Fiji

I don't really believe we have done Fiji justice in the time we have spent here, we arrived with no idea what to do or where to go, having planned most other places we have been and even our next stop New Zealand.

When we arrived in Fiji it rained most of the first two days but given the nice resort we were staying in near Nadi it gave us some valuable down time to recover from our busy time in Hawaii and to get over some nasty airline colds. During this time we planned a five night stay on one of Fiji's many island, Mana island.

After two sunnier days, we set off to Mana island with high hopes of a nice beach resort with lots to do. We were pick up by car from our resort and taken about 100 yard round the corner to the boat (with time it took to load the bags we could have walked). Following a 50 minute boat ride we arrived at Mana island to an almost deserted beach - first thoughts were where is everyone and what is there to do?

We then got off the boat and were shown round what could only loosely be called a resort more like a beach with a few large sheds. Still it would home for five nights or would it? When we saw the facilities we quickly started to regret our choice of island - a low pressure dribbly cold water shower and toilet that barely flushed. However first impressions were harsher than reality. We met a really good crowd of people which made everything seem a lot rosier.

The weather was really hot for the first two days and we found the best place to sit and chat to people was sat in the lovely warm ocean.

On the second day when we were sitting in the ocean I saw a starfish in the sand so I borrowed some snorkelling gear and started swimming around. It was really good and I saw loads of fish before being spooked by what I thought was a sea snake so I started swimming back to shore only to run into a sea snake! I was really scared so as soon as I got out of the water I had to run and ask someone if it was dangerous. They told me that that type of sea snake was one of the most venonous snakes in the world but they are very placid and their mouth isn't big enough to bite you (thank god for that I thought).

The next day I had to go snorkelling with someone else because I was too scared to go by myself, but I'm really glad I did as we found a reef with most amazing array of different coloured fish (and no sea snakes). There was this little yellow fish that kept swimming round me and I thought it was going to swim up my shorts but thankfully it didn't.

For me I think underwater Fiji was far better than above.