Nadi, Fiji

Packing for this trip was really packing for two different trips - Fiji, where it will be 30C and humid, with lots of water activities; and NZ where it will be 8C-20C and more urban focused, with art galleries and fancy-ish dinners, as well as cool weather hikes. We are taking both our suitcases and backpacks, and then using our hotel in Fiji as a hub, leaving what we don’t need for a particular leg in left luggage. So really it’s just the flight from Toronto to Nadi that we look like we've packed all our earthly belongings. 

We had looked into shipping luggage ahead, what with all the news over the summer about Pearson being the worst airport for lost or delayed luggage. The forward luggage service was a bit pricy plus also a two week lead time, so we just risked it. To keep calm, we optimized our carry-on for what we’d need in Fiji (haha).  We also bought our own snorkeling gear (a post-covid change) which turns out is very bulky to pack. 

We piled into a taxi, feeling quite foolish with our eight pieces of luggage, and officially started our trip at 1:20pm Sunday. 

It was one of the fastest rides through downtown I’ve ever had midday. Checked in no problems. I was surprised Air Canada didn’t ask to see our proof of immunization and covid insurance, which is the current entry requirement for Fiji. 

The US Border Security person was one of the friendliest US border officials I’ve encountered. She flipped through our passports, and then asked if we have the same stylist (we both have curly hair). It was like getting a question you didn’t prep for for a job interview. 

The last time we crossed an international border was pre-covid, in January 2020. The two years and ten months is the longest consecutive time I’ve stayed in Canada ever in my life. 

For some reason I’ve always pictured Los Angeles as a three hour flight, but it’s closer to six. (I think I associate time zone difference with flight time). Watched the latest Minions (okay) and Top Gun Maverick (great airplane movie, even on the small screen). 

We had four hours in LAX between flights, and used most of that walking from T6 to TB. Saw that our luggage had indeed made it to LA with us (we had bought AirTags, see lost luggage reference above). Got paged over the airport intercom to go our gate and show our Fijian paperwork that Air Canada didn’t check. 

Our flight to Nadi was an uneventful eleven hours. There were slim pickings for in-flight movies on Fiji Airlines. I did watch the The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent which I really liked. Due to the gerrymandered International Date Line, we actually crossed the date line five times! No wonder my internal clock was all messed up, lol. 

We arrived in Nadi around 6:30am, and then set a record from touching down to exiting the airport. Our four checked bags were in the first six around the conveyor belt; they had almost disappeared for another round by the time we saw them. To my disappointment, we didn’t even have time to open the Follow Me app and see where our luggage was :( 

Got Fijian dollars from the ATM no problems and then our driver whisked us away to the hotel. 

The hotel is a short 100m ferry ride across a channel, and we were finally at our destination, 26 hours door to door. Luckily we were able to get early checkin cause we were really jet lagged and needed to change out of our Toronto fall weather clothes. 

Spent most of the day acclimatizing to the heat, humidity and time zone. The food is excellent, we’ve tried mostly local fish dishes. Typically all-inclusive resorts aren’t our thing, but on this trip we planned three days to de-jetlag (and allow any lost luggage to catch up). We have enjoyed the doing nothing :) 

Fiji is country 95 for me, for those counting (Gerry, Tanya). 

We leave for Ono Island via Kadavu on Friday, so until then won’t have much to write of interest, unless you like reading about what we had for dinner.