The flight to fiji was a very bumpy one on takeoff from Auckland and to be fair i felt like i had given birth after all the turbulance and that my brain had been squashed like a tomato from the crazy g-forces! caz was just laughing at me the whole time!!!!! We arrived into Nadi on the west coast of Viti Levu at around 6pm. the pilot had told us prior to landing that it was 31oc but boy when we stepped off that plane it was like walking into an oven! we headed to our accomodation for that night at Nomads Skylodge near the airport and played about in the pool before having an early night ready to go island hopping the next morning. We were up at 6.30 to catch our awesome adventures bus to port denarau where we were to catch our boat the yasawa flyer to the mamanuca and the yasawas island groups. Whilst queueing for the boat caz heard a familiar accent which turned out to be 2 of Nats friends Dave and Rick, which was very random!!!! We headed out to South Sea island for a night, its the smallest inhabited island in Fiji and the weather was amazing so we did lots of snorkelling and kayaking. The coral reefs in Fiji are awesome with so much fish activity and colour its unbelievable, we wish we had an undewater camera so you could all see the array of fish and starfish about. fijian dancing was on the cards for that night......and nearly every other night as we found out. We also did some crab racing with a 2 in 6 odds of winning... did we win? hell no!

We were back on the boat the next morning to head to our next destination called Manta Ray Island. We spent 2 nights there as the food was so good and the snorkelling put south sea to shame. We met a really nice couple here from Oz (Chloe and Alex) who we are going to meet up with in Syndey area in the next few weeks. We spent our 2 nights together and the 2nd night was very messy. Me and Alex had decided to get on the Manta Ray ice teas!...bad idea! Even worse idea we decided to go back to their bure at around 1ish and make some kava to drink on the beach. Kava is a natural narcotic extracted from the kava plant and is used as an anasthetic but fijians use it as their traditional drink. It basically tastes like swamp water with teabags but it works because it numbed all our tongues, knocked me to sleep and made Alex wake up in the middle of the night and be sick everywhere. I dont think that mixing it in a kettle rather than a kava bowl helped either. hangover central was on the cards the next day so whilst i slept Caz made a bracelet from a coconut with Chloe and luckily the weatehr had started to turn cloudy so i didnt miss out on much. That afternoon we said our farewells and left for Long Beach Resort where we were greeted by our host Sam, this guy was a legend and very funny! This resort was very different to the rest because it was with a fijian village so it was alot less commercial and a more cultural experience. We spent the night Bula dancing and playing a stupid game called dance with the broom, this was all before 11 oclock as the electricity went off then! not a powercut they do it to save energy.

We were off again the next morning to Coral View resort for 2 nights but it should have been called Coral Poo because a) it was rubbish with crap activities and food b) the beach and weather was poor c) thats literally all i di for 2 days constant and went 24hrs without even leaving my room because i was that ill, ive never had stomach pains like it. Couldnt imagine waht caused it though??? litres of kava? food poisining from the so called chicken we had everyday? or the non drinkable water....you decide! But on a positive note the next day we were gone and off to Korouvou Eco Resort and the weather had cheered up a little. We bumped into a friend from NZ (Andy) and catched up for the afternoon. Fire dancing was performed for us in the night which was quite good for a bunch of people who had just learned to do it themselves. We then played cards and found out that Caz is a s***head haha! thats the game we played and she kept losing.

Octopus Resort was our next destination and we had booked 3 nights there as it is meant to be the best backpacker resort in Fiji and we both agree. The resort was miles better than any other one we had been too and not for much more dollar either. The food was like a restaurant and the facilities were great. The weatehr again was poor for the first 2 days but we didnt care as we played in the 3 metre deep pool and had 1st class entertainment in the nights to keep us occupied. The first evening we had a beach party with a bonfire and a huge canvas projector screen pumping music videos which was cool. The following night we layed under the stars and watched a film "law abiding citizen" on the screen with free popcorn, these little things make a difference especially the hot water showers which we hadnt had the luxury of for a week. That night in bed it was a little bit windy outside and the door to our dorm kept blowing open but we thought nothing of it and had a relaxing sleep.

The next morning whe we went to the bar for breakfast there were signs up saying that we were experiencing a tropical depression whatever 1 of those is and we thought just our luck but we werent too bothered.....until a few hours later when we are all called from our dorms to an emergency meeting in the bar with the resort owner. Turns out Cylone Mick was heading for us and the storms strength had grown unexpectedly and caught everyone out. We had to stay in the restaurant for a few hours and ride the storm out which wasnt too bad because tables and chairs flying everywhere whilst getting drenched is bearable.... until it grew stronger then trees started to snap and winds were reaching 120kph. So we were orderded to the dorms as it was a more secure location, the windows were boarded up and matresses were put up against windows and doors from the inside, all gravy!.....until the roof blew off! So again we moved to the shower block where aparently this was the most secure building as its walls were all concrete. 2 hours in a shower with 8 people was cosy to say the least. We stayed in here until the eye had passed over us and the trees blocking the doorway had been cut away so we could get out and see the devastation. Im not going to lie guys at 1 point it got pretty scary and i wasnt sure how long we were going to be in the storm for or even if we were going to be safe as there was electrical fires , circuits blowing, trees flying everywhere and all other madness to contend with. But we made it unharmed except our suitcases were wet and our clothes stink but thats just all superficial. Everyone from the resort immedietly lent a hand to try and help by logging trees and branches and generally smarten the place up, well try but it turned out that alot of damage had been done and that we were the worst hit resort. Also we had to leave the next day as the resort was closing!

Oh yeah I forgot to mention whilst we were all in the bar getting ready to move to the dorms what unfolded shocked us all. Out of the blue popped an american couple life jackets abound and half the sea coming from their clothes walked up the beach. Their yacht had been shipwrecked in the storm and they were lucky to be alive!!!!! Reality check! We had bumped into them at a previous resort and they were on a worldwide sailing trip and had sailed from San Francisco to mexico, french polynesia, onto fiji and were then going to NZ. They knew there was going to be a storm but as mentioned earlier it intensified out of nowhere and caught them out. The boat wreck is in our pics. Unlucky for the guy when a storm gets named it cancels out your insurance because you should be long gone by the time its named.

All drama over the next day was an absolute blinder as the cyclone had cleaned the air. Back to the paradise Fiji normally is! We left for a 1 night stop at Bounty Island, this is where that really cheesy programme was filmed a couple of years back called Celebrity Love Island...except the cyclone destroyed it hahaahahahahahaah. We had a pretty quiet night after the previous days drama and had a well deserved restful kip. Our last night on the islands was spent at Beachcomber Island so called the party island so we left it for last for a big last night. To be fair its the most hyped up place ive ever been, its exactly the sme as all the other islands except a bigger bar and louder music. Also it was full of Australian skoolies on holiday. But none the less we still enjoyed a few drinks and reflected on our eventful time in Fiji. We both had an amazing time and it really is paradise, the Fijian people are the most welcoming and friendly we have ever met.

Hope everyone back home is all well and set for Christmas. P.s whats all this about snow?

No chance of that here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!