The taxi cost me US $35 to reach the airport from Waikiki centre, and I regretted not booking a much cheaper shuttle bus as that was a lot of money wasted on next to nothing.
Customs and departure through Honolulu was a breeze as at that time I was one of the only people at the airport and there were no places open to eat or drink, except one Japanese sushi place that the worlds worst sandwiches I have ever tasted and despite being hungry I didnt even manage to get through half of one sandwich before throwing it in the bin.
The flight across from Honolulu to Nadi in Fiji was important as it marked my half way point away from home with the crossing of the international dateline skipping from the 9th to the 10th midflight. On the flight they only showed one movie despite the flight being almost 7 hours long and the food was a weird omelette and accompanying fruit sections. Most of the flight was fair sailing but just coming over near to Fiji the plane started to experience the worst turbulence I have ever had, dropping suddenly and far longer than I have ever done before though thankfully it did not pitch from side to side or rock.
On one of the seats next to me sat a young woman who was travelling with a small musical instrument and a super fluffy teddybear and once we got chatting I found out that she had an interesting story to tell. She was originally from Fiji and today she was returning home after living away from home for a few years as a student and working in the Polynesian cultureal centre back on Hawaii, being one of the performers I had been greatly entertained by just two days ago.
I do not normally feel stage shocked when I meet famous artists or performers, so I was able to carry on talking to her normally without getting embarrased or feeling the need to ask for her autograph, but the more I talked to her the happier and more relaxed I felt and by the end of the seven hours I felt like we two could become friends if time and space allowed.
As we flew over the shore of Fiji, heading inland, she looked out and looked out and began to take photos just like I do, only her reason for doing so was because she spotted that the fields looked a dirty brown colour and not a lush and tropical green and the reason for this we found as soon as we touched down.
My own particular curse of being rained on in every country had preceeded me by about a week as it had been raining extra hard in Fiji, longer and harder than in anyones memory there ( yet again ! ) and although the airplanes were still landing every few hours from overseas there was no easy way to get anywhere as all the roads from the airport were flooded in every direction, in some places as high as five feet of water.
My new friend was due to fly out to Suva, the capital of Fiji, but with the heavy rain we were both unsure if she would be able to get there so she contacted her folks who said that if her flight did not take off then she could go and stay with her relatives. For my part I was unsure as to what to do, so I wandered around and was eventually chatting to one lady who worked in the airport who said that she would do everything she could to help me find accommodation.
All the hotels and hostels in downtown Nadi were still safe from the water however all the roads going to of from Nadi were totally unpassable and had been for days, which meant that all the very nearby hotels were overloaded with emergency tourist. The rain coming down outside sounded as loud as thunder with the roof being no more than corrugated iron in places and it was almost impossible to make a phone call under the circumstances.
The internet was still working in the airport and I contacted my Insurers and airline to see if there was anything that anyone could do but in typical fashion the insurers were less than useless, merely saying that I should keep all receipts and that I was welcome to try and submit a claim when I got back but not giving any guarantee that I would get anything back and the airline said all the flights heading out of Nadi were fully booked for the entire time I was due to stay.
Being short of optioned I was happy to follow the airport ladies suggestion which was to go and spend a few days with her friends D' and P' who lived very close by, friends that were not actually a hostel or anything but just a couple of good people living in a 4 bedroom house, one of the couple being full Fijian and the other being originally from Ireland. D' used to be a tattoo artist and had her own shop in Germany while P' is ex british army and now spends a few months each year doing mini tours as bodyguard duty in some of the more extremely dangerous places in the world.
We had to flag down a passing 4x4 pickup to take us the few minutes walk to their place, as all the roads round the airport were under more than a foot of water and none of the airport taxi's would take anyone anywhere under such dangerous conditions.
Once out of the flood area I met the couple and they were willing to take me in for a few nights, which was a real blessing as they turned out to be some of the nicest people I could have hoped to meet and we spent many days chatting about all sorts of things, watching movies, cooking and drinking.
The rain was still falling heavily when I finally fell asleep around 10pm and showed no signs of lightening up, so I was resigned to making the best of my new and unexpected situation.
As a side note the electricity here uses a different plug to what my adapter uses, which is a pain as I thought that I had got enough seperate attachments to cover me no mater where I went, but then I guess Switzerland should have shown me that there are always exceptions!
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