Sorry for the delay but lots to tell... lets start with Fiji !!!

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So we arrived in Nadi on the 20th May, we were greeted at the airport with Fijians singing and playing guitars giving us a big Bula welcome, (for those of you that haven't visited Fiji Bula means hello/welcome). When we arrived in Nadi city it wasn't the Fiji we were expecting because there was no crystal clear water or white sandy beach. Instead Nadi was very much the stopover city used when visiting the Yaswai Islands. Before we visited the Islands we decided to venture into Nadi and Lotoka city to experience the Fijian way of life, we travelled on a traditional Fijian bus with no windows. It was very bumpy but great to get involved in the culture. Lotoka was great, there were fresh fruit and fish markets and traditional shops to explore without any hassle or pressure to buy anything. We didn't enjoy Nadi as there was a lot of pressure to buy and as soon as they saw tourists coming they pounced on you to buy.




So lets get to those crystal clear seas and white sandy beaches... we set off on our Island hopping adventure on the awesome adventure ferry, it took us 5hrs to arrive at our first destination 'Safe Landing Resort' at the beautiful Nacula island. We were again greeted with a Bula song and waiting for us was an amazing fresh veg rice lunch, we stayed in a double bure which was located right on the shore which made it a very relaxing setting. This island was very traditional and the village was a ten minute walk from the resort. We went to the Sunday service at the village church and heard some beautiful Fijian singing, they all had such lovely voices. I also went on a village tour with our guide Ceaser, I met the chief of the village and visited the local kindergarten, it was lovely to see the children in their setting and meet the teacher. In Fiji the English language is very important as they are highly dependent on tourism, so from an early age children are expected to learn English and when i visited the school everything was in English. We met some lovely people on the Island as well, an Italian couple and girl from Finland we went to the village cafe 'The Tree House' with them and tried homemade chocolate cake it was delicious!!!



Our next stop was Barefoot Mantaray ( a truly beautiful Island), this was our favourite Island because we met lots of lovely fellow travellers, the food was fab and the snorkeling was fab. We did lots of sunbathing, relaxing and Dave was very pleased because he got to kayak out to see the mantaray and I got involved in making jewellery out of a coconut shell.



Our last Island was South Sea it wasn't our favourite Island as it was more of a day trip island and got very busy throughout the day. The island was also very small taking a grand total of ... a minute to walk around, having said this the sun was shinning the water was still crystal clear and we could go out snorkeling and Kayaking for free. We loved the Island hopping experience and would recommend it to anyone, we want to go back already.



Now to leave the beautiful sun behind and say hello to the slightly cooler New Zealand!

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