Hi Everyone! This little update should tie up the remainder of what we did in New Zealand and then Fiji.

On Thursday 25th January after a short drive up to the bay of islands we stopped for breakfast in (town opposite Russell) and then took the ferry across to the peninsula town of Russell. We found some digs for the night and then spent the afternoon on the beach. After a couple of hours of boredom that evening we decided to have a look around the village. It seemed that the only thing which was happening was some live music coming from a pub in the centre of town. We investigated further and found that it was actually 60's soul group "The Drifters" (ask your parents) who were doing a tour of Australia and NZ. We paid to get tickets and spent the evening dancing away to all the old classics such as "under the boardwalk", "saturday night at the movies" and "Thriller" (not really, that was Michael Jackson).

On Friday 26th January we had to take the Getz-mobile back to Auckland so we left Russell and hit the road bright and early. We dropped our bags off at the first hostel we could find and then drove to the Maui depot at the airport. After dropping off the car we shared a taxi back with a friendly Kiwi and went for an explore around the city. We had heard some pretty bad stuff about Auckland, so were expecting the worst. However, it seemed like a nice place, though we only had time to venture down the main streets. We then had the mammoth task of sorting out our bags before our flight to Fiji on the 27th.

On Saturday 27th January we had breakfast in Auckland and then made our way to the airport. Not so much to report about today except that we were forced to watch the horrendous "Flicka" movie on the plane (I won't even go into describing the mindless nonsense which made up the story but if you’ve seen it, you will understand). At Nadi airport, after disposing of some contraband nuts which we had inadvertedly sneaked into the country we were welcomed by some very friendly locals (all playing ukuleles) and taken to the lovely Nadi Bay Resort for the evening.

On Sunday 28th January we decided to go and have a little look around the city so we took a very cheap taxi (paid for by the hotel) into the centre. Once we arrived, we remembered that Sunday was possibly not the best day to discover a new city given that all of the shops were closed and the streets were deserted. After a bit of a walk we decided that sunning ourselves by the pool was the more entertaining option so we jumped back in a taxi and topped up our tans back at the resort.

On Monday 29th January we got up stupidly early (like 8am) and jumped on a bus to the jetty so that we could commence our trip around the yasawa islands. Our first destination was to be the beautiful Nanuya Lailai, home of the "Blue Lagoon" beach where both "Blue Lagoon" (shockingly) and "Swiss Family Robinson" were filmed. After around 4 hours on the boat we arrived at the Sunrise Lagoon resort on the island. We were greeted and fed by the staff there, all of whom kept on saying "welcome home" (I didn't want to correct them!). After getting settled into our bure (shared hut) we took some snorkelling gear and hiked over the top of the island to the blue lagoon beach. When we arrived there we were gobsmacked at how beautiful it was - we had found paradise for the umpteenth time since leaving the UK! We spent the rest of the day snorkelling and sunbathing and trying to enjoy the relaxed Fijian way of life as much as possible. That night, back at the resort we were treated to a welcome dance and the first of many "mystery meat" meals (I think it was supposed to be chicken). After tea we were given the option of getting involved in a kava welcoming ceremony which are common when you are a guest at a Fijian home. Kara is a local drink formed from grinding a root down and mixing it with water and then drinking the remaining muck which, if you drink enough, can have hilousonagenic effects. Needless to say, we skipped the ceremony (we had actually tried it before and the taste is almost as strange as the after-effects!) and stuck to our normal drug - alcohol!

On Tuesday 30th January, I (alec) decided to go on a cave diving trip. We took a boat out to a small local island where we were lead down some steps into a large cave with several smaller tunnels leading off it. To enter these tunnels required swimming underwater for a couple of meters (it felt like 50 but was more like 5 or 10m!) which was pretty intense but once you were on the other side, it was amazing to be in a cave lit only by the blue light brought through from the tunnel you just swam through. Quite often, as we passed further into the caves and tunnels we were swimming in pitch black which was quite scary but strangely relaxing at the same time (if that’s possible!). After we had swam through the first set of tunnels we went back into the main cave and entered another side passage which led into a smaller cave with climbable walls. We climbed up the walls and came out at a vantage point high up in the main cave. From here we took turns to jump down into the splash pool at the bottom of the cave. Meanwhile, back at the island, Debbie had managed to find some people who were going to the blue lagoon so she joined them and gave the beautiful beach another visit. When I got back to the island, I met Debbie back at the blue lagoon and we spent another afternoon trying to fit in with the locals by doing as little as possible. That evening we were invited to a neighboring resort to witness one of the most bizarre sights of our trip so far. The manager and chef at this resort were both famous Fijian drag queen cabaret acts called "Brittney" (after his favourite artist) and "the queen" (probably because britney was already taken). That night they had decided to put on a show of their favourite choreographed dance routines, which would have been more impressive had they not both tripped over several stray dogs during each performance and been upstaged several times by a toddler who thought he could do better moves (he was very good!). After an hour of iron clad synchronised dance moves and emotional lip syncing, we made our way back to the sanity of our resort and tried to piece together what we had just been exposed to!

On Wednesday 31st January we left Nanuya Lailai and made our way to the White Sandy Beach resort on Naviti Island. We were greeted by more ucalailis and coconut cocktails and we realised that we were in store for a slightly less relaxed time than the previous resort. We visited the nearby "honeymoon beach" but since the tide quickly came in and only left about 4 foot of beach to rest on so we made our way back to the resort. We were invited on a sunset boat cruise to the more exclusive resort on the island. We quickly realised once we had left the mainland that this was more an excuse for the excursion staff to get drunk than for the purposes of our entertainment. We decided to hold our disgust and join them in trying the local beverage of lager with rum (surprisingly nice!). We landed at the neighbouring resort which was very nice, even if we didn’t really feel like we belonged there! On the return journey we were treated one of the most stunning sunsets we have seen since Africa and even the drunken guy who was steering the boat badly couldn't stop us from enjoying the evening! That night we all met on the beach and sat around the bonfire as one of the staff from the resort (NAME??) treated us all to his accoustic rendition of popular westlife tracks (which all sounded hauntingly beautiful, given the surroundings and such - im not gay or owt!). During the bonfire I (Alec) got chatting to a german couple who were also staying on the island called Henry and Sabina. Henry was a well established German TV celebrity who had recently fallen from fame with the axing of his show (see
http://www.rtl.de/comedy/fnn/58741.php under Henry Grundler) who, although seemed pretty depressed by the fact that he was now 41 and unemployed with little prospects (he had started his career as a newsreader and then became a John Stewart style comedy newsreader and so couldn't return to the former), had some very interesting stories to tell (and a 27 year old girlfriend!). After a couple hours of chatting and drinking we decided that his best plan of action was to go freelance and film breaking news stories and then sell them to the highest bidding companies (it made sense at the time I promise).

On Thursday 01st February we went on a long snorkelling trip around the reef surrounding the island and saw some amazing and bizarre fish, including one which looked like a stick and one with it's eyes at the rear of its body, near it's tail (which may have been a squid admittedly). After this we did some sunbathing before waving off our old friends which we had met the night before and welcoming the new arrivals to the island which included a scottish couple and a group of lads from the isle of man (who had heard all of the jokes and proceeded in beating me to post each time I came up with a new insult relating to the generally small population of their homeland - bloody manxers!). That night, the scottish couple treated us to some of the drinking games which they had supposedly created themselves (even though many of us had played them before - go figure!). One of them was a wrist snapping challenge to rotate your arms all the way around your body whilst holding a broomstick (sounds complex but it is quite simple, and rather painful). The other involved picking up a steadily shrinking cardboard box with your teeth. Surprisingly, given my generally average fitness and flexibility which would embarrass a dime bar, I (Alec), managed to be the only person to make it to, and complete the final round where the cardboard box was essentially a piece of card! I would be paralysed from the neck down the following day but for that night I was king of the cardboard retrieval world!

On friday the 2nd February we visited the local village on Naviti island where many of the staff from our resort came from. We were greeted by the local chiefs and partook in another Kara ceremony (fortunately this time the pixies didn't come to steal my feet afterwards) before we were given the chance to buy gifts and trinkets from the family markets. After this we went to the village's school where we were treated to singing and dancing by lots of little Fijian children in purple uniforms. We took loads of photographs with them and each time they were amazed when we showed them how they looked in the camera's monitor. We then had to leave Naviti island and our next stop was Bounty island. By the time we arrived at Bounty the rain had finally come (it was supposedly rainy season and we were yet to have had a bad day!). Fortunately we were treated to meats without mystery and real coffee so the weather did not upset us too much. That night, the entertainment leader (who looked strangely like Keenan from Keenan and Kel fame) ran a karaoke competition which he also took a large part in himself (even though he sucked very badly at it). Unfortunately, the poor organisation of the karaoke meant that not many people were taking part - extreme action was required so we took the stand and unleashed a magical rendition of Africa by Toto (for the third time this trip!) and instantly the atmosphere in the room changed from one of general boredom to one of celebration and awe of what the people had just witnessed. Needless to say, the party ended better than it started.

On Saturday 3rd February we visited the very strange looking Celebrity Love Island set which comprises of several empty shacks with lots of holes where hot tubs and toilets used to be. One of the main buildings and the pool were missing but then we realised when we saw some photographs that they were now the bar and pool of the resort we were staying at (the Fijians obviously don’t like waste!). We did a bit of canoeing and sunbathing with the rest of the day and then moved onto our final destination in Fiji - South Sea Island. We had heard good things about this place and we were both quite interested by the idea of staying on an island the size of a small football pitch. Unfortunately, all the people who we spoke to were apparently just wrong - it was a big mess with lots of litter and rubble everywhere, it was twice as expensive as any of the other islands and the staff were not very enthusiastic. We did get to do some crab racing that night where we represented England and came fifth out of about 30 crabs. Other than that, it was a dump!

On Sunday 4th February we spent our last day on the islands doing a bit of sunbathing and snorkelling (joined by many strange and fully clothed Chinese people!) and then left the island around 3pm to go back to the mainland. Since we thought we were flying to LA that night, we took a bus straight to the airport, only to find that we were actually a day early since we had never bothered to properly check our tickets. Slightly embarrassed, we took a taxi back to Nadi Bay Resort (via the only McDonalds in the area) and checked back in for our last (definitely) night in Fiji.

On Monday 5th February we realised that I had left the MP3 player on South Sea Island (probably because we were so keen to leave!) so I managed to mooch a free taxi ride into town and then a very cheap bus to the jetty (we had hardly any Fijian money left!) and then waited there for about 2 hours for one of the miserable staff members from the island to come back to the mainland with the package. Meanwhile, obviously very concerned about the whole situation, Debbie sunbathed all day! I eventually returned and we ate some tea and made our way to the airport (again!). This time we had arrived on the right day and we spent most of the evening with a very nice dutch couple who we had met on the islands.

Tune in next time for the final installment!

We hope youre all well, all our love,

Alec and Debbie