Plantation Island

Enjoying the first night with a Fijian sunset and a cocktail.
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We packed up all of our stuff in Whangarei, and after a number of going away parties, drove ourselves and our 6 suitcases to Auckland.  Before heading to Australia, we thought it'd be nice to have a vacation in the south pacific, so we were off to Fiji.  Our friend, Ashok, from San Diego met us in Fiji and travelled with us for a few weeks through Fiji, Auckland, Melbourne and Hobart.

Fiji was amazing!  The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.  We decided to stay at Plantation Island Resort since it was family-friendly.  We don't really consider ourselves resort-type travellers, and even though we missed out on a lot of actual Fijian culture, it was a great vacation nonetheless.  We spent every day playing in the water, which Avani loved.  The ocean was crystal clear and warm and about 20 feet from our bure.  And the snorkelling and diving was just unbelievable.  There were more beautiful jewel-toned fish than you could shake a stick at.  Some of the amazing creatures we saw were: giant clams, bright blue starfish, fantastic soft and hard corals, eels, spotted rays, octopus, deadly stonefish, and a white tip reef shark!  I wish we had been able to take pictures.

The ocean was crystal clear and warm and about 20 feet from our bure.

Avani loves the warm, crystal-blue ocean water with the white-sand beaches.
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Avani turned 3 in Fiji and had a second celebration.  We ordered a cake and all of the staff brought it over to her after dinner, singing a special Fijian birthday song.  There was so much clapping and singing and attention from everyone that she was grinning from ear to ear, and when it was over she kept saying, "What happened?  What was THAT?!"

It was great having Ashok join us too.  He tried snorkelling for the first time there and, besides a couple of panic attacks, really enjoyed himself!  We had so much fun with him and Avani loved having her old playmate around again.