hi guys!! its jess again, sooooooooooooooo its been a while i understand BUT there is good reason- i ended up in bloody hopsital! food poisoning and then a gastric virus (as pleasant as it sounds), so basically spent a week vomiting into a green bowl while poor char watched. But she did a very good job as my carer and i think she secretly appriciated the tv time! so as we speak i am on a FIVE HOUR delay waiting to fly to melbourne to meet some friends as i have packed the girls (and charles) off to asia, i am unable to join them till the 18th coz i have to recover and the bloody malaria tabs wreak havock on my poor innards. so laura last left you at the matakibau track with plenty of back sweat (seriously that was the day i doubted if laura really is a girl).

After the trek we river tubed our way back the way we came and oh dear lord this was possibly the funniest experince, first off not only did me and char discover we have NO upper body strength, eveb tho we flailed and kicked like maniacs we were slowly left behind (last ones again) and had to be helped (more than once) by our accompanying boat which dagged us to saftey. All the while my ring was too bloody big and i felt myslef slowly falling through the middle down to the deep! (actually you could prob stand up and walk but i'd had enough of that!). when we finally made it to the shore (yup me and char had to be dragged there too) laura, ignoring all warning, hopped out at the wrong point and ended up knee deep in clay, arms waving about and loads of giggles later char ventured off to help and we all watched while the inevitable happened- she started sinking too, after fleeing for safety we all stood and watched as laura, on hands and knees, crawled to firmer lands, leaving the beloved jesus sandles somewhere in the ground.

that night we stayed at the raintree lodge in the middle of the rainforest and it was so dark at night that me charlie and laura (well mostly me) were clinging onto each other for dear life, jumping at every noise, on our 2 metre walk from the bar to our room!

The next day was the orphanage visit! was pretty cool if a bit weird for these kids to be dragged out of bed and put on display for us! we met one very cheeky boy who nicked our cameras, took loads of pics (finger over lense), told charlie he smelt and deserted us half way thru the tour! After we went to a village for a traditional sevu-sevu ceremony (cava). It was really interesting, you have to clap, take the bowl, say BULA!, drink it all (it looks, and tastes, like muddy water!), hand it back and clap 3 times as a sign of respect. The cava is very odd (although charlie liked it!) and it makes your tongue numb! We then learned how to weave some bracelets and went bili bili rafting, basically you sit on ur fat arse on some wood tied together while local villagers push you down a river, we were pushed by the chief and felt slightly rude! after some ball games and frolicking in the murky waters we headed to voli voli beach our stay for the night which was really cool! and rather heavy!

A fair few drinking games, crab racing, musical positions.... and a bonfire later and we were all merrily chatting and swaying away. me and laura had a heart to heart.... and then tried to have a dance off.... all very drunken. The next morn we didnt have to leave till 12 (thank god). We shoveled in a big breakfast and then headed off for a curry (yup just what you want on a tummy full of alcohol- i blame charlie for introducing me to southern comfort). After laura nearly burning her mouth off and eating goat by mistake we headed to the sbeto mud pools, and ewwwwwwwww it was gross, twigs, leaves, mud and faaaackin hot water- not my cup if tea, especially when everyone reached into the depths and covered me (hair and all) in mud. the next pool was much nicer, just a hot pool to chill and wash off in, after 2 and a half months of no bath it was a welcome treat!, so back to nomads that night!

The next day we started our island hopping, not much to say about that! the 1st island, waya lailai was really nice, chilled, cute little huts and traditional food (we wish we stayed there longer), the next resort on korovou was more like british holiday makers resort, stody food and bad entertainment(fire dances and the hokey kokey the obvious exception!) and a pool??! oh and a guy who serenaded us every meal time but only knew songs by enrique iglesias and johnny cash! Was really nice to chill out and sunbathe but after doing stuff everyday for so long it soon wore off and by the end we were ready to leave! there were a couple of incidents with the bugs and charlie came to the rescue, at one point lauras scream at a scuttling cockroach was so loud two fijian guys came running out of their rooms, wrapping their sarongs around them thinkin someone had been killed, all very funny! on waya lai lai there was this bloody cockrel that woke us up in the wee hours- not impressed, but it meant that i got to see a fair few sunrises as i never got back to sleep, they were amazing. So it came to an end! charlie left a day before us and despite our attemots to escaoe with him we were unable to! but we had a very girlie last night, chatting about all things girlie. and preapred ourslef for our oz advetures ahead!

all in all fiji was loads of fun, but we shouldve moved around the islands a bit more, and it was faaaackin hot! next update is sydney! phew we are catching up! xxx