was still a beautiful setting, though.
We were luckily able to check in early, which allowed us to get freshened up and changed for church. In Fiji, the men all wear "sulus" (manly skirts). Linette asked if I would wear one, and I said, "I will if Rob does." So we all bought one (for about $11) and off we went. (When in Fiji...)
There were two wards, and we went to the Fijian-speaking ward, as we heard that that one gave you the best cultural experience, and that their singing was amazing.
Sure enough, as we walked up, we could hear their beautiful harmonies.
Fortunately, someone lent us their hymnbook so that we could sing along (Fijian is not included in the LDS Music app).
Linette came in handy as an accompanist in Relief Society.
In priesthood meeting, it was fun to be looking out open windows to big palm trees just outside. It was a little hard to stay awake, though, after the long flight and the fact that most of the talking was in Fijian.
Everyone made friends with the members there.
One thing that I didn't expect was the tight curly hair that many of the Fijians had, more like Aborigines, and less like Hawaiians. Another fun fact is that over half the population of Fiji is of Indian descent, because the British brought people from India to work the fields there.
Linette had a nice conversation with this lady. Although it was a Fijian ward, everyone learns English in school, and the church service had English words and sometimes sentences sprinkled in.
Shauna had a young friend (named Shauna, after her) who had done a humanitarian trip in Fiji, and that gal had connected Shauna via Facebook with a lady named Tess in the ward.
It was fun to talk to the missionaries. One was from Utah, and the other from Samoa. Neither wore shoes. The gal in the middle is Tess's niece.
Here Tess teaches Rob how to sound out Fijian words from the Book of Mormon.
It was fun to meet these beautiful members of the church there.
As we walked around the center of the town of Nadi that afternoon, we bumped into some more missionaries (elders and sisters).
Tess invited us up to her place that afternoon so that she could take us up to see a cave near where they were planning to make a farm.
Their house was basic, but they were happy with it.
They had 7 or 8 dogs that all looked identical. (Only Tess knew their names). Apparently they help with gathering their cattle up in the mountains.
The van followed behind for much of the way, and I was a little worried about the van when the road got rougher.
Along the way, we stopped to visit the tribal leader to pay him a little something for the honor of entering his land, or something like that. A little further up the road, we parked the van on a grassy spot near the last house on the road, and then everyone piled into the back of the truck for the last part of the journey.
At one or two points, the truck had to stop, back up a bit, and get a running start in order to make it up a hill, especially where the recent rains had made the road too muddy.
But soon we got where we were going, and then got out and walked the last little bit.
Along the road we met an old man with a big white beard, wearing a sulu and carrying a machete. The family knew him and we listened to them speak in their language, and then we all smiled and bid each other well.
Soon we reached the little house that is where the family will live when they start their new farm. It was a very simple structure with corrugated tin walls and roof.
We all applied bug spray to keep the mosquitoes at bay. (We were only partially successful. Melissa later counted 31 bites on just her legs.)
The husband brought his horses in so that he could use them to go check on their cattle, which were roaming up in the hills.
Meanwhile, Tess walked us down a path to see the caves nearby.
The caves were open on both ends, so you didn't need a flashlight, but they were pretty cool, with water dripping on the inside. Tess showed us the area below where an owl lived, where the pellets contained the bones and fur that the owl coughed up.
There were huge roots growing down through the rock, which were really cool.
We walked down to the stream nearby, where they apparently swim sometimes when the water is a little higher.
While there, we saw this frog hopping along. It was probably 4-5 inches long.
They tasted nice, though the seeds were big and hard, which made the fruit hard to eat.
Melissa offered some to Rob....
As we walked along, we passed one house that had a goat tied out front, so we said hi.
We were one seat short on the return trip, so one of the kids jumped in the trunk, Fiji-style.
At one point on the return trip we had to stop the van because there was a horse in the road (with its rope tied to a stake in the ground). I got out to shoo it out of the way, then leaned down, pulled a big branch out of the van's bumper, considered it thoughtfully, and then shrugged and nonchalantly threw it over my shoulder. For some reason that seemed hilarious at the time.
It was so fun to spend the evening with a local family and see the jungle. It was just the sort of thing I had hoped we might be able to do, but had no way to plan in advance.
When we got back to the hotel, the sunset was spectacular. You know how travel brochures always make things look better than they really are? Well this was a picture I snapped with my iPhone.
And yet, as lovely as that view was, I think this one is even better.
We all took turns getting pictures in front of the amazing backdrop.
This scene looks amazing. However, I had to jump up before long because of the mosquitoes.
That evening some dudes in native wear came out to light the torches and put on a show.
This guy gave Shauna a little start.
It's hard to see, but these guys are holding a wooden weapon up to my throat.
And that was the first day of our trip, which lasted from Friday morning until Sunday night, so it was a really long but exciting and wonderful day.
In the next episode, we go sailing to a tiny island.
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