So i arrived at my next island, wayalailai, and planned to stay for just one night as i wanted to the summit walk it offered. I completed the summit walk in the afternoon of the first day i got there, in about 40 degrees heat on a track that was no longer a track as no one had been up there since the cyclone, so a lot of risky steps overs trees and drops were needed! Well worth it though as the view was the best view i have ever seen in my life. The one night planned stay has now turned in to 7! I just fell in love with this island. Ive paid extra for what they call a 2 coconut pass, basically an island is rated from 1-3 coconuts, so this island is a 1 because it is quite basic, only has power for a few hours in the mornig and evening and very basic facilities, including no hot water, but i love it. The resort is on an island with a village and the people from the village take it in turns to run the resort. The people here are possibly the nicest and happiest people i have ever met in my life, even though the majority of their homes were destroyed in the cyclone. All guests sit down together as well for the meals during the day, so its very easy to meet new people and become part of the islands community. On the evening of day 1, i was introduced to cava, the drink of fiji. Its a route plant that they break down in to a powder, put in to a sock then mix through with a big bowl of water. It basically tastes like mud water! About three hours and 15 bowls later it seemed to have very little effect on me, apart from a slightly numb mouth, but it absolutely slaughters the locals, which is rather amusing! Day 2 on the island was a Sunday, so its god days and no activities are put on. I went with the locals and experienced their church service. Even though it was all in Fijian it was an amazing experience. Day 3 i spent the whole morning helping the locals clear the beach. From the cyclone alot of the reef and large rocks were pushed up on to the beach and they wanted their white sandy beach back. So after sweating about 5 litres of water and killing my back i rewarded myself and spent the majority of the afternoon kyaking and snorkelling, which is very good on this island. I saw lots of different fish and encounted a reef shark which was....interesting! It was good though as this made me realise how much they arent interested in humans at all and gave me the cuts to do a shark swim later on! Day 4 i was up at 5.30 to climb the summit again, this time to watch the sunrise from the top, awesome view and great pics! Day 5 was the best day of my life thus far! We left early on the boat to go out to a reef in the middle of nowhere, first stopping off to catch some fish via spear gun at another reef. It was just me and the guide who went for a swim at this point, the others stayed on board! We then got to the reef with the sharks and i jumped in very excited. After about 2 minutes of snorkelling, a white tip shark came out with must have been about twice the size of the reef shark, followed by another that must have been about 3x the size! We believe it was child and mum. They swam up very close to us, within a couple of feet, and after the initial scared addrenaline rush, i realised they really couldnt care less about us and could just smell the fish we had for them! This led to me chasing them about the reef (as in the pic) for an hour, strocking them and getting a hold of their tail whilst feeding them, so amazing! We then went back to the resort and had freshly caught and cooked fish on the beach followed by an evening sunset in to night time fishing trip, where i saw the most beautiful sunset i have ever experienced! Day 6 was very chilled on the beach where i started reading my first book in many a year and today, day 7 saw me just laze on the beach and finish the book! Today is the last day of new years celebrations so weve got a hog roast on the go (caught and killed this morn!) and many a beer, cava and dance will comence later on! Part of their new years celebrations is also water fights and soaking people when least expecting it, so have been actively invloved in that over the past week! I leave tomorrow to head up North to experience another island, part excited, mostly gutted ill be leaving an island and a community that I have completelty fallen for.. Although i cant wait for a warm shower! I will definately come and stay here for one night on my way back down to the port. Unfortunately i cant load the photos on here due to their basic internet, so that will have to be done in NZ in 2 weeks time. (Will take me forever!) I did manage to upload one of me chasing a shark which is the cover photo on here, but that took the best part of half an hour! Going to tuck in to the hog roast and have a few beers now... Speak soon! x