After a miserable, wet two days in Nadi we were told a boat was sailing for the Yasawa Islands the next day. We were sceptical...the weather forecasted indefinite storms but the company we had booked our package with were uncontactable and rumours were rife that no refunds were being given and that people were told they had to take the boat back out regardless... We headed out to our first destination, the island of Waya Lailai and to our amazement the sun came ...

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 immigratio...

Back in Auckland we met up with Dave, a friend of Sharon's from back home. Dave did us proud, taking us round all the sites of Auckland that we had missed the first time round (being hungover!) Mount Eden provided amazing views of the city and Kim was tempted to roll down the grassy crater until Dave warned that it was fragile and she could fall through the crust into hot magma bubbling beneath the surface....best not then!! Thanks Dave for a great day out!

We spent our last couple of days touring Northland. We visited the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand, Tane Mahuta, which is 2000 years old, 17 meters tall and has a trunk 13 meters thick...that's one big tree! The Japanese were going mad taking photos!!! We also strolled around the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the Maori and the British signed a historic treaty recognising New Zealand as an independent nation and a protectorate of the UK. We also made the mis...

We spent a couple of days driving round the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula along the windy coast road. No major highlights to report...unless you'd like us to tell you all about the town covered in murals and scattered with boulders engraved with Haiku poetry? Or we could wax lyrical about the massive open gold mine (Martha's mine) that we visited? Or we could report on the fact Mark drank a bottle of New Zealands' speciality 'lemon & paeroa' drink standing...