As we'd bought all the trip for the next 7 days yesterday it was time to get on our way.

It started by withdrawing all the money we'd need for the week as there will be no way of getting money while on the island.

DAY ONE

The boat ride was about about an hour out to Mana and we were greeted by the resort "family" with flowers for the hair, a flower garland and a song, it was really cool. The manager greeted us and introduced everyone and we looked at our rooms briefly before lunch.

The place was pretty basic but just enough for us really. We'd been hoping for a little nicer but it's really difficult when you've little option but to pay for it all in advance.

As part of the greeting party we had tried some Kava, a Fijian root based drink which is meant to make you feel sleepy, it didn't seem to do much other than taste foul. As you can imagine there really isn't much to do on one of these islands and we decided to spread out our entertainment by lounging around the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening we had the dinner which was provided, OK but will get boring fast, and had a couple of beers watching a bonfire.

The time in Fiji felt odd at first as its the only place we've stayed for longer than four days throughout the trip. We therefore thought it would be nice (and with little option) to spend week enjoying doing nothing.

On one evening Tom went out sea fishing with a guy named Ross after the team had brought back four fish on the previous night. Unfortunately having paid for 6 of us to go out on a boat it wasn't to be and we returned home without a nibble. Think it might be worth giving up the fishing, gets a bit boring when you never catch!

Two nights later a couple for girls orgainsed a drinking trip to a tiny little sand island about 1 km off the island. They hired a boat to return to the mainland and buy in the booze and later that evening we all got the boat across to the island which was basically just a sand bank but it was nice to get off the island for a few hours.

We're really proud of ourselves as I think we are the only two from our hostel who haven't got sunburn, we try to spend most of the time in the shade just having a swim in the beautiful clear sea every now and then. We've enjoyed Fiji as it has been a complete contrast to to rest of the trip and had felt like a holiday and the end of the trip. The US and Canada part of the trip is going to be really busy so it was nice to sit back and do absoloutley nothing for a week.