Risky Business: Rakiraki Day 1

We flew an Air Pacific flight to Nadi, Fiji, and it was quite a good flight. The food was legitimately excellent (Indian curry, mmm), and they showed an acceptable movie (License to Wed). Plus, I had a nap. You can’t really ask for more. We landed on time and got our bags and a rental car with no problem. The second we got outside, we knew we were in a different land. The humidity here is unimaginable. You can see immediately why the pace of life is so much slower than it is in the US. East Coast speeds would obliterate the society.

We embarked on a long drive along the north shore of Viti Levu toward the town of Rakiraki, where we were scheduled to dive the next day. To say this drive was harrowing is putting it mildly. First, it was after dark, which is never optimal. Second, it was raining, and the defogger in the car was not working, so there you go. And worst of all, there are few to no street signs in Fiji, and a lot of the place names were spelled differently on our map than on the few signs that were there. The places that were marked as towns on the map were often nothing more than a few one-story shacks clustered together. We could see inside these houses, and there was no furniture; people just sit on the floor and watch TV. There were a lot of people out walking barefoot on the highway, and there were animals along the road too, everything from dogs and cats to cows and goats, just ambling along the road. Gretchen did all of the driving on these winding dark roads, and I was so impressed with her. She was a total pro.

I have a good sense of direction, but that only takes you so far.

We made it to Rakiraki in 2 hours, right on schedule, but then we had trouble locating our hotel. When I made the reservation, they called it “Rakiraki Hotel,” but the sign outside the actual place reads “Tanoa Rakiraki,” which we found out after a 45-minute detour to the one resort we could see with lights on. In the end, we made it to the hotel and checked in with no problem – straight to bed, of course. The people have been friendly from the second we arrived, but I am unimpressed so far with Fiji. It is just too hard to get around, and things are not well marked. I have a good sense of direction, but that only takes you so far. I hope things improve in the morning.