Love Island

The "Meke" dance display
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Bounty Island (or Celebrity "Love Island", if you've seen the tv show) was definately a different experience to our few days spent in Nadi (pronounced 'Nan-di'). Nadi contained very little of interest outside green fields, and scattered hotels and corner shops. In fact the Mercure Hotel we stayed at was very nice, but rather characterless. Generic pool and eating area, with a token, somewhat forced, display of native dances.

The Mamanuca islands potentially were going to be the high point of our trip, with desert islands and hot climates reaching every corner of them. Shame then that it systematically rained every day since we landed! They were heavy, and spectacular tropical storms, but just really increased the humidity of the area.

Bounty Island
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We stayed in an air-conditioned bure, and not the general dorms - which proved totally necessary as it was SO humid there! In fact we have struggled with the sheer humidity (around 80% and 30+ degrees temps here, though not as much of an issue as the mosquitos!!)

Anyway, on the nicer days we tried our hand at snorkelling (which Lorna had never done before - and did very well at) and managed to see plenty of fish, a blue starfish, colourful coral, some kind of ray, and a reef shark. One thing that we were not warned about before entering the waters was the copious scattering of jellyfish surrounding the island! Several times we shreiked and flapped wildly to escape the viscous clutches of those purple, menacing bags of water - though later found our they are totally harmless and encouraged people to pick them up and put them in the turtle pool out the back! However, this offer was quickly recinded as it was discovered later the next day that purple jellyfish can kill the tiny baby turtles that enhabited the pool! We were not sure how, but we avoided the jellyfish altogether!

The 'restaurant' / buffet eating area
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On the other side of the island, was the remains of the Celebrity Love Island resort that was made "famous" by Rebecca Loos, Paul Dannan, Callum Best, etc... We added our chalk marks to the wall - in fact there was already an "SUFC" etching by the main entrance!!

We spoke to a few nice people there, and enjoyed our time there despite the weather. Our boat ride to Malolo Island following this was very rough, and had Lorna focussing intently on the seat in front and trying not to move incase of the inevitable of sea travel... We cut short this stay from 4 nights to 1, and returned to the mainland and found accomodation at the "West Motor Inn" which is almost identical to Mercure, except slightly older fittings, and substantially cheaper!

Our mark on Bounty Island!
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We leave for NZ on Weds and, to be honest, we cant wait to get moving again after chilling out in one place at a time for (effectively) the last 5 weeks!