My Christmas holiday started in Labasa - the main town on the second largest island, Vanua Levu. My fellow travellers and I spent the first day looking around town. Labasa is a big centre for the sugar cane industry here so it wasnt unusual to see huge trucks spilling over with sugar cane trundling through the main street in town. Next stop was Savusavu - about a 3 hour bus ride from Labasa. Its only about 70kms from Labasa to Savusavu but given the steep hills and the age of the bus, we averaged around 20-30km/hr. It was a great way [View Full Entry]

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So I managed almost 2 weeks back in Suva after my Uganda trip before I headed off overseas again. In that time I squeezed in an election night party and passing my Fijian Beginners language exam. This time it was back to Vanuatu to take a course on Community Organisation Law in the South Pacific at the University of the South Pacific in Port Vila. The course basically covered everything from charitable trusts law to tax law to new laws that cover all of the above and more. It was an interesting course and good to meet students from across the [View Full Entry]

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In November I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Commonwealth Human Rights Forum in Kampala, Uganda. I flew for over two days via Bangkok and Addis Ababa, travelling across a bazillion timezones and ended up on the other side of the world talking about the right to information. I had a few days before the conference to have a look around Kampala . I visited the Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary on Lake Victoria as it was the closest I was able to get to seeing wildlife while I was there as the gorilla and wildlife safaris were a bit out [View Full Entry]

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Another lovely weekend on Caqalai Island! This time I snorkelled out to Snake Island - the snorkelling here is the best I have done in Fiji so far. [View Full Entry]

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I spent a couple of days in the happiest place on earth last month - Vanuatu (according to the Happy Planet Index). Most of the time was spent at a conference but I did get a chance to get out and see Port Vila as well as a day trip for some swimming and snorkelling. [View Full Entry]

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After Vanuatu, I flew straight to Nadi and met up with my sister - my first visitor to Fiji! We jumped on the Malolo Cat and cruised to Malololailai Island (Little Malolo Island) before transferring to Malolo Island where we stayed for three nights at the Funky Fish Resort. It was three days of snorkelling, lying around, learning how to husk a coconut, some hiking and eating some fantastic food. Lovely. [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend I went to Caqalai (Thang-ga-lie) Island for the weekend. It was a great weekend away out of Suva with great snorkelling, lying around in hammocks and not doing much at all. I'll let the photos do the talking! [View Full Entry]

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Hibiscus Festival - a week long festival of pageants, rides, concerts, talent competitions and BBQ! [View Full Entry]

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