Rogerson's on the Road

So we are coming to the end of our time in Fiji and we will be sad to leave.

We have had a few adventures here the first being the flight over from LA. The Rogerson's usual check-in nightmare trying to Neil's leg room seat and my vege meal was made so much easier when we were upgraded!!

Oh yes....we are backpackers with class. First class from LAX to Fiji. The easiest 10 hour flight we have ever done. Flat beds and silver served dinner, glasses of champagne and big tumblers of Jack Daniels and diet Coke - heaven!! I can recommed it to anyone. The amount of space that you get is rude.

We arrived in Nadi on the main land and travelled over to the capital of Fiji - Suva (we believe there is a coup going on at the moment - not that you would know). We left Nadi in the rain and travelled from 4 hours on a local bus over to Suva. We were meant to catch the tourist Sunbeam, air conditioned coach but we were herded onto the local Pacific bus with bench seats and no windows!!! We left Nadi in the rain and arrived 4 hours later in Suva in the rain....you can imagine. It rained for the whole 2 days we were in Suva and I dont mean Manchester rain, I mean tropical rain. Out came the Peter Storms and they never came off. We were meant to go and do really cultural and enriching things such as walking through the rain forest but they all meant getting wet and that is the last thing I excepted to have to do in the South Pacific so we totally copped out and went to the cinema to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - we can recommed it to anyone who has not been to see it. And for those of you that have - was Willy Wonker based on Michael Jackson? A near perfect Sunday $5 movie (about 1 pound 30 pence). It was just like being in the Trafford Centre - very strange feeling when you step outside and realise that you are in Fiji.

The mainland of Fiji is not that nice and the beaches really dirty and the towns very noisy, so we have spent the last 10 days on the Yasawas. A group of islands off the west coast of Fiji and they have been paradise, no mains electricity, no internet and worries! The people are lovely and the children just so funny. The resorts are run by families and you are treated as one of them. We have camped for the whole ten days - oh my god....you should have seen my hair. The phase of the 10 days have been "If only the girls could see you now!"

We spent the first 4 nights on the island of Nanuya Lailai on a resort called Gold Coast. The island is home to the Blue Lagoon beach - as in the movie. Half the beach has been bought up by and American Cruise Company and they have banned you from walking on the beach and swimming in the water while a boat is in but the rest of the time you can use they other half of the beach while the American tourists look at you....more fool them we are using it for free!!!

Gold Coast is the most basic place we have ever stayed in! I mean basic - we had nothing but outdoor cold, salt water showers for 4 days and I can't tell you about the loos....how brave are we? Despite this we have a fab time and spent most of our time wandering around the beach and making handicrafts - we have a collection of bags, baskets and hats made with our own fair hands from coconut palms. The people on the islands are fantastic at making things from nothing and still live like they would have done years ago - except they dont eat people anymore.

We moved from Nanuya Lailai to an Island just south called Yaqeta to the Sanawi Resort. Fresh water showers!! I have never been so happy to see, what is effectively a pipe coming out of the ground! So more of the same for the next 5 nights - sun bathing, handicrafts, card games and beach combing - it is amazing how time can fly doing nothing - although we are plouging through the books. We are only having to carry 2 at a time and we are managing to swap them as we go along.

We had a fantastic day on Yaqeta when one on the guys from the resort took us to a beach on the west of the island. We spent the morning catching fish and they them cooked them on the best BBQ I have ever seen, a fire with a sheet for corrigated metal over the flames. The fish was served in boiled sea water with chilli and lemons which were picked out of the rain forest along with casava which is a cross between potato and parsnip. FAB!

The food in Fiji is great. A large percentage of the population on the mainland is of Indian decent so there are curry cafes all over the main towns. We have been taking full advantage of them and having great currys, roitis and rice for $2 - the food is so good it is rude! Talking of food it is nearly lunchtime and I can here a cafe calling.

We are back in Nadi now and we are getting the photos of the last few weeks put onto CD so will up load them onto this site as soon as we get to NZ. We will be leaving Fiji on Monday 12th September.