Yesterday we had intended to spend a good part of the day at the only wireless internet cafe in all of Fiji and update the website, get caught up on emails, banking, etc. but the service was down and they don't know when it will be up again. This is Fiji, it may not be up for a while, so we will wait until New Zealand to get these entries posted. Oh well...

Last night our host, Melanie, was having a 'small' party here at her house for a few people at the University. It was a combination of staff from the Media Center, the Arts Department and the Cultural Center. A mixed group of dancers, singers, and production people to view Patrick Swazy's new movie 'One Last Dance'.

The small party turned into quite a large bash with at least 30 people here eating, drinking, talking and some even watching the video. Melanie placced what we thought was a huge order for Chinese food at a local restaurant and Val & I took a cab to pick it up. Within about 10 minutes of our return, every bit of food was gone, so one of the guests, Sekope, went through Melanies refrigerator and cabinets and whipped up some more food for everyone. It was amazing to watch this. Turns out he's sort of a part time chef. Everyone finally ate themselves full and the partying continued.

The twist of fate, or roles in this case, was Val and I. In Fiji, we have always been treated wonderfully as special guests by everyone we've met. Even people who don't know us always treated us as though we were special guests visiting their village, town or country. Tonight, we helped Melanie set up the house and kept everyone full of drinks and food. We finally got to turn the table and treat the locals as guests in their own country. Trust me, it was great fun to watch the reactions we would get as we got drinks for them and took away dishes from the table.

Tomorrow early AM we catch a bus to Nadi and Thursday we head out to New Zealand to pick up our Campervan/Home for the next 9 weeks. Since today is our last day in Suva, we will have some running around to do, provided the weather doesn't get too ugly. It rains here - a lot. Coming from Oregon, if we think it rains here a lot, that might give you an idea of the amount they get. There is some form of precipitation almost every day. Sometimes it waits until the afternoon, sometimes it's the morning, often it's the middle of the night, but it's pretty much every day.

We received two emails yesterday from friends that are going to be joining us there. Marc, our friend we met in the Cook Islands will be arriving around the 15th of December and he and I will try to do some diving up north on the North Island. The Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior is one of the dives I plan to do, along with some diving at Poor Knights Islands. The other person joining us is from the US. Our friend Scott Fox has changed his plans and is coming early. We will pick him up in Auckland right after Christmas and will get to spend New Year's Eve with him. This makes 5 or 6 years now that we have done this. It's becoming somewhat of a tradition! After New Year's, which we plan to spend in Wellington, we are heading to the South Island for some sea kayaking in the Abel Tasman and some wine tasting along the east coast. Should be fun!

Tomorrow in Nadi, we'll write up final thoughts on Fiji.

Until then, vinaka moce! (Fijian for 'thanks and good-by')

Eric