Santa Monica and on

Got a bit confused on the roads but ended up in Santa Monica by the pier. Took a walk along the beach and then got burger on the pier - real old time sea front. Weather amazing - such a change from Fiji!

Drove out to Malibu and found a motel for the night. Spent the evening using da free wifi and drinking our duty free :)

We is here!

Ok immigration 1 1/2 hours! Puts you off really :(

Anyway picked up a car - actually a massive 6 people mover thing. Forget what American cars are like: automatic everything - even auto-sliding doors!

Decided to head north out of LA on the Pacific Highway. No idea where we are going though!

Howdy California!

Slept most of the flight. Pacific Airways not much cop - Brian asked what the meal options were and got the response: chicken sandwich!

Well looking forward to our 4 days in California now - gives us some time to get out of LA now.

Off the plane and waiting and waiting in the usual grumpy officious US passport control queue - gonna take a while...

A swift exit

So flights booked for tonight it seemed all of sudden we were leaving.

Bus took us to Smugglers Cove where the whole group stayed. Checked in and had a final couple of drinks with everyone. The experience definitely brought the group together and it felt a bit of a wrench to suddenly be saying goodbye - a nice bunch :)

Packed our bags, said our goodbyes and off the the airport for our flight at 11pm.

A mixed stay all in all!

Rescue!!!

So we got back to Nandi and across the bridge again and they put us in cars with all our stuff on our laps. There were 3 major floods to get through. But we made it. Waved to the otters in the car behind.

Never been rescued before! As soon as we were through we called up to see if we could change our flights and amazingly got through to the Fiji office and booked to fly that night rather than sit for 2 days in the hotel as the weather was much worse as soon as you got to Nandi - rain pretty torrential!

Everyone really relieved to be back - a drink is in order!

Up and down the Queens Highway

So we had to turn back again! Getting a bit fed up of driving back and forth but nothing to be done about it I guess! It was weird because we'd only seen really a bit of rain or constant drizzle but clearly the other bits of the island were getting hit pretty hard.

Really didn't want to go back to Mango Bay again but luckily our guide Kay got news that they'd found accommodation for us in another place.

So we headed that way and stopped off for lunch in a town as we had time to kill. The others didn't like the look of the local food and bought crisps but we went to the local chicken curry with kasava - not bad actually - nice not to have to eat in tourist resort and it was cheaper too!

Well after lunch got news that they had got some cars which might get us through the floods so we turned back again and headed for Nandi. Getting to know the road quite well now!

Well there's a glimmer of hope....

Its a disaaaahster daaaaahling :(

So left Mango bay at 10 as there was a chance of getting over the bridge at low tide midday.

Road covered with landslides and fallen power lines. When we got to Nandi we could see all the flooded houses as the river had burst its banks.

We managed to get over the first bridge and to the bottom of town but the locals said there was no way to get any further as the water on both roads was too deep to cross.

Everyone still going around smiling and waving to each other looking quite happy really. Amazing!