After becoming qualified open water divers which I would recommend to
anyone with a spare week on their hands and nothing to do, we took a
bus back to Suva to receive some good news.

A quick check on internet banking revealed we had less than 200 pounds left. It would
appear it's time to fly to New Zealand and start working.

Kat spent the next day on the internet applying to some of the schools
in Auckland for a teaching position. She sent her cover letter and CV
to 15 schools and the first reply came quickly back from a private
school in the city centre. The head-mistress, Lara was very interested
and wanted Kat to call her the next morning.

Kat rang Lara
and after a quick chat about the English weather, Fiji and how to
handle pushy parents, Kat was told to check her e-mail later that day.
We checked our email 20 minutes later and the school had made a formal
offer of a fixed term contract! Amazing. The rumors that New Zealand
needs primary school teachers are true.

So Kat now has a
teaching post all set-up to start on July 16 for two terms till
December 15th. She will have a new entry class which means all the kids
will be starting school for the first time. The question remains, does
Dan need to get a job now, or should he use the NZ time wisely and
practice his kitesurfing skills?

We celebrated the good news by spending a week and the last of our money living on a teeny weeny island.





Caqalai island, actually pronounced Tangali, to ensure maximum
confusion when trying to purchase a boat ticket, is everything you
imagine a tiny tropical island to be. A pancake of sand, 55cm above sea
level, is topped with its fair share of coconut palms. It takes roughly 4 minutes to walk around the shore of the whole island. A warm, clear
ocean, full of fish and coral surrounds the island and the permanent
eight members of staff will cook your breakfast, lunch and dinner, a
sort of all-inclusive deal but you get what your given, for 8 pounds a
day.

When we arrived on the boat it felt exactly like an
episode of shipwrecked. The 12 current guests, all white,
twenty-something backpackers, wearing bikinis and boardies, had heard
our boat arriving and came to stand on the shore and
wave madly at us.

In
the day we spent out time exploring a tidal flat and the sea life it
exposed, eels, starfish and crabs. We snorkeled just off the beach,
read books, play volleyball - staff vs guests was very funny, went
fishing and experienced island live. At night we joined the staff
around the Kava bowl, liquid made from a kava root that
the locals drank furiously and which made your mouth go numb. The staff play Fijian songs and sit around a
bonfire at the beach.






Flying on New Zealand on June 29th to rent
a flat and settle down till Christmas. The plan is to try and save as
much money as possible so after Christmas we can carry on traveling
and see the other half of the world.

And lastly but by no means least, Kats mum and dad, Margaret and Don
kindly offered to fly us back to mighty Bristol for Christmas this
year. We will be showing off our tans from December 16th till the 28th!

Cooper Out

Love Dan & Kat