BULA!
Welcome back to the good life. We´ve had nothing to re`port really up until now(check out the All Blacks Photo Album, we´ve just been working hard. So in desperate need of a holiday! WOOOOO!

So a 3hour flight from Auckland to Fiji. It didnt take us long to be living that dream again! Sipping on the finest ´Fiji Gold´ Beer and touching down in sunny paradise. That night we were initiated into classic Fijian culture, with a ´Cava Ceremony´(or 20). Cava is a drink which is made from the root of a pepper plant, basically it looks like muddy water, tastes like muddy water and goes down about aswel as muddy water. But it does numb your mouth and make you feel super relaxed, not that you need chilling out in Fiji.
Early the next morning we got on a boat and headed for the Yasawa Islands, the hard part was choosing one particular island to stay at, with all of the looking equally amazing, so i stepped up (its jack writing by the way) and picked one. Coarl View. A seriously stunning place, with fantastic people and a lace that will defo leave me and C with top memories.

That night at dinner they announced the daily activities for the following day in paradise. One prticular activity stood out slightly more to us than the other, a "SHARK FEED DIVE".
There were only 4 takers, including us. So at about 9.30am down we went to about 18m and watched as the instructor opened up the bin full of fish scraps.(personally little dissapointed, thought they were going to feed someone to the sharks, the name of the activity is a bit missleading) just joking. It was awesome, we watched as about 5 white tips around 2m long, gobbed up the fish. Then right at the end, cruising up from the ocean floor below was a Lemon Shark, we were told this one is just over 4m long. Ummm trying my best not to swear in describing how big it was.....it was ´very verý´HUGE! Cool times already though!
Over to Christopher.......

BULA! The locals who work on the island have a game of touch rugby EVERY evening before dinner, and we both looking forward to it. They only play 1 touch before turnover so it was a slightly mad game but got rid of a few cobwebs and was good to play some form of rugby again. Some of the Fijians were unrealm playing barefoot they still had crazy speed and good skills it was good to watch(as that was what happened as they sprinte past).

After the Shark dive i decided to take my ´Advanced Diving ´course on the island, it was just me on the course so it was basically"do you wana dive today?" and i could chose when i wanted to do my 5 dives. It was a good course, no written tests, just underwater skills, it also meant one of my five could be another shark dive, we went down 30m and i had to write my name and play "O´s&X´s" just to prove the pressure hadn´t messed with my head. We then went back up to 18m to join the shark dive group. On the way back up one of the 2m white tips was on his way back down and was swimming right towards us unitl about 3m then it casullay swam right past, pretty intense. I then got to watch the rest of the shark feed.
Barndog joined me on 1 of the dives which was spectacular, it was called ´the pinnacle´basically a huge mushroom shapped coral reef, that we swam around and then underneath at the bottom. There was also a tunnel we could swim through, we both got stuck though forgetting about the tanks on our back, but squeezed through still. We saw Sting rays and Magic coral which completley changed colour when touched.....divign was amazing!

We also did a couple more trips from Coral View, one of them a school trip over to a boarding school on a different island, it was amazing to see the real Fijian culture. The kids all looked well happy and they also sung to us for about 45mins, which is a massive part of their culture, Fijians love a sing song! It did feel a bit weird though as the 4 of us who went,sat on chairs at the front, just like X-factor! But was a great afternoon.
We also did an afternoons hand line fishing, even catching some of our own bait on the beach beforehand, the Fijian guy found a hole in the sand and started digging, plucked a crab out of the sand and then snapped off its legs and pincers and threw it in the boat! He then said we could give it a try, so as a joint effort, me, Jack and the couple who were on the trip managed to catch one crab, whilst the Fijian caught about 5! We then set off and begun fishing, again the Fijian guy was bossing it, he caught about 7 fish, I caught 2, Barnesie and the girl caught 1, and the other lad seemed to just be feeding the fish his bait, but still sounded like he had a great time!! As you can see from one of the pictures, JB was sulking as he´d caught nohing until he finally pulled one in on his last go, we then headed back and for lunch the next day we got an extra plate on the table with the fish we had caught, very nice! Back over to Barndog........
Next up for us was a Kayaking sesh over to Blue Lagoon (which funnily enough us where the film Blue Lagoon was filmed, funny that) It was about a 30min paddle there (with the current) Then we snorkelled over the lagoon and the reef for an hour which was amazing then we had to Kayak back. There were two other lads one looked a bit like action man, but when theres 4 lads-4 kayaks- and one finish point, its always going to turn into a race! Well, we absolutley smoked em´it was just like a Redgrave and Pincent moment, poor old action man and his mate got left for dead.Ha.
Having been at Coral View for a week. We were now locals to the staff, they even reserved the table at dinner for us and 2 long term english girls we met. We truely embraced Fiji culture. Tried all of thier food, which was sooooo good. We were so well look after. After chatting to one of the guys who´s lived on the island all his life, he expressed his interest in golf, a few drinking games and ´Fiji Golds´later and we´d promised to build the island a Mini Golf Course. The next day we delivered! Tavewa Golf Club, he first on the Yasawa Islands. The Coarl View Open took place the Sunday. C came 2nd to a Fijian Lady who had never even heard of golf before. I cant remember where i came (bad loser).

The evenings were always class, spent singing, dancing and drinking (even a touch of dressing up) which made for some seriously good times. C´s new nickname is Billy. During the 2 weeks in Fiji he won several dance competitions. I sense a new career for Mr Elliott?ha. He even sold me out to ensure his victory in one game. (Damm you Billy).
I am affraid the day came where we had to leave. A week had passed and we´d only stayed on the 1 island, which is rare among the backpackers, but it meant we actually got to know the people and they got to know us. So back on the boat, down to the next island, Kuata. This is the island where the film Castaway was filmed. The only thing we did on this island was chill out, after all we had worked hard and deserved our holiday. (i can see you shaking your heads in disagreement, but we did)ha.
Back over to Billy for the last few days!

It was onto Beachcomber, the iland with the reputation....party central, very different from the other islands, you could even walk around the whole island in about 5 minutes. It is also home to the infamous 100+ bed dorm, quite a sight in itself! As it was our last 2 nights on the islands we made the most of them and ended up smashed both nights, partying until the early hours, kind of like home really.......except for the cocktails (replacing the turbo cider shandy´s), the sand dance floor (replacing the sticky beer and glass filled dance floor) o and the fact we were surrounded by a nice warm sea (instead of bristol docks!!) We had 2 great nights, on the 2nd Barnesie tried a Baman impersonation (we´ll leave it at that) and ended up getting told to leave the only bar on the island, luckily the guy let him back in.....and only 2 minutes later he tripped over and ended up on his ass, much to the amusement of pretty much everyone in the bar! Great times, he claims it was the "2 level bar floor´s fault" personally i blame the ridiculous amounts of alcohol we consumed! The following day was a sad day...time to leave the islands and head back to the mainland, the sun was still shining and another couple of weeks would have been lovely! That afternoon we had some time to kill, so I got a taxi into town to have a look around, it was an experience, everyone trying to get you in their shops, I ended up in one and had a Cava session with this guy, as a farewell to Fiji, i was especially happy when two girls walked in so i wasnt the only person in the shop! Over to JB for the final bit..............

So with an afternoon to kill on the mainland, and Billy in town, i decided to head to the golf course. The etiquitte of golf in Fiji is the real deal, no collar shirt rquired, you dont even have to wear one. Baking hot day (nowhere to put the hot ashes Coley).
The last 8 holes i joined in a 2-ball with a very interesting Fijiain guy and his friend. On the 19th hole over a few Fiji Golds we got chatting. It resulted in him offering Me and Billy a job on ´his resort´on one of the islands. Does anyone know how you could go about turning that down!?.......didn´t think so.

With Fiji delivering the goods big time, i´ll speak for both of us and say the last 2 weeks have been up there with the best if not the best of the trip. Personally i dont think it will be topped! It was immense!
But now were in South America! Chile to be precise.......yyyyyyeeeeeeeehhhhoooooo!
Stay tuned for the Latin American Blogs coming up.
Sure to be interesting.
Hope your all well!
Much Love
Jack and Billy (c hates it by the way)

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