So 'Fiji Time' continued with a trip to Beachcomber and Bounty where we did a lot of.... mmmm.... absolutely nothing. Both islands are literally circles of sand in the sea with just a few palm trees sprouting up, how you imagine paradise. Beachcomber is 'the party island' of the area and we had been warned about the 100 bed dorm before arriving. Ahh we'll be fine we thought, we've probably had worse sleeping facilities over the past year.... wrong. When we entered the dorm we were confronted with the sight of the 100 beds literally squashed together like a jigsaw puzzle and we both just stood and stared in horror. Most people seemed to be about 18 and the shouting and chatter quickly started to drive us a bit mad. I literally nearly cried with happiness as Grant said 'I can't do this, lets just upgrade to a private double room, even if it costs a thousand dollars'. Hurrah!!!!!! So off we went back to reception and after parting with an extra 200 dollars per night (eeek) we went off to find our georgous little hut with double bed, bathroom and flowers strewn everywhere - lovely.

The food at the resort was lovely, loads of choice etc and very different again from Wayalailai. We felt we had a really good mix of islands and all the facilities, food, rooms and people had been different on each. We hadn't yet had a place with a 'happy hour' however so, obviously having never experienced one of these before, we set off to the bar to down a few beers and people watch (translates to - systematically slag off every second person in our vicinity... we've become such b*tches!!) Didn't hit the hay too late that night, wanting to take full advantage of our lovely room - yay.

Beach, beach and a bith more beach action was on the agenda the next day. We took a walk around the island which took... mmmm... 7 minutes I'd say. The views out to sea are beautiful and you can spot loads of little islands dotted on the horizon. As I settled down with Michael Crawford (random autobiography I'd found in another hostel!!) Grant set to work for the third day on 'the ring'. With his penknife he carved and scraped away for about 6 hours and every so often said 'time for a fitting' and I'd have to try it on. At the beginning I could barely get it on the tip of my little finger but progress had been made and we were now down to the knuckle, a tricky spot I know, but still he persevered. As the sun set and the light began to fade Grant decided as a world class jeweller he could no longer work in such conditions so switched to a bit of beach volleyball instead - much more manly. After much excitement and merriment we made our way back to the room of dreams to get ready for a big night out. The next bit of the story goes something like this... Grant - 'Hows the ring Linz?' Me - 'Hmm was fitting a bit better, let me try now'. Grant - 'Well you have it so try it on'. Me - 'Er no I don't have it'. Grant 'Whaaaaaat, well neither do I!' Cue - 2 losers half clothed dashing back down to the beach with torches strapped to their heads. It was pitch black when we got there and a absolute nightmare just trying to remember the exact spot where we were sitting. Scrabbling round on our hands and knees and picking up every tiny bit of shell we could see (there are quite a few on a beach in Fiji) we just kept shouting at eachother 'well you had it last', 'I heard you say that you had it in your bag', 'I bl**dy never, why would I say I had it when I didn't' etc etc. After about half an hour Grant shouted 'well that's it, all that work for nothing, it's lost!' We started heading back up the beach when suddenly Grant spied something 'ahhh, here it is!!!' and lo and behold it was - hurrah! (funny the things that become so important when you're away and you don't have the worries of every day life eh!)

That night it was drink drink drink, bit of dancin and a bit more drink. A feally fun night which culminated in me passing out underneath a catamaran boat thingy on the beach while looking up at the stars. Grant managed a bit longer and passed out back at the hut on the bed fully clothed. As usual I warned him 'don't go to sleep yet cos you know you'll end up passing out and waking up in all your clothes all hot and bothered at 6am'. Mumble from Grant 'ah wharrever I fine'. 6am - Grant wakes up fully clothed, all hot and bothered.

We set off on a little snorkel trip the next morning which was probably the best one we have done on our entire trip - best till last and all that. The tide was pretty low so we were literally swimming on top of the corals, with fish all in our faces. We have never seen so many different types of fish and so many colours. A few to remember were one which was luminous blue pink and green but then had black umm... graffiti it looked like, scribbled all over the top. Just can't get over how these markings are natural. Another fish looked pretty normal but when it got near something it wanted to eat it had this massive long beakky nose thing that popped out like an anteater - wierd.

After a bit more beach slothing it was over to Bounty Island for us, our last island stop. Now attention please reality TV fans - this is the place Celebrity Love Island was filmed! It is a pretty small island which we walked around in maybe 15 minutes I'd say (massive compared to Beachcomber!) and the beaches and snorkelling were again outstanding. We found a little reef shark about a metre long in the shallow water and just swam around with him for ages which was cool. The main thing we (not just me) wanted to see was the Love Island stuff which is still there. Unfortunately however The Love Shack and the pier are the only bits there. The main house bit and pool is still there but they moved it from the location it was in to the other side of the island and recreated it (absolutely no idea why). The other bits are as they were except for the fact that the love shack is completely trashed and covered in graffiti. It is such a shame because you can see how nice and swanky it must have been before and I can't understand why anyone would want to ruin in - made me pretty angry - losers.

So that was Bounty and after only one night and lots of tanning it was back to the mainland for us. We stopped in Nadi briefly for a bit of shopping and to pop in and see Mama again! Forgot to mention earlier that she loved that I was called Lindsey as she has a cat called Lindsey (spelled exactly the same) so when she saw us she shouted 'Lindseeeeeey'! and quickly ran off to find the cat and bring it to me - love love love Mama and love love love Fiji, one of the best and suprisingly most diverse places we have visited.

Linz x