With today being my last day in NZ before my flight, I was up early for no reason, probably due to flight nerves. I wasn't actually entirely sure what time my flight was until late last night as the airports website was slightly confusing to navigate and I saw a flight to Nadi at 11.45am although I eventually realised this was an arrival and my flight in fact departed at 1pm which is what I thought. I guess I just had that in my mind, so to kill time I headed down to countdown to spend my last few coins I had in my wallet for breakfast before heading back to the hostel.
It was frustrating when returning to the hostel however because my key card didn't work to my room, which is annoying after you've climbed several flights of stairs to get there. I eventually sorted out the problem and collected my stuff, leaving behind a half empty bottle of cooking oil and all my water bottles to prevent problems at the airport. After leaving the hostel I waited at the nearby airport shuttle bus stop, although soon after arriving a taxi turned up and offered a lift for the same price which I accepted.
The journey seemed to take forever, forgetting just how far out of town the airport was. I would have probably been better off on the bus as they get bus lane priority although I was ridiculously early anyway so it didn't matter. Being at the airport about 4 hours before departure meant I had around an hour to kill before check in began 3 hours prior to the scheduled departure. About a minute of that time was killed weighing my bag which now weighs 12kg, which I am sure is close to 3kg heavier than I started with. I have no worries exceeding the baggage limit yet however with the limit generally being around 23kg!
With little else to do other than spend money in the international terminal area, I sat in the arrivals area. If Heathrow is anything like this arrivals area then there is no hiding as there was one set of opening doors blackened out, raised one step high with a few rows of seats for people waiting! One of the benefits of the airport however was the complimentary 30 minutes of free WiFi which nicely took me through to check in for my flight to Nadi.
After checking in, I eased my way through security which happened to give people with British passports priority access. There was none of the bio security stuff I had to battle through coming into the country. When getting through to the main airport area, I bypassed the shopping area and checked out the viewing deck where you watch the planes take off. Heading back down after a short while I looked round all the duty free shopping areas, perhaps the highlight being getting to spin a wheel to win a discount voucher. I still had a while to wait for my flight to start boarding, although after finishing my look round the shops I settled down in this bar area and watched the full match replay of the Man Utd game which passed the time nicely.
About an hour before departure I was called down for boarding, however there was a delay in the flight arriving into Auckland which meant boarding was delayed until they had sorted out the plane. It wasn't until around about 15 minutes before the original departure when I managed to finally board, with children and Fijians getting priority boarding. When finally settling down on my Fiji Airways flight on a plane with 2 aisles, 8 seats wide, we didn't depart until at least half an hour late.
With the plane journey being less than 3 hours, I decided to spend the flight watching a film, watching a film about this guy who donated lots of sperm for money then found out he had 533 kids. It was a pretty decent film actually, and during the film got supplied an unexpected lunch which was a tuna roll with scotch fingers and coleslaw, taking a fanta for on the side. I spent the remainder of the flight watching the flight show which is always interesting seeing a birds eye view of the planes journey and the related stats.
In the end we landed at around half 4 and after easing through security, and barely even getting searched in the bio security screening, headed to the Feejee Experience office just to make sure everything was ok. It was all good in the end although the woman did confuse things a little. I had originally planned to start on the 28th April which would have given me two free days at the end, although due to a few misunderstandings I am now starting on the 30th April which gives me no flexibility whatsoever and little space for mishaps otherwise I will get stranded in Fiji!
By the time I had finished in the office it was getting dark, although I got an unexpected transfer to the hostel which was just a well because it was a good ten minute drive! When arriving at Horizon backpackers where I am staying for three nights now, I couldn't resist but have the island curry buffet. I was going to say just last week I was craving a good curry, and with Fijis strong Indian heritage, it was the business! With it being dark outside I stuffed the exploring for tomorrow, instead staying in and having an early night.
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