The 'Feejee Experience'!

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Hi All,

This is our first entry, so apologies if it does not work as we want it to.

We have just arrived in Auckland and it has hardly stopped raining and there is a severe snow warning. So we are sort of wondering why we left Fiji! I am sure that will become apparent as we start to travel around, but Fiji has given it a lot to live up to.

Anyway, Fiji was, if you had not already guessed, incredible. It totally took our breath away! The weather was amazing, but that was a tiny part of our wonderful experience. We joined the Feejee Experience bus on Tuesday morning and set off around the island on a trip that would last four days and three nights. To cut a long story short we went to beaches, villages, a school, went trekking in a rainforest, sandboarding, bili bili rafting, tubing, dived from waterfalls, stayed on an island resort, went in mud pools and hot springs and met some brilliant people. Our night on the island of Nananu-I-Ra was a lot of fun, we drank plenty and listened to Luke and William (tour guide & driver) play the guitar. William was totally hilarious, a brilliant bloke and pretty good on the guitar, even if his reportoire was fairly limited. We also had a night out to a local Irish bar and nightclub, which was brilliant fun. Plenty of local rum and beer flowed and a couple of people did some pole dancing, all Luke (a total dude). We made some wonderful friends, two sets of whom (honey mooners) we are hoping to catch up with in Oz at their homes and another three we spent the rest of our time in Fiji with.

Once our time on the Feejee Experience bus had come to an end, we thought the trip was over.....but it wasn't. Wendy and Beau (honey mooners) invited us to their hotel to spend the night with them and also to watch Luke dancing. This is not how we imagined backpacking.....sipping cold drinks in the pool bar of a 5star resort! When the bar closed Wendy and Beau invited us up to their honeymoon suite, we now felt as though we were imposing just a bit too much, but they would have none of it and told us they'd bought alcohol. So Emily, Cheril, Lawrence, Wendy, Beau and the two of us headed up to this amazing room for more drinks, drinking games and cards, what a wonderful way to end a brilliant Feejee Experience.

Saturday morning we went to Beachcomber Island with Lawrence, Cheril and Emily (dudes from the Experience) and we chilled out for two days. It was amazing, blisteringly hot, beautiful clear waters and brilliant food. We went snorkelling and saw loadsa cool fish and went kayaking, but the others were to lazy to paddle back so they attached themselves to Katy and I and we paddled them back in train fashion. As they were all sunbathing Lawrence cut Cheril adrift, much to our amusement - she didn't find it so funny so T-boned Lawrence's kayak! We spent the rest our time on the island doing next to nothing after an action packed week. Katy, Emily and Cheril were keen to top up their tans, but by Sunday it was far too hot for me, so spent my time either in the water or in the shade of my hired brolly, as did Lawrence. (Heathcote boys - Beachcomber Island is next to 'Celebrity Love Island' Island - actually called Bounty Island. We could see the Love Shack and everything!) We were sad to leave the guys on Sunday, but were excited about what awaited us in New Zealand.

We will try and update you all again before long and hope that we haven't bored you all with this email. Please feel free to post messages back to us through this site, it would be great to hear from any of you - but please remember that your commments are available to the whole world, including our parents and grandparents so keep it clean.

much love,

Katy and Tim x

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Photos

Sand Dunes
This is where the Fijian 7s squad trained for the World Cup 7s

Rainforest Trek
Wearing floral headwear, courtesy of Luke.

Rainforest Trek
Mountain creek we worked down for half an hour.

Rainforest Trek
Us and Mountain waterfall.

Rainforest Trek
This is the view that welcomed us at the end of our 3 hour trek - it made it all worthwhile.

Night Out
Emily and us at Irish bar.

Night Out
Wendy, Beau, Emily and us in Irish Bar.

Night Out
Garth Pole-dancing in Irish Bar.

Suva
View from Suva Wharf

Suva
Luke, William and us with the 'Green Bus'.

Wailotou Village
Kava Ceremony at the Chiefs house.

Wailotou School
This is our favourite picture so far. The children were amazing and genuinely so pleased to see us. They sang and danced to traditional songs for us. They were amazed by our cameras!!

Wailotou School
A far cry from what we're used to, but the children were happy enough.

Luke and William
These two dudes were brilliant!

Nananu-I-Ra....Sunset
These two dudes were brilliant!

Nananu-I-Ra
Lawrence, Emily, William and us singing on the balcony.

Mud Pools
Smelt a little funny, but felt nice!

Mud Pools
Us out of the mud pools, just before we jumped into a hot spring to clean ourselves

Pool bar at World Mark Resort
Brilliant fun and made so welcome by Wendy and Beau - Thank you guys....see you in Oz.

Beachcomber Island
Lawrence and I preparing to snorkel. Check out the beautiful, clear blue water!

Beachcomber Island
Katy catching more rays.

Beachcomber Island
Tim on the rocks

Beachcomber Island
Katy with Cheril and Emily.

Comments

[Lucy]

Thanks xx
Hi you two, thanks for spending the time to set up a wonderful website, its great to see what you've been doing. Take care Have fun Lots of Love Lucy xx

[Daddy Philip]

Fiji
Glad I didn't bother. Fiji looks rubbish! Correction. What a fantastic experience for the two of you. Next time you go, can we come with you? Fantastic picture of you two at the school with the children. Aren't kids brilliant...........

[Becca Lapwood]

Im Jealous!!
Hi Katy and Tim, Its Becca here, just looking your pictures up on the farm computer for David. Just wanted to say how lovely it all looks and i'm well jealous! Take care xx

[Jamie]

Wayne Rooney Look-a-like
I can't believe you managed to get that picture of Wayne Rooney coming out of the sea...... oh no sorry that's you isn't it Tim!!

[Ted]

Re: Beach photos
Katy: what can i say apart from shaaaawing. Shes practically babelicious. Tim: Do us all a favor and put a t-shirt on you horrible mess of a man. P.S. Fiji looks rubbish, Norfolk is much nicer. P.P.S Wonder if you'll get any random internet geeks commenting?

[Jono]

Don't be silly Jamie...
...he looks nothing like Rooney. Wayne's lost a lot of weight recently. Miss you x x x x x x

[Emily (sis)]

brilliant idea
hey both of u! looks like your're having an absolutely amazing time, and i'm not jealous one bit! katy i cant believe you're getting a tan, its been raining all weekend here in cheshire! good girl, keep up the good work. tim, dont listen to your nasty nasty friends, u look nothing like wayne rooney. you're looking hot in ur swimming trunks, but spose that's gotta be cos the sun's shining!! haha. all joking aside, hope u enjoy the rest of ur travels, carry on updating us all, its great to see what ur doing. can't wait to see u at christmas, missing every1 lots. have fun. love u loads. x x x

[Jamie]

Your lucky people
just had a read and a look at all of your photos and just thinking that your very lucky and that this is going to be something that you remember for the rest of your lives. take as many photos as you can even though some will be crap there worth it. make sure you keep in touch with me as it keeps me smiling seeing you two having good fun. I hope the time doesn't pass to quick and if it does look at your watch and count the seconds for a couple of minutes. love you both very much and i will endever to see you both on your return. all my love squadie