Left Suva yesterday morning and headed towards the north of the island. Our first stop was Wailotua Village where we took part in a sevusevu (kava) ceremony. The root of the kava plant is ground up and the powder is used to infuse water to make a drink. It is supposed to have narcotic properties and is generally thought to relax you. It is apparently very good for stress and depression. The kava is made in a special way and you have to accept the first cupful you are offered or you will offend the chief. Also it is polite to drink it in one go. It looks a bit like muddy water and tastes a bit like it too! I am not sure about the effects – it makes you sleepy so we were all ... read more

We started our FeeJee experience trip today. We decided to risk travelling with them (as there is not much choice) and hope that they are not too much of an 18 – 30 party bus! They were late picking us up but apparently that is just Fiji Time! Our first stop was Nataidola Beach. A lovely beach with the warmest sea I have ever been in. It was like being in the bath! We spent several hours on the beach chilling out. There were several footballs on the bus so we got to play various ball games in the sea. It was nice to be part of a big group again. The sea was very calm apart from the occasional massive wave. I got completely wiped out by one, which Tim though was hilarious! After that ... read more

We are now in Auckland. When I said Tim was feeling a bit better I was wrong! I think it was the quiet before the storm. It was definitely the quiet before the day from hell! It turns out that he has campylobacter! It is some type of bacterial infection that can be caused by eating contaminated food or water, or eating raw meat. As far as we are aware Tim did none of those things but apparently it is rife in this area and it is probably just related to poor food hygiene such as using something that was not washed up properly. We know all this as Tim went to the doctors. Under normal circumstances this would have not been particularly troublesome apart from the fact that the nearest doctors was at the hospital ... read more

Having a great time in the Bay of Islands. Got here on Thursday and it was raining (first rain we had seen for ages) so we had a pretty quiet afternoon. Just made a brief trip into the town centre and the supermarket. Yesterday we went on a cruise of the Bay which was great. As well as a cruise it was a dolphin spotting trip and I am pleased to say we saw loads. We were very lucky on the dolphin spotting front as people we spoke to yesterday only saw two. We saw several pods. The first type of dolphins we saw were bottle nose dolphins. They kept swimming right up to the boat and jumped out of the water several times. I never realised that they were quite so big (they can get ... read more

We have been black water rafting today and it was fantastic, if not a little scary! It is not really rafting at all, more a cross between caving and tubing. You get kitted out in wetsuits, helmets with lights on the front and these very tasteful white boots. You then get given a big rubber ring to sit on and you are ready to go. We started off by walking in the caves which are between ankle deep and waist deep in water. The first bit of tubing involved getting on our rings and lying right back so we could float through a section of cave with a very low roof. You had to lie horizontal or else you would not fit. I found this bit a scary! After that it was sections of walking and ... read more