Well, after 2 months in the cold islands of New Zealand it was great getting to the tropical climate of Fiji even though it is their winter! We arrived quite late at night and for a min thought we might be sleeping in the airport as all the accommodation was full. Eventually we booked into the Nadi Hotel in Nadi town. We were a tad excited to be staying in a 'hotel' for 2 nights but when we arrived we shouldn't have been so excited. The place was a tad dated and dirty and we even got a pet mouse living in the bathroom which tried to scratch his way to freedom for most of the night! Nadi town was pretty shabby and we even got invited for Kava (a Fijian drink-will explain more later) at a car sales place, but the custom is they give you Kava and you buy something- well not sure we've got room for a car! After 2 nights with Mickey Mouse we set sail for the Yasawa Islands on the east coast of the mainland. The trip cost us a small fortune but we could look forward to 10 hassle free nights in paradise and 3 meals a day cooked for us! Quality! Although, these islands are pretty basic with cold showers and electric from 6-10pm, were used to it now tho! The first place we stopped was Sunset Resort on Waya Island. All these places are catering for backpackers so the word 'resort' was to be taken with a pinch of salt. However the place was amazing, we stayed on a white sandy beach with crystal clear waters surrounding us. At low tide there was an exposed sand bar which meant you could walk over to the local village. We ate local fish and rice at nearly every meal, but it was bloody gorgeous and even got pancakes, cake and fruit for brekkie. There has to be a good reason for me to get up at 7.30am and the brekkie was defiantly worth it!! We stayed in a traditional Fijian woven hut which was special and we had the treat of cold showers every evening. Our hut was lovely but some of the wildlife liked it too. We had another pet mouse visit us every night and Dan found a huge (hand sized) killer spider in our bathroom. Not the nicest thing to find just before you go to bed. As the only power is run by a generator it is turned off at 10pm so I made Dan stand with a torch on the spider while I went for a wee and he was instructed to shout if it moved a leg. Don't think I have ever peed so fast in my life. We did some great snorkelling too and got to see some special purple starfish. When we got out a lady said she had just seen a sea snake too, arrrrrr!!! The next place we went was Coconut Bay on Naviti Island. My first experience wasn't great as I found a maggot in my rice and veggie's!! Dan said I went very pale, and I couldn't finish my lunch- only a bit of protein I suppose tho. We had the staff dance traditional Bula dances for us every evening and even got a sarong tying demonstration, you would have been surprised how many ways you can tie a sarong. We had a coconut demonstration too, where they showed us how to open and remove the flash from a coconut. Very useful! Next up, Coral View on Tavewa Island. This place was pretty special as we had some amazing food and cocktails. We even had the experience of showering (cold) in a 5ft tall cubical outside- just reckon they like to perv on the tourists!! We had only spent 2 nights in the above places so we decided to stay 4 nights at Melbravo on Nacula Island. The first night we met some ace people and proceeded to drink a bottle of Jack Daniels, half a bottle of vodka and pretty much a case of beer. The Finnish lad called Ville but who the locals just called Willy made us all cocktails with coconut milk, not the best combination, JD and coconut milk! We made a day trip to 'The Blue Lagoon' where the film was made and did some great snorkelling and even got to see a biggish stingray. In Fiji the locals drink Kava which is made from the root of a plant. The grind it up into powder then add water and it is supposed to have these effects like making your mouth tingle and is a good antidepressant. Well... with the prospect of coming home only a few weeks away we decided to give it a go. You have to sit in a circle and have a Kava ceremony. The stuff tasted like dirty water but it did make you moth tingle- not sure about the antidepressant tho, but it was a good experience. After our time in paradise we made the 4 hour trip back to the mainland and met loads of people on the boat who we had met on the other Islands. We met a couple again who we saw in Coconut Bay and discovered they were on the same flight as us to the Cook Islands so back in Nadi we enjoyed a meal and bottle of wine with them but first and most importantly a hot shower! (Obviously not all together)