Bula! This greeting just about sums up Fiji, it is so welcoming and friendly and you here it from all the locals. Fiji is amazing, we have had such a fantastic time here and would definitely return. We have never encountered such welcoming, friendly people who will help you however they can, including carrying your luggage everywhere! (Which made David feel bad!)

We arrived into Nadi on Tuesday and were greeted in the airport by a welcome band singing the traditional greeting song. We were immediately struck by how welcoming everyone as we were directed to our shuttle bus and then shown to our room at the hostel...and everything is so cheap too! Food costs very little but is top quality!

We headed for the Yasawa group of islands very early the next morning on a package trip. We got the Yasawa Flyer Catamaran from the port out to the island of Kuata, sailing through the Mamanuca Islands first, including Bounty Island where Cenlebrity Love Island is filmed. We reached the shore of Kuata by 10.30am, where we transferred onto a smaller boat to take us to the beach. This bit scared Jo alot as the boat had no seats, we were just perched on the edge! On the beach we were greeted by the people who worked at the resort singing their welcome song, to which we had to reply 'Bula!' at the end. We spent the rest of the day sunbathing on the lovely beach, swimming in the crystal clear water and lazing in the hammocks among the coconut trees. We were staying in a traditional, basic Bure on the beachfront, had wonderful food and were well looked after here. Kuata is also where some of the film Castaway was filmed so we spent a long time trying to identify things we recognised from the film!!

The next day we caught the boat again to the Korovou Eco Tour Resort on the island of Naviti, and Dave in particular loved the trip up there as he lay on the front of the boat sunbathing (or burning as it later turned out!), listening to his iPod and enjoying the spectacular views. Korovou was an amazing place with amazing staff...all luggage was carried to and from your room, meals were served to you at your table...and this is budget accomodation! We had another beachfront bure and there was a pool too. After lunch here we walked to Honeymoon Beach on the other side of the island. We hadn't quite realised however that you had to climb over a steep hill to get there and so had gone barefoot which was foolish! It was worth it however as the beach was beautiful and we had a great swim in the sea as it was deeper on this side of the island. Our walk also took us through a couple of small Fijian settlements, the way of life on these islands is so unlike anything we had ever come across, it is really basic but the people seem so happy. We spent the rest of our day relaxing and subathing some more :-) After watching the sunset over the ocean and eating a delicious evening meal we joined in some traditional Fijian dancing before having a couple of beers on our veranda and watching the amazing stars...heaven!

We began our second day in Korovou with breakfast overlooking the sea before walking along the beach. We took advantage of the again fantastic weather and spent the rest of the morning sunbathing...it is hot enough to sunbathe from about 8am here! It gets so hot but out on the islands there is a lovely sea breeze to cool you down.That afternoon we hired a kayak and explored some of the deserted beaches on the bay, spotting lots of coral in the water. Then we sunbathed some more! And Dave happily spent some time lying in a hammock on the beach watching the world go by.

On our last morning in Korovou, as you may be able to guess by now, we sunbathed some more before heading back to join the Yasawa Flyer on its return journey to Nadi. The small connecting boat we travelled in from Korovou out to the big boat was crammed with people as the boat of the neighbouring resort had broken down...we had never known anything like it! About 25 people and all their luggage crushed into one little boat! Health and safety here is next to non-existant and we liked it! The Fijian's in charge of the boat certainly were not worried!

We have spent one last day in Nadi while waiting for our flight to LA tonight. Here's something to try to get your head round: we leave Nadi at 10pm on 12/08, and arrive in LA at 1.20pm on 12/08 after a 10 hour flight! We get to have August 12th twice thanks to crossing the international date line so we wish Mr Adrew Hogarth happy 25th birthday twice, which by our reckoning actually makes you 26!! Haha!

David has finally succeeded in not only getting ill again, but this time passing it on to Jo who now is miserably blocked up and cursing him frequently! But we are trying to enjoy Fiji anyway, and to be honest that is not difficult! We cant believe that this time nest week we will have already been at the V festival for 2 days!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon,

lots of love Joanne and Dave xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S Sorry we cannot upload pictures here, however we have many due to the beauty of the place so be warned! Will upload them soon xxx