Left Auckland at 5 pm. Our flight was with Pacific Air a Fijian airline. It is a 2 1/2 hour flight to Nadi (pronounced like candy). Getting our luggage was a huge problem. Another large airplane (ours was one of those four seat in the middle, three on each side kind of planes). Our luggage finally came up on the wrong carousel. I only noticed because Scott had left me with the carts for our luggage well out of the crowd. When the carousel I was standing by started to work, I noticed and the first bag out of the shoot was one of ours. So here I am with two big carts for our four suitcases, Scott's backpack, my front pack, trying to catch each piece as it comes out. I had to keep my eye on the carousel, on our stuff, and on the luggage I had already dragged off the carousel. Of course it was way too noisy for Scott to hear me yell, so I didn't. After I had grabbed the bags, I had to steer both full carts in his general direction. I made more than one traveler unhappy with me as I was not very good at steering them. Finally I got so frustrated that I just hollered "Scott". It was amazing. Just as I yelled, everything got relatively quiet. Not only did Scott hear me, but so did just about everyone else. I was instantly the center of attention. How embarrassing!
We had agreed to take a pair of crutches from Auckland to Fiji for an Elder who is 6'6" (and a big guy) who has an injured foot. We did OK until we forgot to pick them up at the door for unusual parcels in all the confusion at the luggage carousels.
Customs was a mess, because customs had not prepared for deluge of arrivals. They only had two agents for Fijians, and two for non Fijians (paloqis). Standing in line was just like being at Disney World--back and forth, back and forth. We finally made it to a desk where one girl was checking to see if we had filled out our forms correctly. By that time we were really worried about catching our flight to Suva. Scott told her about our flight and she told us to go to the Fijian side which by this time was empty of arrivals, but still had two agents sitting. When we finally made it through customs two Elders in Sulus (Fijian man skirts), white shirts, and ties were standing there. "We are the Airport Elders, they explained. We are here to help you get to your next flight." What a welcome sight. Between the four of us we got to our gate with a whole 5 minutes to spare. They bid us good-bye. It is a tradition in Fiji that the elders assigned to Nadi, go to the airport to greet the elders and sisters that are arriving or leaving Fiji. The beginning of the wonderful treatment we have received here in Fiji.
Arrived in Suva, and was met by Elder and Sister Barfus who are the mission office couple. They drove us to our flat, which is sooooo much nicer that I had expected. They had made the beds and put breakfast in the fridge. We have a meeting with President Klingler in the morning at 9.
Fiji is surprisingly pleasant. Like a nice Utah May day, hmmmm with humidity.
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