Picked up at the crack of dawn. Last night was s fairly decent nights sleep even though people had the main lights on at 5am and Ellie said she could hear them playing music.

The bus was full of a random mix of people all getting on different boats I can imagine. When we got to the ferry port it was crazy, we had to check our bags in with the guys loading the truck before we checked in for our tour at the desk and then the guys didn’t know which boat they were going on so we had to check in first anyways, then the lady didn’t know where our tickets were. Ohh so stressful! But it was all fine in the end and we had to wait for the 9am ferry, still not quite sure what we were doing for the day but we will cross the bridge when we come to it.

All of the Fijian women that we have met so far all have tightly curled Afro hairstyles with a flower behind their ear (flower in left ear single, flower in right ear married, flower in both ears married but available haha). They’re all so lovely though it’s a breathe of fresh air!

The ferry took us to Mana Island, here we discovered we weren’t getting off and exploring mana island ourselves but we were getting onto a little boat and then onto a sail boat for a day trip with a very big mix of people once again, I think we were expecting a sort of 20-35 year olds holiday but we didn’t seem to be doing that just now. We also weren’t really told about the plan so luckily we did have our swimsuits on but we didn’t have our towels...

We sailed away from the ferry, lovey as ever the crew gave us welcome fruit and champagne (@10.30am! - my kinda people!) then as soon as The champagne was guzzled away we were poured very large glasses of white wine! Delightful! Our kind of paradise haha. The sun was shining, the islands looked awesome (picture postcard) and the sea was very aqua sky blue!

The next stop would be the island which Tom hank filmed castaway and amongst the islands where the castaway series was filmed why they kick off when they’re on there I don’t know because they’re in paradise and they get ferried to different islands to film different parts of the series so it’s not like they’re stuck somewhere where there isn’t anybody! Puffs!)

The castaway was pretty special! Our first steps on a Fijian beach/island/sand/sea! Wowza...
We had our bikinis on but because they didn’t tell us what we were doing we didn’t have any towels so we just walked and stood to dry off. We did remember a beer from the boat though! Bonus points.

We went to another island that I can’t remember the name of and did a kava ceremony (kava is basically Fiji’s equivalent to an Asian rice wine or a Greek/Cypriot Ouzo, only it tastes like mud water. Literal mud diluted with water in a big wooden bowl drunk out of a coconut shell. We all had to sit and be sung to, then we would clap and shout Bula (hello) take the drink to down it and then clap a further three times. They say that the stuff is addictive and can get people very drunk - I don’t see how mud water can do that but apparently there’s some sort of alcohol in the tree roots or powder or something that’s in it.

Next we would have a look around the local market, the little arts and crafts that the local women had made and then we all walked through the village to the local boarding school which was closed for 7 weeks summer holidays, the rugby pitch looked cool though plonked on a piece of grass amongst mountains on the one side, with school huts surrounding it and the blue ocean on the other side.

Our first taste of Fiji bbq and it was delightful! Lots of salad and freshly made coleslaw, the bbq had pieces of fresh mackerel and chicken skewers oh it was delicious! And of course they kept pouring wines down our necks.

By the time we sailed back to the main ferry we had polished off about 3-4 bottles of white wine between me, Ellie and a New Zealand women. No wonder as soon as we got on the boat we fell asleep! My head was bobbing all over the shop with a dead ache in my neck.

South sea island bound, we arrived at 5pm-ish... the island can be walked around in 5 minutes it’s bloody tiny but cool! We was greeted and checked in by a very uhh feminine man who was really lovely but I think we were both very surprised to see because the culture feels like a very masculine man and feminine women culture.

Feeding time would be served at the sound of the coconut drums and we were staying in the 32 bed dorm upstairs, not as bad as we thought as the beds were all spread out quite a fair bit and the showers were clean with only about 12 beds actually taken so we were laughing really because everyone was spread out so much aswell.

Couldn’t resist a quick dip in the pool before a shower and tree course dinner, sweet corn soup for starters, fish for main and banana split with ice cream (banana portions the size of your thumb and a table spoon of ice cream) but just enough considering the amount alcohol we had consumed today!

After dinner we learnt the Bula dance which was complicated but okay once we got going and then did a few games like the orange under the chin and a dance off competition. Me and a Swedish or Swiss girl won the orange competition, we were extremely shocking at the dance off though haha.

An English couple that we got talking to were saying about the culture here in Fiji and they had learnt from the guy’s rugby Fijian team mates at home that their culture is similar to Maori, like Maori they have large families but if the couple keep having sons they will eventually stop trying after the 5th or 6th child and of that child is also born as a boy they will bring them up as a girl, dress them up as a girl and have them do the women chores, they will grow their hair to style them in Afro style like the women. It doesn’t mean that the son will be gay but they will have very feminine ways about them. It begins with an ‘f’ couldn’t quite remember what they said but it’s a very hush hush situation. I’m not sure why they do this because it’s not like they are able to keep produce an off spring themselves.