Bula (hello in Fijian) unfortunatly this was our last major stop in our thus far increible gap year but Fiji was the opposite of disappointing. We arrived in Nadi with a couple of people we met on the flight over and stayed in Nomads Skylodge which was very lush for a very reasonable price i would call it more of a flashpacker resort where the staff treated you like royalty. Unfortunatly we got a little too comfortable and stayed their for too long (5 days) and we found out there is not too much to do in Nadi. One thing we did was go to the 7th best beach in the world which im afraid to say was nice but not that nice. One day in Nadi we were walking along by the markets and got invited in to try some of their national drink, Cava. This is a legal narcotic drink made of a pepper plats roots, is wierd as it just numbs the mouth but is not the nicest tasting thing ever. Finally we booked a trip to beachcomber for two nights that our friends from NZ would be there and luckily we were there for my birthday. My 19th was definatly one of my best as we were on this desert island with loads of quality people with alcohol and good tunes, good times untill i found out i lost my flip flops. We left beachcomber on a high and a taste of island life which was then the point we decided to book a trip of the yasawa islands. When we got back to Nadi we had to leave to go to Pacific harbour the next day which is the south coast of teh main island Viti Levu. There we booked shark diving without cages was possibly the best thing ive ever done if yu get the chance to do it....do it. The conditiosn were pretty bad with large swells around the dive site but as long as i saw big sharks i wasnt too bothered. We dived down to 30m first off and teh feeders fed giant trevelly, nurse sharks and loads of other huge fish which i didnt actually know the names of but they were big and a lot of them going round in circles above our heads. After a while we kicked up to 10m were they fed grey, white tip, silver tip, black tip reef shraks. They were a lot more dangerous than the nurse as tehy kept swooping in and trying to bite the feeders who only had a pole to keep them away with a couple of times they got pretty close going over my head was pretty cool. We had to go up after taht and get a surface interval to change tanks. After an hour of stories form el capitan Papa we hheaded back into the shark infested water to feed some bigger sharks. We had to lie down 2 metres above this cage where they kept the food and fed 20 bull sharks the largest one being 4 metres (was very big) They can get tiger sharks there but unforunatly they were not around when we were there. I havnt really explained it that well but i found a video on youtube that is exactly what we did so thats a lot easier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Ea4-msZh8&feature=related) We haeaded straight back to Nadi where we would have to get up early to get a boat to our yasawa tour where we almost missed it as our bus broke down and ryan had money troubles so we had to peg it down another pier where the boat was backing up onto and had to jump on, close one. Our first port of call was coral view on an island right at the top of yasawa group of island was pretty windy but hot with the food being really good. We did this really good cave trip where we went in this under water cave where we had to swim underwater to be able to get into this cave where the echoes were insane. Me and ryan after if climbed up this cave and jumped from pretty high must of been 30ft was quality. We stayed there for 2 nights and met lots of cool people. Our next night was on this cruise for one night and was a bit of a party boat but saw good coral in this bay and went to Manta ray resort the day after a bit hungover after drinking a lot of Cava and their lethal cocktails the night before. Unfortunalty I didnt see any manta rays (the only cool thing i have yet to see while either diving or snorkeling) Me and this guy went kayaking over to the nice yachts also and got talking to this guy who was sailing round Fiji in his custom built yatch with his wife was quite jealous as thats the way i would like to see fiji if i get the chance to do something like this again. We then hoped on the big yellow cat again to Kuata which was very basic accommodation but had a really nice beach with good coral and there was rarely a cloud in the sky both days so we couldnt really complain. Me and Ryan swam over to Waya laylee one day which took about 15 minutes and was quite eerie being in water where we knew sharks were but seeing nothing but blueness. We made it over in one piece and saw our friends from our cruise and beachcomber. That evening me and ryan also went sunset line fishing which was good but very difficult we both had a few bits but it was pretty difficult to reel them in the bloke that we were with cuaght a snapper which we had for lunch teh next day was delicious. Our last full day in Fiji we were on the smallest island of the where you could walk round it in 2 minutes if you walked slow. It was called south sea and was a good end to sum up fiji. We went sailing on this small hub cap and sun bathed trying drastically to maximise our tanages. We got a braid for some reason aswell and popped open a bottle of champers to mark the immenseness of our 6 months.

All in all fiji comes closest to being my favourite part as everything was just so relaxed and the Fiji people are really kind and the weather was just perfect. Next stop LA after a 12 hour plane journey!