Documenting Adventures and Food and Stuff : June 2014

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Fiji!

We booked tickets to Fiji back in December and ever since then I've been day dreaming about the trip. I would imagine myself sheading my New Zealand layer and enjoying a warm beach and soaking up the sun. Fiji delivered in every way possible. Even when it was raining, it was still amazing to me.

We visited a few places in Fiji - the island of Taveuni, Sigatoka area, and )the overly touristy but couldn't help but enjoy) Denarau Island.

Spaghetti is my favorite meal and it was our first in Taveuni

View from our balcony

Banana Spider - its freakn huge

Pool with hippie guitar player

Taveuni

The Backpacker cat

Dinning area

taveuni

wild ginger

Our amazing deck

stairs up to the tree house

ride to hike

catching a flight back to Nadi

Natadola

beach right outside our room

our bungalow

Sea cave near our bungalow

Horse outside our room!

Natadola

The property dogs that kept us company

blue crab

Breakfast in Natadola

Annie explaining the death chair to us

Mulan, Kenny, Lucas and I

Denarau

Paihia and the Far North!

Pictures from Paihia and the Far North

In April we took advantage of the long weekend and finally got up to the most northern part of the north island. Visiting the far north is up there on my favorite places in New Zealand and I'm sure the warmer weather had something to do with it. We took a tour of the far north which included Cape Reinga, walk thru the kauri forest, drive on 90 miles beach in a tour bus, and boogie boarding on some sand dunes. Cape Reinga is a very special place in New Zealand and in Maori culture. Its not only where you can see the Tasman sea and Pacific ocean crashing together - which was made even more impressive since we visited the area during a storm. According to Maori mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife to leap off the headland and climb the roots of the 800 year old pohutukawa tree and descend to the underworld to return to their traditional homeland of Hawaiki , using the Te Ara Wairua, the 'Spirits' pathway'. At Cape Reinga they depart the mainland. They turn briefly at the Three King Islands for one last look back towards the land, then continue on their journey.