Bull-Sh*** (shark that is)

(written by Megan)

3:30 am is super early, especially when you woke up at 3:30 am the day before, and went to bed at 1 am (thank you Fiji water and TD – look it up if you don’t understand the reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveler's_diarrhea). Luckily I don’t need a ton of sleep to function and Warren got enough sleep to be ok with driving. We rented a car for the day to allow us to drive south to Pacific Ocean which is about a 3 hour drive from our resort. We had an 8 am dive scheduled with Aquatrek – the pioneers of shark diving in Fiji.

That’s right – shark dive. Of course, this is the thing we “couldn’t miss” in Warren’s mind. I was happy with the white tipped reef sharks that we had seen the day before. However, this is what he wanted to do so I was in. We got there, found the shop after driving in a circle for 30 minutes, asking 4 different people who gave us 4 really bad directions, and ended up finding the place 10 feet from where we were driving. Thing to remember if you ever go to Fiji – they are really bad at describing directions and there are no signs to anything. However, in this case there was a sign but it was pointing in the wrong direction. But, we made it. We got our gear and we were off.

Since we are only open water certified we are technically allowed to go to 60 foot depth. When we signed our liability waver we agreed that we were certified to go to the 100 ft depth that is included in the first dive. That was a lie. I was already nervous about diving with sharks and now I got even more nervous because we were lying about our qualifications. Messing around with a sport you can die doing is no joke but I was hoping that we’d be fine and went with it. I figured I seriously couldn’t be the first diver to do that and the company has a 100 percent safety record – it had to be ok. (Warren: I was too tired to realize that we weren't certified for deeper than 60 ft)

We hopped into the boat and off we went to the dive spot. We geared up and jumped in. It actually was pretty painful because some of the people on our dive were close to retarded. It made me feel better about my chance of survival – if they were going to make it back up to the boat then I defiantly would. I’m sure sharks have a sense of the pecking order as well – surely they’d go for the annoying woman who was in everyone’s way and took a year to do anything before a normal person like me, right?

We descended down a rope to the bottom where they had a line set up. We were over weighted so we basically dropped like a rock to the bottom and held onto the line. It was not so much a dive and more of an observation under water since we didn’t really swim anywhere. I had brought my digital camera but quickly handed it to Warren once I realized something was wrong with my regulator as it was leaking water into my mouth. I started having a panic attack (big fish that could eat me, too deep of a dive, water leaking into the device that is my only life line to the precious air) but was able to get myself calmed down and started enjoying the dive after I realize there were tons of fish swimming us around us including massive sharks. The reg was leaking a little with each breath but it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t breath and I kept reminding myself that I had a back up if I needed it.

We stayed on the bottom watching the sharks for about 25 minutes before slowly ascending and surfacing. We stayed on the surface for about an hour or so before going on our second dive which was to about 60 ft. The whole time we were on the surface they were chumming the water to attract sharks. When we got down to the second spot there were hundreds of fish, some were 6 ft tall and a few meters long, and probably 30 sharks of about 8 different species. The bull sharks were the largest; some were 3-5 meters long and swam as close as 4 ft from us. They were not interested in people, but gobbled up the fish heads they were feeding them. There were guides behind us with metal rods to discourage curious fish from nuzzling us or defend us from a shark if it got the fish head confused with someone’s hand. Luckily we didn’t interest any of the wildlife and made it to the surface in one piece.

Once we finished up, we went off to our resort which was about 2 hrs back North. Warren had found it since our time share was short one night. When we pulled up, our jaws dropped as it was amazing. When we checked in they handed us juice and hot towels to wipe our hands off with. We sat in couches while we checked in and got all the information we needed. We had a 4 pm massage on the beach, so we had just enough time to get our bags to our room and go off to the cabana our massage was in.


After relaxing with our beach massage we went to change into our swim suits to hang out by the infinity pool and have a drink. We had a private cabana dinner at 8 pm so we waited until the sunset before heading back to our room to get ready.





Our room was unbelievable as well, and it even had a bathtub on the balcony that looked out over the pool. It was what I always envision 5 stars hotels to be like, but they never are. The dinner lived up to our expectations as well. We were in a cute little building that looked out over the beach and the ocean. We had our own serving staff that started our dinner with champagne. The customized menu had 2 appetizers listed, a bread plate, 8 entrees and dessert. We were assuming that we’d pick from the menu, but it ended up that it was prefix and we got EVERYTHING. I was full after the first appetizer and was not sure how’d we ever make it through the meal. On top of being full, exhaustion was creeping up on both of us and we were finally feeling the last 30 days of non stop fun. I ate a bite of everything, but nothing completely. I had no idea how much the dinner cost, but we estimated there was no way we were leaving for less than $1K based on the food we got. Luckily when the bill game it was completely reasonable and made me feel sick about how much food we wasted. Our server was super friendly and we really enjoyed talking to him. He kept telling us how excited he was that we were spending our honeymoon in Fiji and said that if we were staying longer he would show us his village (it was a genuine offer, not just talk). Typically you don’t leave gratuity in Fiji, but he was so good we left a normal US tip. However, he crossed it out when he came to collect the bill saying that we shouldn’t tip him. When we insisted he said the resort doesn’t give them the gratuity anyway, which made me ashamed of them. We snuck off and got cash to give him and caught him before he was done cleaning the table up to ensure that he actually got the money he earned.

We were asleep before hitting the bed and I had a migraine sneak up on me. I told Warren that I had been waiting for that feeling of “I’m ready to be home” and it didn’t come until the last few minutes in Fiji. I felt ok with the trip ending even though I was sad it went by so quickly. It ends up that I think I had gotten a bit of CO2 poisoning from the first dive since my breathing was irregular and had a migraine for 3 days. Warren took good care of me on the way home and even let me get room service on our last night during the layover night in Auckland (we flew home via New Zealand to SFO but spent one night in NZ). The trip home was successful and easy as we had no flight or luggage issues our entire trip.

You’d think we’d need to sleep for 5 days after getting home, but on Sunday night Warren had bought me tickets to see Straight No Chaser (an a capella group that we got into a few years ago but always seem to be away when they tour). Their concert was awesome and my head ache had gone away. It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip.

Up in the Air and Under the Sea

(written by Megan)

We really wanted to go scuba diving since we had heard Fiji had great soft coral dives and luckily we had found a company that does hot air balloon rides and that sounded interesting as well. We convinced the dive trip to wait for us to get back from our balloon ride and we were able to fit both into one day.

We woke up at 3:30 am (yes, that is not a mistype) to get ready to be picked up for our balloon ride at 4:30 am. Once we met up with the crew and pilot they had us pile into a van and follow the balloon truck around as they deployed test balloon (helium balloons with a LCD light that they watch to see air patterns as it floats up into the air) from a couple places to determine our take off point. Since the direction the balloon floats is only controlled by the direction the air is flowing, the pilot has to pick a take off point that will allow us to land in a reasonable location (not the mountains that were to the west or the sea that is in the other directions). Our pilot quickly figured out the best option and had his crew start setting up the balloon.



We’ve all seen hot air balloons in the sky. What I didn’t realize is how massive they are, which we quickly figured out when they stretched it out on a soccer field, and it took up almost the whole thing. Once they got everything attached we piled into the balloon and they started filling it up. Being scared of heights, I was feeling pretty nervous getting into the basket. I was scared that we’d loose control and be blown out to sea and be lost forever or just drop out of the sky. However, once we took off the ride was unbelievably smooth. (Warren : I was surprised by how hot it was. Whenever he shot the fire it was ridiculously hot. The captain was wearing a cowboy hat and after being up in the air for a while I understood why)

Talking to the pilot (who is from a town 1 hr away from where I grew up in Ohio) he was saying that there is no motion in the balloon. He also had amazing control of how high we were – at one point he dropped us down between two hills into a ravine with a river, dropped the balloon so it just kissed the top of the river, and lifted us out of the ravine over the hill on the other side. Once I saw how much control he had and how smooth the trip was, I was feeling much more relaxed and confident.

We floated around and enjoyed the rising sun. People would wave from the ground as we passed over them and livestock were a little unsure what to make of us. After about 30 minutes I heard a commotion from the other side of the basket and realized a girl was freaking out saying “I need to get down now”. The pilot stayed calm and was like “well, that’s a little difficult right now”. It ends up that she partied a little too hard the night before, didn’t get enough sleep, and freaked out from the heat of the flame and height. Once she chucked over the side of the basket she started to feel better and stopped freaking out. The pilot had no pity and didn’t make much effort to accommodate her. He told us that one time he stopped, dropped off a passenger, kicking him off the balloon, and took back off because the passenger did the same thing (partied too hard and started getting sick in the balloon) and was ruining everyone else’s ride. The pilot didn’t kid around.

As far as landing goes, that’s kind of up in the air pending where the wind takes the balloon. There is a balloon caravan of a van and a truck carrying the trailer for the basket that follows us around on the crazy local roads and tries to meet the balloon where ever it lands. The problem in Fiji is that the road infrastructure isn’t as established as a lot of places, and if the caravan is on the wrong side of a river it could take them an hour to drive around to a bridge and get to the other side to meet the balloon. Luckily we were able to land on the same side as the caravan when the pilot finally found a field that didn’t have crops in it. The pilot purposely crashed the balloon basket into a tree to stop our forward momentum and dropped us down in a 10 by 10 grass patch. After loading the basket onto the trailer they drove us (in the basket with the balloon inflated) to a larger field so they could drop the balloon down onto the grass without ruining it. The whole operation was pretty amazing.

We were dropped off, ate a bite of breakfast (included in the balloon ride) and ran off to the dive place. After getting our gear we jumped into a boat and went off to our first dive spot, about 45 minutes off the shore of the main island (45 minutes going 40 knots which is pretty freaking fast). (Warren : We thought this was fast but going back was another story)

We were diving with 2 other people and the master diver. The water was amazing – super warm and the visibility was great. We saw a ton of cool fish and a couple sea turtles. It was about a 45 minute dive after which we hopped back into the boat and moved over to our next dive spot.





During our surface interval we were talking about favorite dive places and sharing dive stories. Our dive instructor didn’t really explain the next dive, other than we’d be down for 35 minutes which seemed short to me. I asked if we could stay down longer if our air was ok, but he said it’s hard to coordinate with the boat if we don’t stick with the time. That didn’t make sense to me but he is the expert so I was like, eh – whatever.


It ends up we were on a drift dive (where you drop down into a current and just float along without having to swim). It was my first drift dive ever and it was amazing. There were so many fish and stuff just flying by. We saw four or five sea turtles, and as we were coming out of the current we found a group of white tipped reef sharks under some coral (my first sharks ever!). I get excited thinking about how AWESOME the dive was. When our dive instructor gave us a thumbs up, telling us it was time to surface, we all got up and everyone was like “THAT WAS AMAZING – MY NEW BEST DIVE EVER”! If you are unsure about diving, once you go on one like that you’re hooked.

Unfortunately we only had 2 dives, so we headed back to our resort for a quick shower. The boat driver was flying on the way back. It took us 35 minutes to get back and we were bouncing like crazy. I think he was up to 50 knots on the return. He had the biggest grin the whole time while he watched all the tourists lurch back and forth. A few days ago, we had met a Australian guy who retired to Fiji and brought the shoe company he owns over to manufacture there and he offered to have us come to the manufacturing location for a tour.

At this company they make UGGs. It ends up that there are hundreds of little mom and pop places in Australia that make sheep skin shoes that are known as Uggs (short for ugly). The company in the US has copyrighted the name, which is considered generic in Australia (think clogs or flip flops) and therefore cause a lot of companies to go out business because they can’t ship to the US or sell on Ebay because the US company is huge and strong arms them with lawsuits, etc. The ironic part of it is the US Uggs are made with lower quality sheep skin and manufactured in China.

They took us around the manufacturing shop, where everything is done by hand. We then picked out our shoes. It ended up that we had to special order my shoes and Warren’s slippers. We also wanted to get my brother’s girlfriend a pair for Christmas. When I was deciding on style and colors I saw they had grey and red died sheep skin. I was like “light bulb”. I then ordered my mom a pair of classic uggs and my brother slippers in red and grey leather, where the different panels are opposite colors, figuring they’d be perfect to wear during an Ohio State game. They would have made them for us while we waited but they had to order grey leather, so guy was nice and guaranteed they’d arrive before we left for Christmas so we’d have our gifts in hand.

We were satisfied with our day, so we went back to our resort, swam in the pool for an hour or so and made dinner. We knew we had to get to bed at a relatively good time since we had another 3:30 am wake up day tomorrow.

A Fresh Perspective

(written by Megan)

Fiji, like many developing countries that have a lot of tourism, has resort areas where the visitors spend most of their time and get little exposure to true living conditions of the locals. Fiji has a whole island that is separated from the main land, Denarau Island, which is essentially resorts, shopping, restaurants, and vacation homes for very rich people. I personally struggle a bit every time I visit a developing country, often because I project my expectations for standard of living and feel sorry for the locals. I feel guilty for indulging in lavish activities and food, shopping for things I do not need but just want, and for the fact that I’ve traveled half way around the world on vacation when most of the locals do not even own a car to travel from one village to the next. I find myself justifying my spending, telling myself that I’m supporting their economy by visiting, eating dinner at the restaurant they work in, or buying their crafts. I hope that by being respectful and not flaunting our relative wealth I am doing the best I can to be a welcomed guest in their country.

On this day we elected to visit a village and see how the majority of Fijians lived and gain a little perspective. We were warned by some locals we spoke with earlier in the week that we should be careful which company we tour with. Many churn visitors through day after day and it becomes a big production and very commercialized (think Hawaiian Luau). Initially we were signed up for that exact type of tour, but we changed our mind as we wanted to see something a little more authentic. The tour we went on bused the 30 visitors 2 hours south to the mouth of a river that goes into the heart of the main island. We then boarded jet boats, similar to the ones they have in New Zealand, that drive up the river to the village being toured that day.

The weather was perfect for our jet boat trip. As we were traveling the guide would occasionally stop the boat and talk to us about the area, point out how high the river gets during flood season, etc. He mentioned a few times that no tourist has ever visited the village we were traveling to, and it was the furthest one up the river the tour group goes to. In my head I was thinking “this guy is full of it, the probably tell every group that comes through that it’s the first visit ever to the village to make it seem more authentic”. I guess I’m a skeptic, or just assume that people are out to rip off tourists. Regardless, I was wrong.

It ends up that this tour contracts with 10-12 villages along the river, rotating the village being visited every couple of weeks. They pay the village a sum to help subsidize the food they serve and time they spend with the tourists. By rotating the villages they keep the tour fresh and prevent it from becoming a washed out routine song-and-dance type village tour and spread the wealth of the tour across several villages to encourage their development. Additionally, it limits the amount of time the villagers spend away from their crops and day jobs so they can continue to support themselves without too much distraction. The village we toured was newly added to their rotation after years of work by the village to try to get the tour to come to them. As it ends up, the village is about 15 minutes further down the river than the others which is what prevented them from being involved previously but due to a few persistent village members, they convinced the tour company to include them.

When the jet boat pulled up to their boat dock area (basically a muddy path leading up a hill) our guide had Warren and I get out first, and after a minute of thought he was like “you are the first tourists to ever step foot in this village”. He had us take a picture to document it with the person who came down to greet us. I felt touched that I was part of such a monumental day for this village.

The women on the tour were given pieces of fabric to wrap around our waists to wears as a skirt. I had read that tourist should dress conservative manner, but I didn’t realize that women had to have ankle length dresses on. Anything shorter, or pants, is unacceptable as all women wear skirts. They had two people who spoke decent English meet us and take groups around the village. The tour group also picked up a man from another village on our way there to help lead the tour and show the new village “how it is done”. Before we could tour their village, we had to make an offering of Kava root to their chief and they conducted a Kava ceremony.

Kava is a root that is harvested, dried, pounded to powder and mixed up with water to create a narcotic drink. Most Fijians drink this instead of alcohol as it still allows for mental clarity (it’s more relaxing than intoxicating) and most villages mix a bowl of kava after a long day of work. It is polite to bring a root of kava as a peace offering, and then for the hosts to prepare a bowl for the Kava ceremony, where the two chiefs take drinks and officially agree to a peaceful visit. The drink doesn’t have much of a taste, looks like muddy water, and makes your lips numb.

During the welcome and Kava ceremony, one of the village leaders spoke to greet the tour group. He explained how excited the village was for us to visit and for them to share their culture with us. It was very emotional, and he even got teary eyed. I felt moved that we were able to be included in such a moment, and humbled by the fact that it meant anything to a complete stranger that I was visiting their home.

After the Kava ceremony, we walked around the village. They have a tobacco like crop that they dry and sell to “the middle man” who takes it to market for the village. They had no electricity, and their only running water was a centralized well in the middle of the village. Most of the houses were more like huts, although the newer areas they have some homes with cinder blocks and more modern materials. After we took a tour of their living areas we went to the community center where they had a meal prepared. We sat on the floor and ate while they sang songs. Locals sat near us and we chatted; the woman by us said that our visit was like Christmas to the village.

After lunch they played music and we danced with everyone for about a half hour. We had a lot of fun and it ended on a really positive note. They walked us back to the boats and wished us farewell before we took off back down the river.

One thing that really struck me as we were in the boats going up and down the river was how friendly everyone was. Anyone we drove by people washing their clothes, taking a bath, fishing, farming, or just sitting, they would wave hello in the most enthusiastic manner. We even saw school children who have to walk across the river to school with their books held above their head to prevent them from getting wet, and when they saw us they jumped up and waved as we passed by. The culture in Fiji is “speaking with the heart” instead of your mouth. Every person we passed would greet us with a “Bula”, but it wasn’t the type of greeting you’d find in most places – the obligatory hello that has more resentment (like…why are you making me greet you) than enthusiasm. The genuine enthusiasm of the Fijian greeting, or how eagerly people waved to us with a full body wave, reaching their hands way over their heads and waving back and forth, was contagious and by the end of the week every person we passed by we yelped “BULA!”. It would put me a great mood. It made me wish we could take a piece of Fiji back to the US and share it with all the people who can hardly look someone else in the eye, let alone say hello, when you pass on the street.

When we were on the all day cruise we had talked to a few people staying in the resort next to ours. They said the restaurants were really good there so we had booked a dinner for this evening. After freshening up, we walked over and they sat us. We had a perfect view of the ocean and setting sun. The food was amazing and beautifully presented. I ordered a crawfish, but it ended up to be lobster. It also ended up that they only had one left and it was humongous! It was a nice dinner to end a good day. We went to bed shortly afterward because we had an early wake up call scheduled for the next day.

Party Cruise!

It was nice to actually get to do something once the Cyclone had left the islands. We woke up and there was a shuttle waiting for us to take us downtown to the harbor for our cruise. We hopped onboard and were treated to a breakfast buffet and mimosas while we waited for a few folks who were on "Fiji time", aka 20 minutes late. Fiji and frisbee time seem to get along pretty well.

Apparently for the whole time we were on the boat we had unlimited drinks, so we got to work!. We headed out past the water which was now dark from all the rains. There was a lot of sediment thrown up. There was one moment when we were boating out that you could see a clear delineation between the two types of water (dirty and clean).

After an hour and a half we finally reached our private island. They had kayaks and snorkel gear setup. We decided we would snorkel first and kayak if we were still up for it. We headed out around the island and were treated to a wide array of fish. It wasn't as amazing as Australia, but I think we were fairly spoiled by the Whitsundays. The water however was SUPER warm. It was awesome to go snorkeling and not even need a wetsuit. I could get used to that.

After about 20 minutes, we lucked out and saw a pair of squid floating on by. We followed them along and I think Megan tried to touch them but they are wily and elusive. After another 20 minutes we headed back in and decided to take a kayak out. The only one available was a 1 person kayak which we decided to try anyway. It was not very stable and luckily two people were finishing up and we took theirs out. After about 10/15 minutes we heard them call that lunch was ready so we headed back in and enjoyed another buffet lunch.

After lunch they organized a crew versus tourist volleyball game. We won the first round but I am pretty sure they were letting us. The second one was closer but they came away with the victory. Megan and I had completely different ideas about how to play volleyball. I spent my time setting people in the hopes we could actually try to win. After watching me, Megan told me I was the worst player in the group because I hadn't hit it over the net much at all. I guess that is how they play in Ohio.

After volleyball they put together a fishing trip and we eagerly jumped on board. There was a really nice kiwi who had been fishing before and showed us what to do. Unfortunately neither of the Americans on the boat caught any fish. The Kiwi pulled in 3 but they were all small. We headed back in, packed up the tender and then went back to the main boat. They had a happy honeymoon cake waiting for us and afterwards they gave me an opportunity to pilot the boat. I didn't almost crash this one.

Bula to FIJI

And I'm back to writing again!
We got into Nadi in Fiji and somehow our bags came along okay. After a short taxi ride we arrived at the Worldmark by Wyndham and were shown to our room. It was huge! We had a 2 bedroom condo which was bigger than our house in California. It also had a dish washer and the electricity didn't short out when we ran any two appliances at the same time. It even had a washer and dryer!! We were pumped and decided that we'd get food and cook some since we had the facilities available. It was our plan to relax and recover from our constant travelling through Australia and New Zealand.

We knew that the pool had a swim up bar so we changed into our swim suits and headed out to go for a swim and to get a drink. We got drinks and hung around the pool. After about an hour we were bored. There was a sign up showing jet skiing, hot air balloon rides, scuba and other activities. We finished our drinks and headed back to the concierge to start booking some sweet activities. Unfortunately there was a small snag. There was a cyclone heading for Fiji and most outdoor activities were on hold until after it hit.

This put us in the unusual situation of having too much time on our hands the next couple days. The next day we decided to get a taxi into town to get groceries. It was an interesting experience. There was a lot of things that you would have thought were refrigerated that aren't in Fiji. Like milk for instance. After finishing up, we took the touristy island bus to the shopping center downtown. The bus was called the Bula bus and ran every 15 minutes between all the resorts and the shopping center. After getting downtown we wandered around and picked up some souvenirs and presents while sampling various cuisines and drinks in the area. On the bus ride back we noticed there was a 2:1 happy hour at another resort. After stowing our spoils at our condo, we took the bus to the resort and got to happy hour.

After waiting forever for our waiter, we put in our first order and it started pouring outside. We finally got our drinks and got a second round while we watched the downpour outside. After the rain subsided we made our way back to our condo, made dinner and called it a night.

The next day it was pouring again so we decided to do some shopping again. We also wanted to check out the other resorts on the island so we ended up walking to the shopping center by way of each resort so it took us a good 3 hours to walk what would have been 15 minutes straight. After lunch we headed back to our condo and got caught in a downpour. Sadly Megan did not have a rain coat so we split mine between the two of us. As a result, we both ended up soaked. A few cab drivers noticed us and tried to pick up fares but we were much to stubborn to quit walking once we had started. I noted to myself that I would get Megan a raincoat for a Christmas gift.

Luckily, the cyclone hit the islands the hardest the night before so our plans were not impacted going forward which was good since in standard form we had a packed schedule.

Goodbye NZ – you will be missed

The views, opinions, conclusions and other information expressed in this blog post are written by Megan and not given or endorsed by Warren unless otherwise indicated by an authorised representative independent of this message.

Our flight out of Queenstown was at 1 pm, and we were sad to be leaving. We both agreed that we could have stayed a few more weeks, but at least it gives us an excuse to come back in the future. When we were packing up the night before our flight we were discussing how it stinks that travel days are basically a waste of a day because you are just flying and can’t fit in awesome activities. That is unacceptable for this trip, so we decided to maximize our travel day experience and fit in as much as possible.

So, we woke up at 7 am, finished packing, and headed over to Puzzeling World. What is Puzzeling World, you may be asking yourself. Well – it is Wanaka’s leading tour attraction, rated higher than the lake that reflects the snow peaked mountains or the ski slopes that surround the valley. Puzzeling World brings people from around the globe to experience mind warping awesomeness. And we had exactly 60 minutes to go through the whole place to ensure that we made it to the airport in time.

Arriving at 8 am, we were sad to realize the place opened at 8:30. So we walked around and took pictures until we spotted a worked walking around the grounds. We stalked him until he opened the gates and we rushed in – the first people there for the day! Evaluating our options, we prioritize the outdoor double level maze and went out to master it. The goal was to get to the four corners where there was a tower and then return to the starting/ending point. We hauled butt through the maze, our mind power blowing it out of the water. I think we should have gotten an award for how quickly we made it through the maze – we got to the fourth corner in about 11 minutes. BUT in order to win we had to make it back to the beginning. This proved a little more challenging. After getting lost a few times, swearing a bit, and jumping up in the air to try to cheat we finally found the path out of the maze. Checking the clock, we finished in just under 28 minutes. Not bad!

The indoor section was a little less stressful. We went through a museum of 3D photos, images that popped out of the wall, optical illusion rooms, etc. It was pretty neat. My favorite room was the one that is tilted so it works against gravity and it appears you’re walking on a horizontal surface visually, but you’re actually walking down a slope. So your sensory inputs are super confused and everyone falls all over the place. We went through this room at the same time as a tour bus of middle aged German women who were giggling and falling all over eat other. We were dying laughing watching them fall all over each other. It was pretty awesome.


We left at the exact perfect time to make it to the airport, get gas in our rental car, and check in. We both said “the car made it” once we parked so we wouldn’t jinx ourselves during the trip – it was a 10 year old rental that would jolt ever time you pressed the gas down to accelerate.

(Mini note from Warren: It was Thanksgiving today and we kept up with the Donohue tradition by eating Chicken (the only poultry we could find), lettuce, tomato and potato chip sandwiches. While we were eating, we called our families using skype and our 3g usb network card which worked out really well the whole trip)

Unfortunately, we had to fly to Auckland, stay over night, and fly out the next morning for Fiji. Warren picked a hotel with a shuttle to/from the airport so we did not have to rent a car. However, once we arrived at the hotel we realized that we were stuck in the middle of no where with nothing to do. This was completely unacceptable considering our plan of maximizing our travel day, so we talked to the concierge and came up with a plan. We would take the hotel shuttle back to the airport and take a city bus to the local mall. Success! 2 hours later, we were walking around the mall. Our goal was to see the new Harry Potter movie, and fortunately there was a movie theater in this mall. When we bought our tickets the lady asked where we wanted to sit. I was like huh? I didn’t even understand the question. What do you mean, where do we want to sit? I looked at Warren and shrugged and looked back at the lady and said “Maybe in the middle-ish area?” I guess that was good enough since she printed off our tickets and handed them to me. I looked at them and then realized why she asked about seating – our seats were pre-assigned. Weird. We grabbed food for dinner before seeing the movie. Warren got a little confused about what all was included in our food package and we ended up with 2 drinks, 2 hotdogs, 2 ice cream cones and a giant popcorn. Totally in line with our honeymoon diet plan of 5000+ calories/day. We were falling behind and need to get back on the diet bus. The movie was good and we headed back to the hotel via bus and airport shuttle before crashing for the night. Day maximized!

Zipping around Queenstown

Once again, Megan boosted this post:

We had an afternoon to fill and in true Wegan form, we found an activity that we could go do after getting back from the Doubtful Sound cruise. We were hoping to work in this crazy caving adventure but unfortunately it started at 9 am, and we couldn’t get back to Queenstown until about noon. No need to fear though, because there is a zip line course that runs all day and has tours started every couple of hours.

Once we got back to our car in Manapouri, we rushed over to Queenstown, which is about an hour and a half drive. We made it there in plenty of time for our 3:30 pm Zip Line tour, so I was feeling pretty confident. We had gone up to the top of the mountain that the zip line course was on earlier in the week when we went on the luge and ate dinner overlooking the valley. That day, we were dressed up a little and the package we purchased included a round trip gondola ride that took you up to the top. However, this day I was being stubborn and thought it was a rip off to have to pay full price for a round trip gondola ride when we didn’t need the return leg due to the fact we were zip lining down the mountain. I tried to use my persuasive magic to convince the guy selling tickets that we were actually paying for a return leg on the gondola ride buy purchasing a ticket and the ride up was free (this made sense in my head). He didn’t go for it. In fact, he probably thought I was stupid and was kind of rude, which made me more stubborn. So I said “Fine! We’ll walk up!”. And we did.

Oh my, was it a trek. Ironically, Warren and I had just been discussing that we would like to return to the South Island of New Zealand in the near future, and when we do we would like to do more out doors activities like hiking since we didn’t do enough on this trip. I do enjoy hiking, when I’m wearing hiking boots and hiking pants, and have my hair pulled back; it is fine when I’m mentally prepared that I will be sweaty and smelly. I, however, was not prepared for this as I was dressed in heavy jeans and flip flops. The side of the mountain was not meant to be hiked, as it was not a casual stroll up a nice path. We were scrambling up steep cliffs which were almost vertical paths up the side of the mountain and the whole time we were climbing this mountain face I could see the gondola over my shoulder mocking me with its not sweaty passengers casually looking out over the valley as they are lifted to the top. By the time I reached the top I was pouring buckets of sweat, my clothes were drenched, and my hair was a giant poof. I was hoping to sneak off to the bathroom to freshen up unnoticed but unfortunately we walked right passed the zip line company kiosk which had a group of people eagerly waiting for our arrival. Luckily the guide took pity on us, and suggested that we get a drink from the deli in the restaurant next door.

A trick I learned in college when we’d go dancing at the bars is to use the hand dryer to dry my hair. Luckily there were hand dryers in the bathrooms at the top of the mountain. This approach to freshening up must not be widely used, because a woman in the bathroom stopped and watched me for full 5 minutes as I dried my hair, and made no effort to pretend that she wasn’t watching when I looked at her and stared her down. Finally I turned around and said “WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?”. Actually, I didn’t. I said “tough hike” with a little smile and scurried out the bathroom embarrassed.

Fully freshened and hydrated, we made our way back to the zip line location where the fitted us with helmets and harnesses. I was a little nervous due to my fear of heights, but feeling confident – I did bungy jump a few days before after all. There was another couple in our group who were nice. The girl, however, was wearing a mini skirt which seemed like an odd choice for zip lining attire. But, whatevs. Who am I to judge – I smelled like I just ran a marathon.

The first line was a warm up, to make sure you weren’t going to freak out. It wasn’t too steep or long. As we went down the mountain they got steeper and longer. The guides taught us how to zip line in all kinds of positions – sideways, upside down, cannon ball style. The miniskirt girl stuck with right side up which was probably a wise idea. We finally made it to the STEEPEST LONGEST ZIP LINE IN THE WORLD. They installed this special to make the zip line live up to the Queenstown Moto – the adventure capital of the world. I guess regular zip lining isn’t extreme enough. The last line was pretty awesome. My favorite part was this giant net they had to put up in between each person’s run that was the back up breaking system in case the active breaking system didn’t work. Basically you’d go full force into this net and the girls had to take off jewelry so we didn’t get our ears ripped off. Unfortunately, the breaks never failed so we didn’t see anyone fly into the net – lame.


Once we made it down to the bottom we took off our safety gear and headed off. Our guide gave us a last minute suggestion to eat at Fergburger in Queenstown. I was like – burgers (I don’t really eat burgers at restaurants ever) don’t sound that exciting but the guide said that we can’t leave without trying it so we decided to split one. Best decision ever! We got the Hawaiian pig burger and it honestly was the best burger I’ve ever had in my whole life. We photographed the menu so we can replicate it at home, although I don’t think it’ll be the same.

Unappreciated Beauty: Doubtful Sound

Since I have been on writer's block (or at least that is my excuse), I've pulled in a pinch hitter for the next two blog posts to close out New Zealand. This post and the next one are all Megan:

What is a fjord? Basically it is a really steep mountain range which has its base in water. The mountains and valley are carved out from a glacier activity and once the glacier melts away, the water inlet back fills the valley. Why is Doubtful Sound called a Sound instead of Doubtful Fjord. Who knows? Clearly the person who named it was not a geologist. Regardless, it is one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen.

We left our condo super early to drive from Wanaka to get to the ferry in Manapouri that would take us to the boat for our overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound. When we arrived we checked in and found out that we could pick up our picnic lunch at the deli next to the office. When researching this activity, I saw that we had an optional picnic lunch available as an add-on for the first day. When I read the description, I envisioned sitting on the deck of the boat watching mountains go by as waterfalls cascade down into the fjord around us while munching on a sandwich or delicious cookies – it was a romantic vision. And then we came to reality. First, I have learned that any time a tour tries to add on a meal and designates it as optional, it will be more expensive that if you just pay for it on site and will be pre-set (versus choosing based on how you feel that day). If a meal is optional, then that means there will be alternative choices available for people who chose not to prepurchase. It does not mean that you will starve to death because you didn’t have the foresight to pay for the food early. Additionally, the company will charge you more for the food than if you just buy it at the deli due to “processing fees” and what not. When we received our food we took it to a grassy area outside of the deli and sat among ducks that learned that if they try to bite you it’s likely that you’ll drop your lunch and run. Ducks also poo on the ground. This did not quit live up to the romantic picnic lunch in my mind. Additionally, when you designate “no mushrooms” as a comment in the food allergies section that means you have very significant food allergies beyond mushrooms and in fact can not eat meat. See Warren’s lunch. Where I had 2 sandwiches (not just 1, but 2), fruit, cookies, chocolates, crackers and cheese, etc in my lunch, Warren had one sad meatless sandwich and a cookie that looked more like solidified vomit from a granola eating hippy. Glad I got the non-restricted diet meal option!

Next lesson: when the ferry captain says hold on to your stuff if you’re sitting on the top deck of the boat because it might get a little windy, move inside immediately. Again, my romantic vision was finishing my lunch on the deck of the ferry as we went across Manapouri lake to our final destination with a light wind in my hair pointing at little sea creatures as they hop out of the water and dance around the boat. Wrong. Now picture 40 MPH wind blowing against your face as we travel 40 knots racing across the lake. The moment the girls designer sunglasses flew off her face, whizzed by mine, shattered on the deck throwing pieces everywhere and skidded into the water was when I grabbed all of my belongs, clutching them and my sunglasses for dear life, and I quickly moved inside the boat to avoid being blown off myself. Close call.

We then had to take a bus over the Wilmot Pass to what I like to think of as heaven. It was beautiful. We came over the pass into the fjord and saw towering mountains shooting out of a massive expanse of water with little wispy clouds kissing their peaks. We jumped off the bus and onto the 70 passenger boat to get escorted to our cabin (which had a window that looked out side). It was great. After we got settled we explored the boat to discover where all we could adventure to over the next 24 hours. While we were walking around we noticed a lot of very young people which questionable taste in clothing and fashion sitting around playing board games inside at the dinner tables. This is where they would sit for the entire trip.

As it ends up, 60 of the 70 people on our tour were part of a Contiki-like tour group. Most likely their rich parents paid for the trip, and they could care less that they were floating through one of the most unique and beautiful places in the world. They would rather sit and recover from their hangover from the night before. And that was just fine with us because that effectively meant that we had a 1:10 ratio of staff to travelers and the nature guide sat with us the entire trip to talk about the unique geology of the Sound. Also, it meant that there was no competition for the tender craft when we went out to look at the unique wild life (no one under the age of 50 was on the tender craft with us). We went around the little islands and got up close to see the flora and fauna of the fjord. We were also able to get very close to a few very cute Fiordland penguins, one of the rarest birds in the world, which call this place home. The cruise traveled down the fingers of the fjord out to the Tasman Sea, during which we saw lots of penguins and a giant seal colony.

After turning around to return to a quiet cove to drop anchor before dinner, Warren and I decided to go talk to the captain in the steer house. When we were sitting there, he went to put the sails down and yelled over – can you steer for me for a bit. Warren jumped up and took over, as he was feeling confident from how well he steered on our cruise in the Whitsundays. Little did he know we were passing our right hand turn, and we were past it when the captain yelled out – take a hard right. Warren took the hard right at the same time tipping the boat to a 45 degree angle on its side. The captain was like, oh man, the kitchen is going to be annoyed and 2 seconds later they called up to complain that pots and pans when sliding everywhere, drinks slide off of the dinner tables, and a person on the staff even fell over. Ooops! Needless to say, the captain took over for Warren and didn’t extend a full time position to him. (Note from Warren: On the radar map, there were two routes to go. One slight right turn and one hard right turn. The captain wasn't very clear to me that we had to take the hard one until we were right up on it and then he told me to turn HARD. so I did.)

The size of the fjord could really be comprehended until you saw a boat next to the mountain. It made the vessel look like a little toy boat floating in a massive bath tub. Without that point of comparison, it was just beautiful. With the boats in the picture, the fjord was breathtaking and almost uncomprehendable.

We had a nice buffet dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening. There was a nature slide show and games before we went to sleep, knowing that we’d get an early wake up call in the morning once the anchor was raised. In the morning there was a nice buffet breakfast and we returned the way we sailed down before boarding the bus to return us to the ferry around 11 am. Needless to say, we sat inside for the return trip on the ferry.