Bula Bula from Mana Island
I joked in the last blog that the travel agent warned us the plane from Nadi to Mana Island was going to be small and simon had said not as small as the stunt plane we had just been on, well... it wasn’t much bigger. There were 6 seats and two of them were for the pilots. I think the highest we got at any point was 14000 feet, great for sightseeing. We flew over about 20 of the 150 islands that make up Fiji all of which looked gorgeous.
We stayed for one night on the main island in Nadi where we had to leave one of our suitcases as the plane wasn’t big enough for both, we spend our last night in Fiji back at the same hotel so thats pretty lucky! We flew to Mana island first thing the next morning and stay here until Friday. Today it hit 40*C so its good weather to get a sun tan for the wedding, every dress looks better with a tan (especially simons)
Mana island is what you would imagine from a tropical paradise, the beaches are bright white and really soft and the sea is crystal clear and really warm, like bath type temperature ive never experienced that before, the sea in Thailand was lovely but not as warm as here. We went snorkelling today, everything is free you just help yourself to snorkelling equipment, jet skis, banana boats, speed boats, kayaks, catamarans pretty much everything except scuba diving is complimentary. So today we went out on a kayak but it was so hot we were baking alive so we exchanged the catamaran for snorkelling equipment and went off to explore the coral and the tropical fish. I’ve put the photos on – sorry to everyone who is sick of seeing photos of tropical fish, but its quite impressive being able to catch the little buggers they are so fast. Id like to have more to tell you but apart from those two strenuous activities we have pretty much just sunbathed and ate... this is definitely the life! Hopefully i will win the Christmas Euro Millions and this can be our lives forever, exploring each country and then popping home, I’m not sure I’m ready for this 9 – 6 carry on. But at least we have a list of places we want to go on our holidays each year. In fact we are both thinking of going back to uni to become teachers so we can travel on the summer break... only joking dad i promise im not going back to uni, but its something worth secretly considering.
Tomorrows plan... sun..snorkelling...catamaran...lunch...nap...sun...snorkelling...pool...dinner
We are getting up early in the morning to catch rachie and the lovies before they go to bed so look forward to speaking to you’s then!
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Aunty Jo: Thanks for your message - I hope Jonathan isn’t getting bullied at football, stupid football coach do they not know who little grandma is, send her down she will sort them out, its a catholic school after all im sure she has some power there. We could start our own football team anyway we have plenty of kids in our family not to mention the lovstad family as well. Rachel loves playing football and simon said he will be the coach – he said send them to rugby instead and then no one will bully them, but kick boxing is another good option –james! I’ve got you some cool presents from travelling that you will be able to take into show and tell at school.

Mam- I think santa has already given me my presents this year so im not sure my list is going to be very long, in fact this morning ed said hes not buying me anything this year as ive had such a good trip, not sure how that works! Can i still have an advent calendar even if im away for the first 21 days? I don’t like missing out on anything! Make sure the girls leave every third one in the big advent calendar off grandma haha only joking, rach can have mine!

David- Nice to have you back, how cool meeting all of the Newcastle players, ill have to get my thinking cap on to help out with the next fundraising effort  Not looking forward to coming home to minus 2, i dont know why we all live in England we should all move to warmer countries with more daylight, lets all move to Fiji! xx