Bula and Vinaka Fiji '09

I am in love with Fiji! It is the most incredible place I've ever traveled to. Hawaii pales in comparison. Fiji is more beautiful, the people are more friendly, and the experience is far more authentic. We had an amazing time...here is a recap with tons of pictures!

The plane ride wasn't as bad as I expected. We flew on the biggest plane I've ever seen. There are two levels on this plane. Randy and I sat upstairs which was pretty cool.

The first three days were spent on the main island at the Outrigger resort. This is the view from our room. It rained the entire time we were there. We still managed to keep ourselves entertained.

Randy and his signature drink...as long as it came with a flower on the side he was happy.

Randy singing with the band...I believe he's singing "Hotel California" here. He jammed out with them numerous times. He kept asking them if they knew any Def Leopard...surprisingly they didn't.

The food was amazing. We ate A LOT!!

These guys walked on fire for us!

By far the coolest thing we did was a whitewater river rafting trip. We had a two hour bus ride into the heart of a rain forest. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The rapids weren't too intense but enough to get my heart pumping!

Our river guide asked us if we wanted a back massage and took us to this waterfall. We climbed up the rocks and walked behind the water. I only made it half way, the water pressure was so intense I felt like I couldn't breathe. Randy went all the way through and the guide had him lay on his stomach and let the water beat down on him.

We had the coolest river guide named Moses. He's the one on the left and he had thousands of stories. He lives in the village along this river. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, Bill Gates, and the cast of Survivor Fiji all were guided down this river by Moses.
We also had a day at an amazing spa near our hotel. Randy had his first massage and wasn't sure he liked it. I, on the other hand, could have one every day. Maybe he should have gone for the facial or pedicure!

After three days, we hopped on this helicopter to head to Castaway Island. Lets just say, it will probably be the last helicopter ride I ever take.

I am so grateful this wasn't the last picture taken of Randy. We had some technical difficulties as we were landing and almost hit a tree, which would've killed us both. Luckily our pilot had enough experience and managed to make an emergency landing on a near by island. Needless to say I'm not a fan of helicopters.


Arriving at this island, made me feel better about things. This is Castaway, aka my home away from home.

This crew welcomed us after our near death experience.

This is our "bure" or home on the island.

This was the view from our porch. Our own little hammock, lawn chairs, canopy, and beach! We could literally walk out the front door and go snorkeling or kayaking.

I practiced yoga every morning to this view. It was surreal, peaceful, and my new "happy place"

The snorkeling was fantastic. I've never seen blue starfish and they were everywhere. The coral was almost as amazing as the fish. I saw the entire cast of Finding Nemo.

Every night we had a setting like this. The weather was gorgeous. We found out our flight got cancelled so we were forced to stay an extra day. Luckily the guy that took us on this trip paid for us to all stay at Castaway instead of some creepy airport motel.

The staff really made us feel at home. Everyone knew our names and greeted us with a "Bula". These are a few of our favorites.

Ben, Randy, Annie, Sam, and the "Rock" in front. He sort of looks like the Rock, right Kate?

BULA!!!! Tuwai was full of personality and energy. We loved this guy. He called Randy "BRRANDY".

He even carried Randy to our boat as we left.

This is Kim and Steve, other insurance people. They were actually really fun to hang out with. The island was really small so we couldn't really avoid all the insurance people. We had so much fun this night. There was a crab race and Randy and I bid on the 3rd place crab and won $99.


Steven, the manager of the resort with Randy and Steve.

This is the insurance crew...we were by far the life of the party! The big guy in the middle owns the company who sent us on this trip. He was so entertaining and intense, I nicknamed him Chris Farley. He and Randy had a mean cannon ball competition.

I have never stayed at a resort where I felt like part of the family. I actually got a little sad when we left. You will never meet nicer, more welcoming people anywhere.

This is one of the reasons I love this place. There was a beautiful hand crafted basin to rinse the sand off our feet before we went into our room and they placed a beautiful flower in it. Those little touches were everywhere. I'm still on "Fiji Time", meaning, I'm moving in slow motion. The jet lag is kicking my butt right now which is why I've been so slow posting these pictures. There is something to be said for taking it slow and taking in the beauty of everyday. Randy and I have fun anywhere but I'm having a hard time finding enough adjectives to describe how wonderful this trip was. Hopefully these pictures do it justice. Thank you mom, dad, Jeri, Scott, James, Darcelle, and everyone else who took care of my babies while we were gone. It's so good to be home with them. I missed them so much.