Day 1: It's not that far to Fiji.....

So a 3.5 hour plane trip isn't too long. This was one of the deciding factors in choosing a holiday destination. The no 1 criteria was that it had to be warm. Last year we were well and truly sick of Sydney's winter and ended up just going away for the weekend. You can read about it here. Not good. This year we were going to go on a real winter break. To somewhere warm where there would be swimming and cocktails. After much thinking, reviewing, googling and indecision, we arrived at Fiji as the chosen destination, which is only 3.5 hours on a plane. Sweet.

After about 10 hours door-to-door we arrived at the Shangri-la resort. Hmmmm...

Two very tired and hot boys. Two very tired and hot parents. 

We started our day at 5am in Sydney, where it was dark and cold. A short ride in a "family friendly" taxi and we arrived at the international airport where island time had already started in the Virgin check-in line and Aiden was really just getting warmed up with his rant about wanting to go on the moving walkways and escalators. Once through customs we all had our own agenda. Me to secure as many current fashion and interior design mags as possible. Arran to secure a new pair of sunglasses (because he is obsessed with sunglasses. I don't know why) and Aiden to maximise the number of moving walkways and escalators he could drag us on before boarding the plane. At 8am we boarded the plane along with two main groups of people - happy islander type people and Aussies with small children, a slightly less happy group.

The flight over was a little manic. Small plane. Small children. Big Islanders. I'll let you think about that. Luckily the Virgin staff were unwaveringly happy, helpful and patient. Landing at Nadi airport in Fiji we disembarked to hot and humid weather and lots of "Bula!" Yes! A bit of waiting around in the airport and then an hour's trip to the hotel. Some fresh Mango juice and some more waiting around and we make it to our room. Even though the pool was officially closed (it was after 6pm Fiji time) we all got into our swimmers and had a dip. Nice. 

Back to our room to get changed for dinner. The day fell apart from here. Aiden wanted to go to bed, Charlie didn't know which was was up and the dinner venue was not great. It was a buffet. I'm not that fond of buffet's. It was VERY crowded with Australian's on holiday who had obviously never eaten before. It was VERY noisy, not just with general people noise but with lots of clanging and dropping of things. And it took a little too long to get medication wine. It was fair to say our little family was over traveling and just needed to be in bed. Which we did very quickly once dinner was finished. 

The sun came up and this is our view.....

What's your favourite holiday destination? Do you like to be by the beach? Do you like a winter's break in the snow?