Hi Everyone!

Sorry that its been so long since we did our last blog but unfortunetly internet access in the Pacific Islands is very expensive and few and far between! Anyway here goes for the penultimate blog...

We arrived in Fiji on the saturday and spent 2 days near Nadi on the main island in Fiji preparing for our 2 weeks islands hopping around the Yasawa and Manuca Islands north west of the mainland. We decided to get eth Bula Pass which entitled us to 14 days of hop on hop off boat traval around the islands.

The resorts on the islands all run in the same sort of way - all food included in the price of a dorm bed. Meals are at set times and normally a buffet style meal with a mixture of western and Fijian dishes which were normally all so good!!

First stop on our trip was Korovou resort on the island of Naviti, one of the most northern of the group. When we arrived here it was torential rain and unfortunetly we spent our first day hiding indoors. Thankfully the next day the sun came out and we enjoyed a few hour ont eh beach before heading south to Octopus Resort - our one night of luxury in Fiji! Octopus Resort is on Waya Island and is one of the nicest palces we've stayed so far! Unfortunelty we could only afford oen night but it was well worth it! The restaurant and food was amazing and they had loads of activities each day. We were there for Crab Race night and after dinner had to go out with torch and find a hermit crab to race. Neither of our crabs were up to the challenge so we missed out on the $30 bar tab! The next morning we had a massage and then hit teh beach for some snorkelling and sunbathing until our boat at 3pm to Kuata Resort.

Kuata was a huge step down after Octopus and despite being upgraded to our own hut as there was no room in the dorm we werent too impressed to start with. It id however give us a real taste of Fiji life and the staf were so friendly that we actually ended up loving our 2 nights here and were really sad to leave!. Whilst we were there we went shark snorkelling which was cool as the guy who took us speared fish and feed them to the 5 reef sharks who circled around then battled it out for the fish - was really cool to see. We also went handline fishing at sunset which was fun even thou Charlotte didnt catch anything! On our last day we did a village visit to Waya Is with one of the guys who works at the Resort and he showed us round and introduced us to his family and then we visited the small jewellry market adn learnt how to waeve book marks out of banana leaves. The village was a lot more basic than we first thought it would be and the people alot poorer but they were still so friendly.

At every resort or village in Fiji you always get a big welcome off the boats as they sing to you on the beach and then in the evenings they do welcome dances and Kava (a local narcotic drink that looks and tastes and bit like muddy water!!!) welcome drinks for all the new arrivals!!

After Kuata we went to Beachcomber Island, the party island, for 3 nights. It wasnt as rowdy as we'd heard but we had a great time and learnt the Bula dance (Fiji's version of the Macarena!) everynight. Whilst on Beachcomber we went fish feeding and snorkelling - both really good fun!

Next stop was Bounty Isands, where they filmed Celebrity Love Island (with very, very famous people in it apparently - even though we could nt name then all!!) These 2 day were spent chilling by the pool and on the beach and dodging the rain clouds adnd evening entertainment (musical statues!) We had been so lucky the weather up til now but with a cyclone approaching the rain so did the rain!

We spent our last 2 nights on South Sea Island the smallest of all of them at about 100m by 50m - not the safest island to be on during a cyclone!! It did however hold off until our last morning and we managed to fit in some great snorkelling and some last minute sunbathing!

We left the morning the cyclone hit (later that day everyone was evacuated to the mainland) but unfortunetly they put us on the wrong boat and instead off having a 10 min ride to the mainland we ahd to endure a 3 hour round trip of the Manuca Islands in an approaching cyclone. We did finally make it to the mainland feeling just a little queasy!!

That afternoon we discovered the joys of Nadi Town in a whole 30 mins and then headed back to our hotel to pack before our flight the next day, which thankfully wasnt delayed to much by the winds!

We absolutly loved Fiji and had a great time here, just what we needed to get over Christmas and New Year. It's probabaly one of our favourite places so far and would definetly recommend it to everyone!!

Hope everyone is well - cant wait to see you all in only a few days now. We'll try and bring some of the Pacific sun back with us!

Lots of love Becky and Charlotte xxxxxx