Fiji: The pics

Brendan Sparg and I met in Auckland. Brendan moved there a few years ago and it was just great catching up.

Sunsets and Parties in the Mamanuca's

The chief at Bounty Island. When he isn't singing he's teaching you how to open coconuts, clean turtles(?!), cook taro, etc.

Thats Castaway Island on the right. This is the view from Mana Island, my favourite - what a place, what a crowd.

View of the pier from Mana Island.

Drinking games, and the English are unstoppable.

Contemplation as the games get underway... what DID they put in my cup?

Don and Fred - local legends. Fred can make you believe anything.

After 2 weeks marooned on a little island I turned around and saw another island. Freedom!

The Journey to Taveuni

Yes, that is a loader that fell over during the voyage. All the trucks couldn't get out, except by squeezing through on the far left, which meant putting a few dings in the trucks. It took them three hours to sort this out. The MV Sophie.. never again.

The gents - pictures can't describe the horror I felt when I walked in here. And shock. And horror. Then the army of cockroaches arrived in our cabin.

Bus trips are always entertaining and the kids often take great interest in you.

Taveuni: Beauty above and below the sea

Taveuni is full of dense greenery, and deep blue seas filled with coral reefs.

Vuna Lagoon, always beautiful.

Jerry has a phobia for buses and little kids. This did not bode well for our trip.

The fireflies are just massive in Fiji. Wait til you see the bats.

Buzzy, a pro golfer in hiding, putting for glory, with Bruce our Instructor watching. M'Ok.

Jerry was always having a bit of "Jerry-time," as he called it. He'd go for little wanders down the beach and skip stones on the water and things like that.

Tracker is the puppy at Vuna Lagoon that has in excess of 1000 fleas. So we called him Fleabag.

Vanua Levu and Dolphin Bay

I spent 16 nights camped 10 meters from these waters. Paradise.

Out on the boat.

Studies were made difficulty thanks to the attentions of Carrycat, one of nine cats at Dolphin Bay.

A local Scottish-Fijian Tribesman with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle partner on Halloween.

Rose - abusing animals again. She was always throwing them off tables or something. The ginger cat is foxy and is the greatest cat in the world.

The Levena Coastal Walk. The entire coastline is covered in coral reef. If you walk out to them and peer over the edge, it drops off into big coral walls. There must be so much life down there cos there is very little fishing in the area.

Tovoro Falls, Taveuni. This is where one of the famous scenes from Return to the Blue Lagoon was filmed. I kept waiting for a naked Milla Jovovich to arrive but she never did.