Land of the Long White Cloud and Viti: Orewa and Fiji
10/31-11/7
On our first full day in Orewa, Dad and I went on a run down by the beach after oatmeal for breakfast. We had to kind of zigzag between the street/sidewalk and down on the beach. There was supposed to be a path, but it went in and out. Our new home is on the Hibiscus Coast Highway on the North Shore of New Zealand. It’s about half an hour north of Auckland in a town called Orewa. We’re really close to the beach and only three or four blocks from downtown. Mom and Dad went to check out a gym and Jackson and I did schoolwork. I had my first field hockey practice twenty minutes away in Albany. The practice was great and all the girls were really nice. Dinner was tomato soup and grilled cheese and then we watched the first hour of a Voice episode.
After breakfast, I worked on some math and read through the morning while Mom and Dad went to the gym. We went to the library in the afternoon after lunch, where I got a book by a New Zealand author named Melanie Cellier, the Princess Companion. She and Fleur Beale are my favorite NZ authors I’ve found by far. Beale’s Juno series is amazing and Cellier does retellings of classic fairy tales (totally my jam). We walked down to the park and messed around with a basketball some.
We watched some more of the Voice before going to dinner at an Asian place called Cheek & Chong. We got squid, prawn and corn dumplings, Chinese vegetables, pad thai, sweet-and-sour pork belly, and Mekong chicken curry. The dumplings had a bit of heat, but was great other than that. The curry had a good bit of heat and a really strong coconut taste; I didn’t really like it too much. The calamari was good, like all squid at good restaurants, and the Chinese vegetables were great. They were like collard greens, with a vinegary sauce/taste. The pad thai and pork belly were my favorites though. After more of the Voice, we got in bed.
On the second, we did schoolwork through the morning while Mom and Dad went to the gym. I read my new book from the library and caught up on journalling. We packed for Fiji and then had rice cakes for dinner. We had to get up at five to watch Wake play NC State, but it was worth it since we beat them by a lot, breaking Clawson’s losing streak after bye weeks. We had an early lunch at the airport at a Greek place, wehre I got a grilled chicken bun with parmesan mayonaisse. After we finally got to Fiji, we took a ferry to the resort island. After settling in at the house, we got dinner at Dick’s Place (the restaurant on the island). We got pork belly, bread, calamari, and tuna.
On our first full day in Fiji, we had breakfast at Dick’s Place, with fresh fruit and pastries. We went down to the Activity Hut and got the Family Activity pass. Jackson and I went snorkeling, just right off the beach. The snorkeling was amazing; there was a coral farm, bright fish, and a drop off with lots of fish in it. While we were snorkeling, something bumped into Jackson’s leg and he kind of freaked out. It was a dog that had paddled out to us from the shore. She followed us around as we walked around the pool area and we decided to call her Cally. We had lunch at the cafe, where I got chicken pasta. In the afternoon, we borrowed three paddle boards and a kayak (kayak for Jackson) and went across the bay to the other resort on the island, Plantation (we were staying at Musket Cove). We came back and went back to our house to get ready before going to Dick’s Place for dinner. There was a Curry Buffet and it was delicious, even with a bit of spice. They had butter chicken, beef, green bean, fish, and some other things as well. Dessert was some samples of different things: mango cheesecake, doughnut holes, vanilla cake, and other such things.
On the fifth, we got breakfast at the cafe instead of Dick’s Place, where I got buttermilk pancakes. We rented bikes for our last three days and then rode them over to Plantation. They had an inflatable water park in their section of the bay and we played on it some. It was kind of slimy from algae, but still fun. We hung out at the pool back in Musket Cove and then had lunch (delicious chicken chow mein) at Dick’s Place. Jackson and I borrowed two paddle boards and just took them out in the middle of the bay. It was so peaceful and surprisingly fun, just floating in the middle of the cove. We got ice cream at the island’s general store, hokey-pokey covered in chocolate (hokey-pokey is an amazing flavor that we found down here, vanilla with bits of toffee and honeycomb). After we reapplied sunscreen, Jackson and I played volleyball with some Australians and other Americans. At the pool, we hung out and talked to the family from Maryland. They were sailing around the world for two years; isn’t that so cool?! I wish I knew how to sail; it would be such a cool skill to have. We went out to the island bar to eat pizza and watch the sunset; it was so beautiful. We watched the movie, School of Rock, back at our villa and it was amazing.
On our second-to-last day, Dad and I woke up before Mom and Jackson, so we went down to Dick’s Place for donuts and fruit. Mom and Jackson went down as well when they got up and then we went out on the daily snorkel excursion. We went out over a coral reef in a small boat and then snorkeled around there for about an hour. It was definitely my favorite part of Fiji; the fish were dazzling and the coral was much brighter colors than I had ever seen (orange and bright purple. The most memorable thing we found were a bunch of starfish on the seafloor; they were a bright indigo color, literally like the night sky. Back at Musket Cove, we retreated to our air-conditioned villa to watch the King’s Speech. Lunch was at Dick’s Place again (barbecue chicken quesadillas). Dad and I hung out at the pool in the afternoon while Jackson napped and Mom stayed out of the sun. Our last dinner was at Dick’s Place, where I got the mushroom risotto (I love risotto!) and the kid’s chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows.
For our last day in Fiji, we hung out at our house until the cafe opened at eight. Mom and I split the breakfast burrito and I got a banana smoothie. We packed and then went down to check out the woodcarvers stall. It was so impressive; there were canes, bowls, plates, carvings, and traditional weapons, along with bone necklaces. I got a green hand-carved turtle necklace and got three Christmas presents for people (you will be left to wonder if it is your’s). Jackson and I decided to go on a bike ride around the area, but then it started raining. Our ferry took us to Port Denarau,where we got lunch at a traditional Fijian restaurant (chicken stir fry with rice). We went shopping some before heading to the airport. Dinner was on our flight and then I slept on the drive back to Orewa.
“Taking a break can lead to breakthroughs.”