We’ve had quite a week in the Pobke household: bought tickets to go to FIJI; exhibited one of my prints (along with many of my buddies) at the ACT AIPP Epson Awards at Artworks; went to the dentist to get a new mouth guard (I’m a total teeth grinder and my last mouth guard was swallowed up by our cleaner’s vacuum… true story); went to Sydney with the darling He-Pobke, where we ate, wined and dined until our tum tums exploded; and finally, shot one of the most beautiful engagement sessions I’ve ever had the privilege of photographing (quick preview below).
We are super excited about Fiji: neither Clinton nor I have ever been, but it’s a place we’ve always wanted to go. And over the past few weeks, I’ve been stressing about August – the month of Clinton’s 30th birthday. Gulp. What do I get my husband to celebrate the big THREE-OH? I was tempted to buy us tickets to Splendour in the Grass, and nearly peed my pants upon seeing that our faaaavouritest bands ever were headlining! But then I really nearly peed my pants upon seeing the hefty price tag. “Hmmm… Do I spend $900 on music festival tickets or much, much less and buy airfare to someplace exotic?” I decided on the latter and mosied on over to the Virgin Airlines website.
Where. I. Found. Tickets. To. Fiji. For. $199. Booyakasha!!
BUY. So I did. And THAT, my dear friends, is how the Pobkes came to plan their first trip to Fiji in the middle of the Australian winter to celebrate Husband Pobke’s big wonderful momentous birthdizzle (are you reading this, dear Husband? I too would like an exotic getaway for my 30th… hint hint). :) Having bought our airfare, you’d think the hard part was all done. But no. We are finding it extremely difficult to narrow down which island to stay at, and how not to get ripped off. And please don’t get me started on the million and one ways we were ripped off while in Hawaii for our wedding + honeymoon. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we loved every second of our wedding in Maui and honeymoon in Kona… but how were we to know that those “tourist booths” along the streets are not tourist booths at all but rather timeshare scams? And when the lady at the shop said that many couples bought matching outfits (he with the hawaiian shirt and she with the matching hawaiian dress cut from the same fabric), we said “SURE!”
We were the only ones dressed like twins at the timeshare scam “brunch” we were forced to go to (lessons learned). But we really did have an awesome time, as the pictures below prove. (And please note that I have included evidence of our matching outfits at the bottom of the collage… No making too much fun.) :)
Needless to say, we are now a bit wary of too-good-to-be-true-deals on beautiful tropical islands and their ability to trap the weak (read: the Pobkes). So. If you know of any good, scam-free places we can stay at in Fiji (or any other travel tips to the South Pacific in general), we’d love to hear your thoughts + advice! We’ve still got a few months to plan this awesome 30th, and I’m determined to make it the best birthday EVER for my Hubbster (well, until his 40th anyway). Ideas welcome!
Anyway, I have to put up a few stills from a beautiful engagement session I shot this weekend in Sydney. Katie and Morgan are a young couple in deep deep love and it was such a joy to photograph their luuuurve for one another. I will go into more details of their love story with their proper full blog post coming up this week… but until then, feast your eyes on these!
