Bula Bula (Fijian call to "Life")

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Friday 17th February:

Today I have a dilemma with our travel blog: two days ago I prattled on about how

wonderful American Samoa was. Today I want to prattle on about how wonderful Fiji is.

But as they are both Pacific paradises I hope you will forgive me adoring yet another

place in this corner of the globe. Cunard virtually rented an island today and it was

utterly perfect. Beachcomber Island is a little sandy outcrop sitting on top of a coral

reef so the snorkelling was stunning. Neither of us has ever seen such a varied reef

before so the coral life was magnificent and the fish even more so. Clown fish, angel

fish, tiny fish in petrol colours, big fish with every type of artwork on them that you

could imagine: spots, stripes, dark colours, blended colours - just about everything

your eyes could wish to feast on. The sea was crystal clear and just a shade cooler

than your body temperature so lovely just to step straight into. We also went out on a

small boat to feed some of the fish by hand which was a bit of fun. We ate local food -

another pig cooked in an underground oven - and were treated to some amazing local

dancing including some OMG fire dancing. Oh and the cutest little tot imaginable in a

hula hula skirt dancing with her mum.

Goodness only knows what the temperature was today - even the Captain warned everyone to

splash on the sun screen. Which we both did. But both of us got a bit of sun burn on

our heads so brushing our hair is decidedly not nice tonight!

Richard has now increased his collection of tropical style shirts by 2 more today and

both of them were made here in Fiji and are loud and lovely. A bit like him really!

We can settle down to 2 days at sea now before arriving in Auckland, New Zealand on

Monday morning.

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