This is the Coral Coast of Fiji. It didn't look quite like this when we got here! It's not winter, but it is wet. To be fair, the mornings are extremely hot and then the clouds come in. Even when it rains, the heat hardly goes away. It's unbearably humid at times. Perhaps this is why the people are so relaxed and friendly - it's too hot to get worked up about anything!

There are 333 Fijian islands. Suva, the Capital is on the largest island, Viti Levu. We arrived at Nadi where the airport is and travelled to the South, or Coral, Coast.

We stayed just to the East of Sigatoka town.

Check out www.crowsnestfiji.com to see where we're staying.

This is our room, or one like it anyway. Good job it has air-conditioning!

Ignore the text, this is the restaurant at the Crow's Nest. Despite being low on cash, we couldn't resist eating in here most of the time. The food was excellent, and only about 20 quid for the 4 of us, including drinks.

We spent a lot of time just chilling here - not a lot else to do. The hotel has a nice pool and can't do enough to help you. There are a few improvements they could make to make it better, but their helpful attitude puts you on their side.

We took a cruise out to an island called Tivua, about an hour and a half out to sea. It was about 50 yards across and has a bar and kitchen etc. This is where we had an excellent volleyball game in the pouring rain! Also went snorkelling over a reef and kayaking. Beaulea wasn't happy when they wouldn't let her go fishing with them on her own, but I think they just wanted an adult to go with her!

Beauls finally got her wish to ride a horse out front of the hotel. Lea and Brett nearly melted away in the heat trying to keep up!

- If you don't like high humidity, make sure your accomodation has air-con. Ours did, but we had looked at a nicer hotel which didn't have air-con in the room-a lot just have ceiling fans.

- As in any high humidity countries, cuts to your skin will not heal quickly, so be careful. Apart from the now infamous cuts to my face, I also cut my knee and it didn't heal for days, which is a real danger when you have to walk around dirty streets with water being splashed over you by taxis!

- Watch out for Cyclones! We arrived four days after one, and another was due the day after we left! We also experienced the aftershock of an earthquake in the Solomon Islands about 1000 miles away.

- You should consider Fiji almost 3rd world. It's not actually that bad and the good hotels are very good, but the towns are not clean places. As ever, though, the people are as nice as you will find anywhere.

- Fijians are originally from Africa - hence their different appearance from the typical Polynesian people of the South Pacific. There is also a very large Indian population in Fiji, who are very good entrepeneurs and own most of the businesses. There is a very small undercurrent of tension between the two peoples - nothing to worry about, but be diplomatic.

- Talk to people to find out about the good places to eat. As usual, not everywhere is safe. We stayed in our hotel mostly, because our Australian neighbours had eaten there for nearly 3 weeks and not been ill - and it was excellent quality and value.