Fiji - no wonder they are always smiling!!

---

Well with my usual planning and careful preparation i arrived in Fiji with absolutely no idea what i was going to do - this is starting to become something of a habit!! So i got my backpack and headed to the ladies loos where i happened to start talking to Emi a fijian lady. She said that she worked in the airport and could go through some of my options with me, so i thought why not i havent got a better idea!! And i am so glad i accepted her offer because it led to an absolutely brilliant experience. I ended up staying with Emi and her family in Latoka, a small town not far from Nadi and she also arranged the whole of my trip in Fiji, it was great i had my very own personal travel assistant!!

So that first day i went with Emi to her house. We caught the local bus which Emi explained to me runs on Fiji time, this means it just arrives when it is ready! The funny thing is that you can be waiting for the bus for ages and then when it arrives you have to run to get on it otherwise it will go without you! Our first stop was the market in Latoka where Emi had to buy some food to take to for a first birthday party. In fiji the 1st birthday is one of the most important and the whole family comes to the house for the party. So after buying the food we headed to the home of the birthday girl and here i was welcomed by the family and offered fresh bread and chocolate cake for breakfast - i could tell i was going to love Fiji!! Despite being busy preparing for the party the whole family were so friendly and made me feel like i had known them much longer. And i noticed how they are always smiling, even when explaining to me about the recent floood damage from the cyclone in Nadi everyone remained smiling!! Once breakfast was over we headed to Emi's house and i got to meet her 5 children and her husband. We spent the rest of the day watching the rugby 7s, in which England beat Fiji whcih was a slightly arkward moment for me!! However, England went on the beat New Zealand and at this the whole family and most of Fiji were cheering. Emi and i then returned to the house we had visited in the morning, along with Emi's mum and her two youngest children, to join in the party celebrations. Once again i was made very welcome and enjoyed all the amazing food on offer. I spent the next day and night with Emi and enjoyed her wonderful hospitality before heading off to the Yasawa islands in the morning, all of which Emi had arranged for me.

The Yasawa islands are incredible, i thought i had found paradise in Thailand but Thailand hasn't got anything on Fiji!! The sand is white and the sea is crystal clear with great reefs and marine life everywhere. I stayed on the islands for 10 days, starting in the North on Nacula island staying at Nambua lodge, then on to Mantaray island resort, then Adi's Place and finally beachcomber.

Every island has something different to offer and each is incredibly beautiful. At Nambua lodge i went on the cave trip which i throughly enjoyed and it included an underwater swim through fromone cave to the next whcih was a bit scary!! Whilst on Mantaray i decided to do a dive and went out with the dive master to the back of the island. Diving waws incredible, unfortunately i dont have an underwater camera but the reef was amaizing and i saw my first shark!! It was only a small reef shark about 1.5m but i was suprised that i wasnt at all scared, in fact i tried to swim after it!! I also saw the biggest fish ever, a Maori Wrasse, which was 2m long!! I haven't dived anywhere other than Thailand so didn't have much to compare Fiji with but the man who dived with me has dived all over the world and he assured me that i wouldnt find better reef anywhere!

Finally it was time to leave the islands and head back to the mainland and straight onto Pacific Habour for my Shark dive!! I was so excited about it and it completely livedup to my expectations. We did two dives in Beqa Lagoon and saw reef sharks and bloody big bull sharks!! It was great the only bit that i didnt like so mcuh was jumping off the boat into the water when you knew what was lurking below!!

The next day i headed back to the airport to meet Emi and she took me back to her house for my last night in Fij :-(. In the morning all the children and Emi's mother came to the airport to see me off and i was so sad to leave them. Fiji was amazing and staying with a family there gave me a real insight to life there, plus i got fed so well on gorgeous fresh fish!! So much for my plan to lose weight as the Fijians love to see you happy and they love to feed you! They also love to sing and on arrivng at and leaving every island we were sung to, they even have a group in the airport and their music is so nice. I definately can not wait to go back to Fiji and check out the rest of it. And anyone else heading that way i would recommend getting in touch with Emi, she works in Tropical Travel in the airport and i believe she has now but herself on couch surfing for anyone looking for a great family to stay with.

PS sorry there are no pics at the moment but the computer is not happy!! They are all on facebook anyway!

---