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Fiji

Rambling

It’s been a long time since I attempted to compose an entire story with something as primitive as pen and paper. Letters, sure, but an entire story? I’m having flashbacks to a little piece of prose I tried to compose in middle school in my very best script handwriting (which was always too sharp and pointy and lacked the right curves in my opinion). It was a “short” story about a girl who played the cello on the Titanic, and went on for page after page because the story just kept coming to me all at once as I wrote.

Fiji

Scuba Diving, Top Wildlife Experiences

My favorite dive site around the Mana Island area of Fiji is a spot called Gotham City. On a tame day, it is teaming with ocean life. On the best of days, it’s a journey into another world, where you would think a rainbow exploded underwater there is so much color. The schools of fish are so thick that at times, you almost wish you could part the curtain to see what’s behind. Gotham City is comprised of two pinnacles, with a channel between. The site is a 45 minute boat ride away, and out in the middle of nowhere, with

Fiji

Misadventures

2017 turned out to be the year of repeats. Our second year in Fiji, our second year going to Tokoriki for our anniversary, our second year going to Beachcomber for New Years, and our second year getting an iPhone stolen. We looked into doing something different for New Year’s Eve, but if you want to party in this corner of the world, then Beachcomber Island is the closest thing to it. There is a new day club not too far away, and we looked into that, but it is only a day club, and does not offer overnight accommodation. Beachcomber

Fiji

Belated Updates, Romantic, Sharks, Top Wildlife Experiences

November The time really does fly here. Before I knew it, Fiji was kicking me out of the country again. I’d known for the past year that my oldest and closest cousin was getting married at the end of November. Unfortunately my visa was up at the beginning of the month, and there’s no way for the dive shop to operate with only two people for an entire month, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to make the wedding. Fletch worked his magic though, and arranged for a previous instructor who used to work here

Fiji

Belated Updates, Scuba Diving

September  I was teaching an open water course, the entry level certification that will allow you to dive to 18 meters anywhere in the world. I misjudged the amount of air it would take to return to the mooring line at West Wing with my one student, and so we reached our ascent point with way more air to spare than was necessary. Luckily, a flash of color caught my eye at a nearby bommie, so I led the new diver over to investigate. Our approach scared an octopus down into his hiding spot in the coral. I already knew he

Fiji

Belated Updates, Misadventures, Party All Night, Scuba Diving

August Our coworker had a friend come stay with us for a month to do his divemaster training. Becoming a divemaster is the first step towards professional training in the dive world. A proper internship usually takes around a month, where you do all your training, whilst learning how to work in the setting of a dive shop. Fletch and I both did the same internship in Honduras, just a year apart. That is how we met. That is what started this blog. That is what turned my life into this awesome adventure, that one divemaster internship in Roatan. Having had

Fiji

Belated Updates, Freediving, Other Water Activities

March  Fletch and I have found ourselves a wonderful little island paradise: Mana Island, Fiji. Mana is Fijian for “magic,” and it is indeed magic; it never rains here. The island is a long, narrow stretch of sand, with a ridge of hills down the middle to protect us from whatever storms might try to approach from the north. Our south side is protected by a gorgeous reef that is home to not even half of the dive sites we frequent. There are no roads here, and thus no need for transportation. There really isn’t even any need for shoes.

Fiji

Sharks, Video

My first instinct is to write a dozen excuses for why I haven't written in so long, but I'm going to skip all that. No one likes excuses. There is a real post with stories and everything on its way, and here is a little video I put together to tide you over in the meantime. I've been taking photos for most of my diving career. In the beginning they were all just blurry and blue and might as well have been taken by a toddler. I have hard drives full of these blurry blue photos, just taking up space, never

Fiji

Conservation, Freediving

In Roatan we used to spear lionfish. Half of you are probably reading that sentence again, wondering why someone who loves the ocean as much as I do would ever spear something as beautiful as a lionfish. The first time I ever posted a picture of a lionfish at the end of my spear on social media, I received a slew of concerted comments asking why I was killing Nemo. The other half of you may already know that lionfish are invasive in the Caribbean, and are destroying the reefs there. Lionfish don’t belong in the Caribbean, but were introduced

Fiji

Crazy Cat Lady

Warning: this post contains a plethora of cute kitten pictures. It was July 1, and Fletch and I were headed to our first rugby match. Two big teams from New Zealand were in Fiji, and so we were headed down to Suva to watch the game with the resort owner and all of his buddies, at least a dozen of them, all flown in from New Zealand. We were in the resort lobby, hiding from the onslaught of rain. It always rained in that corner of Fiji. Suddenly we saw a little kitten darting under one of the dining tables. So we

Fiji

Party All Night

A great deal of thought and planning went into this year’s New Year’s Eve celebration. Fletch and I were at home in our tiny, mustard-walled, one-room apartment playing with Ratu Kitty Cooper (our kitty that I now realize I have failed to welcome into our lives with a proper blog post. That will come shortly). Fletch asked, "So what are we doing for New Year’s this year?" I thought about it for a good 60 seconds. These things are very important decisions. Kitty rolled over and stretched. “Beachcomber?” I asked after a minute. Beachcomber Island is another island in the

Fiji

Paradise Island, Romantic

My lovely, wonderful man outdid himself again for our three year anniversary. I told him that at this rate we’d better be riding dolphins off into the sunset next year, whilst being serenaded by mermaids. The only downfall so far with our job, is that we are two out of only three divers running the shop. So it is a little bit tricky for both of us to take time off at once. Fletch magically arranged the time off for us though, and the day before our anniversary, one of our boat captains drove us north about 45 minutes to another

Fiji

Rambling

I’ve become incredibly lazy. I wrote about a dozen different excuses for why I have written a total of two posts in the past four months (five now that I’m finishing this). Including, I don’t use my computer anymore and blogger doesn’t work on iPad, yet. (Seriously, what’s up with that?) I’ve been too busy with work. (As if). I felt guilty that I communicate more on here than I do out loud. (I’m really a very quiet person in real life if you can believe it). I’ve been suffering writer’s block. (Probably as a result of too many sandwiches

Fiji

Scuba Diving, Sharks, Top Wildlife Experiences

I estimate that I’ve been to around 130 dives sites in my life. That might not sounds like very many for as much diving as I do, but when you commit to living in one place for so many months, you really just visit the same few dive sites repeatedly. That has allowed me to get to know maybe half of those 130 dive site very intimately. Different dive sites have always been special for different reasons. Some have beautiful topography, some have water so crystal clear you would think you were in an aquarium, some have fun swim throughs,

Fiji

Rambling

I'm usually a very sound sleeper. Nothing wakes me up. Nothing. Last night though, I felt the grunge every time I rolled over, the grunge from not having showered in three days and from sleeping on sheets that hadn't been washed in a month at least. I'm not a dirty person. My living conditions have just gotten a little too 'third world' for even my comfort level. In February, Fletch and I accepted a job running a little dive shop at a very secluded resort. We knew the pay wasn't great, but we were in it for the resume builder. 'Dive

Fiji

Scuba Diving, Travelogue, Underwater Photography

Continued from Taveuni - Fiji’s Garden Island Sunday, Valentine’s Day I slept like a rock and then woke up to a big, cuddly Fletch wishing me a happy Valentine’s Day. What better way to celebrate than to go out diving? Fletch, Aaron, Mikaila, and myself started the day out with breakfast, an amazing omelette stuffed full of wonderful, fresh veggies. Not to sound like one of those new-age, hippie weirdos, but as my yoga teacher would have said, it was just bursting with prana. (Prana being the sanskrit word for 'life force', or 'energy'). A side of toast with homemade passionfruit

Fiji

Other Water Activities, Travelogue

Friday When Fletch and I first came to Fiji, we traveled around for a month as tourists. One of the islands we visited with our friends, Aaron and Mikaila, was Taveuni. From the resort where Aaron and Mikaila were working on the Coral Coast, which is on the big island, Viti Levu, we arranged a rental car and drove the two hours to Suva where the ferry left from. Since the ferry could accommodate vehicles, we decided to pack up the trunk full of dive gear rather than trying to fly and worrying about weight restrictions, giving the gear time

Fiji

Romantic

Sunday was my birthday and Fletch, the wonderful man that he is, surprised me on Friday evening by telling me that he had arranged for our work to be covered until Monday afternoon. We would be going to Suva for the weekend. Suva is the capital of Fiji, and the biggest city in the South Pacific. We take the two-hour bus ride there every second or third Saturday afternoon to do some grocery shopping and see the movies. It is so nice to have a movie theater here. Fletch and I both love going to the movies and the last few

Fiji

Misadventures

This is a tale of two missing iPhones. And a dead dog. You’ve been warned. Fletch and I are working at a dive shop based out of a secluded, little resort on Viti Levu in Fiji (that’s the main island). The resort is 4 kilometers (that’s 2.5 miles for you Americans) down a windy, hilly, dirt road from the main road. There is one main road that runs around the entirety of Viti Levu and busses that run constantly in either direction (I’ve estimated that it would probably take around eight hours to drive the entire loop). The bus system here

Fiji

Activities for Your Bucket List, Scuba Diving, Sharks, Top Wildlife Experiences

Anyone who has followed me over the years knows by now that I have a passion for sharks. My shark spiels to my students at times sound a bit like Hagrid going on about hippogriffs or dragons being seriously misunderstood creatures. They are in a certain respect. Our fear stems from the unknown mixed with information we glean from pop culture. The author of the novel upon which Jaws was based, came out years later with a statement regretting that he ever wrote the story upon which so many of our fears are based. The story was purely fiction. Now

Fiji

Other Water Activities, Travelogue

Friday Fletch and I woke up on our Korean Air flight a couple hours before landing in Nadi Fiji, just in time for the processed egg breakfast to be served. Why do they always insist on serving processed eggs before landing? Nothing says welcome to a new country like egg-flavored, moist styrofoam. We landed next to the ocean in a scene of lush rolling green hills. A few hours ago it had been winter. Then we crossed the equator while flying and landed in summertime once more. As I become more and more acclimated to living in the tropics, my idea of

Fiji

Misadventures

This is a continuation of The Eye of Tropical Cyclone Winston. Sunday, 21 February, 2016 Volivoli Beach Resort, Rakiraki, Fiji 2:10 AM Since I’m awake, I hope desperately that it is almost daylight. I look at my watch and it’s not even close. I try to fall back asleep and can’t. After a while I realize a trip to the bathroom is in order but I really don’t want to put my finally dry feet down into the swimming pool that our floor currently is. It’s a dilemma for a while until using the bathroom finally wins. While I’m in there I somehow manage

Fiji

Misadventures

Saturday, 20 February, 2016 Rakiraki, Fiji 6:30 AM The alarm goes off half an hour earlier than yesterday. Yesterday some of us laid in bed until the last possible minute and then realized that four of us are sharing a bathroom. That didn’t work out so well and the dive shop called us to see where we were before we were even late. So this morning we are determined to be early. We are so determined that no one is moving yet. My brain in moving. My body is not responding. 8:15 AM Fletch, Mikaila, Aaron, and myself are power walking the sandy, scenic path