Sunday 16th July 2006 In the words of the Kaiser Chiefs: "Oh my god I can't believe it I've never been this far away from home"... I made it! I'm in New Zealand, and about as far as I can possible get from Yarnton... I have an exciting feeling about being here - all the rest, Vegas, Hawaii and Fiji were just nice places (Maui being VERY nice) to visit on the way to somewhere - to here! I got a transfer bus from the airport to the city centre. I started to feel very happy and almost 'at home'. Nice friendly people, driving on the left, roundabouts, familiar cars and architecture (although a lot of cold wooden houses here), trams, over-looked by hills, near the sea, a huge park, free buses, not too busy (traffic ... read more

Friday 7th July We landed at the resort and I was given bed number 202 - which as it turns out was exactly the same number given to a German girl. Didn't think she was up for sharing a bed - hadn't even bought her a drink!!. So went back and asked for a new bed number. Seems the dorms were full so I got a Bure (small little house - usually for couples/families), but had to share with two other German girls - with only two beds! Seems I was destined to sleep with a German girl! ;-) They had the double I had the single and all was good. This resort was a lot bigger than the previous ones. On the other shore was the famous Blue Lagoon used in the film of the ... read more

Monday 3rd July I got a transfer boat to the Wana Taki, which is a big old ferry converted to sleep about 30 travellers. It has a bar, three meals a day (plus morning and afternoon tea!! LOL), kayaks, snorkeling gear, DVD player, air-con sleeping deck, HOT showers and you can jump in the sea from the top deck!! :-) I met Jim and Abby - a really nice couple. We got a welcome drink and then got to eat lunch - and it was fantastic! Especially after the food at Kuata!! We went out in a little boat to snorkel with manta rays. As we approached the channel where they feed we saw a fin come out of the water - looked like a big shark, but it was actually a wing tip of a ... read more

Thursday 29th June: I was up at 6.30am, trying not to wake the other eight people in my dorm. I went and showered I realised I was about to embark on the most remote part of my trip so far and had just run out of shower gel and deodorant! Arse! So, no internet access for three weeks - means no contact with distant friends and no shower gel or deodorant - means no making of 'close' friends either!! LOL To top it all of, it is raining heavily. Not having a good start to Fiji... I went down for breakfast, I saw on the menu 'Full Fijian Breakfast', which was like a Full English. "Mmmmmm, yes please" I thought. I went to reception to get my breakfast ticket (you get a free 'Awesome breakfast' with ... read more

It was the weekly Sunday tour trip to Big & Small Beach for a chilled-out afternoon. Me and Mat headed straight over to Small Beach and I did some cool body surfing - really getting the hang of it - who needs a board!?! I even went commando (well, when in Rome, etc) - who needs a board.. and who needs shorts!? Met some ‘Brits’ who had just got to Maui and had been in South East Asia. They told how they had been ripped off badly in Cambodia, crossing the boarder. Huge long delays crossing, the bus breaking down repeatedly, the driver insisting on only dropping them at his family's hostel, told to exchange their Thai bar for Cambodian cash (and loosing 30% of their money in the process) and all this was from a ... read more