Melissa Lewis

We arrived in Nadi at 9.30am after a 4 hour flight delay. Having left Melbourne at 4am, with a wink of sleep in the airport and a couple of collective hours on the 4.5 hour flight, we didn't have much energy when we arrived at the President's Hotel.

We booked the President's Hotel as a cheap option, knowing there wasn't much to do in Nadi but not wanting to risk a delayed flight making us miss the only ferry at 8.45am each day (a good call in the end!).

We arrived at the hotel and an elderly gentleman helped us, although was unable to help us with EFTPOS "not today". The room was surprisingly okay after we'd seen the very basic facilities of the lobby. We had a quick rinse, dressed and headed out onto the main drive. Almost everyone we passed greeted us with "Bula", or wanted to shake our hand. Isaac and I were wary but not overly concerned - it was hard to ascertain exactly what the standard is.

We met a man who offered us his card for local tours, he took us to a local handmade store, where a man greeted us and told us he would welcome us to make Fiji our home. This was a Lava ceremony where he prepared it in a large bowl and served it in coconut bowls. I opted for a very small amount as I was not feeling 100% sure of the situation. It made my mouth numb, Isaac described it as having a few Strepsils.

We then wandered some more, down to look at the temple from the outside. We then headed back to the hotel, stopping in at the supermarket and refusing the many street vendors, offers of business cards and marijuana. The elderly gentleman said he would arrange our 7.30am taxi for tomorrow morning so we could have a good sleep. We had a three hour nap at the hotel before heading to a local cafe for dinner where we tried Walu fish with green pawpaw and a chicken Hawaiian pizza with some cocktails - overall, quite nice!!

We then headed back to the hotel, again avoiding people wanting to sell us tours etc on the way

We are both very keen to get to the islands tomorrow!!Read more