More on Fiji

(We're actually in NZ now - we arrived today, but there's nothing to tell you about it yet, so here's a bit more about Fiji and hopefully some photos will load on as well as a couple of short videos). As we said on our last blog, the resort was pretty remote, and given that it's a largish island and the roads are rubbish we decided against hiring a car which was a pity because we had wanted to explore Fiji and not just have a beach holiday. However, we went on a trip to a local village - the whole village turned out and the children/young lads took us bamboo rafting. They thought it was a hoot to hide in overhanging trees and dive-bomb us (all good fun). We were taken aback by how simply they live, and yet they do appear to be naturally happy people. Most of the resort staff were local, they gave demonstrations about their culture and customs (anything you want to know about a palm tree and its coconuts, I'm your girl), and there was always local musicians playing at mealtimes. One thing we didn't appreciate though, was that the resort catered mainly for diving (as I think do most resorts in this area, as the Pacific is apparently alive with fish and coral and sharks) so everyone else was up and out very early, and in bed by 9 o'clock. With no TV or entertainment after dinner, it made for a very early night!

One day we made like Robinson Crusoe (just the two of us for 4 hrs) on a nearby tropical island that has a caretaker named Joe who's lived there on his own for 3 years. The beach was glorious (unlike most of the beaches on Viti Levu which were mostly sand/mud). We had a go at snorkelling which was a laugh, especially as in order to protect our legs from the scary Fijian sun we wore black flight socks and long shorts. Harry sneakily took a video of me coming out of the water (Bo Derek eat your heart out).

We had one not very happy incident which involved someone trying to relieve us of 100 US$. We're happy to say that they were not successful. Other than that it's all been great.

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