BULA!

We finally departed Christchurch, Fijian time, one hour late! Flight, again, bought no real dramas but it did bring our first taste of the South Pacific in the form of Fiji Bitter. To you and I, lager. Not too bad.

Five hours later we reach Nadi, westcoast Fiji. Fiji is made up of 333 jewel-like islands of which about only 100 are actually inhabited all set in the tropical South Pacific. Fiji is the real meaning of a pacific island paradise.

It's said that the one thing people love the most about Fiji is it's enormously friendly, smiley people. At our arrival into Nadi airport this was certainly a clear case as we couldn't remember the time, or even ever come to think of it, when we'd received such a greeting as we did arriving here. The greeting was of soft Fijian sounds, a quartet made up of a ukulele and 3 guitars as we approached the normally very dull baggage reclaim. All involved in this impromptu band were dressed in traditional Fijian suku's and pacific flowered shirts to boot. As you finally cleared the security desks you're handed shell necklace and 'BULA!' is hailed as a cheery smiley welcome greeting which gives you your first taste of native lingo. Oh and then there's the humidity, something we haven't felt for a while, but come on we are back in the tropics.

Fiji is renowned for it's coups. The most recent being back in 2006 where the Fijian military drove from the Queen Elizabeth barracks into downtown Suva to stage a entirely peaceful coup in a drive to oust overt government racism and corruption linked to out of control government spending.

The next few days are going to take a bit of getting used to as for the next week we'd booked an island-hop tour deal with everything covered, from transfers to food to island accommodation. No thinking required for this latest destination, just a pair of sea-legs for many, many boat rides up and around the Yasawa isles. All we had to do was roll-up, roughly at the times and dates given, remembering to always add 'Fiji time' into the mix and all would be taken care of. Hoping that we should be able to pull a bit of timekeeping back into order.

The Yasawa islands are made up of some twenty islands of volcanic origin. They lie in a chain slightly north of the west coast. Made famous by the film 'The Blue Lagoon' (you know, the Brooke Shields one). The islands have white sandy beaches with crystalline waters, lush tropical rain forests and soaring volcanic peaks.

So once we were done with the airport it was onto a very full bus that was ready and waiting for us. You couldn't have got another rucksack in the bus if you tried, not even with a run-up. Our transfer to Newtown Beach was only 10 odd mins from Nadi. Nothing flash, a beachside hostel, with talk of a good restaurant next door.   Met a lovely couple called Daniel & Annie, who were just coming to the end of their 5 month trip spanning India, Oz then NZ. We met for supper and talked travel tales.

Next morning we were collected by bus at 7am sharp which headed us up to the port where we boarded the boat that would get us most of the way to the Yasawa isles. Although Fiji has over 300 islands and we were only staying on 4 of them during our first week. After 4 hours and 8 brief stops we arrived at our first island, Tavewa close to the top of the Sasawa isles. This catamaran style boat runs twice a day, up to the top of the Yasawa island and back down into Nadi, each day, everyday and seemed to be a well polished operation. This service acts like a water taxi so people can hop on and off at the chosen islands they wish to explore. Here the boat is king as there are no other forms of transport throughout the islands. The boat doesn't actually dock at each island, it stops close by and then smaller skif boats dart out from each island and zip up alongside of the larger boat. While passengers gingerly jump on and off one side, provisions and oversized stuffed rucksacks are precariously loaded and unloaded off the other.

So having left the big boat and successfully made it onto a smaller style boat without us or our bags taking a dip, we cruise up to our island. Because of the coral, when we reached knee height to the shore you then jump out and wade the last 20 or so metres. All very Robinson Crusoe like.

Island staff were lined up on the beach singing, smiling and frantically waving as we arrived, each one wearing a flower behind their ear. Our digs, bure (a traditional fijian hut) number 1, was simple. It came with the obligatory dodgy plumbing and electrics that you'd expect for an island hut sat in the pacific. Its seems the only urgency here is the hurry to slow things right down. Think we should be able to cope.