Days -1, 0, 1 E-vile to Fiji

 OMCA: THB and DB have a day to fill before our 11pm 11 hour non-stop to Fiji.  A shortt visit to see the Creative Growth exhibit

Fiji Airways: THB, DB and LB use Uber to get to SFO. Being on the safe side we leave for SFO we leave 4 hours from flight time. Half hour to the airport and then there is a question of which terminal the flight leaves from. The itinerary says Terminal 1. Uber driver says International Terminal. Since FA hasn't shown mucy propensity for accuracy, we opt for the Intl Term. Good call! The check-in desk is just to the right of where we enter. FA is 1-1 (poor pre-check-in) 

Whoa!!!!! the line to check-in is so long we can barely find the Biz class/priority line. Good news: it only has 4 groups in front of and two FA rep stations. Half hour later, we are wondering if we should have got in the coach liine. One large family is occupyinng one rep for the entire half hour (they were flying business, so we don't quite understand what was taking so long; two more FA staff came over to help the rep. FA now struggles at check-in,That's 2 for 2.

Security is straighforward once we realize that this is not TSA-pre, so we have to take off our shoes, take the computer and i-pad out separately, etc. Still through pretty quickly.

Now we make it to FA's Golden Gate loune with 2.5 hours to go. Snacks and recharging. Oh, and here's what we found in the relatively quiet, well-spread out room:

One of two bathroom double closed (wonder how many days)

No espreso (same question)

FA is now 3 for 3, batting  1000

Next up, boarding. We have three seats, two on side and one of the two in the middle. Only one problem:

Before the problem, LB is on aisle with a stranger to her left 

now the problem:  DB's seatbelt is caught underneath her seat and can't be fixed without delaying the flight. The guy next to LB migrates willingly to an empty seant and thus DB is on LB's left now. In meantime THB ends up iusing DB's seat as a charging station. 

FA is still batting  1,000

THB goes right to sleep, missing the evening meal, and gets 5,5 hours of shuteye. Gosh, that leaves only 5.5 hours left to go in the flight.

In the end, FA redeems itself: no other glitches and the plane lands right on time!

Fiji Day 1

Weather: Clear, blue skies, temp ranges from mid 60s to low 80s

Arrive at 5am, walk right up to immigration, our bags fly through customs (we only have carry-ons, and Rosie's Holidays is open and wating for us at 5:30am. Yes, it is dark out and we've crossed the Date Line and thus it is now Saturday -you "lose" a day. We're taking a private boat taxi to LikuLiku Lagoon Resort. We relax over flat whites and wait for sunrise, the water taxi doesn't leave until it gets light out, around 7am

Pics from the taxi:

mangroves

Likuliku Resort from taxi

Rooms on stilts above, the rest of the resort is landd-based

Easy 45 minute boat ride to the LikuLiku Lagoon Resort. Of course we are too early for our rooms to be ready, the resport is full and check-out is at 11am. No problema, that leaves time for breakfast, a snorkel right out front of the resort, and by noon our room is ready - LB's room is not ready until the afternoon and she goes for another snorkel. 

very low tide, that's a bar at end of walkway and then the main dock beyond that 

local rumor: Survivor building being burned down (we see smoke rising at same spot next day)

iguana sanctuary

shuttle out to stilt cabins

room 45 - lovely

Breakfast and lunnch are pretty good. For dinner THB and DB share a huge piece of local fish. Unfortunately it is too spicy, even for THB. 

torch lighting at sunset

In bed by 8:30...