On our flight to the country I had read an article about travelling Fiji on a budget. Our next hostel, The Beachouse came highly recommended. Somewhere between a mini resort and a hostel The Beachouse attracts both travellers and families to come and stay in one of their private cabanas or the 6 bed dorms.

Fairly secluded on the beautiful Coral Coast of Viti Levu it's a good job that The Beachouse has a bar and restaurant on site. The dorms are modern and clean (although there was a small Bed Bug incident in one of the rooms, not ours luckily) and the pool and garden area with its ample hammocks leads onto a beautiful stretch of beach with a huge swing suspended from a palm tree. It was easy to lose entire days just snoozing and relaxing here.

Scott, who we had met a few days earlier, had decided to join us for a few days at The Beachouse. On our first night we ordered dinner, knocked back a few rum and cokes and joined in with a few drinking games with the other backpackers. Apparently Liann knocked back more than a few Rums because she didn't surface until gone 3 the next day. Almost missing the daily afternoon tea and scones! I spent the day talking to Kerrie and Kirsten, two Scottish girls that we met during the drinking games the night before.

The next day we had a local Fijian man show us how to weave coconut palm leaves into a number of amazing things. We made baskets, bags, hats, jewellery and all sorts of other amazing creations. We tried to copy but it is quite a skill and one that I do not have. I did however learn how to make a grasshopper which is pretty cool. Sadly there aren't too many Coconut Palms in Wales! That afternoon Liann, Scott, Kirsten and I walked along the beach towards the next village. Joined by the hostels owner's three dogs (Diesel, Lucy and Oscar) we explored the tide pools a little and watched the sunset as we wondered back.

After dinner it was another marathon round of card games and yet more drinking games. You know the game where you pass an orange between each other without using your hands? Well we played that! The more your drop, the more you drink but the more you drink, the more you drop! Vicious circle!

It was a beautiful clear night so we all wondered down to the beach to get a better view of the stars. Kirsten and I stupidly decided to both sit on the beach swing. With the high tide and my weight the tree branch just bent and sent us crashing into the pitch black water! Bad time to be wearing jeans! Ah well we were already wet so we might as well strip off and go for a swim. There is something truly relaxing about floating in a calm sea in the dark of night looking up at the stars. No better was to see them if you ask me. Once our eye adjusted we started to spot the green glow of algae in the water, eventually we were surrounded by phosphorescence. I have seen this before on night dives but it was cool to be able to show someone else. We must have been in the water for a while because even I was starting to get cold. After a nice hot shower and dry clothes we headed back to the beach to see in the morning in a hammock.

Yet again time had flown, The Beachouse was one of the nicer places we had stayed and we had an amazing time but it was nearly time to move on. Now six of us, Kerrie, Kirsten, Andy, Scott, Liann and I; we caught a local bus back to Nadi and a taxi to Bamboo.

For our last day in Fiji we had all booked onto a day sailing trip around the islands. It would be foolish to come all the way to Fiji and not see the Yasawa or Mamanuca Islands. The beautiful sailing schooner 'Seasprey' offered an all inclusive day with snorkelling, swimming, drinking and eating as well as another Fijian village visit. We visited Monriki Island which is actually where the Tom Hanks film Castaway was set. Clearly very clever camera angles were used because it's actually not that far from other larger islands. But you could clearly see the cave and the cliff that are featured in the film, no Wilson though! Snorkelling was excellent around the island and once your eyes adjusted to the blue, the colour of the coral and fish really popped.

We dropped anchor near a Fijian village and the tender took us ashore. This village was much larger than the one we visited in the far north and clearly more regularly visited by tourists but they still welcomed us in and of course we joined in with our final Kava session.

Back at Bamboo we went across the road to Smugglers Cove for our farewell meal as the next day Scott, Liann and I flew to New Zealand!