OK, I was not that surprised that Nauru was not listed as a country in Australasia on this Travelblog but I am pretty surprised that I can't find Kiribati either! Nevermind, I only spent a day there afterall. I'll explain. My plan was to spend a week in Nauru and then fly on to the Marshall Islands. The only airline that runs this route is "Our Airline", Nauru's national airline, a notoriously unreliable affair. I knew this but I wanted to try to combine my trips to the two countries and this was the only way to do it. I got [View Full Entry]

---

---

Ha! This travelblog doesn't even list Nauru as a country! So, where shall I start? I think, the first thing to know is that this is the smallest independent country in the world, covering just 21 square km and with just 10,000 inhabitants. On a single island rock. And it has a vote in the UN. It is also the only country in the world without an official capital (well, it is a single island, with only one town, which basically covers the whole island, so what's the point?) I spent a week there and discovered a very unique place. The [View Full Entry]

---

---

I just wanted to share with you a little get-away near Suva. It's a rainforest park, just a 20 minute drive from the city and perfect for a quick escape from town at the weekend. I've been there just a couple of times but it is lovely and I intend to visit as often as possible. It's easy to just turn up and go for a walk among the trees, along the river and stop to admire lots of greenery and small waterfalls. Plus if one feels like it you can always jump into some of the bigger pools for [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 3: There was no escape. Cliche or no cliche. I had to pay a visit to the Opera House. We set out for the harbour in the late morning, after a delicious breakfast in a little Newtown cafe just 10 metres from Katherine's door step (which was just as well because Saturday night had been a late one). It was yet another glorious day. Sun shining. Not a cloud in the big blue sky. On arrival at the harbour we decided to take a walk around instead of heading straight to the Opera House. It was worth it with [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 2: Woke up not too bright and early on Saturday, ready for our major expedition of the weekend, the 10km Spit to Manly walk. After the capoeira training the night before, just getting out of bed was a challenge and I wondered how I would fair after a few hours of walking but hey, nothing was gonna stop me! It was another beautiful day as Kat, Neil and I set out. The first part of the walk took us along the shore, where another lovely beach lay in wait. We all took our shoes/sandals off and enjoyed walking along [View Full Entry]

---

---

DAY 1: It all started early (a bit too early) on a Friday morning. The 4th May to be precise...I had to crawl out of bed at 5am to get to the airport from the 7am flight to Sydney. I managed to catch up on some sleep by sleeping in the taxi to the airport and of course throughout the 4 and a half hour flight to Sydney. The plane arrived on time and having no check-in luggage I strolled right out of the airport into a brilliant sunshine and bright blue skies above. It was already looking like a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well, I think we went to Namosi this weekend and I'm sure someone will eventually correct me if I have got it wrong. So, I was finally making it out into the "jungle" (everywhere is so goddam green around here!). We parked our cars at the end of the dirst road and headed down towards the river. We walked up the river, mainly actually walking in the water for about 30 minutes, which was great fun as at some points the water was up to thigh height. Of course, we still got quite hot and sweaty in the process, only [View Full Entry]

---

---

The last couple of weeks have been excellent! I've bought a brand new shiny bike (which didn't cost me an arm and a leg) and now I am happily cycling round Suva and hope to go on a ride to the hilly interior soon. Cycling along the waterfront is great. Very relaxing. Even when it is raining. Of course, as soon as I had the bike, I participated in my first Duathlon (the "super-sprint" version 500m swim and 10K cycle). It was great fun, not so much the part where I had to get up at 5.30am, but once the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Apparently WAI TUI means "the ocean/waves/the sea" in Fijian (or something like that), and the WAI TUI International is the once-a-year international paddling competition in Fiji. "Paddling?" I hear you say, "how can that be a competitive sport?" . Ah, yes. We Europeans are not so used to this utilisation of the word paddling. What we are talking about here is outrigger canoes and I have included plenty of photos to illustrate...most are of the one-man canoe but there's also the 6-man (women) version if you look carefully....believe me when I say, it is no walk in the park. There [View Full Entry]

---

---

Had a fantastic time on Monday when I did my first ocean swim, a 1km race in a national competition! It was a beautiful morning, very sunny and also a little windy. I was pretty excited by the whole prospect, even though I had done no training and never swum for 1km continuously in the sea but I figured, how hard can it be? Plus it was the shortest of the 3 races going on, the other two being 2.5 and 5 km. There was no way I could do those but 1km I thought would be possible. I got [View Full Entry]

---

---