Yesterday we checked into Mareani's Backpackers next door to the resort and managed to get our own room, with a fan. The only probelm being that the power was pretty temperamental and kept going off, not ideal when the room was like a little sweat box even when the fan was circulating the humid air. The communal bathroom door closed with a rusty nail and there was only cold water in the dripping shower - oh well! All meals were included in the price of the room and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. The guy who ran/owned the place seemed to take a shine to me and I couldn't take my eyes off his nose. It was hairy, not just a bit, but covered in black hair - odd. We went on a one day island hopping trip from the backpackers with our boat captain, Bliss. It was just the 2 of us again and we stopped on Malolo Island, went snorkelling, had a BBQ lunch at Musket Cove and stopped at the uninhabited Honeymoon Island on the way home for some more snorkelling. It was a lovely day and zipping about on a boat makes the heat and humidity bearable, that is until it's back to the room. Aaaaaaargh. As well as being a steam room, the beds were both completely knackered with springs sticking in you and when we were both lying in our separate beds we could not see each other as we had sunk so far into the matress - bad backs all round. One night at the hostel we had a lovo for dinner, which is very much like a Maori hangi, where the food is cooked in the ground with hot rocks and covered in sand. Really nice and no, there was no sand in the food! On the 2nd day here we decided to go back to the resort and play tennis - what were we thinking? We started playing at about 1000 and lasted about half an hour, as you know you're hot when you start sweating from your shins. So off to the sea for a dip and to cool down. Ooops, almost forgot to do the historical, cultural, geographical bit, which I know you are all looking forward to! Fiji is an archipelago made up of 300 islands, measuring from a few metres in diameter to the main island Viti Levu which measures 10,390 square km and is home to the capital Suva. The small islands tend to be coral or limestone and the larger ones are more likely to be volcanic. Tomorrow we get the boat back to the main island and fly to the Cook Islands. Off to boil in our little box now. Sherry xx