We left mama’s early in an excited mood as we were off to the airport, for the first time not to get on a plane but to pick up Shaun (a friend from the UK). We were so excited to hear all the news from home, and have a friend with us for the next 10 days. His flight was a Korea Air flight via sole, which took two days. The marathon journey wasn’t over yet however as we still needed to find or way to the other side of the main Fiji island. We looked at car hire and busses but settled on a haggled down price of a taxi driver from Suva, the capital, and not far from our resort. The man was of Indian decent, as half the Fijians are, and he decided to use his trip to his best advantage. Our first stop was in Nadi town where he got breakfast from a fast food joint, chicken and chips, which he ate as he drove. The roads were better than I expected, lots of potholes that the locals avoided even if it meant driving on the wrong side of the road round a blind bend, or on the edge of a road next to a drop into the sea. Stop two was a fuel stop where we found that the taxi was running on natural gas. This must have been some type of conversion as the car was so old that it probably went on the Ark. The gas tank was in the boot and explained why he could only get a small amount of our luggage in the boot, and we had to sit with most of it in the car. Off we went again the tropical sun hot and the rainforest countryside flew past the window. From where I was sitting in the front I could see to save money on gas he was turning off the engine and coasting down hills, and cutting across the road on the most direct path round any corner. On the glove box had a written sign that said “no smoking” and “wear a seatbelt”, but the driver took no notice of the sign and never even pretended to wear a seatbelt and smoked continuously throughout our journey. Then he was pulling off the road into what looked like a car graveyard, with a little house at the back. The house belonged to his brother and was made almost entirely of corrugated iron sheets. He told us he was going to see his grandmother who was staying with his brother, just to say “hi”. We continued to catch up on home goings on from Shaun while he did so. Back on the road again we came to the coast and drove along the south coast of the island. It was beautiful, cove after cove of open blue water crested by white, crashing against sand, and backed by tiny metal and wood houses shaded by coconut trees. The driver’s smoking came to an end when he lit the last one and threw the empty packet out of the window, until the next town that is where he stopped to buy more. We got out this time to stretch our legs and get a coke from the shop as it had been over two hours since the start of this taxi ride. I figured that we must be near our destination and this may be the last stop before Pacific Harbour where we were to stay. Along the side of the road every few miles were ladies selling fruit on a table or small wood hut. The next one we passed was selling chillies in bags, so the taxi stopped again and happily purchased all the lady had left, and as he told us had a month’s supply (about 100 chillies) and paid half the going rate for them. The final stop was to give an old man a few fishing hooks that he got in Nadi before he found us. It turned out that the old man was not home so he just through the packet out of the window and two children eagerly ran to collect it and he and the man’s wife shouted greetings in the local language to one another through the open window. Finally we arrived at The Pearl South Pacific 5 star resort. We drove down the driveway flanked by banana palms and shrubs until we arrived at the reception, we drove into almost, as it had no front wall. It was huge and had very comfortable sofas for us to sit on and we were given cold towels for our faces. After we settled in we decided to take a quick tour around the ground and then we decided that we would start at the gym for an hour and then Nicole and Shaun bombed into the pool like kids. The pool was only deep in one small area and had a bar at one end on a level with the water and submerged bar stools. There was also a rock waterfall that we could swim under into a cave. We spent the rest of the day in and around the pool before we freshened up and headed for the restaurant where we had a Lovo dinner. Lovo is the traditional way of cooking in Fiji. Fire is made in a pit to heat rocks. The rocks are then covered by a basket made from palm leaves containing all the food (like taro root and fish). Sacks and leaves are placed on top then buried in the ground to slow cook for a few hours. The food was delicious and was served buffet style, accompanied by salad with pineapple and spinach soup. During dinner there was entertainment of dancing by men and women in grass skirts and singing. Dinner was lovely and the staff friendly and we were very glad to see Shaun after so long. We all slept very well in our comfortable beds.