This is the sight that awaited me when I woke up in Fiji.

This is the private beach for our hotel. 

What a beautiful sight! 

I couldn't resist taking a walk on the beautiful beach into the peace of the sound of the ocean.

And of course putting my feet into the Pacific Ocean of Fiji. 

I woke up before the sun actually rose, and was able to catch this amazing sight.

Because of the cancelled first flight and our subsequent flight into Suva, the airline left our luggage in Auckland.  I didn't want to spend the entire trip in jeans, so we went into the town and got tank-tops and board-shorts as a substitute for a swimming suit.

Erica and I at lunch.  The food at the hotel was SO good! 

This is a traditional fish and coconut dish and the local version of potatoes.  They are very starchy, didn't really care for them too much.  But the fish dish was really good! 

Then after lunch, when the tide was low, we out walking in the reef.  There were electric blue starfish out in the water.

All in all, a wonderful first day in Fiji.

Getting to Fiji

My good friend Erica mentioned that she wanted to go to Fiji, and I was keen to go, so she found a deal and we booked it!  Andrew came as well.  Before we left for Fiji, I had to take a photo of Gollum in the Wellington Airport.

Here is Erica, Andrew and I before we caught our plane.  You can see it in the background, it is one of the "All Blacks" plane.  It is simply painted black with the "All Blacks" silver fern painted on the side.  We are all happy and can't wait to get out of cold Wellington! 

So we were disappointed when we got to Auckland because they cancelled our flight into Nadi (pronounced "Nan-di") but they were able to get us on a plane into Suva the captial.  I thought it was going to work perfect because the temple is in Suva and we were supposed to get in with plenty of time for me to get into the last session.  But then, by the time we got through customs, plus they left our luggage in Auckland, we didn't make it in time.  And it is a small temple so the don't rent clothes, so I didn't get to go.  Which is ok, I just have to go back! :-) 

Here we are pretending to be upset, but we actually were pretty positive and happy.  We were on the bus heading from Suva into our hotel. 

It was dark, but this is the only photo I could get of Suva.

Scuba certification

So, I've always thought that it would be awesome to scuba-dive.  Putting thought into practice is another story.  I've put it off because I am actually claustophobic AND terrified of drowning.  Plus I've never lived close enough to the ocean, nor had the funds at the right time.  This year that all changed!  I am living on an island, so there is water all around me (another phobia I have, but about that another time) and diving is just another "adventure sport" that Kiwis are found of.  Then my friend Ly tells me about a "grabone" deal with scuba certification for $350 NZD (which was only $270) was too good a deal to pass up!  As most scuba diving certification can run you around $500!  So I signed up, did the online portion and then had to do the underwater parts.  The first part was in a pool.  Many reasons for this, not too deep, controlled, etc.  Then comes the open water dives...

This is where I did my first open water dive!  It was completely different than diving in a pool.  My instructor was great!  Very competant, patient and friendly.  It made it much easier for me to get over some of my fears and do something I've always wanted to do. 

These two photos show where we did our fourth and final dive before we were certified.  We were out there for 43 minutes.  It's amazing how quickly time passed out there!  I saw many kinds of fish, two types of star-fish, a sea slug, all kinds of annonimities (hahaha, I don't think that's spelled right!), and plants galore...AND a small octopus!  That was so cool!

 

And I'm going to Fiji this weekend and I am going to scuba-dive there too!  I hope to be able to take under-water photos, but it will depend on if I can find an underwater housing unit for my camera. 

It's amazing and I'm SO glad I did it.  Diving in fresh water is different than in sea water, so you have to wear weights, and the air-tank is heavy.  It is SO hard to walk after being bouyant with all the equipment once you get out of the water!  I need to walk around with weights on my back at the gym to prep for more diving! :-D

 

Underwater pics to come as soon as the instructor is able to send them.

Weta Workshop & lunch with Uriah and Courtney

So today was Uriah and Courtney's last day in Wellington and they are both big Lord of the Rings fans, so we headed over to Weta Workshop for a behind the scenes tour.  Unfortunately, you can't take photos in the workshop, but it was AWESOME!  The tour guide was funny and we had a good group and we got to see some cool stuff. 

Here is Courtney and I in the Weta Cave (otherwise known as money-tourist trap, but still cool!) before our tour.  It was super awesome and I recommend anyone who ejoys the movies to check it out. 

Then we headed to lunch and went to Pizzeria Napoli.  It was SO yummy!  Uriah had a calzozne, Courtney got stuffed shells, and I got the pollo pizza.  It was all so yummy!  I want to go back so bad and eat the stuffed shells.  The pizza was good, but the stuffed shells were AMAZING!  I love good food and I have to workout really hard so that I can eat all the yummy food.

Birthday continued

(Jo, Courtney, Uriah, Erica, and Natalie)

A couple of weeks ago me and some friends were chatting about karaoke and I said that we should go for my birthday!  A lot of people said that sounded fun, so I put out feelers.  We decided to eat dinner before at the restuarant right by the karaoke bar. 

(Sofia, Susan, Maggie, Sheryll and I)

 

The food was really good.  I got what is called "hot pot".  So basically they take the seasoning, put it in a pot that is sunk in the table, with a gas burner beneath it.  Then you take whatever you want, various veggies and meat into the pot and a few seconds later the food is cooked.   

Then you put it in seasing (I choose chili oil, seasme oil, garlic, cilantro and chives) with the veggies and meat and some of the broth, then you eat it.  SO good!  I LOVED it, I would love to go back.

 

Then we headed to the karaoke room.  They were a little tentative at first, but I sang a few songs and got them all laughing and then they joined in. 

We had A LOT of fun!  It was a little expensive but was fun. 

I would love to karaoke again, but I probably wouldn't go back here because a lot of the songs were oriental.  And I don't read Korean or Chinese!  Lol.

Wonderful start to my birthday

So I woke up to get ready to head in to work and saw this on my counter.  My friend Karin has been flatting with me and surprised me with these lovely flowers and card for my birthday.

Then I got to work, and my co-worker John brought me some flowers and this yummy raspberry cupcake. 

Then Hilary gave me flowers for my hair and earrings.  What a wonderful start to my birthday! :-)

Birthday cake

I have a wonderful mother, but then most of you already knew that!  I was speaking with her a couple of weeks ago and my birthday came up.  I love yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  It has been a few years since I've been near family to make me my favorite cake (although last year was a real treat because I was home during my birthday and got spoiled!).  I could always make a yellow cake from scratch, but my mom sent me a cake mix!  My favorite of course, yellow and chocolate frosting.  Behind the cake is the card that my mom sent me for my birthday.  I am truly blessed. 

I can't wait to have a piece tomorrow at work! :-D