Punta Cana photos

A week home, now off to the Dominican Republic!

Not even a week after being home from Australia we were jet setting as a family to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for a week for Amanda's Graduation trip! Man I had never been in so many airports or planes in my entire life, and on top of that going from one suitcase to another extremely jet lagged. I didn't know what day it was let a lone the time, but I was so excited to get some family time finally! We landed in the Dominican and it was all a blur, took a taxi to our hotel and could not believe the size of the place, we were staying at the new Palace Resort, affiliated with the Hard Rock Cafe, it was MASSIVE! All I wanted to do was sleep and for the next 24 hours all i did was lay out, eat, but mostly sleep.

back on the East Coast

Home sweet home...

After our wild time in Fiji we were al very ready to make the long trip back home, To tell you the truth I do not remember the flight from Fiji to LAX, I think I slept the entire 14 hours, no lie! It was so surreal that we were headed home after 6 long months away and all the experiences we had and crazy memories we made! I knew before I even left that one day I had to come back! Australia was unlike any place in the world and fulfilling a lifelong dream was truly a dream come true I was so lucky to get the experience I would give everything to live it all over again! As we landed in LAX, everyone had warned us of reverse culture shock well taking our taxi to the next gate where me and Steph's connecting flight was I think I was slapped in the face with it! People were rude and didn't have australian accents it was beautiful and tropical surroundings I wanted to get back o the plane and head back. Me and Steph had a dinner in the airport still in shock that we were back in the United States and called our parents to let them know in just a short time we would see them! Me and Steph said goodbye and before I knew it I was on my flight from LAX to JFK to see my family!!! It was the longest 5 hours of my LIFE! Finally touched down and I could not get to them fast enough! What a crazy feeling it was seeing them after such a long time! It was good to be home now where was my dunkin doughnuts and Panera!? :)

Beachchombers photos

Beachchombers Island Fiji

What can I possibly begin to say about beachchomber island, well it certainly lived up to its name as the party island! It is only about the size of two football fields with a drinking/eating hut, a bathroom/shower hut, a rec hut and a giant cabin where they stuff 200 drunk collage kids into. As this was our last island before heading back to the states we were exhausted and just ready to relax. Was not going to happen here on party central when it was always FIJI TIME! So lets get into our accommodations... there is this wide open hut with probably close to 100 bunk beds inside, thank god we were up on the second level where there were only about 10 bunk beds, it was loud and oh so hot and sticky. As soon as we got there it was happy hour where we came to find that you were able to buy beer towers at only 25$, these things were huge! We came to sit next to what seemed seasoned vets of these towers, one guy fell off the bench, it was probably 11AM. After soaking in the party scene we headed to the beach to tan the entire day long, then it was dinner time. Always wary of the food from our first island we found that it was a buffet and pretty damn good! After dinner everyone went back to shower and to get ready to party! The bathroom was like a freshman year dorm...disgusting! All I wanted to do was brush my teeth and two people were getting it on in the girls section in the shower, and they weren't wearing shoes EW. I am surprised I didn't die from some water born disease because who knows where it comes from! We headed out to the bar and had some drinks met some really fun guys, shared a beer tower and played come cards before heading to bed, couldn't believe that it was our second to last night in Fiji! The next morning we woke up had breakfast, people were already on their second beer tower, pretty sure they never went to bed, one girl passed out at the table while smoking a cigarette, classy British girl. We then explored the island a little more, went on the most hilarious banana boat ride ever just the three of us girls, our boat driver tried so hard to fling us off, didn't work we were just too strong! We snorkeled around a little and got lunch and tanned, pretty much living the dream as always. The night came around again and it was so sad our last night out island hopping, but we were so ready to get back and to take a real shower and eat Panera bagels and drink Dunkin Doughnuts coffee, I was craving it so bad! It was another wild night on the island and people were extra wild, we met up with our friends from the night before shared stories and our plans for the future! me and Steph decided to head in a little early because we were so tired and Steph had a little bit of a stomach ache, little did we know it was just the beginning of our night...The other Steph stayed out talking with a boy, heard and felt her come back later that night...as she climbed into the bunk above me spilling the entire beaches worth of sand all over my face and pillow... ver try and sleep covered in sand when you weren't laying on the beach? yea it doesn't happen! The other Steph s stomach was hurting bad and she kept getting up to go to the bathroom ended up cutting her toe as she was jumping over someone else's puke on the way back to the cabin, we freaked out for a little thinking she might die from gang green, but decided to just try and fall asleep anyway. As imagined we were up bright an early, but no one else was...hmm wonder why, we headed straight for the beach and realized the craziest thing as we waded in the crystal clear turquoise water that at that exact same time on the exact same day half way across the world we would be home.... such a wild feeling and with that we headed to the cabin packed up and said see ya never to the wild crazy island on our way back to Nadi!

Manta Ray photos

Manta Ray Resort Fiji

After our crazy night dive the previous night we woke up and packed for our next adventure to the next island on our Fiji Island hopping tour! we were off to Manta Ray resort where we heard that you get a chance to swim with Manta Rays daily! we decided to stay here for one night and then set sail to our final island the the rumored party island! We got back onto the big boat and sailed to Manta ray, while tanning on the boat and eating pringles, what better life! We decided to continue our diving vacation theme and as soon as we stepped aboard Manta Ray we booked a two dive trip a cave dive and a wall dive! We had a couple hours to kill beach side before we were off on our dives so we laid out soaking up the sun! Me and Steph had head aches so were trying to feel better as we heard the Manta Ray sighting horn, said we would catch the next one to try and feel better for the dive, the other Steph went out and saw 7 Manta rays, turns out that was the only sighting to be had on our short trip there, I was sooo disappointed!!! At least we made friends with an orange tabby island kitty and read and tanned lived the life! I can hands down say that Manta Ray had the best food options! Because we actually HAD options it wasn't a set meal, we got to choose our entrée! It was quite the treat and there was hot water to shower! We were so excited, ahh the simple things in life haha. The dives were soo cool, saw a black and white fish I had never seen before more Fungia, a remora and a sea snake! The caves were so neat! There was a really strong currant on the wall dive and we almost kept hitting the coral ledge. Took a coconut break on our way back and got ready for our party island adventure the following day, it was really sad that Fiji was almost coming to an end and this amazing 6 month adventure was almost over.

Shark Dive photos

Coral View Shark dive Fiji

Being in Fiji knowing that the reality of us being able to come back here and wanting to stay in the accommodations we were staying in was pretty unlikely, I personally enjoy not sleeping under mosquito nets with 60 other people in the same cabin. SO we decided what better way to throw caution to the wind than to go on a shark dive! Ok, their equipment is not exactly new and theres a chance to see hammerheads of course we are going!! We sign up and I get my camera ready and soon we were off on the boat to the shark location. Our Dive master explains the dive to us and what we will be doing once we descend to the bottom. Heres the overview we are boating off into the open ocean drop anchor roll backwards off the boat in the middle of nowhere descend 10 meters to a reef outcrop in shark infested waters, hold onto a rope and watch as the dive master throws bait into the water in front of us... one word AWESOME!! Here it goes!!! So we all survived the dive! Had a touch and go moment as one o the Black Tip Reef Sharks snagged some bait and sailed inches over the top of our heads! I think I used half my Oxygen during that 30 seconds! We had so much fun on the dive we decided to schedule a night dive for that same night! We went back to our bungalow to change and head to sun bathe for the rest of the day. At dinner we couldn't wait to get back in the water. All of us were a little nervous to do the night dive, no one had done one before. We met up with our Dive Master at around 9:00PM but who actually knows its always Fiji time. We went over the plan for the dive, we would be doing a beach dive, which just means walking into the water until you have to go under, go out for a while go down to the bottom and turn off our lights and let our eyes adjust! Hold on he just said we are going to go to the bottom turn off our lights and just chill there...we just did a dive were we saw at LEAST 60 sharks, I know enough about the ocean to know that um the nocturnal fish are a lot scarier! Now that we are all slightly more nervous we get our gear and head out. What a dive! My flashlight stopped working half way through the dive we actually lost Steph at one point, found her on the surface! Saw a parrotfish sleeping in a bubble, saw lionfish and blue sea stars. The current was unruly coming back in and we kept getting knocked all over the coral. It was interesting for sure, and we had nice cold showers to look forward too! HAHA it might be some time and a different country that I do a night dive again, but so glad that we had the chance to make some more unforgettable memories!