We arrived in Fiji to glorious sunshine, we headed to Nadi for one night before we caught our boat to the islands the next day. We got picked up bright and early and taken to the docks to catch our boat to octopus resort...Gemma and Ewen had reccomended this place to us as they'd been a few months ago....best reccomendation we've ever had! This place really was paradise! We arrived to a welcome song of Fijian locals decorated with flowers playing guitars and ukileles! Our bags were taken to our bungalow....it was the only resort on the island and was everything we could ask for! It had the most amazing dining room with a sand floor that served the most delicious food, a gorgeous pool with sun beds the size of actual beds and our bungalow was beautiful with flowers all over the bed and a balcony where you could listen to the ocean!

Our first day in paradise consisted of lots and lots of sun, volleyball and the most amazing seafood dinner you can imagine! And so the week went on....they blew a huge shell to let you know when your beautiful meals were ready, we had fresh towels by the pool every day and the sea was so blue you could see your toes no matter how deep you were! We were welcomed on the first night with a welcome ceremony where it is tradition to drink some 'cava'...this is made from the root of a local pepper plant and is a natural anaesthetic....so within 3 cups we could no longer feel our lips or tounge but we were in high spirits! The next night we layed on a hammock on the beach under the most insane amount of stars....it was absolutely beautiful! The people we met at octopus made it even better so when the groups games stared the next night we were game! Unfortunately despite all our efforts we were not quite as successful as we may of wanted but it was a brill night! All of the staff in the resort came from the village that was on the other side of the island 15 mins walk away, so twice a week they invited guests over to go and see their village. It was amazing to see where they all came from...they had made a fantastic little village on the other side of the island with a huge church, school and solar panels to give the school power! After Rich playing running races with all the little children while shelly purchased some of the local crafts the villages had made we made our way back to the resort!

Kayaks were the plan of action for the next day so we headed out with another canadian couple we had met on our first day.....it was hard work but the sea was sooo clear! On the way back into shore we had the great idea of kayak surfing....this was awesome for the guys in there little one man kayaks however when the girls caught a wave in their massive two man one and got flipped it ended in MANY coral cuts for the girls!!!....well deserved for trying to surf a kayak! By the end of Fiji time we had learnt to weave,make shell jewellery,fijian dance and accept a traditiobnal fijian 'cava' offering! We were definitley not ready to leave Fiji....it was the most beautiful place we'd ever been and we could have quite happily stayed forever but as we had our campervan to collect in New Zealand which was very exciting we finished our time off with a fijian massage before it was back on the boat to the mainland to catch our flight to Christchurch!