From Brisbane to Byron

A taste of Fiji...

Our beachside bure... this view is from the rear. Behind the bamboo fencing is the outdoor shower. The resort is only 2 years old and just won an a

Kids on their way to school.

The first night we were there... this was our welcome.

It seemed like every where you looked was picturesque.

My saviour: the Fijian gecko. These creatures can be seen at night, hunting mosquitos. Go Gecko Go!!!!

Valentine's Day dinner on the beach.

Conrad's horse was not very cooperative during the beach walk. We each had someone leading the horse. The little boys pictured with us were our guides. There was also the older brother of one of them. He is the one seen leading in the picture of the horse refusing to go.

This is the village at the base of the waterfall hike. I liked their system of hanging the clothes in ascending order according to size... very organized!

The waterfall was more like 60 ft high... impressive either way. The water was cool and fresh. Kind of like the Nanaimo River after a really hot summer... a little taste of home, half way across the world.

These are some of the children that lived in the village. We saw them playing and/or bathing in the water on our way down. They were the cutest little things and were sure to yell, 'bula! bula! bula!' as we all passed by.

This was a performance on our last night at the resort. It was a traditional Meka dance. There were people of all ages in this group. They sang and danced in incredibly colorful outfits.... half was made from real plants and flowers which was pretty neat.

Its funny... when you ask someone to take a picture for you they literally take a picture of just you. That's okay... but I wish they got a little more of the group in the photo.

This is a couple of British travellers, Keira (aka Kiwi) and Mark. They were really friendly and had lots of advice to give about travelling through Oz. This was taken on our last night there. The resort held a bit of a limbo contest. Kiwi and I were the finalists, but as you can see by the last photo its pretty clear who won... my back still hurts.

This was taken on the night when we danced our hearts out! We played Flip Cup; we limboed; we had a few refreshments. Oh ya, this was also the night that we had a 4am wake up call to catch our flight out of Fiji. All I can say is the bumpy, 2 hour drive to the airport was almost interrupted by an emergency pull over. We both were troopers and hung over... oops, I mean... hung in there! Thank goodness for 4 hour flights to Oz... we both slept like babies.

We stayed in Brisbane last night at a backpackers hostel... the Palace. We've locked down a place to stay in Byron Bay from the 20th (my Nanny's birthday!) Its a fully functional studio-type apartment. We will be staying in Byron for a couple of weeks. Now, we have a couple of days to check out the city of Brisbane. We bought a cell phone today... the number is 04 4778 6485. I'm not sure what Australia's country code is.... sorry guys, we won't be using the phone for international calls. It would be way too expensive but it will be on in case of an emergency and you need to contact us sooner than email. Regardless, we do have a camera on our phone and have already enjoyed this little feature. Hope you enjoy them too!... sorry, computer won't let me upload the pictures off the phone.

Side note: Conrad has read the blog since I've posted the other comments and he wanted me to point out that he DID pack overnight things in his carry-on and I didn't... even though he told me I should. I didn't listen.... just to be clear.