Hello - the final blog!!! We thought we should complete it although we have now been back in sunny (snowing in May!?!!) Scotland for 3 weeks and have probably seen most of you and subjected you to our 6000 photos!

After a sad farewell to New Zealand we headed onto our last stop - Fiji! Taking with us our kiwi friend Jeremy! After a night in Nadi on arrival, we boarded the Yasawa Flyer - a big yellow boat which transports all the backpackers between each of the Yasawa islands. The Yasawas are a big chain of beautiful coral/volcanic islands on the west coast of Fiji's main land.

First stop was Coral View where we spent most of our time chilling in the hammocks on the lawn and being entertained by the resort staff. This involved lots of singing, bula dancing and eating! All Yasawa islands are fully inclusive of food and to signal meal times they bang on large drums which are closely followed by masses of backpackers awaking from their hammocks and heading to the dining room! Turns out the maids cleaning trolleys rolling along the gravel paths sound deceivingly like the drums.... cue a few false alarms on the food front!

Next stop was a wee resort called safe landing! So little in fact that on 2 of our 3 nights we were the only guests! This resulted in us having our own private resort complete with stunning beach! Although pretty lucky on the weather front, despite it being rainy season, we did have one full day of rain here. All three of us managed to go on a sleeping mission and sleep for the entire day awaking only for meal times when the staff would knock on our door! On this island we also visited the local church although unfortunately picked the hottest day ever and standing for the hymns very nearly resulted in a pile of heat exhausted Scottish and Kiwis! We also managed to try the local drink - kava which can only really be described as muddy water!

After our own wee private resort we headed to a slightly bigger one - gold coast. This consisted of a group of about 6 bures (beach huts) and some very lovely staff. After dinner one evening they put on a traditional pacific island dancing show and each day they would go out and spear fish for our dinner! We also managed to visit LuLu’s Teashop for some very yummy chocolate cake, think little wooden shack on the sand over looking a beautiful beach!

To celebrate Lindsay’s birthday we headed to the slightly more upmarket Mantaray for our final few days on the islands. Here we were treated to some very lovely food and unfortunately succumbed to the slightly more western food. Although very lovely there are only so many days you can eat pumpkin curry for! On Lindsay’s birthday we watched a fire dancing show at the beach although we were a bit concerned by the burning splinters being blown our way!

We said goodbye to Jeremy who will never again choose the bed with pink flowery sheets after much abuse for days after – see facebook photographic evidence coming soon! Then spent the last 5 days chilling at a hostel in Nadi and monitoring the ash situation!

After much running in LA complete with a years worth of belongings (very amusing for the Americans I’m sure) and then another mad dash in Heathrow we safely made it on our flight to Edinburgh! Coming through the arrival entrance we were greeted by all parents complete with a welcome home banner carefully constructed by Alec out of crutches and plastic! Next stop bed, home cooking and swiss muesli ……...................