KADAVULAILAI ISLAND - Bounty Island Resort was where we spent our last night off the mainland and due to the boat apparently running on ‘Fijian time’ we arrived in pitch black…. quite a unique experience being in the middle of the ocean at night on a boat that would struggle to cross the river Aire, we landed safe and sound though to a different but equally beautiful island. This was the smallest island we visited (bearing in mind the others were tiny too...

Bula! (Hello in Fijian..... said 100 times a day at least) As we would not have enough time to visit the several hundred islands that consist of Fiji (much to Joanna’s disappointment) we settled for three Yasawa islands plus one Mamanuca island. We had an early start up at 6.30am for our ‘awesome breakfast’ before pick up at 7.15am…. it was a short drive to Denarau Port followed by a chaotic check-in process before boarding the Yasawa Flyer (a huge yello...

Our flight from Auckland took just over 4 hours landing in Nadi at about 9pm on the 23rd...... we immediately felt the heat compared to NZ. We had managed amongst the chaos of rushing back to Auckland to find a quick half hour in the Flight Centre to sort out our Fiji accommodation; we ended up booking two nights in the Aquarius Hotel and a 7 day 6 night trip around the Yasawa / Mamanuca islands….. on arrival at the airport we were picked up by the hotel bus an...

After waking up at Karibu Creek we hit the road south to Rotorua stopping on the way to watch an hour or two of competition show jumping (how lucky I was Jo spotted this as we drove past!!) arriving early evening we checked into the YHA hostel which we have to say is the nicest hostel you will ever stay in...... Checked out what Rotorua had to offer, quite unusual seeing steam rise from parks and even peoples gardens due to the geothermal activity in the area! T...

After an amazing 2 weeks in the south island we caught a flight back up to Auckland which was a harrowing ordeal for both of us.... it was raining so bad and the turbulence was just horrific!! We then picked up our new car which was a big 12 year old kiwi station wagon!! So stylish.... although Craig referred to it as 'The Beast'! We then checked into our accommodation and headed to Kelly Tarltons Aquatic Centre, we had a great afternoon meeting the penguins and...