Bula everybody!

wow, can you belive we've been here three weeks already? Despite earlier reservations we'd be bored after one week sunbathing, lazing and all that its been a total blast and no boredom at all (well except for Mango Bay but i'll tell you about that later!).

We've been island hopping, sailing around the beautiful beaches of Fiji, fishing, kayaking, snorkelling, cave diving, you name it! And over the past week we've been soaking it up...inbetween rain spells (yep, it finally caught up with us, boooo!).

Decided to skip Bounty again and see what we've been missing else where. So off we headed to Robinson Crusoe Island. This place was an experience and a halve! We arrived by boat (again) to a traditional bula welcome (again) and then the tradition stopped (give or take 3 kava cermonies!). The staff were totally fantastic, making sure we were always occupied - even when there was just 8 of us altogther on the island and the rain was pouring in. We did some crab racing, turtle watching and some proper back to basics fishing with them (which we then cooked and ate off leaves). The day trippers flocked in for their christmas parties and some shows were performed with huge grins. See pictures - they're amazing! We met up with two Americans - Matt & Quiet Dan who showed us a game called Big Booty. You'd think i'd win right? But no, i was out in the 4th round. Double boo! Anna & Lisa from Sweden were cool too, while Andy followed his dares (drinking card games never fail to amuse) and went swimming in the pitch black with the little stingrays - ouch! Then we met Niall & Sean too - the most amusing Irish guys you'll ever meet, who kept us entertained while we made sure Sharon wasn't sick by the bounty rum (another dare). It was a hoot from start to finish, along with the shared showers...from a bucket! Yep, cold water, hoisted in a bucket and poured onto you from a not so high height. Fantastic!

It was sad to leave Robinson Crusoe (did i mention they served mash potato with everything - a dream come true) but we'd booked into Mango Bay for the next three nights with Niall and Sean coming too for the craic. While this place was more luxuorius it was certainly not entertaining, unless you wanted to drink yourself into a stuper and pay $70 for the overpriced priveledge. So we made our entertainment - we had too, it rained for like 2 of the 3 days solid (we blame Sean and his little rain cloud, which appeared whenever he was around!). Pool volleyball in the rain was hard work but hilarious all the same and of course the cards always come in handy for drinking games. Learned BullSh#t for the first time (always wanted to play after watching How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days) but wasn't all that good at it coz i'm a rubbish liar (well until i'm tipsy). Deal was the 3 winners were bought drinks by the three losers everytime. That might explain by bar tab and also the fantastically huge ice cocktail Niall has in the pics - very butch, not! We refrained from joining the pant brigade and the American idiots in their games (i mean do they really need to wear calvin kleins under their swimwear for all to see, all of the time?!) and just plodded on ourselves when the boys finally left for Sydney/Shark diving (where we've already made them promise they'll provide us digs!). On our own we adopted Ronnie (one of the crew that had come across from Robinson Crusoe) for the pub quiz and pool shennanigans. Unfortunately i managed to get myself sun burnt (funnily enough after Sean and his rain cloud left) and am having a hard time sitting down - ouch! Wouldn't mind if it was an all over burn but i have the weirdest stripes ever and not all that pretty. Doh!

And now we're back at Nomads Skylodge, our resting place before catching our flight tomorrow for New Zealand in time for Christmas. Once we settled in, booked the skydive and all that i'll be back to tell you more. Until then have a fantastic Christmas & New Year and a final bula to all! Keep the updates and comments coming and check out the Fiji pics on the photo link for me & Sharon...