Before I arrived in Fiji I knew i would like it, Love it even, this was because of one thing. The free beer on the flight. Up to this point I have been on a few long haul flights most of them in the last few months, but this one was different, very different. On this flight I got the standard free drink at the beginning of the flight, Fiji Bitter export, very nice beer, but what happened next stunned and shocked me. The air stewardess came over and asked me if I wanted an other one, I couldnt say yes, I could only hand over my empty can and nod with a stupid grin on my face. This happened an other 3 times on the flight, and it was with this kind genorousity that made me fall in lovee with Fiji.

Once we landed and there was no more free beer, I stood bored in the immigration cue knowing that I may have to fight some oversized Fijian because I had food in my bag, that from a piece of paper I was given on the flight wasnt allowed. But luckily for me all the Figians were busy rummaging through some japanese peoples bags asking questions about a funny shaped watermellon! So I snuck through customs and went and had the usual 'what you mean we havent got a reservation for tonight or this trip'!

We stay in Nandi for around 6 hours then get up for the start of our trip on the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands.

Our first stop and island is Sout Sea island in the Mamanuca islands. This is the picture perfect tropical island. Around an acre in size, with no more than a handful of trees and the rest of sand. Perfect espeically since all we had to do was lie in the sun and look at the blue sky and perfectly clear sea.

Things on the islands were odd, since the islands were all very small there were generally only one place to stay and therefore only one place to eat. Because of small numbers the island decided when you were to eat. On South sea, breakfast was at 7am, Lunch was at noon and Dinner was at 18:30, and you ate what you were given or you ate nothing. It was lucky for us, since we had no watch, they would just bang a drum when it was eating time, this also worked excellently as an alarm clock in the morning as there was no way i was getting up at 7am.

From south sea, we went on a little excursion, on a boat called the Sea Spray, some may like to call it Paradise. Sea Spray was a day trip which took us to the island where Castaway the movie was filmed and also to a Fijian village. The other thing I have to mention about Sea Spray was that drinks were free. Brillaint. When we boarded, everyone was given a glass of champange and the time that was finished we were all offered wine. Best start to a day that I can think of while on holiday. Anyway, first stop was the village, which became with the welcoming ceremony. Which was the offering and acceptance of Kava. This is the traditional drink of Fiji and it is said that you havent been to fiji until you drink some Kava, so after the offical ceremony was over, I had some, it tasted how it looked and it looked like dirty water. After we walked around the island we headed to the island and went for a snorkel and saw more coral and fish. I soon got bored of the perfectly clear water and colouful fish and coral, so i went back to the beach in search of Wilson, but never found him. So I then waited to get back to the boat for lunch and to take advantage of the free drink that clearly was paid for by the rioch day trippers. Even with all the free beer we had on the trip the best part of the trip was the coc*** and jam cookies that were on offer, if only I had found them earlier than I did, I probably would have eaten hundreds of them. If we could of and if the weather stayed as good as it did for us on that day, I would be happy if that was my Ground Hog day!

Apart from Sea Spray and lying in the sun waiting for a drum to be smashed I did nothing else apart from think to myself, oh I am lucky, should I have a beer?