From the Archives: Fiji 2004

I've shared a few pictures from this trip before, but as I was going through and purging old photos for my Library of Memories class, I decided I'd start sharing more pictures from my trips around the globe. So fun to look back through these...

For those that don't know, in 2004 I left everything and everyone I'd ever known and moved to Australia for five months to study at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. In September, a few of my American classmates and I flew to Fiji in the South Pacific for a week of island-hopping. Good times...

Our first stop was Beachcomber Island. Not much bigger than a football field, but the most modern of all the islands we visited.




Leaving Beachcomber...North Carolina Corrie, West Virginia Lauren, Chicago Joe, Boston Brian, and Me...


Then we took the big yellow boat to Nanuya Lailai...where the sunsets were gorgeous and they only had electricity from 5 - 7 pm.


We taught the Fijians to play Bullsh**, but they didn't like that word, so in Fiji it was Bulahead. Not sure how it became Bulahead...bula is Fijian for hello, but is kind of like the Hawaiian Aloha, which is used for more than just hello.


On the other side of Nanuya Lailai from where our "resort" was is the Blue Lagoon. This is where the 1980 movie, The Blue Lagoon, was filmed. Seriously the most beautiful, totally deserted beach I've ever seen. We trekked across the island trail multiple times to hang out at the Lagoon.


It was even worth seeing these huge spiders...

After a couple days at Nanuya Lailai, we were headed to Kuata. Another one of my favorite places in the world...

While staying at Kuata, the Fijians took us to a neighboring island to climb to the top for a view of the South Pacific. Absolutely one of the most physically difficult experiences of my life. Climbing to the top of this island in 95-degree heat, 90 percent humidity. But so, so worth it (and our guide did it all barefoot).










The next day we got up and rode in the bottom of a john boat to the next island for church (maybe we should've done this before climbing to the top of the island!). Yep, I had no idea we'd be going to church on our spring break, hence the John Deere t-shirt. The nicest (least cleavage-exposing) shirt I packed. Then they made us go up in front of the congregation and sing a song. The only song we all could remember the words to was "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". =)








Then it was on to Naviti...


And South Sea Island, the smallest of them all...

Stay tuned...I'll have some more fun from the Southern Hemisphere coming up!