Beachcomber, Mamanuca Islands. Day 16, 17, 18

Beachcomber is meant to be the party island and it was so far the smallest island we been on - it also had hot water, 24 hour electricity and CANS OF COKE, heaven!! the last island that had those was the first one we'd been too!! We checked into our room and on route we passed the famous 100 bed dorm rooms which were basically out in the open - not one that I would want to stay in. Our room however was lovely - small but lovely. We put our bags down and went to the beach to sunbathe for a bit, the sun went in pretty soon so we took a walk round the island which took all of about 5 minutes - the island had alot of seaweed washed up and in the sun it began to smell but the main beach part was clear - we made our way back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. That night dinner was a buffet and it was really good - it seems the closer to the mainland the more options you get as the meat they had was lush, I even got to have two desserts which were chocolate pudding and custard mmmm That night in bed I swore I could feel things on me but Dave said I was being paranoid so I ignored it - eventually I turned the light on and there was a few tiny bugs on me so I squished them but wasn't long before I found.....dun dun dun......a bloody bed bug!! I woke Dave and we had a thorough check - we peeled back the sheets and found loads, we stripped the beds and flipped the mattresses - I found a very dead and very squashed lizard under mine, we sprayed the mattresses and sheets and aired the room and then we went back to bed but we both kept feeling things on us and woke up again at 11 then again at 1, 2 and 4 each time finding more bugs - thing is bed bug bites can take a few days to come out so we or I was panicking at how many times I could have been bitten!! The next morning we went to reception who offered to move us rooms (no such thing as compensation) but the room we got moved to was the other side of the island and massive compared to our first one, we had the last room on the end with our own veranda and two deck chairs - it was lovely, though we did check the bed again!! The next morning after another good breakfast we looked into hiring jet skies as Dave had been hoping to do this the whole time we was away but none of the other islands had them but it was way to expensive and would have cost nearly £40 for 15 mins so Dave gave it a miss which he was very disappointed about - I was also a little disappointed as wanted to go to Modriki which is a nearby island where the film Castaway was set but not only was it not the cheapest tour it also included alot of other things e.g. market shopping I didn't fancy and as Dave never wanted to go anyway it would mean another thing I'd have to do on my own so I gave it a miss and hoped it would be cheaper from the next island! We went to sunbathe but as soon as you put suncream on the sand flies were a real nightmare and all over you - in the end I had to go get a drink to get away from them - eventually Dave followed me and noticed they were showing the football - we watched a little together but in the end I went back to sunbathing and left Dave to it - the suncream smell had worn off and the sand flies were almost gone - as we were both knackered from the night before we had a quite night and after dinner went to bed (boring I know but all that sunbathing does take it out of you!) No bed bugs that night - the next day we were due to check out but we didn't have to leave the room until 10.30 am and as it was slightly overcast we stayed in as long as we could and while Dave played his game I sat enjoying the veranda and looking past the coconut trees just outside our room to the ocean - lush. Then we moved our bags and while I sunbathed Dave watched more football, at around mid-day we went for the free tour of coral viewing and fish feeding which was good - you could view the coral through the glass bottom boat and then it stopped to feed zebra fish (and some others I cant remember the name of?) They gave us lumps of bread which you could actually hand feed them. We made our way back to the island and Dave went to watch another game while I did a lil bit more sunbathing, after that game we went to play pool but Dave managed to drag it out long enough that we didn't have enough time before we was due to leave - he's not the best at pool!!! So then the boat came to gather us again and take us to our next island.

Bounty, Mamanuca Islands. Day 18, 19, 20

Bounty island, for those of you that don't know is where Celebrity Love Island was filmed. We met a nice couple on the boat and had a brief chat with them (cant remember their name, doh!) after we had our welcome meeting we went over to the pool where the 'celebs' (said loosely) would have sat and there was our biggest disappointment - only one of the other islands had a pool so we was looking forward to sitting by the pool for the last few days of our islands stops but this was not to be as the pool was green - lovely, it looked like it had been like that for ages! Then to top it off......they didn't sell coke - it was pepsi instead, not happy and they didn't have any tour options to Modriki so I'd made a mistake by not going when I had the chance on Beachcomber! We made our way to our bure which was nice but very odd as it had bunk beds in there as well as our double bed and at one point we couldn't find the light - Dave swore there wasn't one and in the end I had to go down to the reception to ask - apparently it was behind the curtain? Dinner was good - it was table service which most of the islands aren't so that was good, we sat with the local diving instructor who was lovely but looked very odd and was only 20 and in a few weeks would be spending his 21st birthday on the island, as well as him we meet an Essex couple who had been doing their Padi on the island and was due to finish the following day. The next day was overcast so we sat by the pool and as the internet was cheap we took advantage of that, we had also been told during our welcome interview about the 'clam table' just a little way out in the sea so me and Dave went snorkelling and tried to find it but my snorkel was rubbish so we came back in after a little while of not finding the clams. Once back in we went back round the pool and chatted to the couple we'd met on the boat the previous day - at one point the boys went snorkelling to try and find the 'clam table' and came back disappointed - it literally was a table which had been put there and the clams, lets just say weren't no where near as big as in the barrier reef - the couple were only there for the one day and were due to leave later which was a shame as they were really nice so we said goodbye to them which was late in the day now being almost the closest island to the mainland and then made our way back to our bure to get ready for dinner. The next day was very long, the weather was still overcast and by now all we was thinking about was home, we'd read our books, Dave didn't have his ipod anymore as he'd wiped it in Oz and we was bored of our games etc so our conversation was all that kept us going but after 7 months there wasn't really much left to say! At one point I did try and get Dave to play ping pong but he refused (another game he's not good at and therefore wont play! ha) That night we met another couple, whom had been there the whole time but we hadn't managed to get chatting to them, Jen and Tom - unfortunately they left early the next day but they were staying at smugglers, same as us so we was hoping to see them back on the mainland. This was also the day we left - we missed brekki the next day so wasn't up as early, we then went on the internet and as the weather was good we, well I made the most of the last day of island sun - then came time to leave and say goodbye to the islands so we took our final pics and caught the boat back to shore!

Back to the main island smugglers cove, Nadi. Day 20, 21, 22

Ok so our fijian adventure nearly over we was now back to the mainland and about to finish our last few nights in dorms! yay! We checked in and went for a drink in the bar - Jen and Tom were there too and we chatted over some chips (mmmmmm chips - hadn't had any food like that in nearly a month!!) Ok so being in this 34 bed dorm and having the beds right near the door wasn't good as most people are either leaving for a flight or leaving to catch the ferry to the islands and therefore have to leave really early so awake we was, we spent the day with Tom and Jen, today was our last full day in Fiji so we sunbathed, frolicked in the pool - well actually Dave tried to drown me and the boys tried to watch as much football as they could - that night we'd decided to go out for dinner as food in our hostel wasn't cheap (in fact it was by far the dearest hostel out of the few that were there!!) we started to get ready but soon realised that we'd lost our shampoo - Dave was certain it had been stolen but I wasn't so sure as Dave had grown quite a habit of loosing things then blaming it on being stolen only to find them a day after we'd bought more!! We went for dinner to a place called Ambrosia up the road and the boys had burger and a coke for $5 fijian dollars - bargain!! Then we made our way to Horizon, the hostel next door to ours and we all treated ourselves to a banana split mmmm we watched the gecko's eat the flies for a while and then realised our hostel actually had some proper entertainment so we made our way next door and watched our last traditional fijian fire and knife dance (we'd seen about 5) the show was really good and was the only one I'd seen that had girls in and they even participated in the fire show. The next morning was our last day - Dave as usual was awake before me and Tom came in to get him and tell him about football! While they watched that I got ready and as it turns out somebody had pinched our shampoo which was really annoying as it would have covered us for LA and would now mean we'd have to buy some more, but as Tom and Jen were going home straight from LA airport rather then stopping they had a clearout and gave us some of there's yay! So our last day was spent getting organised, internet, chatting, drinking - updated diaries and purchasing a few gifts for peeps at home. As we was all on the same flight home at 10 pm we booked a taxi together but once at the airport we was told there was a delay, we all had little pennies so made the most of what we did and got some grub but due to the extra pat down checks we had to check through a little earlier - once through we played cards, cant remember the game but at one point Dave must have dropped his or something and Jen ended up getting accused of cheating - we all thought this was funny apart from Jen whom made Tom very aware, chuckle - def one of those things where you had to be there but still makes me smile! haha Then came time to board our flight, the nice check in people had put us near each other and Jen and Tom had the exit row so loads of room while me and Dave had a real touch and managed to land four seats all to ourselves, the flight went pretty quick and we was in LA before we knew it - after a little sweat as how long our bags took to come out we had to say a quick goodbye at the terminal as we went through to departures and Tom and Jen went to through to connections. Then it was hello to LA!