Hey everyone (this is Clare by the way) We arrived in New Zealand yesterday afternoon after having spent an amazing 6 days in Fiji the highlight being the Yasawa Islands (nearly three hours away by boat from the mainland). The Islands are beautiful with palm trees, white sand and coral reefs. It has been total bliss lazing around on hammocks, topping up our tans on the beach and going snorkelling to wonder at the electric blue starfish and all other kinds of sea creatures! The local people were so friendly too welcoming us to their shores with smiles and song and a big 'Bula!' (hello!). The resort we stayed at was lovely (Manta Ray resort) and we needn't have worried about roughing it, the food was great (fresh fish and salads mostly) and it was all very clean and tidy - even though the loos which were upstairs had an open/close lid function to the big bucket below eugh!.

One day we went on a trip to the local village which included seeing the local school. The kids were fantastic and very keen to have their photos taken! Jumping around tables and running around the classroom - must have been excited to see us! There only seemed to be one teacher for the whole school of 60 kids.

One evening the locals came to entertain us with traditional song and dance and we joined in too which was fun but kind of scary too with bare chested men in grass skirts!

Have been spraying the deet every few minutes to avoid bites - got some spray in my face once which made my eyelid swell up huge and Amanda thought I looked like some character from the goonies but I put my shades on and hoped for the best and it soon cleared up - phew!

All the best and will write more next time (wrote this out and more a few days ago but the computer in Fiji wasn't working right and lost it all!) will write again soon and add photos.love Clare x