Monday - Wednesday - being there

Monday: was spent around the hotel, getting the lie of the land, booking our tours for later in the week & taking it easy.  We were entitled to 2 x full day cruises to different places with lunch, snorkeling etc.  We decided to only do 1 x half day & 1 x full day cruise.  We asked about the weather as we’d seen forecasts of rain Tuesday & Wednesday but were assured that Tuesday would be beautiful. So half day Tuesday & all day Friday were booked.

We had a light lunch in their “La Parisienne Café” – a nod to the ownership of the Sofitel hotel chain.  Rhonda was right in the holiday mood - booked a1 hour massage followed by a pedicure. She has booked another for our last day on Saturday too.  

Our room looks out to sea, but diagonally off to one side is the resort’s wedding chapel.  We were entertained all afternoon by the wedding preparations – with various members of the bridal party calling from room to room about arrangements etc.  And then about 4 they congregated in the chapel for the ceremony, complete with 4 little kids as attendants & the bride’s very new baby being cared for by grandma until after the wedding itself.

We took a stroll along the beachfront towards the west as the sun was setting, checking out the neighbouring resorts.  Next door is the Westin, then the Hilton and then the Sheraton out on the point.  The area we’re in turns a corner & there are a couple of other resorts along that west facing section.  The sunset was spectacular; sun busting out of clouds over a silhouetted rugged island out on the horizon & the sea silvery and still – the sort of thing you see in travel brochures.  Not surprisingly quite a few people had their cameras on tripods capturing the scene.

We took the easy option for dinner – a set course “Asian fusion” themed dinner in the resort at A$46 p.p.  I don’t mind paying reasonable money for good food, but this was a shocker.  Poorly cooked sort of Asian food which was a total disappointment.  If I’d paid $10 at home for it I would have thought it barely passable. Oh well…  lesson learned. 

Tuesday:  I’d read on Trip Advisor that lots of people had commented about walking (or catching the bus) into Denarau centre to eat at restaurants there.  On the back of last night’s dinner & waking at 7 I decided to go for a walk to see for myself.  (A hotel staff member had told us it was a 25-minute walk – hence us staying in on Monday).  It is a 13-minute walk even at Fiji pace.  And there I discovered half a dozen food choices; Italian, Seafood, Indian, Mediterranean/Kebabs a Hard Rock Café & a few other choices - all at less than half the price of the resort’s offerings.  I did the tour of the area looking at menus etc & was back home by 8, walking through a few raindrops as I neared the resort.

The rain didn’t amount to much for the rest of the morning after a shower while we had breakfast.  We made it down to the port to take our cruise out to Mana Island without it raining.  We’d not planned to go there but another island we were going to is closed due to cyclone damage of a few months ago.  It was quite interesting going back to Mana, a place where we spent half of our “honeymoon” over 29 years ago.  It sure has changed – the quaint, single freestanding bures right on the waters edge have been replaced by substantial classic resort accommodation.  But they’ve kept must of the place really rustic, which we like. 

As we ate lunch in a lovely casual café right on the water’s edge it started to rain.  That slow persistent drizzle that doesn’t soak you straight away, but will eventually.  We could see neighbouring islands disappear behind the rain as it got heavier.

We had planned to snorkel & poke around, but with the rain set in we sat inside taking in the scenery & Rhonda had a couple of cocktails.  Then it was back on the boat for the 75-minute trip back to the port.  We bussed it back to the resort, sat about for a while and then walked back into Denarau port for dinner.  We settled on the Amalfi & chose 2 different veal dishes & a lovely bottle of NZ Pinot Noir.

Just as our dinner arrived a young woman, with partner in tow came over & asked if we were Geoff & Rhonda.  I was trying to work the memory banks for who this was to no avail.  Turns out it was Alison & Steve – sort of relatives of Rhonda’s – too difficult to explain here.  I’d met Alison once 10 years ago & never met Steve.  But she recognized us from photos at Carmel’s (Rhonda’s mum) house.  Amazing!  So we’re catching up for dinner on Thursday night.

We walked home & it started raining on us – not too bad, but we were glad to be inside.  We decided to watch the Reacher movie as someone had said it was OK.  I was so anti Tom Cruise playing Reacher that I didn’t really want to watch it  As Rhonda said – if you just see it as an action movie & not a Reacher one it is ok.  Well “just ok” would be my verdict.  If Cruise has bought the franchise to make any more I won’t be paying money to watch them.

Wednesday: It rained on & off through the night & is doing the same for much of the day.  We went down for a late breakfast & you could hear the hubbub long before we got to the dining room.  It reminded me of being on a school of church camp; the busy excitable noise of several hundred people (with lots of kids) all eating & talking etc.  Thankfully there is a delightful outdoor thatched roof pavilion just off the dining room, surrounded by water & very peaceful.  So we retreated outside to a tranquil space & watched the fish & frogs in the pond while enjoying a slow breakfast.

Amongst the various TV channels we can get is the Australia Network, which shows the ABC News 24 breakfast show.  So it has been great to get some headlines from home, but inevitably it is filled with all of the election rubbish – focusing on minutae & not policies – so depressing that I turned it off – which I am sure improves my blood pressure no end. 

I note that the large conference room has been turned into an all day Pixar/Disney animated movies day – to keep the kids entertained, as the pools holds little allure on days like this.  We’re happy – on our balcony, reading in companionable silence & note that a few other balconies are also filled with couples (obviously without kids here) doing the same thing.

So, compelled to do very little we’re unwinding, which is what this short break was meant to achieve. 

Free WiFi is available in the very large & grand lobby for half an hour per device each day.  As I have a laptop, iPad and phone I could be online for a bit, but have chosen not to.  In fact I have written this post as a word doc & will wander down soon & get online, then cut & paste it into my blog.  I note that docs created in Word on a Mac have various formatting problems in Blogger.  If that happens I’ll fix it later.

Sunday - Getting there

Like our European trip blog, this is as much an aide de memoir as a blog for family & friends.  I only re-read our European trip notes the other night & was surprised at how much I had forgotten.

We knew we had to be up at 4:30 am to catch our plane, so of course woke at 4.  It was going to be a long day!  The trip to Sydney was uneventful, though I started reading Steve Waugh’s latest book, The meaning of luck – given to me by my boys for Father’s Day.  The first few chapters are about Steve’s wife Lynette’s stroke & near death while he was out of town on a book signing tour & then the story of her recovery.  I ended up in tears – not what I’d expected from the book.  But it is truly worth reading.  I will get back to reading it, but if it stays this intense it will be read in small doses.

(What has compelled me to do this blog thing again is partly how much the notes from Europe reminded me of things I had forgotten, but also Steve Waugh’s book quotes a Chinese proverb saying “The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory”.  i.e. Things written at the time of the event – no matter how brief, are more accurate than recall of events much later, no matter how good we think our memory is.)

We knew we had a few hours stop over in Sydney, so arranged to catch up with Lainie & Glen for brunch, which was great.  We had a lovely couple of hours over brunch talking about all things Sydney before they had to go off to a Father’s Day event with Glen’s family.  And I got another book to read as a present from Lainie & Glen – the latest Reacher novel – only out on Thursday & a Grand Designs DVD – so good.

Our plane was delayed by an hour – no big deal.  It was also oversold, so every seat was occupied.  And they were clear about keeping families together, so couples like us were lucky if we got to sit together.  And wow – were there kids – young kids & seemingly they were 50% of the passengers.  The plane was a very old 747 & was stuffy & hot for the entire flight.  But no big deal – its only about a 4 hour flight.  I spent most of it ploughing through my new Reacher novel.

We’d arranged a hotel transfer, so ended up on a bus in the dark on our way to the Sofitel.  We checked in & got to our room, but had no sense of our surroundings, so had to wait til the morning.  We ordered room service & fell into bed at 10pm local time (7:30 home time!) & slept til morning – right through until 10am – missing breakfast – no big deal.