Isa Lei

Thought I'd better finish off my account of this trip before everyone died of old age. Although Charles Dickens published his novels in serial format, I should probably not flatter myself that my holiday snaps are on a par with 'Nicholas Nickleby' or something. Sunday was our last day on the island and after a final tasty lunch (kokoda and cassava fries for me - yum!), we hopped back on the boat back to head back to the mainland. As each group left, a group of villagers sung 'Isa Lei' to the departing guests. For some reason - maybe because it was Sunday - there was no singing, although a group of villagers came down to the beach and sat by the shore until the boat had left. It was time for some last views of the island and environs, as we headed back past the Mamunuca islands to Vuda Point en route to Nadi.

Back in Nadi, we headed into town for our last night in Fiji. After the biggest pizza in the world at Mama's Pizza, we checked out a Bollywood film 'Hey Baby', loosely based on 'Three Men and a Baby'. If you ever get a chance, you should definitely catch this slice of cinematic weirdness. Trust me when I say the spontaneous singing and dancing was the least strange thing about it. We couldn't fail to leave with the message of the film impressed upon us: 'A child needs a mother most of all, but a child needs a father too'. Especially as they said it about twenty times like a chorus.

And so to our last morning. We didn't have time to do much except head out to the airport, where I snapped this pic of the curious public phones. Duty-free in Fiji is amazing! It's so cheap compared to NZ that I went a little bit crazy... But anyway, thus concludes our travels in the Friendly Isles. Despite the political situation, which seems to be much more complicated than the NZ media ad politicians will allow for, it's a great place to visit. Bula!