Hey Folks!

Well, we have left Fiji (boohoo!), and I am writing from Albert Park Backpackers in Auckland, New Zealand, which is a slightly shabby but cheap (whey!) hostel in the centre of the city, a stones throw from the harbour and Sky Tower.

So, it has been a week since we last had internet access, and a busy week it has been, with a cyclone, a shark sighting, sunburn and a sea rescue mission! Literally the day after I last came on here we were visited by a rather mundane sounding 'Gene'. Unfortunately Gene was anything but mundane and was in fact a cyclone that caused havoc on the island we were on at the time (Manta Ray). People were stuck on the island, the boats didnt come, planes were cancelled and the winds reached about 100 mph...pretty bloody fast! So as you will notice from the photos, a lot of time was spent in the dorm, and dodging coconuts from the palms which were bent double.

After this had passed we were able to complete our Scuba course. We were taken out on the boat, and dropped in the middle of nowhere, which was scary. We went to about 30 metres, which was also quite scary...and saw a shark, which funnily enough wasnt scary at all! We were both just in complete awe! We are now fully qualified open water divers!

After we completed this we were sad to leave Manta Ray, and our beloved scuba instructors behind, but that quickly disapated when we got to Octopus.

Octopus was very much a 'resort', which was a nice change. It had really lovely dorms, and the meals were of restaurant standards. It is run by lovely Ozzies and we had a fab time just chilling out here. Unfortunately we both managed to get sun burnt pretty early on so we avoided the sun a little here, but there were the statuatory hammocks under the palms, and plenty else to do.

So four days at Octopus chilled us completly out and it was time to get the flyer back to Nadi, on the way back our boat was involved in a rescue when it was announced to us over the tanoy that a boat nearby was taking on water. We were told to all look for it, and the flyer circled the area, five minutes later we were told that that had got an SOS as the boat had completely submerged, and it all became quite urgent. Luckily shortly later a passenger spotted two men and 5 year old boy in the water, they were incredibly lucky as it was a bit rough!

We stayed in Nadi over night, which to be honest leaves a lot to be desired, and headed over to New Zealand.

And so here we are, just been food shopping, bought lots of noodles. Going to do some laundry later and tomorrow go to the art gallery and aquarium in Auckland, the hopefuly head down to Hamilton to see family!

Thanks for all your messages and emails, it is great to here what is going on and we miss you all so much, it is starting to sink in how long it is until we see you!

Check out the photos.

Keep in touch, take care,

Liz and Tom xxx