When booking flights, we spent a long time flitting between Fiji and Hawaii as possible places to stop off on the way back from NZ. We have since heard from a number of people, both on the road and back at home, all about how amazing Hawaii is. So we were beginning to wonder if we had made the right decision in choosing Fiji.

As we only had 12 days here, we got everything organised in advance. Whilst planning we realised that this is not a budget-friendly place, and we were pretty naive to expect a return towards Asian prices. However, as it is unlikely we will be in this part of the world anytime soon, we decided to blow the budget a little and not follow the standard tourist trail to the Yasawa islands, but to try to head to some more interesting places.

Our first destination was the tiny island of Leleuvia. After a delayed flight and 4 hour drive across the main island of Fiji, we were picked up by a boat just after nightfall. The boat ride was a fairly perilous, but gps-assisted, trip between shallow reefs to the island, just in time for the Saturday night Lovo party. This meant eating a big pile of food (some of which was very new to us), and drinking a lot of Kava (a traditional Fijian celebration drink which makes your mouth feel like you have had too many Tyrozets).

The next morning we were woken up by the sunrise, and could see our surroundings properly. Leleuvia is basically the perfect tropical island, 500m long and 200m wide, a coral reef drop-off on one side, and seemingly endless sandy shallows on the other. Plus an extremely noisy, attention-seeking cat. There is a simple resort at one end of the island, with a few thatched huts, ablutions block, and a bar/restaurant.

We happily spent our day lazing in hammocks, snorkelling (with the very venomous but rather timid sea-snakes), kayaking and having a go at stand-up-paddleboarding (I can confirm that it really is as silly as it looks). We were also lucky to be on the island on a spring tide (that's "big tide" for those who didn't do geography). At low tide, the huge area of sea between the island and the distant reef was reduced to a few ankle-deep pools. We left the snorkels at the hut, and just by walking and paddling we were able to find fish, crabs, starfish, spotted moray eels and baby mantis shrimp (far smaller and less colourful than the amazing one we saw when diving in the Philippines, but I could have spent all day playing, as they punched whatever was put near them whilst swivelling their strangely expressive eyes).

After a few days we then made a short hop to the island of Ovalau, where we were headed for Levuka, the Unesco-listed, historic capital of Fiji. Nowadays, Levuka is a very small, unassuming village, stuffed full of history and charm to almost surreal levels. The main street feels like a wild-west town of bakeries and small shops, where everyone knows each other and walking down the street is a cheery, sociable event. Many of the buildings are over 100 years old, and mark the first govenor's houses, post offices, and customs houses to be built in Fiji, back when this little village was the centre of the entire colony. "Gun rock" looms nearby, a cliff with massive notches carved out by the cannon shots of early European settlers who wanted to intimidate the local tribal chiefs in the early days of the colonies. After a short while, the capital was moved to Suva, on the mainland, and Levuka has hardly grown in size since.

Each evening, we heard beautiful singing in the village. We assumed it was a church choir, but it turned out to be the town's rugby team. Before and after each training session, they pray together, and then sing (with harmonies and everything)! It was lovely to hear and added another layer of atmosphere to the place.

In Levuka we were staying at a really nice guesthouse run by an Aussie couple who had moved to Fiji 15 years ago. They hooked us up with Nox, who worked part time at the guesthouse and he was able to take us for a couple of walks around the island, and so we got to see the village plantations. These are on common land, where anyone can grow kava, cassava, taro and other vegetables. Kind of like allotments, but much bigger, and with much better views outward towards the sea. We also saw, from a distance, the private island where Keith Richards fell out of a coconut tree in 2006 (this feels slightly more interesting to us as were had been listening to his autobiography while driving around NZ… all 24 hours of it).

To get to our final stop, we took a 12 minute flight in a small plane (getting another look at Leleuvia on the way) back to the mainland, then a bus around the north coast to Rakiraki. We were mainly here for the diving in the world famous Bligh Waters, and decided to treat ourselves while we were at it, after seeing a cheap deal at one of the dive resorts (where we could cook for ourselves to stop costs getting out of hand). And so we have spent the last few days getting up with sunrise to swim a few lengths of the pool, and attempting to cook all the interesting food that is sold at the market in town (we have mastered cassava hash browns). We did one day diving (it's not cheap!), and saw some of the most dense concentrations of fish we have ever seen. The islands of Fiji mean that tidal currents are funnelled through passes, so the coral reefs are constantly bombarded with waters full of nutrients. There were not many breathtaking individual moments, but it was really pleasant to see such pristine, colourful reefs.

Whilst in Rakiraki, we heard about the devastating earthquake in Nepal. This has hit us pretty hard as it was only a few months ago we were there. Thankfully, we know that the guides that took us trekking are safe, but there are so many other lovely people we met during our time there, and we have no way of knowing whether they are safe. Many of the buildings that we saw, particularly in Bhaktapur, no longer exist, which is also really sad. Whilst the Nepalese are very resilient, it is such a poor country, so it is going to take a really long time for them to recover. If anyone is able to, please consider donating to the DEC's appeal, the people are going to need all the support they can get.

Tonight we will be embarking on a trip we have been dreading, a 10 ½ hour flight to LA, 9 hour layover there, and then another 5 hour flight to Miami. We have two nights in Naples where we will meet up with Nic's sister and her boyfriend, then we head up to Orlando. Guess who is excited?