Mornin’ luvs! I promise I WILL get back to telling you about Fiji soon, but I just had to share these photos from yesterday. My friends and I heard the bridges to town might be opening, so we piled into cars and headed out, hoping to get to the grocery store for milk, bread and such.

It was absolutely gorgeous with bright, warm sunshine and billowing clouds scudding across the sky. We got stopped at the first bridge for a short wait, but they let us through and we drove over slowly, agog at the water rushing past only a few inches beneath us.

We drove along rutted dirt tracks because the pavement (known as bitumen to Aussies) had been picked up and washed away into neighboring fields.

At last we made it to town. Cars were lined up along the highway and side streets, Aussies sitting on the grass or walking the riverbank as they waited to see if the bridge would open. We wiled away the hours picking up hamburgers for lunch and sitting under a large tree shooting the breeze. It was fun to be out there with everyone, each person with their own story of surviving the flood. After five long hours the barricades were removed and we were waved forward. We were one of the first across. I could hardly believe my eyes as we rolled over the bridge. The entire city park was under water, only the eyes of a giant plastic hippopotamus visible above the water line.

We made it to the shopping center only to find half the shops closed – their owners unable to get to town. The grocery store had half empty produce shelves – the result of farm land under water, the crops flattened, trucks unable to bring in supplies. We got two of the few remaining milk cartons, some fresh fruit, and then we headed home again.

It was an amazing day, one I won’t soon forget. The sun is out again today and slowly but surely the water is drying up, stream, river and pond levels going down. It’s good to see the sun.