Hey all,

From Auckland we then flew to Nadi, arrving in the boiling heat with our combat trousers, trainers and jumpers on! What were we thinking?! The heat hit us as soon as we got off the plane (and hit some harder than others eh Erin!)

We stayed in the first night in a hostel on the mainland, to find it crammed with COUPLES!! And mosquitoes! The mainland was a bit of a dump unfortunately, with black sand beaches and murky water, so we were pleased to leave early the next day to start our 'awesome advertures' cruise around the Yasawa islands...

Although Erin and I nearly missed the boat as we had to buy water...we ended up running along the jetty and managed to jump on at the last minute! The first journey was to the top of the islands which took about five hours, with Suzanne, Marilyn and I worshipping the sun on the top deck and Erin hiding in the airconditioned basement. The first resort was called Coral View, which, to sum up, was very basic with lizards in the showers, toilets and bedroom, a cold water hose for a showers and plain rice and noodles for every single meal...great preparation for Thailand! We met some really nice people here though, so that made up for it. In the evening, marilyn and Suzanne took to the dancefloor, taking part in some traditional Fijian dancing whilst Erin and I watched and giggled!

We only stayed one night here funnily enough, and the next day we decided to try out Long Beach resort, which was sold to us as "paradise, with a mile long white sandy beach" Yes, it did have this but it was worse than Coral View, and they failed to tell us that no one goes to visit this island...

Before arriving, we were told that we would be able to have lunch...but were met with a really friendly Fijian lady (can you spot the lie there??) who begrudingly rustled up a few local stray dog sausages and stewed pumpkin for a delicious meal...we were left wondering why we'd bothered asking for it! The bombshell was then delivered that there were only two other couples on the island...and one couple were craaaaazzzzzy 50 year old Germans....wunderbar! The beach was amazing (and very quiet!) so relaxed a lot here, but were up very early the next morning to get the hell out of there and meet some normal people!

As it hadn't gone so well so far, we decided to upgrade and shell out a bit more money to see Fiji in style, so the next two nights were spent at Manta Ray Island, and boy we were pleased we did that! It was pure luxury with lots of nice (young!) people, and the food was spectacular (we had a starter and TWO main courses, which didn't consist of rice and noodles - we were in heaven!)

Again we lazed away the days, soaking up the sun and chilling the hammocks listening to the waves! On the second day, we decided to take a trip to the local village which was a great experience. We visited the school where the children sang songs to us, then we sang back, and I made a special friend with a five year old Fijian girl who was so cute and loved having her picture taken with me! When we arrived at the village, we were asked to wear a flower behind our ear, which was lovely and everything, but where you wore the flower represented your marital status, so us four girls wore the "YES, I AM SINGLE" beacons on our left ears...

On the last night, we all took part in another Fijian night (we had quite a few of these!) where we watched dancing then Erin and I joined in on the fun, and were sweated on by a very wet Fijian man who took us in our arms. The worst thing was that that night, we'd gone all out and put on clean clothes, only to have his BO all over them by the end of the night...we were not impressed! He was so sweaty that at first, I thought it was the rain dripping on me...yuk :-(

From Manta Ray, we then made our way to Waya Lai Lai, where, yes, you guessed it...we took part in yet another Fijian ceremony only this one was slightly different as we had to do everything in the traditional Fijian way, which included drinking kava (not the fizzy wine cava but muddy water kava - yummy!) Erin somehow managed to get out of it - don't know how! Then we proceeded to eat our dinner of egg mayonnaise, spaghetti, coleslaw, unidentifiable meat and salad...WITH OUR FINGERS...IN THE DARK...an experience not to be repeated!

After Waya Lai Lai, we hit it hard on Beachcomber Island, the party island. We had a great time here and met loads of people - it was a shame we couldn't stay longer but had already booked to go to the next islands...which was a huge mistake...

We'd been sold this resort as a party island...don't know what party islands they've been to in the past! So we arrived, only to be told that we'd have to make our own way along the beach to some hut which we would call home for the next three nights! It was rice for lunch, then Erin, Suzanne and Marilyn got chased out of their hammocks by a scary man as they were sitting in the wrong area of the beach! Meanwhile I took my position on the beach and soaked up the rays! We did however, try out a snorkelling trip, where we were dumped in the middle of the sea and told "just swim over there and see what you can find" Luckily we managed to see some beautiful fish and ended up really enjoying the trip (although Erin got so tired , aftert 5 mins that a man had to lift her out of the water and back into the boat as she lost the will to live!!) Don't think she will be rushing to put a snorkel and mask on in the near future!

After dinner, we sat there depressed as there was no life there at all (and we could hear it all going on at the resort next door which we weren't allowed into!) so we decided to leave early as I was fed up with being chased around by stray dogs everywhere I went! So we headed to the mainland where we spent our last two nights, and boy were we happy we did that!

From Fiji we then had to fly back to Auckland for the night before leaving for Adelaide. Unfort i managed to lose my money belt which had my faithful IPOD in it and quite a bit of cash and a credit card, was gutted but so glad my passport wasnt in there!

We are now in Adelaide and will update you all soon.

Take care

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