With the end in sight I must relay to you the madness that is four countries in 5 days. But first lets discuss our final day in Fiji.

Getting anywhere in Fiji takes time. Usually slow, but mainly very slow. So by tour bus we travel to Denereau marina to catch a most beautiful Schooner to take a trip to a desert island. Schooner island in fact is used exclusively by this tour company to give travellers like us a taste of paradise. It takes about one and a half hours to sail from the mainland past islands some inhabited some not. Our little island can be circumnavigated by foot in little over five minutes - yes, its tiny - just a couple of open sided huts, a loo, a volleyball court in the sand and a few hammocks to while away a few moments whilst viewing the neighbouring atolls. Oh its bliss, typical Fijian bliss. The crew transfer us, our lunch and a few crates of beer and bubbles. Snorkelling and diving equipment is placed by the beach and we are ready to chill! 

Gosh what a way to spend a day with a few dozen castaways, but wonderful all the same. The snorkelling is perfect, the water is crystal clear with gorgeous corals and fish of every variety we could imagine in tropical waters. The lunch is better than Robinson Crusoe couldve dreamt of and with temperatures touching 30 C all is well with the world.

Having left the marina to head back to our hotel on what, for Fiji is a luxury coach, the air con turned up, we were hoping to be back for happy hour and dinner for the last night of our stay in just over the hour. Oh how wrong we were! Our luxury coach was deceiving us with its good looks! 2 miles from home it struggled, half a mile further it faltered and in the middle of the rush hour traffic it stopped, maybe never to go again, who knows. But as we were then less that an mile from our hotel we decided it was best to abandon the rest and walk! We saw our final sunset as we walked and the huge fruit bats ( the size of large crows) flying around looking for their supper. Late arrivals for dinner but we enjoyed our farewell serenade by the Bedarra staff, a few goodbye drinks with the lovely friends we'd made, before closing the cases to prepare for the final few days of our R.T.W. tour.

Next morning after a last walk along our beautiful beach, we head back to Nadi and our four hour flight to Sydney. As we have just a matter of hours and a nights sleep in Oz we have to get down to the harbour to say our goodbyes to the Opera house and the Bridge and for Peter to enjoy some Oysters. So off we go again, another day, another country! We left Australia at 3pm on Valentines day and arrived 15 flying hours later in Dallas, Texas at 1pm Valentines day!!! Try that for a confusing day!