Fiji is your typical postcard paradise. Although we've seen some stunning islands and beaches in both Asia and Australia, this series of islands is something else.
In Australia some beaches were a little too crowded and in Asia beautiful beaches were prone to litter and hard selling hawkers that wouldn't give you any time to relax. On the famous 'Fiji time', if you don't like relaxing then you would hate Fiji. I've not felt so calm in months due to all the planning and moving around that we have done.
Then there are the Fijians - some of the friendliest people we've come across. If you aren't pulling up to an island or leaving whilst being serenaded by the staff on the shore with guitars then it's a disappointment. We were also treated to a lot of singing, dancing performances and took part in a cava ceremony. Cava is a drink made from some plant roots. It's supposed to numb your tongue and relax you. It was like drinking muddy water. One little half shell of a coconut was enough for me, thanks.
I love how the men are so manly that they can pull off wearing a long skirt and flowers in their hair. You wear a flower behind your right ear if you're taken and behind your left if you're single. Only one resort handed out flowers every evening before dinner for everyone to join in but flowers were at every resort, everywhere! On your bed, in the bathroom, as decorations everywhere, I really don't know how they grow enough, but it's nice.
The pass we got was basically unlimited travel, accommodation and meals for 6 nights, 7 days. At some resorts you had to pay a little extra for accommodation or food and we had to pay for 2 extra nights when our pass ended and also to get the boat transfer.
Most of our accommodation was in 'bures', little huts which were lovely. Hammocks were scattered around every island and that was where you could usually find Ben.
We stayed on 6 different islands (plus the mainland Nadi where you fly into), staying at 4 islands for 1 night and 2 islands for 2 nights. You called places by the name of the resort, not the island as some islands had a few resorts on them in different places. They were Coral View, Long Beach, Korovou, Mantaray, Waya Lai Lai and Bounty Island. Long Beach only had 5 other people staying on it, it was so quiet and beautiful. The islands varied in size but none were that big. Our smallest island; Bounty Island, where 'Celebrity Love Island' was filmed, you could walk around in a slow 30-minute stroll. The other islands we didn't really explore to be honest. Fiji has felt much more of a holiday than any other place we have travelled to and I've seen enough sun rises and sun sets over the last 8 months to deserve a lie in or to avoid climbing up a muddy hill. It is rainy season here so it has rained often, though only really once in the day time. All other times have been at night or early morning so we've been really lucky.
Some islands had terrible food and a lot of tomato sauce on it, which I hate. The best food was at Mantaray. You chose what you wanted for lunch or dinner from a menu and it was the standard of a pricey restaurant. I wish we could have afforded to stay there for 2 nights but you had to pay extra per day for the food. It was worth it though.
We spent our days mainly lazing around but we did a fair bit of snorkelling too. You could go just off the islands but we went on a trip to a blue lagoon which was indeed very blue and went snorkelling with sharks again. This time they were white tip reef sharks which were actually a little smaller and thinner but no less beautiful than the black tips we had already encountered in Malaysia. It was good because the water was much clearer and shallower. I was diving under the water to get a closer look at them which I'd not done before! The most sharks I could count at once was 5. They came really close and the guide even grabbed one and brought it to the surface to show people, which I thought was a bit stupid. I was very jealous of some of the divers who went to watch a shark feeding. There were reef sharks, lemon sharks and bull sharks, the most aggressive shark in the world. You hide behind a wall of coral watching the action. Maybe we'll come back to do a dive course so that we can do that! Other days we went sea kayaking which was tiring, made shell bracelets, had a lovely massage by the beach listening to the waves, and we went on a fishing trip. We didn't catch anything but I hooked something so big (and it was definitely a fish and not rocks as it was moving in different directions) that the hook came off my line :( I'm claiming it was a shark!
We met some nice people including a couple made up of a girl from Switzerland and a guy from Tonga when we spent 2 nights at Coral View, 2 lads from Brighton but we spent a lot of time with Ryan and Jo from Shropshire who we spent 5 nights with on numerous islands. They were really nice and have done a similar travel route to us. On our last night we spent it drinking rum in the 'Celebrity Love Island' pool by the sea until 5am. It was a great night. Ben and I were in a dorm that night as we had to pay extra and it was cheaper. We'd seen big rat traps outside and as I was trying to go to sleep I heard all this scratching and scuttling around the room. I was mortified. It stopped for a while but all of a sudden got really loud. I sat up in bed and there was a massive crab there. I was running after it trying to catch it in my hat as I didn't want to listen to it running about but it was too fast. During all this commotion I tried to wake up Ben 3 times unsuccessfully. I think it was good rum.
Fiji was a perfect place to wind down after a busy two months in Australia. We'll be back.
Tomorrow we reach New Zealand. We fly into Christchurch for 3 days before we fly to Auckland for Christmas. It really doesn't feel like Christmas! If NZ is cold and I lose my tan before I get home after all this work I've done on it then I'm going to be furious!