On Friday (I think... I'm losing track of days a bit!) we started our journey to paradise (the photo is basically my view from my hut- feel free to get jealous). We got a taxi and then a bus (about 4 and half hours in total) to Suva, on the East of Viti Levu, with our remarkably full bags (despite leaving about half our stuff behind) to get the overnight ferry to Taveuni. We were very lucky as we met a Kiwi man on the bus who said he had friends in Suva, near the bus station, who would be happy to look after our bags while we went to find food. I know what you're thinking- she's really muscular and strong, why would she not just carry her 2 rucksacks totaling about 30kg with her? Well, even people like me need a break ;). So we left our bags with some Fijian people at their market stall and found some food. Had a quick potter around the market and got a taxi to the ferry nice and early as we'd been told we should try to get on as soon as it starts in order to get a seat and not end up on the floor all night. We may have gone a little overboard on the keen-ness however, and got there at about 4pm- the ferry left at 6pm and didnt start letting people on until about 5. That is, despite one feryy man telling us we could just get on and at the top of what seemed to be about a hundred very steep, narrow stairs (quite a mission with heavy bags) we could get our tickets and board... he was wrong. We got most of the way up, got shouted at and had to come right back down, only to do it again shortly after.

We managed to find some fairly comfy seats- a bit like slightly scabby old cinema seats, but loads of leg room- in a room with a tv, and felt very smug. Until, that is, we realised the TV didnt really work and had no sound... and until some Fijians brought in a coffin to sit next to me in the aisle. Really. It came in with no response at all from anyone else, as if it was very normal to share a 24 hour ferry ride with a dead body (I found out last night that it is actually pretty normal, so there we go), but the 3 of us and 2 others we'd come with from Nadi went into shock- lots of swearing etc followed. At first I thought maybe it was empty and they were bringing the coffin for someone on another island. That idea didnt seem to fit when they started covering it with fancy cloths and flower wreaths... Anyway, it turns out when you're tired, sleeping on the floor about 2 inches from a full coffin starts to seem ok after all! I'm told at one point, I almost had my feet resting on it as I'd fallen asleep in a weird position- woops! The ferry was very very long and uncomfortable and with a choice of only crisps or cookies to eat from the canteen, breakfast was interesting! (cookies and crisps, in case you wandered!) We arrived in Taveuni at about 2pm the next day and were met by someone who took us to the hostel there for lunch, before waiting for the tide to be right for us to get to Qamea. It was raining and pretty grey, but the speedboat ride definately kept a smile on everyones faces (and bruises on their bums!) We were met by more people singing, playing guitars and dancing to welcome us when we arrived at Mangai Beach, which was lovely. It's been fairly cloudy and has rained A LOT since (think I cursed it as I wrote that as it appears to have become a full on monsoon now!) although we were lucky enough to get intermitant sun and heat yesterday- enough to snorkle a bit, swim in the sea and generally frollic in bikinis (climbing horizontal trees- see pic above, making sand angels and getting very very sandy generally). We played a bit of volleyball yesterday (badly, standard) and have damages my wrists and arms enough that the bruises look like I've been held around the wrists and struggled a lot to get free- maybe not a sport I'll take up full time.

I have discovered that Deet seems to make flies literally swarm around me- after being bitten on existing bites (and weirdly a lot of bites on knuckles) when I was at the computer briefly yesterday, I thought I'd better go put on some trousers and pour repellent over myself- only to come back to an attack of a whole army of bugs anf mosquitos. The people working here got out bug spray and sprayed it all around me. I should point out, this only happened to me... I might need to check what it says on that bottle!!!

The rain is not giving up, so I think today will be mainly 'doing nothing' (they have a board with activities that they do- doing nothing is at the top of the list!). I'm just hoping it stops for long enough that we can get a boat back to Taveuni in time for our flight! Watch this space- Fiji may become my permanent residence at this rate!