Sunday 16th May
Today we drove back to Nadi. First we had to pack all the seafood in an ice box to make sure it didn't go bad during the 4 hour drive back, well, we of didn't want it all to cook in the heat of the boot of the car now!!

After an emotional goodbye to dads sister & family, we hit the road. We stopped at various points along the coastal road so I could take some pictures, we also stopped at 'The Prawn Shop' just passed Navua as I wanted to buy some giant prawns. Unfortunately they were sold out of the king size prawns so I settled for the 'medium' sized prawns. Now when I say 'medium' these prawns were still 3 times the size of king prawns we get back home!! I would've liked to have seen the size of their 'king' sized prawns we later stopped for some lunch in Sigatoka then arrived back in Nadi around 4.30pm. The evening was spent eating some of the crab (nom nom nom!!), drinking some Fiji Gold beer & calling mum back home in England to wish her Happy Mothers Day. Afterwards it was time to get some sleep.

Monday 13th May
Today was chillout day & wash clothes day.........It's nice to spend the day at home relaxing after the long drive yesterday. I have been reflecting a lot on visiting all the family in Suva, it was really nice to see them all but I can't help but feel sad at some of the conflicts that are going on. I know and appreciate no family is perfect but I also know a little compromise and understanding goes a long way.........

Tuesday 14th May
I got up early today so I could attend a hindu religious prayer session (Puja) at my cousins house. It was his annual Puja where he gives up eating meat and drinking alcohol for 13 days to pay respect to the Hindu gods. It was a very nice Puja and I'm glad I attended. After that I returned to my aunties house to get some sleep as my other cousin had arranged for us to go deep sea fishing tonight & we wont return until tomorrow morning. I'll admit I was a little nervous as I don't really fish, let alone deep sea fishing but its something I've always wanted to do so a little excitement is there as well .

We left the house around 4 to meet up with the other guys who were also going fishing. After loading the boat up and lowering it down the jetty into the water, we set off around 5.30. After about 2 hours going out to sea it started to rain so a couple of us sat inside the cabin as we didn't want to get wet and possibly get ill, BIG mistake on my behalf!! This was when my dream deep sea fishing trip in the south pacific in the South Pacific became a nightmare I was more Robson 'I feel mega' Greene does deep sea fishing rather than Robson Greene does deep sea fishing!!! I couldn't stop being sea sick, nothing would stay down, not even small sips of water, Coke or anything else!! I give the other guys full credit, they looked after me well & even offered to to head back to land but I thought they've already driven the boat out for 4 hours & they were so eager to fish that I said I'll just go to sleep for a while which should help me, they carry on fishing and I'll join them when I wake up. I'll be honest and say I slept the whole night through, I did wake up a couple of times because the guys were cheering some of the fish they caught at the time but as I was feeling so drained I fell back asleep.

Wednesday 15th May
I finally woke up at around 6am having missed some good jokes, good laughs but most of all good fishing!! I did however get to see my cousin trying to pull in a fish which also happened to take a sharks fancy too! bear in mind the guys were using hand lines and not rods so to see my cousin struggle for about 20 mins and then finally pull the fish in was very impressive but...........all that was left was its head!! (check out the picture attached to this entry) Judging by the size of the head, if he had pulled the whole thing in I reckon it would have been at least 1 metre long, big muthfunka I tell ya, dam you shark!!! after about an hour we decided to head back to land. I saw a lovely sunrise over the Pacific and thought to myself, Rob, you really need to work on your sea legs, or better still, buy sea sickness prevention pills next time!!. Oh yes, there will be a next time, I won't give up that easy lol we reached land around 10am and headed back to the boat owners house to divvy the fish up, sink a few cold beers (some of the guys of course preferred to drink cava lol) and talk about their nights work. For sure they ribbed me about my antics but they all said I'm more than welcomed again when I visit next time After all was said and done it was time to get some decent sleep as tonight is my last night and I wanted to be 100% for it.

It was so nice to spend the evening with my cousins drinking beer, chatting about anything and everything plus eating some of the best seafood ever!! Quality times spent with quality people this was the main aim of my travels and tonight definitely topped it off nicely, happy days, in the style of the Fonz 'aaaaayyyyyyyyyyy'

I've had such a great time in Fiji, spending time with various family members was excellent. A big thanks to all of them for having me & showing me a great time, I will miss them all extremely

Tomorrow I make the long mission back home. I'm looking forward to getting back, even if its only for 2 weeks but I get to see mum and my god-daughter again and give them a big hug which I'm well looking forward to, I have missed them a lot!!

I'm off to the US of A after my short 'break' in England, I will continue my blog when I'm there.

Until then peeps, thank you for taking the interest in reading my blog so far. I have seen and done so much, I hope you have enjoyed keeping up with me.

Much love
Rob
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