Carolina Kiwis: Life On Fiji Time

Saturday

We slept in this morning, since we had nowhere to be. We intended to spend the last day of our Spring Break the same way as the first: vegetating by the pool in the warm Fiji sunshine. While we were finishing our breakfast, Ro began policing the kids around the pool, telling them not to walk across the narrow partition between two pools because they could fall into the deep one and drown. He fancies himself quite the little safety expert since his accidental soaking a few days ago.

Ro went to the kids club after breakfast, so we had the morning to ourselves. Sherry did a little last-minute shopping, picking up some decorative shell bowls for serving dips and hors d'oeuvres, and some salt-and-pepper shakers made out of cinnamon bark. Mark bought some stamps from the front desk and began writing postcards by the pool, zoning out with his iPod while Sherry sunbathed and read her latest James Patterson novel. She finally finished it, and was irate at the disappointing ending.

Q: Coffee and shopping. What could be better?

A: Free fruit skewers passed out poolside

The kids club didn't feed Ro this morning, so he was in an ill mood when we picked him up, not even wanting to get in the pool. Sherry fixed that with a quick stop at the hotel deli, picking up stuff for lunch and a donut to tide Ro over. As soon as the sugar rush hit him, he was a new kid, repeatedly running and jumping into the pool like it was going out of style. Every so often, he would come over to the chaise lounge for another bite of donut; Mark had to keep cautioning him to finish chewing before jumping back in.

Like a lion tearing into a gazelle

Superboy takes flight

Skydivers landing behind us on the beach

Sherry brought the pastrami and cheese on ciabatta sandwiches she had made (sans pastrami for her and Ro) to the pool. Mark thought the pastrami looked a little dodgy, with that rainbow sheen to it, but it smelled fine and Sherry just attributed it to the oil the meat was packed in. Shortly after eating lunch, though, Mark began to feel decidedly unwell. It could certainly have been the pastrami, or any number of things he ate yesterday, but whoever Fiji's equivalent to Montezuma may be, he decided to take his revenge.

Ignoring his own advice from this morning

Beach cricket looked fun, but Ro wasn't interested

Mark felt better after a little while, and brought the last of our Sapphire and tonics (we'd bought more tonic) poolside, which we drank as we talked with Dennis and Kate, a couple from Melbourne. They and their daughters were caught in the tsunami warning just as we were, but their experience was a lot more frustrating. The Captain Cook Cruises boat they were on actually dumped them back at deserted Port Denarau while the warning was still in effect. Their group was taken into a large single-story tin shack at the port and told to wait out the warning. Not exactly the safest place to be in a tsunami, so they and part of their group decided to hoof it until they found a taxi. Eventually they hailed a cab and packed in (they were 11 people); the driver took them up into the hills above Nadi to one of his relative's houses. With them was a young girl who'd been separated from her family in the confusion. Needless to say, they weren't too happy with Captain Cook Cruises.

Laughing with Dennis & Kate

Ro found some new playmates in Paget (?sp) (7) and her brother Bo (9), and Mark got to talking with their mom Bridgette. They're from Wellington, but spent a few years in Manhattan where the kids were born, hence why Asian kids had American names. The pool they were in was over Ro's head, but he didn't care at this point. Paget would challenge him to dive to the bottom of the pool to pick toys off the bottom and he would. Granted, she could pick up 3 or 4 with one breath while Ro was doing his darnedest to get just one, but it was a major milestone for him. All it took was a little peer pressure from the right two X chromosomes. The ability to swim in a pool over his head meant he could swim in our big pool at home instead of constantly splashing us while we're in the spa tub. Yay!

Ro finds a new object of his affection

Ready, steady, go!

The rest of the afternoon saw Ro make exponential gains in his swimming ability. He would jump into a pool over his head, swim about 20 feet to Sherry, catch his breath, then swim back. Paget and Bo even got him doing running front-flips into the pool. Just to be sure of our progress, Mark took him to the really deep pool he nearly drowned in and plopped him in. Ro bobbed to the surface, swam to the side, then just to show off he swam across the pool and back again at least 3 or 4 times. He even faked falling in like he had previously, pretended to sink, then came up laughing. Mark asked him why he couldn't do that 3 days ago, and Ro replied, "I just didn't think to do it."

After rinsing off back in the room, we headed for Maravu, the other restaurant at our resort. Dennis and Kate soon joined us at the noodle bar's outdoor tables; we all agreed this was the better of the two restaurants (as opposed to Nuku), both in value and for the fact that it sits right down on the beach so it's great for kids. Sherry had the Wok Tofu, Mark the Pad Thai, and Ro the kids beef skewers, which he barely touched. In fact, it was all we could do to get him to shovel a few spoonfuls of rice into his mouth; the sand was too big a draw. Bo and Paget were there, as well as D&K's daughters Jessica (8) and Elischia (5). All five kids set about building some sort of creature on the beach out of "borrowed" landscaping rocks, then discovered that burying Ro in the sand was even more fun.

Ro up to his neck in it

It was getting late, and we were futilely trying to talk the kids into leaving when it started to rain as if on cue. We sheltered in the hotel lobby a short distance away and called for a golf cart to take us all back to our rooms. We exchanged contact info with Dennis and Kate, hoping to catch up with them next month when we're in Melbourne. In our room was our usual pillow mints from the turndown service, but the hotel also gave us a souvenir kava bowl. Glad we hadn't already bought one! Ro fell asleep watching Cartoon Network as we finished addressing our postcards and sipped champagne on our patio, listening to the gentle rain hitting the palm trees. Truly a holiday well spent.

http://www.fijibeachresortbyhilton.com/