Fiji honeymoon! | FindPenguins

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Trip start
August 20, 2024
Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
Day 1: Traveling to Nadi
August 20, 2024 in Fiji ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Day one of our honeymoon adventure!
Erik and I boarded the plane from Redmond to San Francisco! We had some drinks before our flight and met an amazing lady named Amanda. Amanda was heading back to Santa Barbara after meeting with a chaotic friend. Amanda told us not only had she lost her house in the Santa Barbara fires years back but she had recently lost her house and several friends in Maui. Her story was very moving and we both viewed her as a strong beautiful woman. After finding out that she had a step daughter in Bend and that we lived in Bend she asked for my phone number. She said she traveled to Bend often and would be super grateful if we could hangout. I was super excited :) . An hour later we hopped on our quick flight to SF. Erik and I landed in San Fransisco where we had a 7 hour layover. We figured whatever and decided to adventure to the Fisherman’s Wharf which we realized with traffic took us an hour 😬 we had some yummy clam chowder, horrible drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe, and wandered around Pier 39. Before we knew it, it was time to get back to the airport. We boarded Fiji airlines for our 11:30pm flight to Nadi. I was nervous because I had never traveled so far before. We got comfy and tried our best to sleep with 2 screaming toddlers the whole 10 hour flight. Before we knew it breakfast was being served and we landed in Fiji on Thursday August 22nd at 5:30am.Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
Day 2: From Nadi to Toko Riki
August 22, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We landed in Nadi at 5:30 in the morning. After going through customs and collecting our bags, we headed outside into the humidity to wait for our ride to take us to the boat port. Our driver picked us up and told us about some of the Fiji culture. We learned that the phrase “Bula” meant hello and welcome in Fijian. Also that the word “vinaka” meant thank you and you’re welcome. He also told us the population of Fiji is 929,000, you do not tip on Fiji, and that the people of Fiji are very proud. We arrived at the port around 7am and said “vinaka”.

At the port we got our tickets for the ferry which we then realized did not leave until 1:40pm. We had 6 hours to kill. We sat, watched the ocean as the boats came in and out of the port, ordered some juice, Erik got a burrito and we relaxed. at 11 we were able to drop off our luggage to be held so that we could walk around the port. We went into local shops, took a few laps on the port, then admired the gorgeous ocean views. I was getting extremely antsy and smelled very bad. Finally at 1:20 we were able to board the ferry to Tokoriki.

The ferry had many people on it that were also going to different locations. We spoke to three women. One was from Australia and the other two were from New Zealand. It was fun talking about their culture and how excited we all were for our vacations.Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
First day at Toko Riki
August 22, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
After about an hour and a half we arrived at Toko Riki island resort. We had to transfer to a smaller boat from the ferry because the island jetty was so small! After getting off at the jetty, we sat in an outside lobby area. It was the most gorgeous place I’ve seen. The staff sang a welcome song, the “Bula Song” and we were given the rules of the resort then escorted to our villa. One of the rules being that there was no WiFi except in the lobby and guests were encouraged to not be on their phones unless taking photos.

Our villa was insane. One of the staff members showed us around. We had a king size bed that faced the ocean, our own infinity pool, private access to the beach, an indoor and outdoor shower, a living room, and a bottle of champagne waiting for us. Erik and I opened our suitcases, threw our swim suits on, and jumped in our infinity pool, then the ocean. We popped open our champagne and were amazed at where we were.
After getting settled in we set up our massage appointments, and the other activities we wanted to do. We got washed up and headed to complimentary cocktail tasting. It was so much fun and everyone was so happy. We had a delicious dinner with poke, crab wontons, and mahi mahi. Erik and I then enjoyed music and headed back to our room for some good sleep.Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
🌊🐟
August 23, 2024 in Fiji ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Erik and I woke up feeling refreshed. We did a workout, went for a hike up the hill, then jumped in the pool! We headed down to the restaurant and had an amazing breakfast. The breakfast menu at Tokoriki changes every 4 days, Erik had mini breakfast burritos island style! We went for a short walk after then decided to play in the ocean. I put Erik’s goggles on and explored for some seashells and rocks :)
We washed up and headed to the spa for our complimentary foot massage. It was amazing and I almost fell asleep. It was time to snorkel!!

We hop, skipped, and jumped to the dive shop to get ready for our snorkeling adventure! Except I was super nervous because I had never snorkeled before and I often get sea sick. We grabbed our gear and got on the boat with about 10 other people. The captain of the boat gave us the rules and said “okay bye have fun”
I was super nervous because I had never jumped out of a boat in snorkeling gear 🤯
Erik told me to hold my mask and just jump. So I did. I knew how to snorkel from practicing in the pool when I was about 8 so I figured I’d be good. Unfortunately, my goggles were not on correctly and my eyes burned so badly from the water so I kept having to come up. I was really excited though because I saw so much coral, blue fish, and even a sea turtle!! It was time to get back on the boat and my eyes were on fire! I wasn’t sure if I loved snorkeling. We got back to our room to get ready for our “villa indulgence experience” we had an hour massage on our pool deck. It was delightful especially after snorkeling. We then had a three course champagne dinner on our deck! It was the best seafood and drunken affogato ever.
We took our showers and fell into a deep sleep ready for what the next day had for us.Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
What is kokoda?!
August 24, 2024 in Fiji ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
We woke up Saturday did our workout, meditation breakfast routine and decided today would be our matching swim suit morning.
We headed down to the main pool beach area in our cool Kenny Flower matching attire. I ordered a frozen pina colada Erik had a fancy tropical drink and we soaked up the sun for most of the morning!
We spotted some people paddle boarding in the ocean and decided to give it a go!
Erik and I frolicked back to our rooms grabbed our rash guards, applied more sun screen, and grabbed my water proof fanny pack.
At the dive shop I grabbed a paddle board and Erik hopped in a kayak. We paddled out to the platform and decided to pretend we were mermaids and splashed around. The mermaids grew legs and got back on their boats, and headed to shore!
We then enjoyed more pina coladas 😬 and lounges by the pool. We also got a kitchen tour by one of one favorite staff “mama k”. We met Thomas, the head chef from England. He gave us a sample dish that was called “Kokoda. Kokoda is a tuna style ceviche with coconut milk, watermelon, passion fruit, and mint. My taste buds had never had something that amazing. It was nice time for sure.
Before dinner we chatted with an older couple from Auckland that had many travel adventures together. They were one of several amazing Kiwi couples we met.
Dinner was delicious as usual and then another relaxing bedtime listening to the ocean waves.Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
Storm!
August 25, 2024 in Fiji ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
Sunday we woke up and did a relaxing yoga workout. We had our breakfast and delicious guava juice 😋
Headed back to the room and decided to swim in the ocean. I collected beach treasures (that Erik made me put back because it was disturbing the Fiji beach and one day there may not be anymore rocks and seashells 😑). Anyway, I splashed around with Erik, got sandy butt cheeks and looked for hermit crabs. We then headed on our second snorkeling adventure. I was super nervous because a storm was coming so the water was choppy, and because my eyes burned so bad the last time. Erik assured me I would be okay. We adjusted my mask before we got on the boat so I felt more confident just nervous I would vomit on the boat. Erik and I also went over under the water signs. The signs were for “up” “shark” “turtle” “fish” and “ I’m okay”.
Everyone loaded up on the boat and this time they went over safety rules. They showed us where the life jackets were, first aid kits, and to make sure the reef was always to the left of us. They also apologized because we were suppose to go to two other reefs but a large storm was coming in.
It was better this time for me! I saw so many turtles and a reef shark! The ocean was getting very choppy so we had to get back on the boat a bit early. We came back to the main area for drinks, laid down on a couch outside and fell asleep. We woke up to the sound of a bunch of new people coming and walked back to our room also the rain was starting.
We washed up and saw a bunch of rain and wind come in but also wanted to take advantage of happy hour and we had an ocean front dinner reservation! Grabbed the umbrellas and rapidly walked to the main area. We saw some frogs bouncing around that I thought was fun.
We took out a game and started playing Scattegories . A young couple next to us said that our game looked like fun and they joined in. Marissa and Kevin are from Walnut Creek, California and were currently living two blocks from Pier 39 in San Fransisco. They lived a nice basic California life paying 10 grand a month in rent for their apartment with their chihuahua. They thought Erik and I lived a super cool life in Bend and wished they had opportunities to live in a small town with lakes, hiking, and skiing.
The storm got wild. Big bursts of thunder, wind ,and a downpour of rain. I wasn’t able to capture it but it’ll be a storm I’ll never forget. It was a fun night with wine games and laughing❤️ Instead of a romantic sashimi and champagne dinner we had a lovely dinner inside away from the storm. Big lobster tails and salad.
We grabbed our umbrellas to head back to the room when suddenly I saw something jump….then I saw multiple things jump. There were toads EVERYWHERE. It was pouring rain, super windy, with toads hopping around .
I kicked several on accident while walking and definitely screamed 😖 I basically screamed the whole way back to the room 🙃Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
Our last full day
August 26, 2024 in Fiji ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
We woke up knowing it was the last full day and wanted to soak it all in.
We both did not sleep well because we heard a weird sound throughout the night. In the morning we realized it was the stupid toads! There was also a bird hiding somewhere in our room that was tweeting very loudly 😂
We did our normal morning routine. Breakfast I had the most amazing passion fruit juice I’ve ever had. It was still drizzling so we had breakfast inside, while watching the toads try to get out of the ponds.
When we went back to our room we saw there were two toads in the small pond by our outside shower. The ones that kept us awake! After we put the swim suits on and we’re beach pool bums for most of the day. Slurping the last of the tropical drinks, and attempting to work on our tans. We were in lazy lazy mode! we had a nice game of ping pong were Erik quickly learned I’m not super uncoordinated 🥸 but he is definitely better.
Day turned into night and it was teppanyaki time!! This has to be one of my favorite experiences on our trip. On the way there I kicked another toad 😫. We were joined by three other couples. Paul and Celia from a small town in Australia, our buds from the night before Marissa and Kevin, and Maria and David from Costa Mesa, California. Ana who was my favorite staff at the resort and the sassiest took care of us throughout the experience. Our chefs name was Alyce and she was brilliant and man she knew her business cooking.
This 4 hour experience was impeccable. It was filled with laughter, wine, sashimi, sushi, lobster, games, fried rice, a cat that lived by the island to pick up anything that fell on the ground, and most important so much love and memories. I enjoyed listening to other people’s life stories and magic that their relationships held. When we wrapped up the experience we heard there was a hermit crab race 😂 I insisted that we went.
The hermit crab race were 10 hermit crabs basically racing. You place bets on a crab that we’re all given a famous persons name from another country. These were crabs that guest had caught and named earlier in the day. Erik placed a bet on the crab that someone caught from Canada and I placed a bet on the crab someone caught from China (that got second place 🥰). The whole thing sounds silly which it was but it was so much fun and it was time for bed.Read more
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Fiji honeymoon!Allison Donzella
Bye bye
August 27, 2024 in Fiji ⋅ 🌙 24 °C
We woke up on Tuesday “today” knowing it was time to say goodbye. We woke up to the sound of a bird chirping then a cat aggressively meowing wondering if the bird was gone 😂. We had a beautiful ocean front breakfast and looked out into the ocean. We slowly walked back to our rooms (no frogs this time). Packed very slow and left our room. We sat outside went for a few walks and stared at the ocean. We were sang a beautiful goodbye song that brought tears to our eyes. I’ve never had a vacation where a place felt like a home. It’s an unusual experience. We said our goodbyes and got back on the ferry to the port. The waves were really choppy and in fact this time I came very close to vomiting while Erik napped. We had amazing seafood at the port and headed to Nadi to catch our flight to Los Angeles, California.

Erik and I are more than grateful for this experience that will always be in our hearts 🇫🇯🇫🇯 we’re jazzed for what adventure will be nextRead more
WOW you had quite the honeymoon vacation. Pictures are great and I love your matching bathing suits how cute of you. [Aunt JJ]
8/28/24Reply
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Trip end
August 27, 2024