Patrick and Kari's Travels

We arrived in Fiji at 6am two days after we left California (funny how the International Date Line works). Though we were both quite jet lagged and not accustomed to the oppressing humidity we found our way onto a local bus. The bus didn't have air-conditioning but we had a remarkably pleasant and cool ride except of course when driving at a snails pace uphill. The bus took us through the Fijian country side and into the mountains, where we discovered to our surprise a pine tree forest.

At the Mango Bay Resort we checked in and visited our bunk-bed dormitory style accommodation. The first few days in Fiji were fairly rainy, but we still managed to get plenty of pool time and beach volleyball.

The highlight however was the snorkeling. Snorkeling from the Mango Bay was quite easy; however when we went out the second day the owner warned us not to go too far due to a treacherous rip tide. The rip tide was so strong in fact, one of the patrons of the resort ended up stranded out on a sandbar (we were a little more cautious and managed to ride the tide down the beach and walk back up). While snorkeling we saw numerous colorful tropical fish, vibrant blue starfish, sea cucumbers and a Moray eel. Overall very successful shallow diving.

Our last night in Fiji we attended a Kava ceremony. Kava is a traditional Fijian drink, said to have mild narcotic properties. The drink, which quite literally looks like muddy water, tasted herbal and had a mild peppermint flavor. As for the effects, my tongue felt numb and Patrick felt a little more relaxed than usual. The next morning we caught the bus back to the airport in Nadi. We had a great time and are just now beginning to get off "Fiji Time" and back into the swing of the western world. More on Auckland later.

Kari

Kari and I are busy packing today, her more than I. We have picked up most of the things we will need for the move and are very excited to start our adventure. Things have come together well this week as we have worked to check everything off of our lists. There is a lot of advanced planning you must do to move half way around the world, bills still need to be payed, taxes need to be done and Democrats need to be voted for even when you are not around to take care of things. Luckily we have people who love us and don't mind doing some mailing for us. We leave for LA tomorrow morning and will be spending the weekend with college friends in Redlands and the surrounding area. On Monday we fly out for Fiji and then on to Auckland. I will try to post some pictures when we get to Auckland.

Patrick

This is the plan for Kari and Patrick's trip to New Zealand. We leave on the 10th of January to fly to LA to see some college friends for the weekend. We fly out of LA on the 14th of January to Fiji where we will spend four days at the Mango Bay resort on the Coral Coast of the big Island of Viti Levu. We plan on spending a few days on the beach and maybe doing a little bit of SCUBA diving to allow our selves to adjust to being in the southern hemisphere and a much different time zone. Thats not to mention the shock of going from Minnesota's beautiful, but chilly, winter to 80 degree white sand beaches. On the 20th of January we fly to Auckland New Zealand. Once in Auckland we are staying in a Hostile for 4 days while we find a car. After we get the car we will be heading north to a yet unknown WWoofer Farm. We will then be traveling the country for a few months as WWoofers until we find a nice place we like and then we will probably get an apartment and jobs for six months or so.

So this is the start of our travel blog. We have never done any kind of blog before, but we will be trying to update it as often as possible. Pictures will be added as often as possible as well. Hopefully this will get both of our communication skills to be better as we have been slightly delinquent in the past.

Patrick