hey all you gorgeous people out there just wanted to let you know that we're back to reality! boo hoo! no not really. got back on monday after a 9hr flight from the cook islands to LA an 8hr wait in LAX and then another 10hr flight to London Heathrow oh the joy! jet lag is officially kicking in!

However, this past 6months has honestly been a life changing (excuse the cliche) experience for me and ed. we have met amazing people, been culturally enriched, laughed lots, learnt lots, drank lots, seen the most amazing things, done the most amazing things, been overwhelmed, exasperated, elated, sun burnt, you name it...and had plenty of time to really reflect and discuss about our futures together. we now also feel pretty ready to hget in to the big wide world (finally) and get back to normality, especially after spending pretty much 24/7 together (say no more)! although we havent killed each other and we're still going strong, so its all good. its also given us the opportunity to get to know each other all over again outside the university bubble, which has been great as we've shared such an awesome adventure and inspiring journey.

we'll probably bore you with all our photos and souvenir 'show and tells' within the next few months, which reminds me i will upload a final load of photos on each leg of the journey, with our highlights etc. so that will come in the next few days...or so!

so...here's a final round up of the events and we want to thank everyone for our messages and keeping us posted throughout our journey...thanks for sharing it with us.

fiji was absolutely amazing the people were by far the most hospitable we have met yet and we were taken in by fijian families on numerous occassions and exposed to new types of lovely food and not forgetting the narcotic drink called kava, which was...interesting! we spent a week on the main island and there was a big festival and carnival in the capital, suva, which was a great sight to see. we then spent a week island hopping, which was fabulous. we helped catch our fish for the nights dinner, took a trek to see the sunrise on the monutains of one of the islands, with stunning views across the yasawa and mamanuca islands, we played a game with coconuts, which meant one attached to string tied round your waist, dangling between your legs and one on the floor. the aim of the game was to get the coconut to the other end of the room and over the line before your partner, whilst thrusting your tied coconut at the one on the floor. as you can imagine...hilarious! we also did some more amazing snorkelling and generally ate great food and lazed in the sun on beautiful beaches. we really got a sense of the culture here and the slow but still hard working pace of life. We were made to feel like part of the community here - loved it!

next we moved on to the cook islands and we spent a week here doing nothing more than lying on the beach, leisurely strolls round the island of rarotonga and generally chilling out before returning home. it was a really beautiful and lovely place to spend the last leg of our journey giving us loads of time to catch up ourselves on just how much we've been up to!

hope you've enjoyed sharing it with us, we honestly have so many stories to tell, that we just couldnt fit in, but you get the jist, once again thanks for all the comments and more photos will follow shortly but to all you lovely people, see you soon and we'll let you know when its time for trip 2! he he he

all our love hayley and ed x x x x