Fizzeled in Fiji but nearly vivacious in Vanuatu...

Days 19-24

So this year, we missed out on Sunday, October 18th. That’s right, no typo… we skipped that day entirely because we crossed the International Date Line! Woohoo! A monumental occasion! Ok, maybe not really, but it was kinda weird and cool to have crossed the IDL and the Equator on this trip, neither of which we had ever done before. We finally played some paddle tennis yesterday (super fun) and even got our ping pong on as well. I did my 5 miles around the deck like I usually do on our sea days (while Chris reads and counts laps for me) and we had a nice relaxing day for Chris’s birthday.
We arrived in Fiji on Tuesday and frankly, we were both a bit fizzled out. We docked in Suva (the capital) which unfortunately required a bit of an expenditure of funds to get anywhere to see most of the points of interest. The excursions from the ship were quite pricey for this port, so we decided to save our funds for OZ and found some bliss in a super cheap internet café ($1 per hr!!)
At the Sail Away Party, we ran into Anthony & Phillipa, an Aussie couple who are actually the only couple younger than us on the ship. They have been on vacation for 9 MONTHS! We are meeting up with them today to slaughter them in paddle tennis and then hang out tomorrow night when we get to Cairns. They know of a great Irish pub and we dock at 5pm so it should be a fun way to spend the evening.
They totally spanked us in paddle tennis yesterday but we beat them at Pictionary and had lots of fun doing Scattergories too! You would think I’d be particularly good at word games, but it was quite a bit harder than it sounded!
On Thursday, we hit the island of Vanuatu and did an excursion (pretty cheap) to the Mele’ Waterfall and Gardens. It was very pretty and well worth it with nice little walk up to the falls where our guide pointed out mango, avocado, banana and coconut trees. The falls were gorgeous and Chris especially had a blast jumping around in the water.
UPDATE:
After a DELISHious! aussie BBQ in the ship we've hopped off and found the internet café in Cairns with Anthony & Phillipa so here I am and here we go! So excited to hit the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow!