Fiji

10th May - another day, and country number 6. Picked up at 10:00am by a driver that used to live near Brighton! His brother still lives in the UK and plays cricket for Sussex.

Lunchtime flight from Auckland only slightly delayed but land in Fiji at 16:20 and it was a comfortable journey with inflight entertainment so managed to watch a film that took up half the flight time of 3 hours.

Swiftly through but unfortunately it's a shared transfer and the other couple took forever to get through customs. It was dark by the time we got going so haven't actually seen anything of Fiji yet.

Lovely welcome by the hotel 'band' singing to us as we checked in. Much smiling and clapping going on and cold drinks delivered. Our room is big with a small balcony looking towards the gardens and pool. It's a bit dated but has everything we need.

Quick change and straight to the restaurant for dinner where we both had mahimahi. Only a few tables occupied, it's quiet for them here at the moment but it's not a big hotel anyway, I think maybe 30ish rooms. Moved to the bar after dinner to finish our drinks and the band followed us. We got the impression they keep going all the time there's someone to sing to! The barman was packing up so we didn't ask for another drink and went to bed!

11th May - woke up to a beautiful day and a good breakfast before heading for the beach just a few steps across the road from the hotel. At midday we were still the only ones there, not sure where the other guests have got to as they don't seem to be around the pool either. The stretch of water in front of us is a lagoon so we've got snorkels and masks and Derek's going to teach me to snorkel.....maybe. First thing I saw when paddling was a bright blue starfish. It's windy but lovely and warm and it's nice to be able to relax and read instead of travelling. The hotel guide in the room is amusing, the writer had a sense of humour. Just three rules of the hotel:

1. Relax
2. See rule 1
3. See rules 1 & 2

Guests failing to comply will be dealt with! Electricity can be erratic - follow rule 1, water pressure can be erratic follow rule 2 and weather can be erratic, follow rule 3. And so it went on.

Another very good dinner at the restaurant following Happy Hour. Got

chatting with a couple of Aussies and the time flew by.

12th May - see 11th May! So relaxing here. A few more guests have turned up tonight so dinner was busier than last night. We've realised that some of the diners are from another hotel called the Outrigger, which is expensive, so presumably they have come for a cheap meal!

13th May - thought we'd better be a bit more active so went for a five minute walk. Back to the sun lounger and the Kindle. We're definitely on Fiji time! Watching cyclone Ella which is tracking north of where we're going on Monday but could mean rough seas.

14th May - took a walk after breakfast down the coast to take a look at the Outrigger Resort which we've heard a bit about, it's supposed to be a very nice resort but we weren't that impressed from the little we could see. There were some beach facing villas which would have had nice views but the main block was just apartments. Apparently popular with families and as a wedding venue.

The weather has been changeable! Sun, cloud, rain, wind, the works. But it's warm so we still sat out with the Aussies and a British couple from Botley and put the world to rights. Both other couples have their stashes of booze and crisps bought from the supermarket rather

than pay the hotel prices which we can't work out as it's cheap here! We all met up in the bar again for Happy Hour and there's some good banter with the staff going on as Fiji play Scotland tonight in the rugby. It's Mothers Day. Only the UK have Mothers Day in March.

Thought we'd better get a reasonably early night as the taxi is picking us up at 6:15am in the morning to take us to the port to catch the ferry to Nacula Island.

Happy Birthday Karen!

15th May - not a good nights sleep as the wind is blowing a hooley and heavy downpours of rain. Dry this morning. Slightly nervous about the boat trip being rough.

Taxi waiting at 6:15 and we set off for the port at Denereau. Denereau is an island in its own right, close to Nadi. It has eight resorts, restaurants around the marina, golf course and water park. We had been going along nicely until we got to the outskirts of Nadi town and then we crawled along with the school buses and workers who all start at 8:00am. Still made the ferry terminal with 30 minutes to spare which was just as well as the ferry check in was busy. We are sailing

on the bright yellow Yasawa Flyer II. We find out there are 27 stops to the Blue Lagoon Resort on Nacula and we are number 25! As it turned out some stops serviced more than one resort so it wasn't quite as bad as we thought.

It was lovely to see some of the other islands on our 4 1/2 hour trip. A few of them were your typical desert island image, sand and a palm tree - very beautiful. It quickly dawned on me that these little islands don't have marinas that the ferry drops you off at. A little motor boat comes out to meet the ferry and takes you the last few hundred metres. Some islands only had one or two people disembarking but we were also picking up people leaving the islands, either to go on to another island, or to get back to Denereau. Hugh Jackman and his wife are on the boat but nobody else seems to have noticed, or they're pretending not to.

It got a bit choppy towards the end and we moved inside as the spray started to hit us. Our 'stop' was actually the drop off/pick up point for 3 resorts and the Blue Lagoon was the last to be called. So many people stood up and as we got into the little transfer boat I felt old and out of place - our fellow passengers all looked to be twenty somethings.

As soon as we arrived at the beach we were met with singing and cold drinks which we struggled to drink whilst holding on to our bags and sinking into the sand! Check in consisted of finding your name on a list and writing down what country you were from and if you had any food allergies, that was it. We were then shown to our garden 'villa'. Straight away my heart sank, we are directly behind the bar and restaurant. As I'm writing this people are singing at the top of their voices and I want to yell at them to shut up. Derek reminds me it's only 10pm!

The room is very nice and we have a balcony at the front with a day bed and a foot pool to wash the sand from our feet before going into the room. There are beautiful fresh flowers arranged next to the foot pool, on the bed and in the bathroom. Shame about the single bed in the corner - we're using it as spare storage. There is no fridge, kettle, tea/coffee, air conditioning or hairdryer as the island's electricity is run on a generator and they have to ration the electricity. But don't worry, if you want coffee or water just ask at the bar.....and they will charge it to the room! I knew that we would have an open air shower but didn't realise that I was also going to be sitting on the loo and using the hand basin with just a shallow roof above me! It's an open air bathroom, we found it amusing that they provided a can of air freshener! The trees screening us are quite pretty I suppose..

No explanation regarding the meal arrangements (meals and drinks not included in price) so we go to the office to enquire and are told there's no choice, it's a flat rate of £80 per day per couple, for food only, regardless of how much you eat. The drinks are 50% more expensive than the previous hotel we were in. Happy hour is 4 -5 and Derek had a small beer, the happy part being that it was a massive fifty pence off. And the wifi doesn't work. We laid on the balcony day bed to read but the music from the bar and the noise from the kitchen equipment irritates me. I am so grumpy and wish we were back at the Bedarra.

The dining arrangements are communal unless you specifically ask for your own table,which I did,as I didn't think it was fair to

inflict my bad mood on the other guests. It's a 3 course meal but we skip starters as normally the portions are so large. Derek ordered sirloin expecting a steak but it was actually rolled up slices of roast beef. I ordered tuna which got sent back as it was too rare for me and cold in the centre. Second time it was cooked perfectly but the veg was awful. The chocolate mousse was like eating a dollop of chocolate butter icing. So we did the only thing we could do and ordered a second bottle of wine and chose to laugh about it! Watched the crab racing which was funny and people were encouraged to cheer for their favourite crab.
The singsong began so we left and that's what's currently driving me mad.

To top it off I don't think Hugh Jackman is really Hugh Jackman....the face is right (according to me, Derek doesn't agree) but the body is all wrong. Also the woman he's with doesn't look anything like his wife according to the internet. Maybe he's here with a mistress?

16th May - the music didn't go on too late and the second bottle of wine helped us sleep despite the early hours phone call on my mobile from an unknown number because I'd forgotten to put my phone on silent.

We went to breakfast early for no other reason than we were

desperate for tea and coffee. The breakfast buffet was good, the weather is lovely and my mood has improved. We went for a walk along the beach and it's very peaceful and beautiful, despite this place not being my cup of tea I can see the attraction for many people (young, and/or backpackers, divers and snorkellers). We found a couple of loungers on the beach under a tree and Derek went to hire snorkelling equipment. It's very hot so the sea is inviting, very clear and then the most beautiful blue. I eventually decided (with Derek's encouragement) to try snorkelling and loved it! The fish are amazing.

As we're paying for it we had lunch which we don't normally bother with when we're on holiday. Then watched the next batch of guests arrive and depart on the ferry at around 1:30pm, it's a slick operation.

Retired to the pool area for some shade mid afternoon and sat next to the Manager's staff team meeting. Interesting to eavesdrop and had to bite my tongue very hard not to put him straight on a few points. Sadly it confirmed that it's all about the dollar...like we didn't know that anyway.

There's a walking track from the hotel to a viewpoint from where you can see all the Yasawa islands - we gave in after five minutes as it's very steep!

Nearly had a heart attack in the shower, there was a baby gecko inside the flannel I picked up to use. This place would certainly not suit anybody squeamish about bugs and lizards!

Tonight's dinner theme is BBQ night. Not great but an improvement on last night and we're not convinced much 'barbecuing" has gone on.. Once again I have reserved our own table and the band are right next to us sitting on the big woven mat that everyone is welcome to sit on. One particular band member has a great voice. There's a guy sat in the middle of the mat with a large, shallow black bowl that looks as though it contains tea. He alternately tops it up with water and then what looks like contents from wrung out socks. He then scoops the liquid into a shallow cup and passes it to a person on the mat. They drink it, pass it back to him and he fills it again and passes it to the next person. Not in a million.. wouldn't pass HSE in the UK! The ceremony is called Kava and is a very traditional Fijian thing to do. Coconut bowling is tonight's planned entertainment but we didn't stay to watch.

I've been to enquire about the wifi which is worse than useless, and I'm met with indifference, apparently they have limited success with the internet in their office too. I'm fine with that, just be honest about it on your website instead of advertising free wifi as a resort amenity! I explained that we need the internet to confirm something for the next leg of our trip and get told we can use the office computer....if it's working.

There's now a guy for the second night running making the most revolting nasal noises outside our window, it makes me feel sick.

17th May - saw a couple of youngsters glued to their phones at

breakfast and asked if they were on the wifi. They were and one of them kindly took my phone and with a few clicks I was connected. She obviously had magic fingers as she only did what I'd already been doing! They did admit that the previous day they only had it for five minutes before it dropped out and that was their lot for the day. Similarly it dropped out this morning quite quickly and all I managed to do was download 64 emails the majority of which were rubbish.

We took another walk along the beach after breakfast, my clothes are getting tight and I'm not getting enough exercise. The weather is very windy again and it's cloudy but they're moving fast.

We hire snorkelling gear again and venture further out. Saw even more amazing fish. Back to the sun loungers and watch the world go by and the comings and goings on the water. 26 guests leave today and 20 arrive. Highlight of our morning was seeing the most annoying American guy get left behind on the beach and the little transfer boat had to turn around and come back for him. Glad they did otherwise we'd be stuck with him for another 24 hours!

Dinner was much better tonight and the music is good. We're relaxing into this place. There's two or three older couples now so I don't feel quite so conspicuous.

18th May - 32nd wedding anniversary today. First time no cards exchanged!

Wifi was working first thing so managed to get on to the DVLA website to sort our codes for the car rental in America. Got a message from Rebecca and managed to look at some of her Bali pictures on Instagram. That was about it before it dropped out again.

More snorkelling and relaxing on sun loungers and waiting for the daily highlight of the ferry arriving to pick up and drop off. Most people don't seem to stay as long as five days - we think there's a lot of Island hopping packages.

BBQ lunch today which is exactly the same as the BBQ dinner two nights ago - enjoyed it though.

Derek got chatting to a guy this afternoon and he and his wife are doing a six month around the world trip - they can only be in their late twenties so not sure how that got funded! They started in South America and spent three months there, his wife fractured her wrist and stepped on a snake! They're off to New Zealand next.

I asked the waiter if we got free drinks with dinner tonight as it was our anniversary and he said 'no, because we didn't know but maybe I will arrange something special for tomorrow night'. Derek's now petrified the staff are going to gather around our table and sing to us.

19th May - we decided to walk up the mountain this morning to get some photos other than of this resort. It was steep and tough going but we made it after about 45 minutes and it was worth it. Views were gorgeous. Only met three other people braving it.

Derek hired a SUP for an hour and is feeling very proud of himself as he didn't fall off once! Said it was tough paddling against the wind. Whilst I was photographing him a seaplane arrived to pick up some people, wish that's how we were travelling back tomorrow as the 4 1/2 hour boat trip back to the main Island is less appealing knowing we have a 10 1/2 flight to follow. Derek was a bit worried about being in the pilots flight path on his paddle board.

Supplies ship arrived at lunchtime, they have a little crane on the back to lift the pallets off and swing to the beach. It took some time and we wonder how often it comes. At the same time today's ferry arrived to pick up and drop off guests so it was a little flurry of activity.

Mid afternoon a helicopter landed - we had seen an area of flattened grass marked out with a few white rocks when we were up the hill earlier and wondered if that was what it was for. A couple plus young child appeared but nobody famous that I could tell.

Tonight is traditional Fijian night and a group of singers and dancers from the village put on a show. Unbelievably the minute they started it began to rain! They braved it for a while and then we all moved under cover. It ended with audience participation in the dancing and their version of the conga. Finished with a farewell song. As we realised today that there are no roads on the island we can only assume that they arrived by boat as the village is on the far side.

I can't believe that Derek got chatting to Hugh Jackman (who isn't Hugh Jackman) at the bar and told him that I thought he was a famous celebrity! He's a reporter for Reuters and enjoyed telling his girlfriend about my mistake.. so embarrassed.

Dinner was traditional Fijian food which was suspiciously similar to BBQ night food. And I'm not sure I believe chocolate brownies originate from Fiji. It was good though and we enjoyed it.

Trying to decide how to kill time tomorrow between checking out at 10am and the ferry picking us up at lunchtime. Neither of us are

looking forward to 24 hours travelling. But on the bright side we gain a day in 2017 as we cross the date line and leave Fiji and arrive in Los Angeles on 20th May. I'm looking forward to an indoor shower! And we're both ready to move on now we've had 10 relaxing days here.