Today was the main reason we hired a car. We had to drive to Fiji's capital, Suva, which was approximately a 4-hour drive, one way, in order to visit the US Embassy to get a Special Power of Attorney notarised. That meant a very early start in order to reach Suva in time for our appointment.

Although the journey was roughly a 12-hour round trip in total along the Coral Coast, which we had sailed along last year, the road was in a fairly good condition, surprisingly, but returning in the dark became a very treacherous ordeal indeed, as there were little to no road markings, no lights, no cat's eyes, etc, not to mention, complete maniacs driving. Fortunately we were within an hour of Port Denarau by the time the sun set.

We were, however, reminded alot of Samoa, with the numerous colourful villages along the way, the dense, tropical landscape and the beautiful flowers and gardens bordering the road on either side. What we weren't expecting to see were the numerous pine and fir trees, which seemed misplaced amongst all the tropical vegetation, as well as the number of mosques, which almost out numbered the Hindu temples and churches we saw. One church in particular was definitely a blast from the past for Elaine and a reminder of her days in Witbank, South Africa - The Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Primary School. It was also lovely to receive so many waves and smiles as we passed through the villages.

We broke up the journey on the way to Suva by stopping in at the very fancy private resort, the Nanuku Auberge, where we received a warm welcome, used the bathooms and enjoyed a cappuccino, while overlooking the turquoise waters and the island of Beqa.

We knew we were approaching Suva when the skies clouded over and it started to rain. Suva receives an exponentially higher amount of rainfall than the rest of the country due to its location on the southeastern corner of V itu Levu and the high mountain range that surrounds it.

It was our experience, however, at the US Embassy that provided us with a momentary return to the Parallel Universe.

We arrived earlier than our appointment time, but the guards would not notify the notary services of our arrival because we didn't have a contact name. So, we called the services to obtain a name and were informed that it was lunch time and to return closer to our appointment time, by which time the services will have contacted the guards. With that we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at the Royal Suva Yacht Club and had hoped to catch up with Time Bandit (Ann snd Stuart) during this very short interlude, but to no avail. By then it was roughly 1345, so we made our way back to the Embassy, parked in exactly the same parking spot as before and prepared to walk to the entrance again.

This time, however, we had a guard approach us and inform us that we needed to move the c ar to another parking area. Once we reached this alternative parking area, we realised it was too far for Elaine to walk back to the Embassy entrance and it was pouring with rain. Having followed up with the guard at this alternative parking facility on whether or not there was perhaps a shorter walkway, the decision was taken by this guard that we should drive back to the original parking area, drop Elaine off and then have Roy return to the alternative parking area with the car and walk the distance back to the entrance in the rain. Sounded like a plan. So, we followed those instructions only to be told by the guard at the original parking area, that since it wasn't exactly 1400 and, therefore, still lunch time, we had to return to the alternative parking area and wait until precisely 1400 before coming back, dropping Elaine off and returning the car to the alternative parking area. Why don't you all guess what time it was by now. Yep. 1355. So, we returned to the alterna tive parking area, waited one minute and repeated the process. By now we were both ready to do someone bodily harm and, of course, late for our appointment by the time we progressed through the myriad of security checkpoints within the building.

To add insult to injury, we were then kept waiting nearly half an hour before anyone approached us from the notary services, following which we had the pleasure of dealing with three different individuals who took nearly an hour to complete a five minute task and, with each passing minute, we knew we'd be on the road back to Port Denarau in the dark, the exact situation we had tried to avoid by requesting the very first appointment after lunch. So, eleven guards, three office staff and $150USD later, we emerged with our notarised document, having to hightail it back to Paw Paw.

It's fair to say that we spent the vast majority of our return trip shaking our heads in dismay at what we had just experienced! You couldn't make this shit up if you tried!