Shadows and Sunsets

Final blog of the holiday has to be given over to some of the extraordinary sunsets we saw most nights....along with a crazy "six o'clock" shadow...namely Dad's beard that he grew for ten days while we were there but has now removed in the interest of client decorum and it just getting too itchy in the heat.

Polynesian night

One of the highlights of the holiday for us all was the polynesian night at the resort where we were entertained by the local Fihjian equivalent of the redcoats from Butlins....this time kitted out in the traditional Fijian shirst with attached guitars......actually they played each night and also at breakfast....heady mix of Fijian love songs, John Denver, Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Simon and Garfunkel etc...afraid to say I knew quite a few of the songs.

The dancing part of the vening was a mix of tradiotnal dances from a large number of the South Sea islands....Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, etc.......Dad liked the ladies and mum liked the men dancers.......although Mum was a little disappointed that the women used cocunut shells for bras but the men did not seem to use them for any of their "protection".

We did think about getting one of the grass skirts for the boys who both showed remarkable aptitude for doing the hula dancing but knew we would struggle to get them through quarantine in Australia so we contented ourselves with some serious Fat Boy Slim type "shaking of our ass".

Aye Aye Sailors....

We had a couple of days out on boats on trips to islands and snorkelling...the first one not too successful as the engine broke down and we had to idle into the resort and got back very late at night..tired and wet...the second was much more successful with Sam, Nikki and I all doing some fantastic snorkelling...and Joe seeing it all from a glass bottomed boat too.

The first trip we were due to snorkel we only had fifteen mins due to the delays and we did not see any of othe hoped for dolphins...but we did get a lovely meal at Musket Cove and we did not pay for the trip at all.....but we were blessed with a beautiful sunset....as we cruised home at a snail like pace of 6 knots!!!!!!

On our second day snorkelling we had a fantastically different day....fast clipper boat with Fijian seamen singing shanty songs the whole way. The island we went too was stunning....you were able to literally walk into the water and swim among the coral and the water was lovely and warm, shallow up to about 500m off shore....and was beautifully complemented by a beach bbq and game of beach football for the boys...Sam scored a hatrick and Joe was a terrier in defence even scoring a sensational penalty too.

The coral was as ever stunning, and the array of different fish took the breath away....Sam and I came within a couple of feet of stingrays twice....which so soon after the tragic accident to Steve Irwin certainly made us stop and think.

The trip home was wahed down with large mugs of tea and biscuits and was topped off by a stunning sunset that night back at the resort....see later posts on the blog for our stunning sunsets.

Fish feeding frenzy

Yes there were some amazing animals in fiji like stingrays and some wonderfully coloured sea snakes (or maybe not so wonderful) lets start with the ones inland to us. The fish are mad with the bread and we feed them every day and you have to put the whole piece of bread in the water for a feeding frenzy. The folk of first landing (this guys name was Jone...pronounced Jonny) did a fish feeding thing at noon you would get really big ones around 30cm. We would sometimes also feed them after our breakfast.

We have included a few pictures of the bridge where we fed them from and of the fish themselves.

Fijian adventures part 1

First Landing resort was beautiful and our beachside bure ( pronounced buray) was perfect accommodation for us. We look straight out of our beds on sunny mornings at the clear blue sea, and there was lovely vegetation all around us. We had a couple of overcast or wet days there.......see photos elsewhere of us kayaking....but most of the time was beautiful. We spent alot of time just by the pool or on the beach with boys, books etc and have come back very relaxed....we have attached above a couple of photos of the resort as a taster for the other parts of our adventure which will follow on successive posts.

The Fijian people were wonderful.....so friendly with us all but especially the kids and we were well looked after in culinary terms too.....see photo of Nikki with her lobster dinner!!!!!!!

Boys relived some of my childhood by eating sugar cane too......oh yes and there were poisonous cane toads around our bure each night too.

Fiji here we come....

After what has been a very intense first seven months down in Australia we are all now very ready for a break and ten days sat on a beach in Fiji.

For those of you who are interested www.firstlandingfiji.com will give you some idea of where we are.

Nikki has done another sterling job this week as I have had to be in Auckland for a couple of days....we are now looking forward to some relaxing family time, swimming, snorkelling, books, sleeping, sunning, picking umbrellas out of fruit cocktail glasses by the pool etc, etc....... Holiday mood has well and truly started for the boys....they went wild on their bikes in the park this afternoon...and that was after having their hair dyed purple yesterday for Wild Hair Day to end the term.

We have a shocking start at 4am tomorrow so bed time is nigh upon us at 7pm on a Melbourne evening...just have to finish cleaning down the BBQ from our traditional Aussie cook-out tonight and then we are away with the fairies.

Will up date blog with some pictures on our return but in meantime content yourselves with imagine of beach that we shall barely be moving from for the next ten days.

Golfing bonanza.......or is it a Masquerade

This has been another eventful week for the Farrens with Sam starring in a Masquerade Ball at school........and then this morning at the Rugby club annual awards he was presented with the "Best and Fairest" award for his age group....he is shown receiving his trophy from his team coach.......both boys are already signed up for the new season and I have put my hand up to join the Club Committee with all the spare time I have not got.

We had a team BBQ for the Melbourne portion of Tim's National Practice Group on Saturday evening...broke in the new gas BBQ.......and now feel genuine Aussies with our BBQ on the deck ready for long warm days when e leave and eat out there all the time.

Having tolied valiantly in preparation for the BBQ yesterday evening I left the afternoon free for Nikki by taking the boys for a round of golf........mixed play...but setting at the local public course is sensational it is hard to concentrate on the golf.

Off to NZ for Tim this week for three days...and then we all head for Fiji next Sunday for well earned break....www.firstlandingfiji.com/......to sit on the beach, read, sleep, swim, snorkel, golf, and generally relax...after a full on first seven months here we are ready for the break...and with new Farren arriving around 23 December it might be the last real break for a little while.

The day we met Kylie

sams Athletics Sports Day

It was a great day I did lots of stuff I did high jump,long jump,triple jump,hurdles and a load of other sports.Lets start at the beginning of the day in order we got on a coach to the reserve at box hill. We where told to get into our houses ireland,cato,jones and gardiner then our subjects where read out we started of with long jump I jumped 3 metres 50 cm. Then we went onto triple jump and I jumped 3 metres 25 cm
then we had a break eat drink bla bla bla and we went onto high jump. It was a little bit hard cause the mat was high and it was not easy to jump my record was 90 cm (good for that size mat). Then we did
hurdles I should of got a ribbon for that but she gave it to someone else I dont know why then we went to shuttle relay I did well with that we had discus I through 11 meters 3. Then we went to shot put I threw
4 meters 80 cm and finally we had sprints it was the first 3 who got in but there where six heats the guy who set us off had a cap gun I came 2nd in my first race. In the next race I came 5th not to bad then it was the end of the day we then had the circular relay we will find out on monday who won.


Tune in next week for a instalment from Sam farren!