NELSON, NEW ZEALAND

Yesterday we (and our rental car) made the crossing to the South Island on the Bluebridge Ferry, which sails from Wellington across the Cook Strait, then winds its way through the typically-New Zealand-beautiful Marlborough Sound to the town of Picton. From there we drove to Nelson, about an hour away, where we met up with our old friend Thomas from Vancouver (who we first met in Fiji, and later ran into in Auckland). The three of us have decided to join forces for awhile, as we drive around the South Island and Thomas looks for a job. Today we did some rather aimless sightseeing in and around the town--the most interesting thing here seems to be their distinctive Art Deco cathedral.

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

On our way out of Ohakune this morning, we drove up the road to the Turoa Ski Field, stopping at Mangawhero Falls, another location used in a couple of scenes from The Lord of the Rings. (If you're wondering which scenes, congratulations--you're a geek, too.)

We then drove south to Wellington, where we're staying the night because the ferry we're taking to the South Island only runs once a day. It's a shame we can't stay here longer, because Wellington seems like a pretty interesting city--more of a cultural and arts center than Auckland, with museums, galleries, and lots of trendy cafe's.

OKAHUNE, NEW ZEALAND

Well, we made it.

By "it," I mean the Tongariro Crossing, that 17 kilometer, all-day hike that climbs Mt. Tongariro and past Mt. Ngauruhoe ("Mount Doom"), across dry lake beds, red volcanic vents, steaming sulphur hot springs, emerald green lakes, alpine vegetation, and native forest. It's a stunningly beautiful hike, but it involves some incredibly grueling climbs up steep volcanic slopes and down mountains of scree and loose rocks. There were several points when I wasn't sure I would make it--the only thing that made me feel better was passing people on the trail who were faring far worse than me. A number of hikers had to turn back before reaching Red Crater (the highest point of the trek, at 1886 meters), and I saw one guy slice up his hand real bad on some sharp rocks. By the end, Chris' knee swelled up to the size of a grapefruit, while I made it through with just some sore muscles and joints. That last four hours downhill was almost as bad as the uphill part!

As painful as it was at times, though, it was worth it for the sights. At pretty much every moment of the trek, I could look around and see scenery that could rightfully be described as "spectacular." I'm not sure photos will do it justice, but I took a bunch of 'em, anyway.

NP: Genesis, "Riding the Scree"

Travel Tip #5: Ziploc bags. For everything.

OHAKUNE, NEW ZEALAND

For the past couple of days it seems like we've been going nonstop, driving all over the central North Island to see as many sights as we can before we have to head south. (It's been great, but kind of tiring, to be honest.)

Yesterday we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, a scenic reserve outside of Rotorua administered by the Department of Conservation. It's known for having the largest area of surface thermal activity of any hydrothermal system in this area, which means the whole park is covered with boiling mud pools, steaming springs, and terraces of volcanic deposits. The minerals in the water create a whole palette of colors: sulphur = yellow, iron = red, ferrous salts = green, manganese oxide = purple, etc. It's an extremely unnatural-looking (and smelling) landscape, for sure, and all the features have names like "The Devil's Inkpots," "The Devil's Bath," and so on. Satan sure likes his geothermal activity.

Also at Wai-O-Tapu, just down the road from the main park, is the Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts every day promptly at 10:15 am. (The reason it's so punctual is that a ranger pours soap into it at 10:14 am to break the surface tension and cause an eruption. I am totally serious.) It would naturally erupt on its own every day or so, but I guess that's not convenient enough for the busloads of tourists that visit. Consequently, watching it erupt felt to me a little like seeing a "canned" performance, especially with all those seats built around the geyser like an amphitheater. But I guess I enjoyed it anyway.

Another natural phenomenon unique to New Zealand is the glowworm caves at Waitomo, which I had heard about many years ago and really wanted to check out. So this morning we drove there and I took a tour of the caves (Chris wasn't interested, so he waited outside). A guide led us down into the caves, which include some pretty big galleries, and then to a boat which took us down an underground river to see the glowworms (technically, they're the larval stage of the fungus gnat), which hang from the ceiling and emit a blue light. There are literally millions of them in the caves, so it's kind of like boating through a planetarium of countless blue stars. Very cool.

We then drove south to Tongariro National Park and took a scenic flight over Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngaurohue, two of the volcanoes in the park. It was late in the day, but the weather was near-perfect, and the view was spectacular. We were the only two passengers, and I sat in the co-pilot's seat, so the viewing was great. Mt. Ngaurohue, used in the Lord of the Rings films as Mt. Doom, was especially impressive. It was also cool seeing an aerial view of the Tongariro Crossing, the 17-kilometer track across Mt. Tongariro that we're planning to hike tomorrow. But man, some of those slopes look steep!

ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND

Today while Chris did some extreme river rafting thingy, I decided to let my geek flag fly and drive to the town of Matamata, where I booked a 2 1/2 hour guided tour of the nearby "Hobbiton" location from the Lord of the Rings movies.

This is the only location in New Zealand where some of the actual set remains, as they were all supposed to be destroyed after filming. In fact, the Hobbiton set was already half-demolished when the farmers that owned the land petitioned to save the remaining set pieces. After several years of legal wrangling, they won, with the condition that they not attempt to restore anything to the way it was during filming.

So what this means is that there are a bunch of rather bare-looking hobbit holes still in place, but with no doors, chimneys, flowers, landscaping, etc. Still, it was very cool to walk around the place, which is in the middle of a sheep farm miles from the nearest town. The best part is that the entire surrounding landscape is more or less the same as it was in the films, and you could walk right through where a lot of scenes were filmed (for example, the path Gandalf rode up on with his horse and cart, the "party tree," still with a bit of birthday ribbon in it, the lake where the mill and bridge stood, and Bag End itself).

What was really amazing is that it's a completely 360-degree set: You can stand in the middle of the party field and look in all directions, and not see a single man-made structure (well, except for one shed in the distance that they camouflaged as a tree in the movie). Everything in view could be (and was) shown on screen, which made it seem a lot less "fake" than you would expect a movie set to be.

In short, it was a lot more impressive than I was expecting, and it was a really perfect sunny day to be outdoors, anyway.

Later, when I met up with Chris again, he suggested going to the nearby Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park, which I thought was a little bogus, since New Zealand really doesn't have any native wildlife (other than some bugs and a lizard or two, and birds). But the real attraction was that they had two four-month-old lion cubs that you could pet, and you can't do that too often. So we went there, and it turned out to be pretty fun, because we actually got to go inside the enclosure with the cub while he ran around us and bit at my shoes and stuff.

They also had some nice landscaped walks with some other random animals on display (adult lions, pigs, deer, wallabies) and a natural spring with pools of giant trout and huge eels. Kind of a weird menagerie, but whatever.

NP: Howard Shore and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, "Concerning Hobbits"

ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND

To further my plan of visiting all of the world's major aquariums, Chris and I stopped at the awkwardly-named "Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World" today on our way out of Auckland. This is a unique attraction in that the "underwater world" consists of former underground sewage tanks that some guy named Kelly Tarlton filled with water and fish and ran acrylic tunnels through so people could walk through them while sharks, rays, and other critters swam around their heads. (Other aquariums, including the Atlanta Aquarium, now have similar tunnel exhibits, but I guess this was the first.)

To me it was interesting mainly because it featured native New Zealand species I haven't seen on display elsewhere--sevengill sharks, for example, as well as giant crayfish (lobsters) and eels. They also have "Stingray Bay," which is a big tank with some really humongous stingrays that the divers feed by hand.

Oh, and the "Antarctic Encounter" part features a replica of the inside of Robert F. Scott's Antarctic hut, and a cheesy fake Snowcat ride through "Antarctica," which looks an awful lot like a penguin enclosure. The penguins were fun to watch, though.

After that, we drove several hours south to Rotorua, spiritual home of the Maori people and the most active geothermal area of New Zealand. Unfortunately, this last fact means that the town usually smells like rotten eggs.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Chris had been wanting to do some kayaking around the bay, so this morning we rented a two-man sea kayak and paddled from the beach at Paihia to a couple of nearby islands, then up to the mouth of the Waitangi River. We then tried navigating up the river to see a waterfall that's supposedly somewhere upstream, but got lost in the mangroves instead and had to turn around. My arms were getting really tired, anyway.

We then left the Bay of Islands and drove across to the west side of the North Island, stopping when we reached the coast at Omapere. We came across an incredible overlook and coastal walkway there, with panoramic clifftop views of the Tasman Sea, mountainous sand dunes, weird windblown plants , and soft sandstone rock formations, with clear blue waters and kelp beds below--very Roger Dean-ish in places.

I really wish we could have stayed and explored the area some more, but I was on a mission to see some kauri trees, so we then headed south down the "Kauri Coast." Kauri trees are New Zealand's largest and oldest trees, rivaling North America's redwoods and sequoias. I mean, they're frigging huge. After 200 years of extensive logging, there aren't too many left, but there are several forests where you can still see some of the big ones.

We stopped at the Waipoura Kauri Forest, where we saw Tane-mahuta, the "god of the forest," which at 51 meters high is the tallest tree in New Zealand; Te matue-ngahere, the 2000-year-old "father of the forest," which is the widest at five meters in diameter; and a few others not important enough to have tree names. They really were pretty spectacular and appropriately ancient-looking, and walking through a forest of the weird native flora of New Zealand (instead of the introduced oak, pine, elm, etc. that cover most of the country) was a pretty surreal experience. And I'm not sure, but I strongly suspect that the kauri trees were an influence on the design of the giant mallorn trees of Caras Galadhon in the movie version of The Fellowship of the Ring. (Wow, does that sound nerdy or what?)

After communing with the trees, we drove further south, traveling across some beautiful rolling hills and farmland right out of a Grant Wood landscape, before arriving in Auckland for one more night.

PAIHIA, BAY OF ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND

Today Chris and I took an all-day cruise around the Bay of Islands. This took us past some really stunning coastline on the way out to the open sea, and one of the area's biggest attractions, the "Hole in the Rock," which was...well, you guessed it.

But it's a big hole, in a big rock island jutting out of the sea. On most days, it's safe for boats to pass through the hole, but today the swells were just too high, so we didn't attempt it. Still, the giant waves crashing through the hole were impressive enough, as was the "Grand Cathedral," a cave on the other side of the rock big enough for the boat to (sort of) fit in.

We then cruised back into the bay and moored at Urupukapuka (say that without laughing) Island, where we went ashore to have lunch. This being New Zealand and all, there were sheep everywhere, which were kind of funny to watch, and even more funny to listen to. I never realized it before, but every sheep has a distinct voice--some are high and squeaky, others are low and throaty, nasal, whiny like Brandon, etc. I sat and just listened to them bleating for awhile, which at first amused me greatly. But then I started getting weirded out by how human they sounded, and I started imagining they were all desparately searching for someone named Matt. "Maaaatt!" "Maaaaaaattt!" they all cried. "MAAAAAATT!"

Where was Matt? What had happened to him? I didn't want to think about it. So I climbed some hills and took some photos of the view.

After lunch we boarded the boat again and set out to look for dolphins, as this was billed as a "swim with the dolphins" cruise. But that part's not guaranteed, for obvious reasons. (First you have to find them somewhere in the bay, and then the dolphins have to decide whether you're worth swimming with. And since they're not getting paid, apparently they can be pretty fickle about this.)

Anyway, there are three or four "dolphin encounter" boats operating out of Paihia that work together by reporting dolphin sightings to each other, and dividing the bay into search areas when they can't find them. As it turned out, after an entire day of no sightings by any operator, our boat was the first to spot a large group of about 40 or 50 bottlenose dolphins (several pods together, which is unusual). Unfortunately, there were several mothers with babies in the group, which meant we weren't allowed to get in the water with them (they have strict rules about these things). But it was still pretty incredible, because they swam right alongside the boat, slapped the water with their tails, and a few even jumped out of the water and did flips. From the bow of the boat, I could hear them underwater talking to each other in high-pitched squeaks, which was really cool. I took a bunch of photos, but of course most of them show a big splash or a tail. Still, it was an amazing experience to get that close to dolphins in the wild.

People met today:

• Dennis, 27, from Germany, who showed us pictures of his travels in New Zealand, and told us some cool places to see on the South Island.

Oh, and the Canadians showed up at our hostel tonight--they are definitely following us!

PAIHIA, BAY OF ISLANDS, NEW ZEALAND

After some discussion of transportation options, we've decided that the best and most economical way to see New Zealand is by car, so today we rented one. As fate would have it, we got an old Toyota Corolla, almost exactly like my car at home--except the steering wheel is on the right. And yes, today was my first time driving on the left-hand side of the road, which I was a little unsure about, but once you get the hang of it, it's really not that bad. Mind those roundabouts, though! So far my biggest problem has been turning on the windshield wipers when I mean to signal a turn. I'm not exactly sure why those controls are on opposite sides of the steering wheel over here, but I thank the good lord that the brake and accelerator pedals haven't been reversed as well.

Anyway, from Auckland we drove three and a half hours north to the Bay of Islands, and specifically to the seaside resort town of Paihia. This is the area of the first English settlement in New Zealand, so it's historically significant, but it's also a place with some really picturesque coastal scenery: blue water, rocky shoreline, sandy beaches, and about 150 islands scattered throughout the bay. Paihia also serves as the base for a whole slew of tourist activities: fishing, diving, sailing, kayaking, and anything else water- or beach-related.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Kia ora! Fiji was great, but after a month it feels pretty good to be back in civilization.

Travel Tip #4: You can tell how civilized a country is by the quality of their pizza.

We're in Auckland now (that's in New Zealand, geography buffs), getting our bearings and doing some much-needed laundry and shopping. We're staying at Auckland Central Backpackers, a ridiculously posh high-rise hostel in a downtown skyscraper. The place is huge, and the facilities are unbelievable: travel agency, two TV lounges, job-placement office, laundromat, restaurant-size kitchen, 24-hour internet cafe with over 30 PCs, and not one, but two bars. Kind of kills the whole "roughing it" image of the backpacker lifestyle, but man, it sure is comfy.

And strangely enough, among the horde of backpackers staying here are a number of folks we first met back in Fiji: Peter from Germany, now minus his girlfriend Teresa; Thomas from Vancouver, now minus his girlfriend Laura; and Ed and Colin from Edmonton, still with their girlfriends Candace and Bridget. (These are the guys I previously referred to as "Bob and Doug," and the girls are the ones who kicked my ass in the crazy hat competition on Tavewa Island. Small world, eh?) It's cool to be able to re-connect with people and trade stories about what you've done, where you're going, etc. I expect this may happen in other cities as we travel the backpacker circuit.

Auckland is really pleasant. It's a big port city ("the city of sails,"), very clean and modern, and about as cosmopolitan as you can expect in a country this small. Our hostel is literally in the shadow of the Auckland Sky Tower, which is pretty impressive--I believe it's the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. And like everything else in New Zealand, you can bungee jump from it. Which would be awesome, but expensive, so maybe not this time....

Actually, other than taking care of some essentials, like posting some photos and buying an high-tech, ultra-absorbent microfiber supertowel, so far I haven't done a whole lot here. Chris and I did walk down to the harbor yesterday, and ran into Thomas from Vancouver. We walked around the area and saw a penguin catching fish among the boats, which was really cool. And at night we went out to this gay bar called Family with an American guy named Donald that works at the hostel, and some girls from Canada. (Which was exactly like your average gay bar in the U.S., only with more Maori guys.)

FIJI RECAP

Favorite Things About Fiji:

• Friendly People. Most everyone says "hi" (or "Bula!") to you on the street and smiles like they're really happy to see you. Which as an American was very disconcerting to me at first, but I grew to like it.
• No Tipping. Waiters, bartenders, taxi drivers, anyone! And the tax is included in prices, which makes paying for things so much easier.
• Sharks!
• The Yasawas. A very cool island chain. Striking topography, beautiful sandy beaches, blue water, and great snorkeling. Wish that cyclone hadn't rained on us for a week, but otherwise, an amazing place.

Least Favorite Things About Fiji:

• The Food. Local, Eastern, or Western cuisine, it's all awful. As an example: The Fijian delicacy of pulasami, which consists of canned corned beef wrapped in a taro leaf and boiled in coconut milk. And no, I didn't try it. (In addition to corned beef, the Fijians also seem to have a fondness for corned mutton. I didn't even know they made that.) Another example: At one resort, the lunch special was "nachos." I ordered them, and what I got was literally Doritos covered in ketchup. 'Nuff said.
• Pushy Cab Drivers. They will try to convince you to spend $50 on a taxi ride even after you point out to them that the bus is only $5.
• Tropical Cyclones.

Biggest Regret:

• Not having the money to travel to the islands of Taveuni or Kadavu, where the scuba diving is by all accounts second to none.

My overall impression of Fiji is very different than Chris'. (And that's all I have to say about that.)

SOME PICTURES OF FIJI

You might have been wondering where all the photos are. Well, posting pictures on the website is a little tricky. We can't do it directly from overseas, so we're having to 1) burn our pictures to CD-ROM, 2) mail the CDs back to the states, and 3) have Chris' cousin Ric add them to the site.

After we transfer our pictures to CD (or have access to a PC and card reader), it is possible for us to e-mail individual pictures to people or upload them to other sites, but that takes awhile, and in some places (for example, Fiji) it's virtually impossible, because they have dial-up internet connections which take forever. And internet time costs money--sometimes a lot. Anyway, that's why there haven't been any pictures on the website yet. There will be soon, though, so keep checking back as more pictures get added to the photo gallery.

That having been said, I did manage to upload about 30 of my pictures to Sony's ImageStation website yesterday. Click here to view them.

KOROTOGO, CORAL COAST, FIJI

Yesterday we left Suva and traveled back along the Coral Coast toward Nadi. We're staying at the Tubakula Beach Bungalows, a 1960s-ish resort of A-frame cottages. The snorkeling here is better than at the Beachhouse, although the water in the lagoon is so shallow that at times you literally have to navigate a coral maze in order to avoid grounding yourself.

As I walked to the shoreline this morning, I startled a foot-long octopus, which inked and immediately swam to the nearest hole in the coral, where it disappeared. I then waded out into the lagoon and took some photos of corals, fish, and eels in the shallow water.

People met today:

• Mike from Alaska, who works for the government fishing for salmon in a place called Misty Fjords. (How do I sign up for that job?) He catches the fish to monitor their population, I think. He's been in Fiji since November, and actually abandoned his around-the-world trip because he likes it here so much. He's spent a lot of time in Taveuni, where he's been on 25 dives. Wow.

SUVA, FIJI

Today we took a bus 11 kilometers north of Suva to the Colo-i-Suva Forest Park, a large nature preserve with a number of walking trails through the jungle. We took a trail that ran beside the river, which flowed through a narrow gorge in a series of waterfalls, through stands of pandanus, tree ferns, and tall mahogany trees--an idyllic setting, really. It ended in a large swimming pond, complete with a rope swing 15 feet above the water. I tried it out a few times, but left the aerobatics to the kids hanging out there.

While we were waiting to catch the bus back into town, a local man stopped and offered us a ride in his car, and even stopped at a convenience store to buy us some soft drinks. He wouldn't take any money, either. I don't think that would have happened too often back home. Then again, I probably wouldn't be accepting rides from strangers back home, either.

SUVA, FIJI

Suva is looking more and more like civilization: This morning I had my first decent cup of coffee in almost a month, at the Republic of Cappucino on Victoria Parade. It was a special moment indeed.

Afterward, Chris and I decided to follow the walking tour described in my Lonely Planet guide. Only we kind of started in the middle and chose destinations at random, rather than going in order--which I wouldn't recommend, unless you really like walking, or are a dumbass, or both. Anyway, we started at the municipal market, which as everybody knows is the place to be on Saturday morning. It was a crazy place, with hundreds of people buying and selling your typical island fruits and vegetables, along with more exotic edibles like kava, seaweed, octopus, sea urchins, and live mangrove crabs and mud lobsters. (Mud lobster, for the seafood lover in you.)

From there we walked along the harborfront, where a giant Australian cruise ship had just arrived. This meant that the souvenir-sellers were in full attack mode all day ("Hey sweetheart, you from Australia? Take a look at some crafts? Have a look right here. Look! JUST ONE LOOK! HEY!")

We then walked east past the old town hall, the library, and the government buildings, and saw kids playing cricket in Albert Park. Then we visited the Fiji Museum, which is a bit dark and decrepit, but has some pretty interesting things on display, including the last drua (double-hulled Fijian war canoe) ever built, some nice examples of masi bark cloth, an assortment of cannibal forks used solely for dining on human flesh, and the rudder of the Bounty (you know, Captain Bligh's ship, which sailed through and charted these islands way back when).

The museum is in the middle of the city's botanical gardens, Thurston Gardens, which we walked around for awhile afterwards. It's a pleasant enough place, but one that apparently hasn't seen a lawnmower in awhile. It seemed popular enough with the mongooses (mongeese?) scampering around, though, so I guess it's at least free from snakes.

By then we were hot and tired enought to give up on the "walking" part of the walking tour, so we caught a taxi back to the center of town. We considered seeing a movie at the multiplex, but half the movies were in Hindi, Chris had already seen Casanova, and I couldn't bring myself to watch Big Momma's House 2, so we went back to the hotel and watched TV instead. Ironically, we ended up watching a movie on the Bollywood channel, which was also in Hindi, but with subtitles. And if you don't mind gratuitous singing and dancing, it's actually a surprisingly good romantic comedy with some clever twists. So if you ever get the chance, check out Kyun! Ho Gaya Na... I am totally serious.

SUVA, FIJI

This morning while I was sitting at a picnic table by the beach, I overheard a television producer trying to convince the owners of the Beachhouse to let them use this place as the location for the second season of a British reality TV show called "Celebrity Love Island." From her description, it sounded like a horrible combination of "Big Brother," "Temptation Island," and "Help, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" As near as I can tell, it involves ten C-list British celebrities (that's her description) living in an island villa and having their every move televised (a la "Big Brother"). Viewers at home can then vote on which two celebrities they want to move into a separate "love shack" down the beach. Presumably, romance, sex, drama, and/or hilarity then ensue. Evidently, producing the show would involve a lot of construction, a crew of 400 moving in, and the resort closing for four months, but I guess the money they're offering is good enough, because they were seriously considering doing it. I guess we'll have to stay tuned....

Oh wait. Here's the Celebrity Love Island website (from last season). Geez, it's as bad as I thought.

We had planned to take the bus to Suva this afternoon, but while we were waiting at the bus station in the hot sun, a Fijian guy in a CR-V took pity on us and offered us a ride there, which turned out to be a much better arrangement (being uncrowded, air-conditioned, and free). Thanks, Fijian guy! He even dropped us off at our hotel, the Tropic Towers, which is exactly the sort of place it sounds like: a run-down 1950s-style hotel like you might find on Miami Beach.

Actually, "run-down" is a good description of the city of Suva itself, which reminds me a little of a post-apocalyptic Honolulu. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. Actually, "the capital of the South Pacific" is much more like a real city than Nadi--it has a little bit of history, some interesting colonial architecture, and a harborfront with some great views of the surrounding mountains. (It also has a multiplex cinema, a McDonald's, and a Shell station). It's just a little shabby, that's all.

Since it was Friday night, Chris and I decided to head downtown and check out the club scene, as Suva is also known as the "center of Fijian nightlife." No, seriously. And with nightclub names like "Traps," "Chequers," "Tingles," and "Liquids," you know it has to be rockin', right? Anyway, we hit O'Reilly's, an Irish pub that seems to be one of the most popular places to drink and dance. The crowd was an incredibly eclectic mix of Fijians and Fijian Indians, with a handful of Asians, Europeans, and Australians thrown in (I think we were the only Americans, though). The music ranged from hip-hop to Indian pop to Bon Jovi and Chumbawamba. Which sounds completely awful, but it actually seemed to work, and the dance floor was packed.

And Atlanta bois, rest assured: You can travel halfway around the world to an Irish pub on an island in the middle of the South Pacific, and there will be a queen in a Von Dutch shirt and a backpack dramatically sashaying around the place like her hair is on fire. Some things are just universal.

CORAL COAST, FIJI

I went snorkeling off the beach this morning with Chris. (Yeah I know, I go snorkeling a lot. It's what I do.) We had to swim out pretty far, almost to where the waves break on the fringing reef, in order to see anything. This time, we saw lizardfish, a coris wrasse, a big moray eel, and three lionfish (at least two different species). The lionfish were very cool--these are the first I've seen this trip. We were careful not to get too close, because they're extremely poisonous (CORRECTION: As James has so correctly pointed out, here I mean "venomous." Sheesh.) (Not deadly, but supposedly their sting is very painful). On the way back to the beach, I also saw a banded snake eel.

People met today:

• Max from Argentina, who works at a restaurant in Auckland, NZ, and is here on holiday.

CORAL COAST, FIJI

Now that he's feeling better, Chris is getting really anxious to leave Fiji and move on to New Zealand. I guess he feels like there's not enough to do here, although when you're on a tropical island for a month, isn't doing nothing kind of the point? I guess it depends on who you talk to. Anyway, he called Air Pacific this morning to see about changing the date of our flight out. They told us there's a change fee of US$100 per person, so I guess that means we're staying in Fiji for another week. :-)

We did find something to do this afternoon: we took a taxi to Kula Eco Park, a wildlife sanctuary that breeds and raises endangered species, including Fiji peregrine falcons, crested iguanas, and hawksbill turtles. The park also has nature trails through the forest and a lot of other native animals on display, including parrots, owls, fruit bats, snakes, and tropical fish.

People met today:

• Ping, a Chinese girl living in Bristol, on her way to Mexico after visiting Thailand and New Zealand.
• Manuela, an Italian girl living in Dublin, who works as a video editor.

Man, it's like the frigging United Nations around here.

CORAL COAST, FIJI

After seeing a local doctor yesterday who gave him some antibiotics, Chris felt well enough to go on a snorkeling boat trip this morning with Karen, Matt, and myself. We were taken out to a break in the reef a few minutes away, where we swam in along the channel to the shallower water of the inner lagoon. The snorkeling wasn't really that great, but I did see a squid, which inked and shot away as soon as it saw me. Cool.

CORAL COAST, FIJI

Chris is still too sick to do much of anything, so he stayed behind this morning while I went on a three-hour "jungle trek" with a local guide named Juta and three other Beachhouse guests: Richard, Ali, and Greg. We walked from the resort to the village of Navola, where Juta stopped to pick up a machete, then hiked inland, where we were joined by his dog, One Eye (which--perhaps not coincidentally--had only one eye). On the way, Juta pointed out a number of plants growing wild: coconut, taro, bamboo, mango, pineapple, ginger, and pandanus, as well as a number of medicinal plants.

We trekked pretty deep into the jungle for over an hour, wading through streams and deep mud, until we reached the "showering rock," a series of waterfalls with a swimming hole below. The water there was actually cold, and felt great after the hike, so we climbed up the cascades and swam for awhile before slogging back through the jungle. It was exhausting, but fun.

People met today:

• Richard and Ali, a couple from Oxford, UK who just arrived after a week in Samoa.
• Greg, 26, from Virginia, who was traveling in French Polynesia, and is on his way to study in Australia, then in Switzerland. I can also verify that he is able to eat ten mangoes in one sitting.
• Karen and Matt, mother and son from South Dakota. They're going on to New Zealand, where Matt will be studying for a semester at a college near Christchurch.

CORAL COAST, FIJI

Chris has been sick as a (very sick) dog for the past three days; some sort of intestinal illness, probably from drinking the local water. He hasn't been able to eat or drink anything during this time, which is (understandably) making him fairly miserable. So far I've been spared, thank god. My goal is to at least make it to India before getting violently ill, but we'll see how that goes....

This morning we took a taxi into Nadi (the local buses don't run on Sunday), then caught an express bus along the Coral Coast toward Suva. Unlike the local buses, which are basically no-frills school buses, this was a really nice coach with carpeting, A/C, and an entertainment system. In fact, they were playing the DVD of Peter Jackson's King Kong, which was interesting, considering it hasn't been released on DVD yet. :-) It was kind of a surreal experience watching the palm trees fly by outside while listening to the movie sountrack, which consists mostly of Naomi Watts screaming.

After a couple of hours, we reached the Beachhouse, a backpacker resort about halfway between Nadi and Suva. (It's only a few miles down the road from the Warwick resort, where I stayed several years ago on a trip with my mom.) It's a nice place, with a restaurant, a private beach, and a number of bungalows in a tropical garden setting. It's a lot more lush here than in the Yasawas, and there are cool red-and-green parrots and big fruit bats in the trees.

NADI, FIJI

Well, we're back on the mainland of Viti Levu. Not quite civilization, but it will have to do for now. This afternoon, just as the weather was finally clearing, Chris and I took the big yellow boat back to Denarau, and checked in to the Beach Escape Villas for a night before we head to the Coral Coast tomorrow. The big news here: Today, in sudden-death overtime against South Africa, Fiji won the Wellington Sevens, making them the world rugby champions! This has made the already-cheery Fijians even happier than usual--except for our taxi driver today, who made the mistake of betting against Fiji. I watched the game on TV--it was actually pretty exciting, although I have to admit that half the time I had no idea what was going on.

WAYA, YASAWA ISLANDS, FIJI

Now they tell us the cyclone (it has a name now: Jim) is moving south and dissipating, but we're still feeling it's effects. The rain has let up some, but it's still pretty blustery. This morning it was decent enough, though, for us to tour the neighboring village of Nalauwaki, where most of the staff of Octopus live. It's about a 15-minute climb to the east side of the island, over a steep hill, past a cemetery, some pig pens, and a forest of boulders. The villagers live pretty simply, although they have satellite TV, which I thought was kind of funny. It's all about the rugby, apparently. We walked through their community center, where women were weaving pandanus mats, and their church (Methodist, like most of Fiji). On the grass outside, some women were selling handicrafts--shells, jewelry, fans, etc.--and I bought a necklace for F$10, to support the village economy more than anything else.

Afterward, Chris, Doug, and I went snorkeling near the village. The surf was less intense on this side of the island, although the storm has still made the visibility here pretty awful. We didn't see too many fish, although a six-inch remora (sharksucker) attached itself to me and hitched a ride for the entire time I was in the water. They're a very cool-looking fish, and despite their name, they don't really suck onto you, they just have a flat disc on the top of their head that lightly sticks to your skin. Mainly, it just tickles. This one started pissing me off, though, when it mistook a mole on my chest for a piece of food, and kept biting it. Remoras make me a little nervous, too, because I always wonder if they just hopped off a big shark or something.

WAYA, YASAWA ISLANDS, FIJI

At times the beaches here are overrun by small armies of land hermit crabs. We put them to use last night when the resort held its weekly International Crab Race. (Actually, I think the crabs were all local, but that's what they call it.) My entry, #12, was speedy enough to place in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, but in the last race just missed finishing in the winner's circle.

Okay, give me a break here. It's raining, and there's nothing to do.