Hobart, Australia

It took us three days in transit to get from Yasawa Island to Hobart. It’s possible to do it in two days but it was good to have the admin day in Nadi to use the higher bandwidth wifi to upload pics and download offline maps, and to switch from our tropical Fijian stuff to our cooler weather clothing. Plus it also gave us a buffer in case of flight delays.

First was the flight from Yasawa Island to Nadi. The plane taxied up a slight hill to get a running start :) haven’t seen that before. It was also quite the approach on landing - the pilot dropped down over the hills and then made a 90* turn to square up with the runway about 10 seconds before landing! It seemed more complex than the landing in Paro, Bhutan (supposedly one of the hardest places in the world to land).

It was just as hot in Nadi (33C) although we had much better a/c, and we spent most of the next day inside sorting out what to pack for NZ and Tasmania.

It hardly seemed like a month had already passed and that we’d completed the Fiji part of the trip. We did learn more about the culture and way of life compared to other countries - it was similar to Bhutan that way.

The next morning we had a very early start to fly to Hobart. We settled up and brought our left luggage to reception the night before, so all we had to do in the morning was get up at 4:45am, and wake up and leave.

It was easy to catch the boat shuttle across the river - it was busy ferrying staff coming in for the day. Our taxi driver was waiting and we whisked off to the airport.

We had bid for an upgrade for the Nadi-Sydney flight cause it was almost five hours, and we had started to hear more coughing amongst the guests at the Doubletree. Fiji Airways calls this a ‘Bula Bid’ (Bula is the catch-all phrase for welcome, cheers, bless you, etc), which I always misread as ‘bully bid’ in reference to house offers in Toronto.

Anyways our bid wasn’t accepted. I had looked up the flight on expertflyer.com and it showed two seats still available in business. So we asked at checkin how much it would cost to upgrade, and it was cheaper than our declined bid! So we upgraded for fairly cheap, and made our way to the Fiji Airways lounge for some breakfast.

I napped most of the flight (it was actually a lie-flat seat, which I was surprised for a mid-haul flight). Food was not so good (should have filled up in the lounge, lol).

We arrived in Sydney around 12:30pm, an hour behind Fiji. Got a nice pic of the Opera House from the plane just before landing.

We had previously filled out our Australia ETA app so entering Australia was fully automated. It’s such a difference from entering Canada at Pearson.

We collected our luggage and then waited for the shuttle bus to get to the domestic terminal. It was beautiful outside, about 23C and sunny.

We had about four hours to wait for the flight to Hobart. Had a craft beer and a sandwich at a little airport restaurant, which hit the spot.

It was only a 90 flight to Hobart, we arrived around 8pm. The airport is about the same size as Charlottetown’s. I went and picked up our rental car while Heather waited at the carousel. The Enterprise folks were super quick so I rejoined Heather at the carousel (it’s pretty casual here). With AirTags it’s far less stressful waiting for our luggage cause I could see the luggage was actually in Hobart.

The Enterprise folks had upgraded us to a big SUV, although we would have preferred a compact car. Oh well, at least there was no concern about fitting the luggage in the trunk (we’re traveling this leg with one suitcase each, and our weekend packs for carry on).

Followed Google Maps to get to our hotel in the centre of Hobart (on Murray St :) ). My phone battery was dying but managed to make it there with about 4% remaining.

Checked in, parked the car in the nearby car port, and then rushed to the hotel bar before they closed at 10pm. Had a drink to celebrate the start of the Australia leg of the trip (and country number 96 for me :) ). The kitchen had closed so snacked on a probably not-so-healthy bag of salt and vinegar chips and roasted nuts. It was a long transit day, it hardly seemed like we had started our day in Nadi.