Dear everyone

We have just got back from a week in Fiji, and are now in Brisbane enjoying having warm showers again!

Our week in Fiji was good, but not at all as we expected it to be. We arrived really early last Tuesday morning after an overnight flight from Brisbane. We arrived really tired, but there was no chance to rest as we had to go straight to the port to get on a boat which was to take us to our first island. The island was the furthest north in the Yasawas (the group of islands that we went to) and it took 5 hours to get there - not that either of us managed to enjoy the views or remember much of the journey as we slept through the whole thing! Our first island was quite nice - we were welcomed by the workers as we arrived from the boat and given lunch. The hostels on the islands provided all our food as there were no shops around, which made things easier as all we had to think about was what we wanted to do with our time! We spent the afternoon chilling out and sunbathing, before having dinner and evening entertainment, which included a traditional fijian song being sung to us, and then some games. We spent the rest of the time on the island sunbathing and had a walk to the summit on the island, which had spectacular views. We also went on a trip to some caves which was quite good - we were taken on a motorboat which was an experience in itself - nothing like the stable boats we're used to back home!

After two days on the island it was time to move to our second island abit further south. The island was beautiful and the resort lovely, but unfortunatly we were only there for a night and half a day and it rained the whole time! The island did have nice food though which was a welcome change as the first island hadn't had the best food. There was more games after dinner, and I was happy as we had a limbo competition!

The next day we moved to our third island, which was ok but the accommodation was very basic and the food not very good at all. To top it off it was raining when we got there, and rained for most of the next day. To make ourselves feel better we had a few drinks with some of the other people we had been traveling around with, and ended up having a really funny night. Unfortunatly, Phil got ill later in the first evening we were there with some sort of stomach bug or food poisoning, so he ended up spending the whole of the first day on the island in bed. I hung around with some of the other people we'd met in between playing nursemaid, and sunbathed inbetween the bursts of rain! By the second evening Phil was feeling a little better and we were treated to a performance of some traditional Fijian dancing which was really impressive - they did some fire dancing, and then did a dance where we all had to join in which was really funny.

I decided to get ill that evening with the bug that Phil had had, and spent the next day in bed, missing the first totally sunny day we had. The day is a bit of a blur to me, but Phil said that the island was really pretty in the sun, and he managed to do a walk to the summit which he said had some lovely views. In the late afternoon we had tyo transfer to our final island so I dragged myslef onto the boat, which wasn't the most fun thing to do with a sickness bug! When we arrived on the boat though we bumped into a group of people who had stayed on one of the other islands with us, and they were all ill with the same thing as me and Phil which led us to believe that there was maybe something in the food! We arrived at our final island in the early evening, which was the island where celebrity love island was filmed. The island was so beautiful, definatley the best we had been to. Unfortunatly I still felt ill so spent the whole evening in bed, whilst Phil went for dinner which was apparently better than the food we'd had on any of the other islands! He also managed to go on a sunset walk around the island which he really enjoyed and got some lovely photos.

On our final day we went on a sailing cruise around the southern islands, which included a BBQ lunch, a trip to a Fijian village and a trip to the island where the movie 'castaway' was filmed. The day was lovely, it was sunny all day and the boat was great fun. We were on the boat with all the people we had met during the week which made a lovely end to the week. The boat had free food and alcohol on it - not that I could drink any as I was still feeling abit sick, and Phil struggled to drink much as he still had a bit of the bug, such bad timing to be ill! The castaway island was soooooo pretty, and as you would imagine very secluded.

We had a good time on Fiji and met some really nice people, but getting ill kind of put a bit of a downer on the whole experience. We had heard from some many people that it was a tropical paradise, and whilst it was pretty, as it rained for the first half, the islands didn't feel quite like a 'tropical paradise'! Our faith in Fiji was restored on the last 2 days when we were on our final island which was truly gorgeous, and going on the boat showed us a lovely side to Fiji - all in all a good trip, just a shame about the illness!

Bets go as internet time is running out, but will blog again soon

Love cat and Phil xxx