Well Im still in Fiji after extending my stay here. I am still travelling with Josee, the French-Canadian girl I met here. We continue to be totally overwelmed by the freindliness of the Fijin people, who are an interesting mix, but also v.divided, of Indo-Fijian (bought over from India to work on the sugar-cane farms) and the Indiginous people, who between them speak Hindi, Fijian and English. They are all so welcoming, everywhere we go we are showered with greetings, literally everybody goes out of their way, run out of their houses, cross the street, or just exitedly shout across to say 'Bula!' (hello) wearing huge grins and seem genuinly interested in where your from and what you think of Fiji. Ive never encountered anything like it before. So after Mana island, we caught the little speed boat, quite scarily overcrowded, to Bounty Island. We arrived on paradise, again, was worried it was a bit too classy for us at first as there was a pool on the beach and it looked way too nice for our budget, but it turned out to be well worth the price which wasnt too bad at all. It is much smaller than Mana Island. The resort is the only one on the island, and the food is way better than the last place. Even though we were in a 20-bed dorm it felt like real luxury staying there. We went for a walk along the beach and except for the abandoned set and pier from the first series of the British reality TV show 'Love Island' there was nothing but beautiful white sand beach and cystal clear waters with coral all the way around, and forest in the centre with exotic birds, we walked on in bliss and finally stumbled accross some wooden huts, we assumed it was another resort - until we realised it was OUR resort again! It had only taken us 25mins to walk round the whole island! We stayed there for 3 nights. We went snorkling, well I went 'goggling' due to not being able to wear a snorkel or mask because of my mouth ulsers. We saw loads of blue starfish which I've never seen or heard of before. We also took a kayak one day and went around the whole island, even managed expert parking and tying-up at the 'Love Island' pier which involved smashing into it then attatching our life-vests around the kayak and pier (obviously not whilst wearing them) and very gracefully rolling and splashing into the water. Getting on again proved to be more problematic. Anyway it was fun. We then left Bounty Island to go back to the main island, Viti Levu. To our surprise our little boat, which we assumed would be taking us on the 20minute journey inland, stopped about 200m from shore and we were told we'd be swapping boats. After waiting for 10min in confusion a cruise ship came along and our little boat pulled along side it (both boats still moving) and we had to climb onto it. It then went the opposite direction of where we heading, taking over a couple of hours whilst stopping at several other islands including Mana again before heading back to our destination (closest to Bounty!). It was nice to see some other islands though. From the port we took a bus and then a taxi to the town of Lautoka. If ever in Fiji just dont bother going there. Seriously there was nothing much of interest there and the hostel bizzarely resembled a mental institute. First thing in the morning we caught a taxi (due to Josee travelling with a surf board) back to Nadi. The driver insisted on trying to offer us 'better' accomodation and intice us to restaurants (including Nando's?!). When he'd finally given up on his sales pitches he began to sing, loudly, in an extremely high and out of tune voice. Insisting all the while that he was a singer. The whole experience was a total waste of time and money but quite funny really. Oh well you live and you learn. We found a new hostel in Nadi, Mama's Tropic of Capricorn, just down the road to the last one we stayed in. Mama and her friend who both run the place (and boss around their male workers) are unbeleivably friendly and welcoming. Mama treats all her guests as her children. She remembers everyones names and cooks yummy food for us all. The following day we went on an amazing day trip to Waya Island in the Yasawa group. We caught a catamaran there. We were the only ones doing a day-trip there so we had our own personal guide for the day. We strarted by visiting one of the villages. Firstly we had to do the Fijian custom of visiting the village chief to bring him Kava (the numbing traditional drink made from the crushed roots of the pepper plant). We removed our footwear and went into his bure (the fijian style, thatched-roof hut). We sat, chatted and joked with him for a while and presented him with the Kava, he informed us that we were now Fijian and welcome to stay as long as we like (I wish!). Then we visited the village kindergarten, where the children sang us some songs. They were v.excited to see us, shouting 'Bula!', grabbing our hands or giving us high-fives. V.sweet. Then we moved onto the boarding primary-school, the older children were equally enthusiastic to welcome us and I even made some new pen-pals! Afterwards we walked around a bit, saw stunning views of a gorgeous beach and mountains. There was a part where the sea split and the waves crashed against each other from opposite directions forming a walk-way over to another part of the island. We couldve walked and got v.wet but we caught a little boat accross. There we had lunch at the resort, lazed on the stunning beach and jumped in the waves. It was a gorgeous day. On the way back from the port on the mainland our bus must've gone right next to the airport directly under the flight path beacause as the sun set we saw the amazing view of a huge 747 plane about to land. It was so close it looked as though it skimmed the roof of our bus! In the evening Mama and some of her freinds invited us to their Kava ceremony. Which involved drinking a bowl or few of Kava and clapping everytime you or anyone drinks. Actually didnt taste too scummy. Still looked like mud-water though. The next day we caught a bus further south to the Coral Coast, with the mandatory crazy driver of course. As I've now discovered its best to choose to ignore the driving, which could easily give you a nervous breakdown, and instead admire the views of sugar-cane feilds, mountains, and villages. Actually the driver was going so fast that we missed our stop and ended up stranded by the side of the road. Luckily we've left our back-packs at Mama's and just had small bags, oh and the huge surf-board! We walked back to the hostel. Its amazing here - one of the nicest (if not THE nicest) hostel Ive ever stayed in. Its called the Beachhouse (being on the beach and all). The reason it is so nice is because it was the set for this years TV series of 'Love Island' (the reality TV show) so it has been done up really nice. Little colourful huts spotted around the garden house the spotless, modern dorms, nicely designed thatched roof bures (cafe and bar) sit near the beach and around the beach-side pool and there are hammocks and swings hanging from the palm-tree's. It is quite weird though as the TV set is still all in place. There are two-way mirrors everywhere (like in Big Brother) behind which are secret rooms and corridoors, that you can now walk through, from where they filmed. I keep getting paranoid that maybe we're in a reality TV show and dont know about it! We also have a very odd problem of an invasion of centepedes in our dorm and frogs all over the garden. Apart from that its absolutely lovely. Our first day here it was rainy and cloudy so we caught a bus into the nearest town, Sigatoka. We went to the busling market. Lots of indian spices, fruit and veg of all shapes, sizes, colours and smells. We got some juicy pinapples, mangoes, lady-fingers (short fat and sweet bananas) for next to nothing and I sampled some savoury indian snacks from a food stall. Yummy. That night a bunch of us had a kava ceremony. After I drank several bowls at high-tide (full up) and tsunami (over-flowing) I decided it really is pretty yucky after-all even with a rum and coke to wash it down. But it was quite fun when after it had all gone and our heads were numb me and Josee had the fantastic idea of swinging as high as possible on the highest swing hanging from a huge palm-tree on the beach! Although I did fall over. On Sunday we walked to Mango Bay. We left a bit late so the tide was coming in which resulted in us having to do a lot of clambering over rocks and cliffs and stuff. It was a really nice beach and resort with huge orange-bark palm-trees towering over-head. On the way back we had to take the road as the tide was too high, it was a much longer route and very hilly. V.tiring. But there were great views of the lucious green mountains and forests. We passed through a little village. As always everyone rushed to greet us - 'Bula!'. We walked past women and children washing in the stream and lots of little shacks where they lived, accompanied by the sound of singing coming from the church and the even louder sound of dozens of roosters coming from every direction, there was loads of them everywhere we looked and even they seemed to be greeting us with their deafening cockadoodle-do's! The next day we moved on. We caught a bus back to Sigatoka, where I went back to get those lovely indian snacks from the food stall and some pinapple sticks. Then we caught another bus to the cute little village of Kulukulu set amoungst sugar-cane plantations and towered over by the huge Sigatoka sandunes. We stayed in a little farm-house with an adorable family. Strangely, shortly after arriving some surfer-dudes we were sharing a room with at Beachhouse turned up and stayed in the next room - the only other tourists we saw the whole time! Me and Josee walked up the enormous, and extremely steep dunes (hard-work!). The view from the top was great but the really strong wind made it pretty unpleasant with the rough sand hitting us with quite a force. We ran down the dunes screaming and went back looking like sand-monsters with sand stuck to my face, eyelashes and whole body and in every place possible - my eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Ugh. Not nice. But in the evening we felt much better after a lovely curry the mother made us. Mmm it was so good! Yesterday we decided to try surfing. This involved waking at 6am to avoid the wind. Half-asleep we threw on our clothes, climbed up the dune and ran down the other side and into the water. I attempted to surf for the first time ever. We went right out pretty far and I managed to catch a big wave, I rode the wave for ages (lying down of course because of lack of being able to do anything else), it was a great feeling, going pretty fast, I had absolutely no control over what was happening and as it seemed to get faster and even bigger behind me I saw the shore coming closer and closer, unable to do anything about it I went with it and hoped for the best, before I knew it the board smashed into the sand, the wave curled over and I did a spectacular belly-flop bang into the gritty sand, got swept under and eventually after being bashed about quite a bit I found myself flat on my back with my bikini-top over my head, the bottoms half-way down and the surfboard nowhere to be seen. I had somehow landed 20m from the feet of the only other person on the entire beach; a lone, gawping, fisherman who grinned at me. My stomach is pretty cut-up and grazed but it obviously cushioned me pretty well as nowhere else is hurt, so all that eating does finally pay-off! Afterwards we figured I wasnt injured enough so we decided to slide down the steep side of the dune with both of us sitting on Josee's surf-board (which I eventually found). It was fun! And no belly flops! In the afternoon, when I'd gotten over the trauma, I did another first - I rode a horse bare-back! Josee attempted it for 5 minutes and decided she doesnt like horses. So I carried on with my guide. With nothing but an old curtain draped over between me and the horse it was pretty uncomfertable - my god horses backs are bony! We rode for a couple of hours. We went along the river and then through and up the magnificent dunes. Going up hill was pretty tough and to stop myself falling off I had to hold on by grabbing its mane of hair. Mine was a mother and her little foal of 3 months followed us the whole way. We rode up really high, went through the damage from last years hurricane - lots of fallen trees and stuff. He showed me where they've discovered pre-historic skeletal remains and pottery, there were still shards of the pottery everywhere then we went right to the highest point where the view was breathtaking, and my horse fed its baby (while I was still on her back! haha). We rode back along the beach and back to the family house where I found Josee siiting with the grandmother under a cocunut tree. We sat there with her as she cut us some coconuts, we drank the juice and ate the inside while we talked with her, mother of 7 and grandmother of 19! She is so sweet. In the evening she cooked us a gorgeous dish of coconut fish. Yum yum. Today we've moved on back to the town of Sigatoka, we're slowly making our way back to Nadi where we will leave from on Saturday for New Zealand!