Saturday 23rd Sep

Ok, so we lost a day due to the time zone - weird!  Air N.Z were a rubbish airline to fly with as there were no t.v's in the back of the chairs and no choice of what to watch either, but that really didnt matter as we both slept most of the 13 hr flight anyway.  Again the plane was virtually empty, so we each had a row to lie across which was great.  The food wasnt much to write home about either, but the champagne breakfast was awesome and made up for everything else.  I mean it wasnt horrible it just wasnt as good as Virgin.  Arriving at Nadi airport in the middle of the night we were greeted by 3 Fijians in their bula shirts playing their guitars and singing, very holidayish!There was a shuttle there waiting to take us to the resort, a backpacking resort, and the journey in the dark with the radio blasting was fun.We went to bed at 4am but were up again at 7am.  We went and had breakfast which was free, tea and toast with marmelade.  We met a guy called Chris, who was british but with a very strong Oz accent.  He had been travelling alone for a while and had some great stories to tell and places we should visit. 

We went to the travel desk to book our next adventure, a tall sailing ship - Captain Cooks Cruise.  Consisting of 3 days sailing and 2 nights on barefoot lodge in a bure.  Then drop off at Bounty island, i night in a dorm and another 2 nights in another bure.

We caught the local bus into town after this and checked out the market.  This was a great day to arrive on as it was the Bula gala day which only happens once a year and is greatly celebrated in Fiji.  It was all to celebrate local business's, but the focus being 'Bula' meaning frienship, which was really nice and not something you would see in the UK we thought.  We decided to try the local cuisine - chicken curry with rice, not your average taste of India!! They had literally taken a machety to a chicken and hacked it up then stuck it in a pot with a bunch of spice and boiled it, feathers and all!!! We took one look at our not so delicious lunch turned green and threw it in a bin.  The chicken was still stuck to bits of bone!! Not a delicasy we will be trying again!  So instead we had another fried burger!  So far the weather has been rubbish, but the locals at the hostel are really lovely, especially the travel help girl, Asa.  Tonight is Bula night, their local drink, but we'l explain about this later.

Sunday 24th Sep

So luckily, the food here is fantastic, no teeth bones or feathers, every meal we have had we have really enjoyed including really good steak for 7 quid and smoked fish straight out of the sea, which has definately made up for our previous encounter of Fijian food.  Unfortunately the weather has been rubbish again today.  We went for a walkalong the beach which was muddy sand, not the picturesque beach you would imagine.  We had a nice surprice to see Gail and Frasier arrive at the hostel too.  We were all quite in limbo due to the weather and so were forced to start on the cocktails.  Everyone else joined in so we didnt feel as guilty, including Will, an Ozzy, and Faye, another school teacher.  We all had dinner together that night which was nice and after Frasier did us a sing song on his guitar.

Monday 25th Sep

Up early again, whats going on, had breakfast and waited for collection for our trip.  The marina here is awesome, they are ploughing money into it, this was the only place we saw nice apartments, its a very big marina.  The ship was rather big, we were given a tour and shown where everything was including beds if we wanted to lie down.  First we had morning tea and biccys, then learned to tie knots, which I have to admit I still dont get without the handbook - keep practising!!  Lee was pretty skilled at it and nominated head of the class - swot!