Oh my goodness I have super exciting news to share, I was on
Shortland Street! For those of you that don’t know Shortland Street is a soap
opera filmed in New Zealand. It is a hospital-based drama and it is absolutely
terrible but I am obsessed with it. Michelle, David, and Jakob occasionally see
actors from the show around Auckland and when they do they text me to tell me
about it and I get incredibly jealous. Especially since I hope and pray to bump
into someone from the show every time I’m in town and it just never happens. It
didn’t happen this time either because I didn’t actually get on the show (I did
however learn that apparently it’s quite easy to become an extra on the show so
I know what I’ll be signing up for next time I’m in New Zealand) I just found
the actual street called Shortland St. and stood on it. I tried to take a selfie so I could make this
lame joke even lamer but I walked along the street for about 8 blocks and only
found one street sign and it was way to high up in the air to take a picture
with both me and the sign in it. Stupid short arms.
On a more serious note I am so glad I didn’t end up staying
at my hostel in Auckland the first two nights I was booked in. It was so loud
and my bed was so uncomfortable. There were drunk people yelling outside my
window until at least 3am and once that stopped they were in my room instead. I
think I got about two hours of uninterrupted sleep before I had to get up to
catch my bus to the airport.
The Air New Zealand check in area was super chaotic and I
was not prepared to deal with that sort of thing so early in the morning. I had
to have someone from the airline check my onwards ticket but there were no
check in desks open so figuring out who I was supposed to was a bit
challenging. Turns out I needed to talk to some guy who had a computer in the
middle of all the craziness. I tracked him down and eventually got everything
sorted and made my way to immigration.
I was half expecting some sort of delay at this point. I
received an email telling me I needed to be out of the country by the 14th
and since it was now the 15th I was a bit worried I might get a
stern talking to for abusing the privileges my visa allowed or something.
Luckily clearing immigration was a breeze, and I mean it should have been, I
arrived on the afternoon of the 15th last year and I was leaving in
the morning, as far as I was concerned I did not exceed the time I was allowed
to remain in the country. I also made it through security without being
randomly selected for additional screening; I always get picked so this was a
huge shock. I almost did a happy dance but stopped myself because I knew that
would likely end in a cavity search.
The flight to Fiji was relatively uneventful. The seat next
to me was empty so I thought I would be able to curl up and catch up on some
sleep but the stupid armrest was broken and wouldn’t go up. What good is an
empty seat next to you if you cant get the armrest out of the way? I ended up watching a movie I had already
seen instead of sleeping but at least that helped make the time go by quickly.
When we landed in Fiji we had to pass through and Ebola
check point. Yes that’s right and Ebola checkpoint, the biggest waste of time
ever! You had to fill out a stupid form and hand it in and if you hadn’t
grabbed a form as you were herded like cattle through the tiny airport then you
had to go to the back of the line. This really pissed me off because the woman
collecting the forms didn’t even read them! I could have checked the boxes that
said I was in West Africa in the past 21 days and was experiencing symptoms and
she would not have stopped me from proceeding through immigration. Hooray for
making lines longer than they need to be in 30-degree heat, I love sweating my
ass off with 15kgs strapped to my back for no real reason! Bunch of jerks.
Things got better once I cleared immigration. My hostel
offers free airport pickup so there was a lovely man with a van waiting for me
and a few other passengers so I didn’t have to stress about getting lost. I had
read a few reviews online about the shuttle service not turning up so I was
prepared for the worst and delighted when it didn’t happen.
After checking in to the hostel I went for a bit of a wander
to get the lay of the land then grabbed some lunch. The food at this hostel is
ridiculously expensive. I paid something like $20 for some fried rice and it
wasn’t even good. I wasn’t a happy camper but at least I had a bit of food in
my belly now and could relax so I did by lazing in a hammock on the beach until
the storm clouds rolled in, then I headed to my room for a nap.
It was still raining when I woke up but luckily the storm
passed in time for the fire dancers later in the evening. Watching fire dancers
was on the top of my Fiji bucket list and I wasn’t sure where I would catch a
show so I was pretty stoked when I found out I wouldn’t even need to leave the
hostel to do it.
While I was waiting for the show to start a caught a guy whom
was at least 15 years older than me blatantly checking me out. I didn’t really
think much of it until he came and sat at my table. He asked if I was okay and
said I looked nervous and lonely. I told him I was neither and I was perfectly
fine. He sat down across from me and said normally he would ask to join me but
it was big table. He then told me about the intimate table for two he had down
by the ocean, I told him I was sitting where I was so I could watch the dancers
and he left. I thought I had made it clear I wasn’t interested but apparently I
hadn’t because about ten minutes later he was back. I didn’t look at him or say
a single word to him but he kept lurking. He also made a douchey comment about
the dancers when the males left the stage and the women started to dance. It
was becoming clear that this guy was a chauvinistic ass who thought I was poor
lonely girl who couldn’t handle being on her own because no woman can and he
would swoop in and rescue me. Barf! He made a few more sexist remarks and I
continued to ignore him. After about a half an hour he finally got the hint and
left but not before making it clear that he was angry that I hadn’t been open
to his rescuing efforts, and by that I mean that I hadn’t opened my legs to him
after he grunted at me.
Most of the dance show was traditional dances from different
Pacific Islands with a grand finale of fire dancing. It was pretty spectacular
to see how these guys handled their flaming batons. They each did a solo performance and then did
a large group number at the end. Several of them dropped their fire sticks at some
point during their routine but no one seemed disappointed that they had failed,
everyone was just concerned that they had likely burned themselves pretty badly
for our entertainment, and I thought that was kind of sweet.
After the fire dancing I made my way back to my room as I
was afraid the creepy old guy would try again for a third time if I stuck
around. An early night was probably for the best anyway as I desperately needed
sleep.
Today I’m trying out this new thing, it’s called relaxing.
It turns out it’s pretty nice! I woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and then
spent the next two hours lounging on the beach in the glorious sun. I then made
my way to the spa for a one hour Bobo massage. It apparently falls somewhere
between a Swedish massage and a deep tissue massage. All I know is it wasn’t
nearly as violent as any of the massages I had in Asia but there were a few
moments when I thought I was being beaten with a rubber mallet.
After an hour of pampering I decided I needed to make some
plans to do some snorkeling. The beach at the hostel is pretty gross so I won’t
be doing any snorkeling here but managed to book a day tour to one of the
smaller islands where I can snorkel and work on my tan. I have read some mixed
reviews about this tour so please cross your fingers for me that it doesn’t
suck!
With tomorrow all planned out it was time to get back to
relaxing. I walked down the beach to a resort two doors down where I enjoyed
lunch for about half the price it would have cost me here. With food in my belly it was back to the
beach lounger to get my tan on and then a quick swim in the pool before the
storm clouds rolled in.
It’s currently the rainy season in Fiji and there are
thunderstorms in the forecast for everyday that I am here. The mornings and
early afternoons still seem to be nice and the clouds tend to clear in the
early even so at least I’m not confined to my room all day long, but I do have
my fingers crossed that the rain holds off tomorrow until my tour is over!
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