Our new flight home from Nadi was scheduled to leave at 10:50 PM on Wednesday. We had been advised to go to the airport just after low tide to avoid be marooned on Denarau Island again. The reception desk arranged for a 4-wheel drive taxi to take us. They were the only vehicles able to get to the airport. The road has been badly damaged. There were huge potholes. Some of the deepest had been marked with a barrel sitting in the hole. Parts of the road were washed away. The usual 20 minute drive to the airport took a little over an hour. Some of the flood waters had receded (making it possible for us to get out), but we still saw a lot of high water. Many of the sugar cane fields have been badly damaged. The latest information I've been able to find is that at least 10 people have died, mostly in mudslides. There are 9000 people in evacuation centers. There is a boat missing with 18 adults and 6 children. Thousands of homes and businesses have flooded.
We arrived at the Nadi airport at 1:00 PM and found we couldn't check in till 7:30 PM. There was no place to sit near the international check-in counter, but we walked over to the domestic side and found an area full of brown leather couches. We were able to sit there and got a lot of reading done. We went back over to the check in counter at 6:45 PM and found they'd already started...another instance of "Fiji time". It took an hour of standing in line to get checked in. We had time for some dinner and then headed to security. Here, at the airport, is the only place we encountered unfriendly Fijians. The security guard decided our carry on bags were too big and made us go back and check them in. Why??? The only answer I can come up with is that we are American. We know they fit and they even fit in the tester, but he decided they were too heavy. The Australians, the New Zealanders, the Fijians, all had bags like ours that they carried on.The customs agents were the same way. None of them would crack a smile. After getting through the security and customs area, we found a hot, humid waiting area where we were to wait for boarding. There we were...400+ sticky, sweaty people waiting to get on the plane and there was no air conditioning. It was at that point that John decided third world traveling is no longer fun. When it was time to board they used the Fiji method...ignore the row numbers being called, everyone rush the gate. It took till departure time to get everyone seated and their bags stowed. Then...remember that incoming cyclone I'd mentioned? The wind had been fairly calm till early evening. By now it was starting to howl and the rain had begun. We waited in the hot, humid airplane with those 400+ sticky, sweaty people with no air turnedon for an hour. The engineer went into the cargo area to check the weight and balance of the airplane and the captain announced that we had to wait for a lull in the wind. It was miserable, but we were glad to know they were taking the necessary precautions to keep us safe. We arrived in Los Angeles an hour late, but had no problem getting through customs and catching our flight to Seattle. For just a minute I thought they were going to pull John off to the side and give him the grilling treatment again cause the agent sat and stared at his screen for a long time after looking at John's passport. (That's another story...before I started blogging.)We were so relieved to see a Starbucks at our departure gate at LAX. It's always weird getting home before you leave. We left Fiji at 11:55 on Wednesday, January 14th. We arrived at Los Angeles at 2:15 PM pn Wednesday, January 14th. No wonder I get confused :) We spent Thursday with our friends and drove home today (Friday). We were so glad to see the "Welcome to Montana" sign!
