we arrived in fiji at 6am, though it felt like 4am to us, and were taken to our hostel in newtown, which was really nice. the drive to the hostel reminded us a little of being back in africa which was cool. having slept on the beach for a while, then in our room we went into downtown nadi, which is not very nice and booked our islands trip. woohoo! The following day we returned to downtown nadi and waited two hours for a bus that never came, with all of our luggage and about 400 taxi drivers blagging us for business!! we eventually made our way to our hostel at the foothills of the Sabeto Mountains via three buses! the hostel was practially empty, which wa sodd , so we got upgraded to the 'Love shack' room, and had amazing veiws of the Sabeto mountains. We spent the afternoon, on a long walk looking for an illustrious mud pool complex with NO SIGNs or any real idea were we were going, and so naturally we were delighted to stumble across george's mud pool/hot springs! and spent the rest of the day covered in mud and hot water- the usual!

The next day we continued the walking theme and set out (rather foolishly) in the heat of the day, having become lost after an hour we asked a local woman the way and were informed that we were about 2 miles in the wrong direction. an hour later and we were off again, we eventually made it to the top of a mountain track and got only average views, luckily however, another local woman let us in to her garden which offered amazing views across the mamanuca islands and the rest of the Sabeto Mountains. We returend to the hostel, very tired, VERY hot and very dehydrated!

The next day we went back to Newtown and chilled on the beach while we waited for MAtty, Albaz and Fraz (the Geordie Boys) to arrive. all was very emotional and enjoyable when they did at last arrive! The next day we went into Nadi, to sort the boys on our island hopping trip and then relaxed having enjoyed our 1st mini Kava ceremony and a booze cruise with the BOOM BOX CAB Co of Nadi (UNREAL!).

The following morning we got up early to catch our transfer to Denerau Marina and the Yasawa Flyer. The islands are beautiful- the Mamanucas being small and sandy paradise islands, and the Yasawa islands larger, rocky and more rugged. We left the boys for one night and arrived at our 1st island- Waya Lai Lai Eco Haven to a musical welcome from the local villagers on the beach. The resort is lovely with great food (!!) and Neal decided he would like to swim from to the neighbouring island, about 3km's away across a channel which could have contained sharks, caroline came along to spot them! he survived and we were both well enough to undertake a walk to the highest peak on the island, which was great and had amazing iews across all of the islands in the chain. However, desceding in the dark, being guided by a crazy, old, mumbling fijian was less exciting; broken ankles were only narrowly avoided!

The following day we met up with the boys again and travelled onto Mataclaweva Isalnd towards the end ofthe Yasawas and stayed at Long Beach. This island seemed more remote and after walking along the Long Beach and encountering a Wild Pig in wooden fence we concluded that it was! That night we got a little drunk on the beach. The next day we goy up early to go snorkelling in the blue lagoon, between some of the islands.The coral was about 5cm away from your face which was incredible, spent an hour with our heads in the water. again, we spent the rest of the day chilling out and then got drunk on the beach chasing our adopted dog- Baxter!!

On our last full day in the islands we all travelled to Beachcomber Island in the Mamnucas- it is quite a notorious party isalnd, and after arriving quite late we got quite drunk and were entertained by a Samoan dance troop- IFFY! We then enjoyed a HUGE buffet and a massive Kava session and a guy raking sand at 3am!

the last few days were spent chilling with the geordie boys in downtown nadi and newton... very nice!!!!! take care guys!