Raffles Gateway Nadi

... 15 feet down and being 2 feet away from a creature such as a Manta Ray was incredible. It was just like 'Mr Ray' the school teacher in 'Finding Nemo' with all of the smaller fish swimming under his wings!

The following day, the weather had now got torrential!!! As a result we decided (given it was Sunday) to go to an island church service. Similar to a Gospel service, there were lots of people singing and clapping. Similar to a movie, every time God was ...

... itself is rather simple and medium clean. However, the owners are extremely kind. Basically, it is a family run hostel with the family living in the hostel. We had dinner together and afterwards gathered in the living room for a typical kava ceremony and socializing. Kava a drink made of the roots of the pepper tree is consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures and is said to have a sedating or relaxing effect ...

... in the face! I did some more snorkelling there and it was the clearest sea ever and it was like getting into a bath, it was so warm! We then went to a village to have a look around and we got to drink Kava which looks like mud water and makes your face go numb! They say you have not been to Fiji until you have tried Kava - so it would be rude not to i thought!

After that i then headed back to the hostel and bumped into a few girls a met on the trip. I am now ...

... island with Feejee experience and just had to confirm a few details with them so it was convenient for us that they have an office in the airport. We had booked our first few nights accommodation in a homestay. Basically it's like a bed and breakfast except the family are in the home. I really wanted to see the real Fiji so we couldn't think of a better way to experience it than stay with a family.

Unfortunately for us it didn't work out. We got a taxi to the house and there was ...

... we took a walk around the whole island...really beautiful, it took us about 4 hours to do that. U can see the island where they filmed the movie "Castaway" in the distance (we were going to do a trip to it but as no others signed up we didn't get a chance). Apparantly "Survivor" was filmed on the other side of our island and we made a stop today at Bounty island where "Celebrity Love Island" was filmed, so again walking in the ...

... weaving course!). Finally, we went to Naviti island and visited a village and had more cava and watched some performances and bought a bit of jewellry. Tuesday night was a lovo feast (cooked from under the ground) with more pina coladas, and Wednesday I actually got up at 5:30 to see the sun rise. We left early, stopped at a couple spots on the way back.

... was excellent but was followed by a slightly less impressive crab-race in the adjoining 'night-club.' The crabs which featured were not quite what we'd pictured (more the size of a thumb-nail than tropical monsters bigger than your hand) and so the highlight was probably watching the compere dancing manically to MC Hammer or the adjudicator accidentally treading on one of the competitors! After some brief fireworks, we turned in for a good rest before our trek the next day.