August 26th (Wednesday) - Day 177 - Bounty Island and Robinson Crusoe Island (RCI)
We had to have our token bad day as we have had one in most countries so far. Today was Fiji's turn. We spent the morning by the pool waiting for our transfer back to Nadi. It was due about half 12 so we went and sat waiting for it. The staff then didn't seem to know anything about this boat and spent ages trying to ring them. Couldn't get a hold of anyone. About half 1 we were about to give up and the boat arrived (Fiji time for half 12). They took us back over to the hostel we spent the first night in. We ordered a pizza for lunch and it seemed to have more onion than cheese. Our bus transfer was shockingly on time. We needed to get more cash so it dropped us in Nadi centre. It was like being back in Asia. People wanting you to go in there shop, someone yelling taxi the whole time and little kids wanting to sell us things. The bus then drove us for over an hour to reach the south of the main island. We had to take a boat from there over to RCI. We were dumped in the middle of nowhere. Again Fiji time kicked in. No one could tell us what time our boat was. About 45 minutes later a load of people turned up but they turned out to be on an evening trip. A boat arrived but it was for them; not for us. 90 minutes after being dropped off our boat arrived. It had to take us down the river before reaching the sea. That was so cool. The sun was starting to set and it was like going down a jungle river. Once we arrived at the island we went to check in. The staff started speaking amongst themselves and finally they told us they didn't have the room we wanted. All they could do was down grade us. The icing on the cake was that the room was not ready and we had to wait another 30 minutes for them to get it ready. Our room didn't have a bathroom (which we are used to after hostels but wanted something a bit nicer here). There was no running water in the shared showers. Instead you had to fill up a bucket that had a spout. Before dinner they put on a Kava ceremony. Kava is a plant root that contains a numbing drug. We had a tiny weak bowl. Then we watched as they dug our dinner out of the Lovo (earth oven) and to prove it was hot they did some fire walking on the hot stones. We grabbed some dinner with the other 150 odd people that seemed to be on the day trip. We had no idea who was staying and who was on the day trip so didn't get chatting to anyone. After dinner they put on a really long dance session which ended with knife and fire dancing which was really cool.

August 27th (Thursday) - Day 178 - Robinson Crusoe Island (RCI)
Spent the morning in an "air seat" kind of like a hammock but hung from above and you sit in it instead of lying down. After lunch we moved to our new room and spent the afternoon half in the air seats half taking part in the day trip activities. It was really cool to see one of the guys almost run up a coconut tree to pull down a bunch of coconuts. We also went to watch the turtle viewing. We were conned by it. They lead us to a turtle shell on the beach and as they were about to pick it up a guy jumped out from a hole in the ground under the fake shell. We also watched the crab racing but that was a bit poor. Just before dinner the day trip left and we finally got some peace and a chance to meet who was staying here; with a proper Kava ceremony. This one was a lot stronger than the one the night before. After two bowls we sat and listened to the locals playing guitar. After dinner we had just another Kava ceremony. This was an official one with all the rituals. I was nominated chief of the new people and got the first drink. After that we played some games. The same as the ones we played on Mana; limbo and musical statues.

August 28th (Friday) - Day 179 - Robinson Crusoe Island (RCI)
Spent the morning in the air seat then after lunch we had to make some costumes for that evening. As there are no day trips on a Friday they called it Tribal day. We hence had to do tribe type things. I wasn't that keen on the idea at first so instead Sarah and I went for a walk around the island. On the way we decided to give it a go, partly to take part, but also because of the 10% off drinks if in costume. But couldn't find anything to use. Once back at the main beach the islanders were in full swing helping everyone out. A guy climbed a coconut tree for us to get a couple of branches. Most people went for sensible grass skirt. I decided that was far too boring so instead went for a random idea. I wrapped a coconut branch around my head so that the spikes where protruding in every direction. That wasn't enough so I made something similar for my arms. It took me all of 30 minutes, some people spent hours on theirs. I could then relax all afternoon. We had a few bowls of Kava then got ready for dinner. Most people wore their costume for dinner but there was no way I could do that without having someone's eye out. After dinner we had another Kava ceremony - it had to be done in our costumes, it wasn't exactly particle with all my spikes but it made everyone laugh. I was picked this time as the chief of the island to welcome to the newbie's. It didn't mean much apart from I got one of the first bowls. Then we had to show off our costumes so they could pick a winner. I got loads of laughs again as I was trying to spike the completion away. Shockingly I didn't win. One of the guys who had spent hours on his won. We then had one more task which was called island games. The losing team would end up in a cage that someone had spent all day making. The game was a mini assault course. First jump a pole, crawl under a table and then spin round a stick 10 times; relay fashion. The first few people went then it was Sarah's go. She got to the table just before someone on the other team, who was meant to use another table to go under but instead she went for the same one as Sarah. They started scrapping under the table; it was quite funny to watch. When it was my go I had loads of time to make up. Luckily the person I was against got so dizzy it took them ages to make it back to the start. Our team went on to win so the other team got put in the cage for a good 20 minutes. We all calmed down after that and just spent the rest of the night chatting.


August 29th (Saturday) - Day 180 - Robinson Crusoe Island (RCI)
Last night because we won the Island games we got a 15 minute free massage. We queued for ages until the lady arrived and then loads of other people jumped in front. Sarah got in quite quickly and I just waited until a bit later on. It was well worth having! The rest of the day was spent in the air seats. The first part of the evening was dominated by the shows given to the day visitors. Once they had left we started drinking heavily. It was our last night of our whole trip so we had a slight excuse. We'd made really good friends with a girl who had been abandoned by her mate. We sat in the club for until about 1am when the power went off. After that we sat around a bonfire on the beach. Our friend decided she wanted to go for a swim at 2am - slightly crazy but hey!

August 30th (Sunday) - Day 181 - Robinson Crusoe Island (RCI)
Packed for the very last time and checked out. Our bar bill from the previous night was double the rest of the nights put together (opps). We sat around saying good bye to people until about half 11 when our transfer was ready to go back. 10 of us loaded stuff onto a tiny little boat and we set off. Some of the staff even sang us a good bye song. We went back up the river to the jetty where we transferred to a mini bus. This was an experience in itself. There were 10 guests and 2 staff, along with all the baggage that needed to fit into 10 seats. Somehow they managed to get us all in and somehow we made it back to Nadi safely. We got dropped at the hostel we stayed on the first night. They kindly said we could use the place before our flight. We got some lunch and then just passed the time outside. They let us have a quick shower and then at 6 we set off for the airport. Once we checked in we had over 3 hours to wait. Sarah looked around the shops and I read my book for a while. The flight set off on time and we were on our way home. I was sat by this old Indian lady who had the world's worst flatulence!