Tsulu Beach Bunkhouse and Apartments Pacific Harbour

... islands, as they are much more expensive, and then do some of the better value things off of the main island. The islands we visited (Beachcomber and Robinson Crusoe) included all meals in the price, whereas the Uprising only included breakfast.<br>So we first went to Beachcomber Island, which is meant to be the party island. Although nothing compared to the Thai 'party islands', we had two really good nights here, and met more people than we had in the whole ...

... was 120, so we stuck with our original accomodations.<br><br>The shark dive was unreal, leaving it very hard to describe. To put it simply, there were about 15 divers, 5 feeders (guides), 4 bins of dead fish, no cages, and 100's of sharks. From small reef sharks to massive bull sharks there were 6 different kinds that we observed. In 2 instances I was 3 feet away from a 4 meter bull shark with its jaws wide open getting ready to take some bait. Truly a ...

... very sad to leave the island. The international flight leaves at 10pm so in reality we had an extra day of sun and snorkeling at Mana island. Our transfer to Nadi airport was on a very small 6 seater plane (see pic). Quite unexpectedly this was probably the smoothest plane ride we've ever had. It's a 19 hour difference in time-zone to LA because we'll be crossing the International date line which is quite mad!

... with 10 kg of lead around your waist. On the surface, I give the 'out of air' signal to Dr T. He does not see it. Half out of the water it is difficult to see signs. I grab him and say:' hold me: I have no air in my BCD.' On which the Tomcat says: 'you can inflate it manually. ' Huuuuuuuuh? I just finned up from 5 meters with 20 kg on my back and you think I have breath left to blow up my BCD? Too much conversation, so I hold on to him ...

... bait), do not make any sudden moves, ... . We go down to 30 meters and sit down. The first dive they feed 200 kg of fish. The second 500 kg. The feeders are professionals: do not try this at home. They also wear gauntlets. And they are not feeding more than 10 minutes in a row. One mistake can be fatal. Next to the sharks, there are 1 million fish: giant trevally, surgeon, damsel, giant (and I mean giant) grouper but we came for the SHARKS: they ...

... heard about: http://www.uprisingbeachresort.com/ It is on the same road, 1 km further and we do like it there. We take a Bura (=hut on the beach) for 80$ local (=40 Euro) per night. We stay for 2 nights. We drive back to town. It is described to be THE place to be in the south but it looks quiet sleepy to us. The happy hour in one of the bars starts at 16h but ... the bar closes at 16h! There is a ...

... it's a rat!!" This got the attention of the girl sitting directly to my left, and she said, "A WHAT?!?!" Needless to say, that was the end of her breakfast. We, the wait staff, and the scared girls boyfriend spent the next 10 minutes trying to catch the mouse (it turned out I exaggerated when I thought it was a rat). After the whole ordeal, the worst part happened. They took the mouse they had just caught, and took it into the kitchen!!! No joke ...

... up and down a ridge, we arrived at the wide river and the longboat which had carried out lunch and more sedentary members upstream - roughly four hours after we'd set off. After eating lunch by the river, we all grabbed a tube (big rubber ring) and lay back to float downstream. This should have been great after our morning of extreme heat and exertion (despite our driver joking that the murky river had been the setting for 'Anaconda') but ...

... We spent our final night on the Great Astrolabe Reef drinking wine under the stars, staring at the waxing moon, and what we think was Jupiter. Tomorrow was another ocean crossing; it looked like the trade winds would take us and we should have an easy beam reach. We reflected on how pristine and unspoilt the islands here were. For the best part of two weeks, the only Westerners we had seen were Jason's family, and other folk on the dive boat. There were no other yachts, no other sails ...