Bula,
We've been here in Nadi on the main island of Fiji now for a few days, preparing for the next few weeks on the outer islands, which (hopefully) is all done now!
But before we tell you about our next few weeks, lets tell you about Nadi and how we nearly didn't even come here.
During our stay in Rarotonga we became friends with an American guy called Neil; he'd flown down there to meet his boat the Kwia and to sail it back to Hawaii. When his boat came in he left the hostel to go stay on his boat, but we bumped into him a few times after- our last day, we heard the Kwai needed some more crew to go to Hawaii and Christmas Island, we were very, very tempted, even got off the bus at the port... But sorry Neil, we're here now...
More about Nadi: well if you get a $20 phone card you can talk for days and days and days... You can get a bus the few miles into the city for 65 cents (20p), taxis are obscenly expensive at 1 pound 50... Although there's been a high military presence on the island due to the Coup, they haven't got enough vehicles so have got all the hire cars... Cheesy music is loved here, especially Boney M! everything is 6 dollars (food, hair cuts, drinks, taxi fares, shopping).
Today was our busiest day by far (meaning we actually did something), we caught the 11am bus into town for some shopping, preparing for the lack of civilisation, we bought water, toilet roll and bug repellent, shampoo and choc biscuits. Nadi (as you might have guessed) is a cheap city for shopping, we also bought new sun glasses in the christmas sale (random) and I got my hair cut, something I've wanted to do but haven't had the courage, so I have a new 'Fiji Style' hair cut, like I usually have it but shorter, involving a cut throat razor... We had dinner in Prouds, their version of Debenhams. Now back at our hotel, Horizon.
Tomorrow we are getting picked up at 7:15am (Becky says 'Oh my God!') and taken to the harbour to meet our boat and sail off to The Yasawa's for Christmas and the New Year. We're hopping about the islands, and are staying on the Wanna Taki Boat for New Year! back to the main land for the 8th and off to Auckland.
We're sadly missing Samoa and Tonga due to their political and military issues.
So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Don't have too much fun without us!
Andy and Bex