Fiji has been incredible! It is such a beautiful place and the people have got to be the friendliest in the world! We started our time in Fiji in Nadi. We were booked into Smugglers Cove for the first couple of days to decide where we wanted to go. We had 2 weeks in total to work with so booked ourselves a Bula pass and accommodation pass to tour round the islands as we pleased.

In Fiji we met up with our friend Adam who we spent Christmas and New Year with. Over the 2 weeks the 3 of us visited 7 different tropical islands. We were in paradise. The Yasawa Flyer, a big yellow boat took us to and from all the islands. We started at the most northern group of islands and worked our way south. The boat ride north was beautiful. We sat on the top deck and got an amazing view as well as being able to sun ourselves. The water was so blue and the sky too. We passed many little islands with white sand. They looked almost desserted.

Our first resort was Coral View. It was great. As our boat pulled up all the staff came out to the shore and sang to us. They all shook our hands as we came off the boat and into the dining room. We spent the first 2 nights there. I think what made Coral View so special was the attentiveness of the staff. They were absolutely brilliant and somehow managed to remember everyones name. From Coral View we did a cave trip. This was a cave trip with a difference. In order to get to the caves you had to swim under water through a cave. I was a bit nervous about this, but we were given masks and only had to hold our breath for 4 seconds or so. Inside it was really echoey and our guide kept shouting and splashing the water around. It was pretty fun. The next morning we did a shark dive. This was incredible. We all had to stay at the bottom of the water while our guide fed the sharks. At first there were loads of fish, then a few reef sharks came along too, then a couple of Lemon sharks arrived. They were about 4 metres long and were proper big scary looking sharks! It was amazing to see them feeding!

We left Coral View and all the staff gave us big hugs goodbye. We got back on the yellow boat and were taken to Bay of Plenty. This resort was a lot smaller. However we were put in a small dorm up a big hill and from the top the views were absolutely stunning! The staff were really nice here too. In the evenings they put on a few games for us. One involved tying a coconut to a rope, tying the rope around our waists then swinging back and forth to try hit the cocounut of another on the ground to the finish line. We raced in twos and I won mine! It was hilarious to watch.

The next morning we visited the local school. The kids were all really cute and enjoyed posing for the cameras. The teacher told us all about the school and their education. It was really interesting and we got to have a good look around. They had such a good view of the sea from their classroom window!

That afternoon we moved on to the next resort, Long Beach. This island had the most beautiful beach. As the name suggests it was very long, and the sand was so white too. The resort was so quiet that we were pretty much the only 3 people on it. We spent 2 days of total relaxation there. One evening I got to try the local Kava. I had the best nights sleep ever since I started my travels! That stuff may taste of muddy water but it does wonders for sleeping!

Next we went to White Sandy Beach. We spent 3 nights here. It was lovely. It had a couple of nice beaches. They had really good food here too. They also had good entertainment in the evenings. We got to play games such as musical statues and the hugging game. We always had to do the Bula dance too as we did everywhere! The staff entertained us on their guitars and uceleles with their version of 'I'm leaving on a yellow boat (jet plane)' amongst other tunes. We were put in a small Bure right on the beach. We had very limited electricity, usually turned on a 6pm ish then off again about 11! We often found ourselves immersed into darkness. One evening however, the staff built us a bonfire on the beach then played music to us on their guitars. It was a nice night. The snorkelling here was fantastic. We saw lots of really beautiful coral and lots of pretty fish.

After our 3 nights on White Sandy Beach we went to Mantaray. We had heard a lot of good things about Mantaray and were not dissapointed. The actual resort was really nice. We even had 24hour electricity! It was a busier resort. We did a couple of dives here. The first time we were taken to the wrong site so we got offered a free dive for the following morning. It was much better. At one point we saw a turtle. It was so graceful in the water and had a couple of remoras attached to it. As we were watching the turtle suddenly 2 sharks came towards us. At first we thought they were reef sharks but after close observation it turns out they were actually baby Bull sharks!! They were circling quite close to us and not at all afraid of us. These sharks are known to attack so I'm just glad mummy or daddy shark didn't appear. We swam away keeping a close eye on them!

We had a Fijian night in Mantaray one evening. Local villagers came and danced and sang for us. They were really good and kept getting us to dance along with them. The stars were incredible that night, so clear. We spent some time spotting planets and shooting stars.

After Mantaray we went to Beachcomber. Beachcomber is the renowned party island. We didn't find that at all however. It seemed pretty quiet and subdued. However we did meet a lot of lovely girls and had lots of fun playing drinking games and dancing. At Beachcomber we were staying in the biggest dorm ever, 140 beds! It was huge. Unfortunately Lauren didn't enjoy her sleeps here as her face was bitten away at by bed bugs, yuck! I was luckier, as far as I know my bed was free from any bugs. Beachcomber was a lovely little island though. I managed to walk round it in 10 minutes!

One evening our entertainment for the night was crab racing. We first had to buy our crabs in an auction. A few of us grouped together and bid for Bula the Fijian crab. We got him and seeing as our bid was the highest from the whole auction we got to be the only ones to pick our crab out. We got taken away and hidden in a little room. We then got to test drive all the crabs. We picked one of the smaller ones, he wasn't quick to start but once he did... well there was no stopping him! He was feisty too, kept nipping away at everyones hands. Thought that would be a good quality to fight the other crabs off. Despite being accidentally thrown across the room our crab did us proud coming in 3rd place winning each of us $10 each!

Our final island we visited was Bounty Island. This was the island where the first series of Celebrity Love Island was filmed. It was small too and we walked round it in 20 minutes. Round the other side we saw parts of the set from the show. The pool and decking had been moved round and used in our resort. It was very relaxing there. I spent much of the time lying by the pool and reading. The weather was beautiful and it was a nice place to finish our Fiji experience.

We spent one night in Nadi on the mainland before flying on to the states. I'm now in Hollywood. I loved Fiji. It was the perfect place to spend a relaxing 2 weeks after the cold and constant moving around in New Zealand. It was so beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly and welcoming and we had an absolute blast.