On Friday morning we found ourselves on a bus, it was cold and drizzling, the bus drove on the left hand side of the road and we passed fish and chip shops - no we weren't back in the UK, we were in Auckland, but it sure felt like home.
We only stopped over in Auckland for an afternoon and a night (it had to be less than 24 hours for a round-the-world ticket) but from what I saw of it I really like it. Some sort-of relatives took us to a lovely restaurant for dinner. When you're travelling it makes a huge difference if you have someone who knows the place to show you around and above all the best eateries.
We are now in Fiji, on the main island, in a really cheap but good 'flashpacker' resort. We're definitely getting into the backpacker spirit in our dorm room - no more hotels for us). I'm scuba diving this week and C is surfing.
From the little of Fiji that we saw on the drive to the resort it appears very different from Tonga culturally. The 'Indian' presence is very obvious in the form of both Mosques and Hindu temples. Fiji is ethnically 50% Indian as a result of the endentured Indian labourers who were brought here about 100 years ago ... probably by the British. This has been the subject of major political upheaval for at least the last 30 years but I'm not going to write about that because I don't know enough about it. Suffice to say that we have seen no evidence of it (and there is an ethnically Indian chef in the kitchen)and all the staff have been very friendly.
I have to go and beef up on my diving theory. The next post will probably be from Auckland.
http://picasaweb.google.com/111926669880466215152/Fiji?authkey=Gv1sRgCP_w1MLaqr_FtQE#
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