Reflection of Naviti and Nadi.

Although I was so excited to get to NZ, as the last night and day approached I was really sad about leaving Fiji. The locals had made us feel so welcome and wanted to stay in touch. They considered us friend and family/part of their village and said we were welcome back any time. As I reflected on my last day in Fiji I knew the experience that we were going to get on the main island before we headed to NZ was not going to be the same. We stayed at a large resort where meals were $30FJD a plate.. there was a big pool and not much access to the ocean whereas on Naviti, the ocean was at our feet!

Our view @ dinner..

One of my favorite views.. dinner @ sunset..

View from walking up part of the mountain.

The people of Naviti had taught me so much. Not only were they outwardly beautiful people with beautiful complexion and skin, they had some of the biggest hearts and most open minds. They wanted to know about us and where we come from and wanted to share all of that with us as well. They taught us how little we truly need to be happy. (And I'm not just talking about 2 minute showers that we took.) The main things that they valued were faith, family, community, time, and work ethic. Faith was an important part of their whole village and the foundation that was laid was extracted from that. They also were polite and friendly and really looked our for each other. You knew that no matter what money you spent here, it was going to the village. The head of the resort was one of the chiefs of the village and so his primary goal was to look out for his people. The resort really did not have that much to up-keep either. Electricity came on @ 6am and shut off at midnight. They did a great job conserving energy and they had a fruit and vegetable garden in the back of the little town. We enjoyed them a lot!

The bar crew with Knox.

I feel so blessed and privileged that I got this opportunity because a)not many people at all get it and b) I feel so enlightened and feel that I can take a part of this community with me. I will never forget this experience and these people will stay in my heart, my thoughts, and my prayers for the rest of my lives. I hope one day that I can share this island with the people that I love. It is places like this where you forget all of the negative, pessimistic and hateful views of the world and realize just how important it is to love one another. The sense of contentment and peace that I felt from this trip is so invaluable and I will never know how I can repay the people of this island. We all could learn a few lessons from them...

With Tourouka and Sana.