Fiji! - So Close

Fiji! - So Close April 2, 2012 10:08 pm (April 2, 2012 4:08 am in Aspen) Breakfast - scrambled eggs with tomato, lunch - fish tacos, dinner - veggie curry We actually stepped foot into the Nadi airport today. Long enough to learn that all of the rest of the flights for the day were canceled because of Tropical Cyclone Daphne. We started out this morning hoping that we could get a helicopter over to Beqa to pick us up but they just kept putting us off. I had read in one of the travel guides that the Fijians don't like to disappoint so they don't say no. I kinda felt like that's what was going on with the helicopter. They didn't want to disappoint us so instead of flat out refusing, they kept saying call back in an hour or so. While we were waiting to get put off again, we found out that the road to the Nadi airport had been opened. The staff suggested that we go over tomorrow morning but we didn't see why we shouldn't just go right away. So that's what we did. We pushed lunch up an hour, they brought the boats back from Pacific Harbor where they had moved them for safety, we threw our luggage together and headed off. It was a really nice crossing and we had what we thought was a goof omen, a pod of dolphins swimming along with our boat. We got to Pacific Harbor and almost immediately boarded our waiting shuttle. The drive to Nadi took quite a while and as we got closer the devastation became more and more obvious. Houses still flooded, landslide debris stacked up on the side of the road, bridges that were being held together by a prayer, I even saw a dead horse in a ditch by the side of the road.  We opted to go directly to the airport and let out a cheer as we pulled into the airport, only to have our high hopes dashed when we looked at the departure board to see the LA flight had already been canceled. After waiting a short time on line to try to get a flight to Sydney, we learned that all the rest of the flights were to be canceled because of Daphne. We were able to hop back on our shuttle to come to the Novotel.  The rooms here are nice and it's close to the airport. The restaurant kinda sucks but it was interesting sitting there listening to the stories of all the other stranded travelers. Right now we're confirmed on tomorrow night's LA flight but we're also going to keep our hotel room as a backup. The bummer is that the LA flight is about the last one to leave each night, so if it's canceled at the last minute, we won't have any opportunity to get on another flight to somewhere else.