Bula!

Hope everyone is well?!

Ok, I'm going to give you a quick run down of my week in Fiji. I arrived here on Monday morning very early so as soon as I got to the hostel I just went to bed - I was so tired!!! About lunchtime another girl arrived in the dorm and so we took a bus ride into Nadi town to book a trip to the islands for a couple of days. The buses are great not only did they have excellent air conditioning (no windows and tarpaulin to pull down when it rains) but were also playing an Arnie film!!! Certainly worth the 70cents it cost to get there. We got into Nadi and booked the trip and then headed back to hte hostel where we just pretty much chilled out for the rest of the day and packed our bags for the trip.

We left the hostel at about 7am as we had to pick people up along the way. We ended up going through some of the big resorts outside of Nadi on Denerau Island which was pretty painful for a backpacker, if I ever come here again I'm staying in one of those!! Anyway Denerau Port was where we were taking the ferry from to get to Bounty Island. On the way to Bounty Island we went passed some amazing islands, one of which was so small I think it had only enough room for a hut! We got to Bounty Island and were greeted by the locals and shown to our dorms. The island was amazing, really small but was just a perfect tropical island that you would dream about. We just did a bit of sunbathing and relaxed on the beach - nothing too strenuous! During the afternoon the sky started to go a darker shade of grey and had a bit of a tropical downpour. Its only lasted for an hour or so and by which time it was early evening and the sun was beginning to set...its was beautiful. After a dinner and few beers we headed to our dorms and went to sleep. In the morning i got up fairly early and had some breakfast and decided to take a walk around the island.

Now by this point I hadn't realised that this was the island that was used in 'Celebrity Love Island'!!!!!! Ha ha!!! Next to the bar they had pictures of all those people that were in the programme - i think I recognised an Ex Atomic Kitten but that was it. Must have been a good show - but I still had to go round the island to see where they stayed etc. I got round to where the place should be but it was basically a pile of planks. I was a little disappointed!! Apparently the locals had pulled it all down once the television people had left, there had also been a couple of cyclones recently and I don't think that helped. Anyway I took some photo's but again I can't put them on the blog becasue I think the SD card in my camera is too big so will need to sort it out in Auckland (hopefully). Later that day I was getting the ferry back to the mainland so just relaxed some more and by 5pm it was time to leave.

I got back to the hostel and two more girls had arrived and we sorted out going to Suva (Fiji's capital) for the day on the Thursday.

Now Suva...

We had another early start to get a bus to Suva. We had to pick more people up from there wonderful resorts but by late morning we were on our way. The bus took us around the main tourist points, government buildings, the presidents house, the main museum etc. etc. We stopped off for some lunch at a place called JJ's on the Park which was lovely and then we were left to our own devices for a couple of hours to take a look around. The city was a lot nicer than Nadi but then it is the main political and administrative capital. Nadi is more like the point of where people stop for one night (as thats where the airport is) and then move on to the surrounding area or islands.

On the way back from Suva we had a bit of a moment where the driver lost control of the bloody bus, it clipped the side of the road and we ended up with a flat tyre. Luckily we managed to do this outside one of the villages where all the lads were playing rugby and everyone else just sitting watching them. If anything else though I have found that the people of Fiji are so lovely - they can't be any friendlier. They always give you a smile which is great. At this village one of the ladies laid out a mat for us to sit on while we waited for the fella's to sort the bus out.

After about an hour we were on our way again and didn't get back to the hostel until about 8.30pm so was ready for a beer to say the least!!

Today we have been back into Nadi to pick up a few things but have been basically been sorting myself out as tomorrow I'm off to New Zealand!!! Yeah!!! I can't wait. Don't get me wrong Fiji is lovely, the people are great and it has certainly been an eye opener because I think prior to coming here i had a different idea of Fiji to what I have experienced this week. But there is one thing I won't miss and thats the mosquito's - if you should ever venture out here i would just recommend you to find the stongest tropical insect repellent on the market!!!!!

Next stop Auckland...will catch up again soon. Take it easy x