After the last few days in Auckland I boarded my flight to Fiji.

My first week in Fiji was spent doing the Feejee Experience bus. I spent 4 days going around the mainland, Vita Levu, seeing different things on the way. We did some village visits and also a school visit; some cultural things so you got to see the 'real' Fiji, not just the beaches. The village visits were good, we had Kava, which is the traditional Fijian drink and numbs your mouth and tongue. Vita Leva is a nice island, there were some nice beaches and the villages were good. Lots of traditional dancing and singing. When we drove through the capital, Suva, we drove past the prison. We were told that the colour clothing an inmate wears is dependent on his crime and sentence. We asked what colour represents the worst crime and sentence and were told orange. It was then at this point we looked out the window and noticed six inmates in orange walking along the road outside the prison!!! Quite glad we were on the bus, can't imagine the British prisons working in the same way.

After going around Vita Levu I then headed over the "Party Island", Beachcomber, for 2 days. The dorm here sleeps 110 people, was expecting a noisy night. Didn't end up being too bad though and certainly wasn't the party island it has been made out to be. Was a nice island with brilliant food.

After Beachcomber I headed back to the mainland where I met my friend, Ashley, who flew over from Australia to meet me. The next day we headed off to the Yasawa Islands and spent 14 days island hopping. We managed to get 7 islands in in total: Coral View, Korovou, Manta Ray, Octopus, Oarsman's, Waya Lai Lai and Bounty Island. All were different in their own way. Waya Lai Lai was my favourite island, was just so beautiful. Some of the beaches I have seen are out of this world, so stunning! And the sea is just so clear and beautiful shades of blue and turquoise! Also saw some stunning sunrises and sunsets. Some of the islands had great snorkeling and we even went out snorkeling with the reef sharks whilst the Fijian guys fed them. Interesting experience. Fiji was fantastic, even an episode of food poisoning, (around 30 of us got sick from one island), which left me bed bound and throwing up for 36 hours didn't spoil the experience.

All in all Fiji was beautiful, it really was Paradise and I had a lovely time. Definitely somewhere I would recommend people to go. By the end you are very much on "Fiji Time' and enjoying doing nothing all day long, certainly is a hard life. I even have a decent tan to show for it, fingers crossed it lasts till I get home :-)

xxx