bula! (hello in fijian) Fiji has been amazing! We got here two weeks ago and went on the Feejee Experience (an organised tour of fiji). its 4 days of activities and you can hop on/off wherever. Have to check out the pics on my website, which i have just found out i cannot put the pics on in this rubbish cafe not allowed to download software i need to do it! First day of the experience we went to Natadola beach completely deserted apart for the fijian kids who jump straight onto you tryinhg to sell you jewellery! not nice- as felt like i had to buy something! we had a barbie on the beach then went to a rural fijian village. It was so unlike anything i have seen before, some houses were made of cement and a few metal sheets! the children were so nice, they greeted us from the bus and literally picked who they wanted to show around! then we went to the sandunes at sigatoka and went sandboarding- the dune was like a vertical drop so i waited to see what the best tecnique was for coming down as slow as humanly possible! ha. It was so much fun apart from the walk up to the top almost gave me a heart attack! that night we stayed at Mango Bay hostel in the middle of nowhere right on the beach- it was absolutely beautiful! the accommodation was in bures , sort of thatched buildings and inside were beds with mosquito nets- like pricess beds- i loved it! the evening entertainment was local fijian people dancing & singing their traditional tribal like songs! After this and a few party games incl. limbo, we went and sat on the beach and watched storms / shooting stars and got to know our group more. It was absolutely amazing sat there. I wished people could have seen what i saw! second day we went on a 10k trek through the rainforest jungle. it was quite hard work and i sweated buckets...nice! the trek took us through a long but shallow river- it was amazing doing that after 45 mins of being in the sun- so cooling! then we went tubing down the river in big rubber rings through minor rapids and jumped of waterfalls then got a longboat back to the bus. third day we went to a school - pretty carzy it was a boarding school and they had to get up at 4am everyday to do farming- can you imagine! we were shown around by the older children. one girl actually asked if she could have my camera! - Er no! Then we went to another village where we met the chief and took part in a kava ceremony. nothing like cheap champers but a dried root the pour water over and squeeze to produce Kava which they drink everyday (not alcoholic - more getting slightly high!). It is absolutely disgusting! Imagine muddy water at its finest then a tingling mouth, then not being able to feel your tongue and you have the Kava experince! After the ceremony we made these bracelets made of leaves with the women of the village while the boys continued to drink kava and then we left and went Billi Billi rafting (30ft logs tied together) quite amusing. That night we stayed at a hostel which was nice enough but had the worst atmosphere! we decided to hop off the bus to Nanaru island for few days and 5 other people from the tour joined in with us...it didnt go down well with the people at the hostel. Still had a good night sitting around a camp fire with guitar singing (not me you'll be glad to here!) We spent the next 7 nights on Nanaru-i-ra island, the 4 of us, a girl called Holly, Colm, Andy & Christian. Han an Christian ended up together - Ah! Stayed on what really was a paradise island a week and just sunbathed, Kayaked, walked (some) ate super noodles (mmmm nutricious!) and drank, alot! Time on the island was so relaxing and beautiful- it was uninhabitted and there were no roads or transport bar boats from the main land- perfect! I managed, however to get conjunctivius from the scabby bar staff along with 20 other people- i looked like i had been in 10 rounds with tyson! absolutely horrible! maz got it too- been absolutley petrified they wouldnt allow me onto the plane! its so so contagious! Anyway, i have to cut this short, but will update again. I fly to new zealand in a few hours- thats if i am let onto the plane! yikes- fingers crossed. Keep emailing guys- i love the chat. Love you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx