After the sun and heat in Fji, touching down in Sydney to drizzle and low 20's temp. (their worst summer in a decade) came as a real shock. Thank goodness we kept some jumpers with us! We'd pre-booked a hostel and headed to Potts Point on the double-decker underground. Within an hour we were on a bus to Coogee beach to meet up with Mandie and Mark. It was great to see them and we caught up over a scooner or four, some Thai dinner and a good old-fashioned session ...

We'd left our party resort until the end! "The Resort, Walu Beach" what a let down, we were nearly the only people there. Another example of how wrong you can get it in Fiji. We did manage a mammoth Kava session with the staff and a couple of other guests, which was a good crack. The bure was nice, there was an ok swimming pool and average food was served, but all together it was a let down. Ohh and they royally messed up our transfer back to Nadi for o...

Finally, the Fiji we had expected! We had transferred by boat to Octopus Resort which we loved instantly. The staff sung us onto the island and chilled tunes were being played from the (fully stocked!) bar as we were handed a welcoming cocktail. we were shown to our newly built bungalow complete with veranda and flowers scattered on the bed. We wandered around the resort with Carrie (who made the trip down with us from Oarsmans), mouths gaping open at silly thing...

We set off for the northern most resort in the Yasawa group of islands in some seriously rough seas. So much so that people were disembarking at the first island, too sick to continue further. Of those that braved the rest of the journey we reckon 90% were sea sick, the poor staff couldn't hand the sick bags out quick enough. We were fortunately in the other 10%. Anyway, the arduous five hour trip to get to Oarsmans bay would be worth it. The Lonely Planet billed...

Turbulance was bouncing our plane about a little as we came into land at Nadi (people let out screams after one particular drop) but the pilot did a sterling job putting us on the tarmac safely, right in the middle of cyclone Gene. We could see from the air Nadi was pretty much underwater and the palm trees were being bent by ferocious winds. Not quite what we had imagined. We spent the next two days hunkered in our hotel with the hatches battoned waiting for the...