I know you have all been waiting for updates and apologies for the delay. Travelling around and bad internet haven't helped with being able to update, unfortunately.
I will be posting more about our Fiji and New Zealand travels shortly but thought I would let you all know that Kate and I are still alive, we are currently in Sydney and I have been working as a receptionist for 2 days now and I will be working on Tuesday 29 March too! We are both applying for temporary things so hopefully something a little longer than a couple of days will be in the pipeline for us.
Here is a picture to prove that we are still alive, even though it was taken a few days ago.....
So we arrived in Nadi, Fiji on 9 February. The weather was very warm when we got off the plane but the lovely welcome of people singing made us forget how hot we actually were. After clearing immigration, collecting our bags and border control we walked to an area where a shuttle bus to take us to the hostel would pick us up. When we got to the hostel it appeared that that I had (in my rush to book things the day before), had actually booked the hostel from Wednesday 10 February, not Tuesday 9 February. Not to worry though, the very helpful receptionist found us a room in one of the 3 blocks they had. We had a twin room with no bunk beds (hurrah!) and air conditioning (double hurrah!).
The next couple of days saw us go on a tour to a local market and buy some papaya, go to the hot pools and mud bath (picture of our little tour group below), get rained on frequently, explore Nadi town where every shop keeper wants you to come in the establishment and purchase something, trying to work out how to get back to the hostel from town, have a quiet reasonable dinner in a little Thai a short walk away, have a day trip to one of the South Islands which turns out to be quite a funny trip in parts.
So, picture this, we are on a big ferry heading out to the South Pacific Ocean when we have to go down to the bottom deck as our boat has arrived to take us to the South Island. Well, the water wasn't the calmest which means that when the ferry jolts slightly, I fall onto some poor person's big bag bruising myself slightly. After trying to negotiate ourselves into the boat which was immensely fun, we then had to negotiate getting off of the boat when we got to the island. We removed our shoes and socks as the boat didn't quite get close enough to the sand. I went first, missed my footing for the last step and launched myself into the water. The nice Fijian people did help me up though. Next was Kate, now she managed to out do my display by slipping down the stairs and launching a sock and converse into the sea. The nice Fijian people picked her up and located her sock and converse for her (such service you probably wouldn't get in the UK). After we finally composed ourselves we were free to pick sunbeds under some palm trees and help ourselves to the unlimited drinks before embarking on the glass bottom submarine.
It was very hot in there and it smelt of diesel which I didn't really appreciate and needed a sit down to recover afterwards but it was still nice seeing the coral and fish and even managed to take a few videos. Back on dry land we chilled under our palm trees and enjoyed some water whilst having a nap. Lunchtime arrived and we had an amazing selection of food from the BBQ. Because the water was quite choppy we couldn't do any snorkelling unaccompanied or do any kayaking so we decided to stay on the beach and wander round. It wasn't until near the end part of the day after reapplying sun cream that we noticed how red we were! Even sitting under the shade we weren't safe. At 5.15pm a boat came to pick us up to take us back to the ferry. It was a nightmare, no-one thinks to queue and just barges you out of the way. We finally got back on dry land and headed to get a bus back to the hostel. We arrived back at about 7pm. We were both quite sore from our sunburn and didn't feel like eating so we hung out in our room and packed as we were heading to Auckland on Saturday and had a 12.45pm flight.
The Pinks' adventures are to be continued .....
