Bula (welcome) from Fiji!

Starting our plane descent into Nadi we found out that Fiji had declared a state of emergency and looking out the window we could see that the country was underwater. The worst cyclones for decades had hit two days before we arrived and Fiji was experiencing storms, floods, landslides, food shortages, military curfew and potential disease outbreaks....all the ingredients for a perfect tropical paradise!

After getting through immigration we found that our hostel was underwater and that we couldn't get into the town because of the curfew. Luckily our host, the owner of the sodden backpackers had another hostel up his sleeve... the delectable 'Holiday Inn' - no relation to the Holiday Inns we're used to!

Unfortunately our esteemed host had forgotten to check that his other property had vacant rooms. Our mini bus driver and the manager had a screaming row in Fijian (although as this is Fiji the screaming row was accompanied by a lot of chuckling and back slapping). We headed off to find the owner only the bus now wouldn't start. Various random locals in hawaiian shirts all took turns hammering at the battery with a hammer and eventually we were off - 2 minutes down the road to pick up the owner and then back to the Holiday Inn. More friendly shouting and the host explained that they were indeed full but he'd find us somewhere else to stay. However this being a state of emergency everywhere was full so in desperation he finally offered us the laundry room...a tiny room, a single bed and a huge resident cockroach. We took it... we had no choice!

Amazingly boats were still running to our first destination, Bounty Island. Bounty Island was the setting for Celebrity Love Island and truly is a tropical paradise, with wooden bures (huts) on the beach, hammocks and cocktails. Unfortunately it all looks slightly different during a cyclone...the storms didn't let up and after 2 days all the guests were evacuated back to the mainland!

We spent 2 days on the mainland marvelling at the state of the floods and the washed away roads and the amazing good humour of the locals who still waved, smiled and shouted 'Bula' to us even while trying to save their possessions. Amazing people!