We made it to Fiji in one piece and even better, made it to our Beach-house via the Queens highway: this consists if a very bumpy, windy, slow road which they class as there main highway! It's no L.A I can tell ya. Also our time zone is totally messed up. Got in at 5.30am FIJI time, which would have been 10.30am LA time, the day before and have to try and stay up until bedtime, I can't stay up till bedtime on a normal day, never mind having travelled for about 20 hours lol.
But getting off the plane in Fiji, greeted by guys in sulu's playing guitars was very sweet. Then jumping on a bus, choosing a random place to stay, (I'd seen The Beachouse, Tubakula bungalows and Mango Bay Resort on hostel world) telling the driver assistant we didn't have a booking for which she looked worried and rang ahead to find out, and then turning up at the Beachouse 3 hours later, to find Paradise!! It was just beautiful. The whole way along the road we had been looking at the accommodations we passed and the beaches, and none had a good combination of nice beach and within our price range, but we found it. Just a case of good luck. Even though we arrived at 10.30am, they let us check in. Originally they were going to put us in a dorm with other guys, but the girl taking us said it stank if smoke so she wouldn't do that, so she put us in a dorm on our own. Woo hoo, and they were nice, 6 beds, clean, a ceiling fan, storage, definitely couldn't complain. We spent the first day just relaxing by the beach in the gorgeous weather, got afternoon tea of freshly baked scones and coffee and shepherds pie dinner. Can't complain. Managed to stay up until 9pm. Go us.

The next 4 days just went by in a blur really, met some lovely people, ate, drank, swam, snorkelled, lay in a hammock, tried yoga (my new favourite hobby, I can't wait to join a class!), got an invite to Suva by one of the girls we met oh was studying there, and we went to Singatoka for a day trip (just to pick up some snacks and got myself a lovely sulu).
We did a Jungle Trek with Juta from the local village. He told us about the history of Fiji, how the English came and brought Christianity, about their cannabalism days, a lot of the food them grow and plants they use as medicines. I didn't exactly expect it to be a jungle, but it was. I definitely stepped in enough crap for one day (my trainers are now red from the clay.) but got to wash ourselves off in a waterfall at the end. Then we stopped for lunch, prepared by a Fijian family for us, which consisted of a curry Roti and fresh coconut to drink. Really good. Juta invited us to a Kava ceremony at his village later on that evening; we didn't know what to think but I knew we couldn't refuse. We tried to get Alex to come along with us, so we'd feel less uncomfortable there being more of us, but he couldn't come. So at 8pm, we headed along the main road in the pitch black (no streetlights) to the village, where we were just told to ask for him and we'd be pointed in the right direction. So we arrive whilst they are doing their evening bible reading. It was very interesting and humbling to see how they lived; at least 10 people in the one hose sleeping on the floor. But they all seemed happy, like so many Fijian people we have met before. Then he took us to the village hall, where they would perform the Kava ceremony but also where they were holding their weekly meeting. So we had Kava; a powder root plant placed into muslim cloth, and dipped and squeezed into the water in the kava bowl, resulting in looking like muddy water. It was drank from a coconut shell, carved into a very thin hard bowl. The options were; low, medium, or high tide or tsunami. The taste wasn't very pleasant but we had to oblige on each occasion offered as not to be rude and offend them. It made my tongue and lips go numb, strange feeling. The process was; clap once for you start, say 'Bula' to the crowd, drink down in one, then clap three times afterwards. So having drank about 5 bowls, sat for two hours at the front (me, Kenny, the chief, a spokesman and an assistant chief sat at the front whilst everyone faced us! Intimidating) listening to them all speak in Fijian and not having a clue what they were saying, Juta whispered that we could leave when we were ready. Having sat cross legged the whole time also proved uncomfortable, so the next chance we could catch his eye, we said we'd leave. We thanked them all, 'Vinaka' and were walked back to the Beachouse by Jutas' son Flood. That was definitely a memorable experience.

Then we met Adam and Lee. Lee worked for a volunteer organisation called Think Pacific, and he'd been in Fiji for nearly a year so he knew the good spots. He was taking Adam to a place called Leleuvia. As we didn't have any concrete plans for Fiji, we decided we'd tag along. At the same time, we'd decided that we loved Fiji soo much and could get used to relaxing everyday, so we changed out flights to give us an extra week here. Think we had just done enough sight seeing in the last month, we just wanted a break and a chance to live on 'Fiji time.' So off we went to Leleuvia for 6 nights with Adam, Lee and Lisa from Germany. The three guys sitting in the open back of the truck, and we get pulled over by the police for speeding. (Not a word said about them siting there; it's Fiji, anything goes.)

When we'd finished Leleuvia, we came back to the Beachouse for 3 days. The shuttle bus from Suva to Beachouse was interesting; a minivan packed with 15 people and all there luggage (really not that much bigger than an 8 deter at home) with no seatbelts and carpeted inside. We thought we'd be more likely that the driver remember to drop us off in a small van, but no he still forgot and had to reverse back. So down the lane we go, our backpacks still exactly where we left them, and we meet Andrew the owner. He welcomes us back and gives us a free upgrade to a garden bure. It has a double bed, free towels and coconut soap, plus an outside toilet and shower. It was heaven for a night, soo pleased. :) Then back to the dorm for the next two nights, but we didn't mind, had it to ourselves. Unfortunately though, we did have to experience a full day of rain and it was the most boring day in existence!! We did sit and chat to Natalia and Dominic, so we had some company but we were literally counting the minutes from breakfast to lunch, to afternoon tea to dinner to bedtime. Played a bit of cards and attempted to fix my underwater camera which was playing up. (Got the photos onto Dropbox so I didn't lose them.) The next two days were lovely weather, so continued topping up the tan and getting caught up on the blog. We left on the 12th in a minivan to Nadi, staying in Horizon backpackers, (which was ok, cheap) for our trip to the Yasawas tomorrow. The hostels here are metres away from each other, so we could use the facilities at Smugglers cove, which was nice.