The day of our departure from Mana Island, we received an E-Mail letting us know that our flight to L.A. has a delay of 10 hours and so instead of flying the next evening (Monday) we were supposed to fly Tuesday morning. As information in the internet were quite contradictory, Lawrence recommended us to go directly to the airport and ask. That was actually really handy, as Karl (from Wellington) arrived soon from Auckland, so we spontaneously decided to surprise him after talking to Fiji Airways. Fiji Airways clearly told us that our actual flight was cancelled, but also that we could take an earlier flight on Monday morning. Before we wanted to decide that, we went together with Karl for lunch and a cold beer and had a chat for 2 hours. He gave us a lot of tips for our travel through the States and offered us to ask a few friends in San Francisco whether they could host us. Again a short but amazing meeting with him!

After catching up with Karl, we decided to catch the flight the next morning, but unfortunately at this point the flight was booked out why we had to wait until Tuesday morning. But it’s not that bad and we were supposed to get a hotel close to the airport for that night. Back at Lawrence, we had a relaxed afternoon and went in the evening together with Dee to a fire show in one of the hotels.

Also the next day was full of relaxing and in addition the Canadian girls and the Californian guy from Mana came back and we chatted with them for a long time. In the evening, we had a farewell Kava from Lawrence and afterwards we drove to the airport to get a hotel for the night. As we arrived quite late, most of the people were already accommodated and we got a taxi to the hotel quite fast. Our hotel figured out to be further away from the airport than we would have been at Lawrence’s place. So the whole driving wasn’t really worth it, although we got a free dinner and an airport shuttle in the morning at 5.30, as our flight should depart at 8h.

Then the shock. An incredible amount of people tried to reach the check-in, and of course we were at the end of the queue including all the others of our hotel. But we had enough time and slowly the queue moved forward. Finally arriving at the counter, the fun continued. The nice lady already looked at us quite sceptic, just to tell us that the last seats in the plane were just given to another couple. WHAT??? She tried to push us in the business class, but there was only one seat left. So we went off to the service desk to get another flight. We were accompanied direction service desk by annoyed faces of 4 other Americans and 2 Norwegians, who were together with us in the hotel.

Again a long queue! At least, after one hour of waiting (the same time our flight departed) all of us received a voucher for food and drinks upon request. As there were no chairs in the service area, we tried to make ourselves comfortable in wheelchairs and played cards with two Americans. When it was finally our turn, we were told that the only possibility is to fly the next morning, so we got another hotel for the night. Shit happens!

At least the (btw really kind) man at the service desk offered us on request a nice resort close to the beach instead of an ugly transit hotel at the airport. After we talked with the others, he even put us all in the same resort and we got again food vouchers while the service employee organised the hotel. A second breakfast and an hour later, the shuttle to the hotel arrived.

This time a really nice resort including pool, big rooms and delicious lunch and dinner. We spent the most time at the pool together with the others and gained a few new friendships. There is always something positive in negative situations, and we didn’t have any time pressure either.

The next morning, the shuttle bus brought us to the airport and as promised the day before we were allowed to check in at the business class desk, which saved a lot of waiting. Finally (!), our flight to L.A. departed, where we found a couchsurfer during our time on Mana Island, but this is a new chapter!