February | 2016 | The Snow Adventures

We travelled back in time arriving in LA from Fiji. LA is 20 hours behind Fiji and the flight was 10 hours, so we re-lived Monday afternoon again which was a bonus!

Our Airbnb studio apartment was situated just off Hollywood Boulevard (where the stars walk of fame is) which was a great base for us to get around. We jumped on a hop on hop off bus tour to give us an idea of the city, which is huge, everything is so spread out the bus route alone has 5 lines which take 2 hours each so we only managed the main ones!

Along our bus tour we stopped at Santa Monicia pier which reminded us of Brighton (with the exception of sand and the bright blue sky!) We spent a while in amazement at the outdoor gym equipment were real muscle types were swinging themselves from all sorts! Oh and it made Dean’s day to see a hot roller chic whizzing around! We also jumped off the bus at the ‘must do’ Rodeo Drive where we managed some window shopping at the excessively expensive shops!

Santa Monica Peir

Santa Monica

Santa Monica Peir

Santa Monica

Rodeo Drive

We also spent a day at Universal Studios Hollywood which we absolutely loved. We weren’t really sure what to expect but we did so much. Universal is the biggest and oldest movie producer and has 400+ acres of land at the site. On the studio tour they took us out of the theme park and showed us around the amazing life size sets which included real streets, an aeroplane crash and the lakes where Jaws was filmed! We learnt some interesting facts about the stunts and tricks film makers use and loved meeting some of the famous characters including Shrek (just big kids at heart!)

Universal Studios, Hollywood

Chineese New Year celebrations @ Universal Studios

Universal Studios, Hollywood

Chineese New Year celebrations @ Universal Studios

Universal Studios, Hollywood

Last must not least we went on a beautiful little sailing yacht where we boarded at Marina Del Rey for dinner followed by a sunset sailing trip overlooking Santa Monica and Venice Beach. It was stunning and it was here Dean popped the question. I said yes, of course!!!

Although LA was not as upmarket as we thought it would be it is a really cool place with lots happening, there is anything and everything on offer! Overall we loved our time here and struggled to resist the oversized American sweet treat temptations of cookies, cheesecake, milkshakes of all flavours (must be what dreams are made of) oh and ice cream of course!!!

As soon as we got off the plane the heat hit us and we loved it! As well as it being hot we were over the moon to arrive at our hotel the Radiison Blu, Denarau. The idea of a prober bed and space to spread ourselves out was a dream compared to life in a campervan!

Fiji is made up of about 332 islands but only 110 are inhabited. Viti Levu (where we stayed) and Vanua Levu are the two largest islands and have 87% of the Fijian population.

We spent the first few days relaxing around the pool, trying out paddle boarding (standing up on a surf board with a paddle) which I loved and improving out kayaking skills. We also used the local Bula Bus (Bula is an all encompassing Fijian word meaning hello, goodbye, how are you, welcome, happiness etc.) to get to the port which housed a handful shops and lots of restaurants.

We went on a trip which saw us stopping by the Nadi Hindu Temple which is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, a fruit and veg market where we tried Fijis traditional drink, Kava (yuk!), The Garden of the Sleeping Giant (named this way because of the shape of the mountains) where we walked through the tropical rainforest and saw the famous orchids (in all honesty it was bloody hot and the orchids were small and not as impressive as we were hoping!) last but not least we stopped by the natural hot springs located in one of the villages. We were given a tub of mud and told to paste it all over ourselves, we then walked around in the sun until it dried before washing off in a hot spring. All a bit rustic but its meant to be good for your skin and our guide told Dean he looked 10 years younger so we thought it was worth it!

We also set sail for a day on a beautiful boat which whizzed us around some of the stunning islands. One of these was where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway. We got to snorkel in the clear blue water, which was great until I spotted the jelly fish amongst the coral and that was it I was out! We also stopped by at a remote island village. The Chief welcomed us with a traditional service but luckily only he had to drink the Kava!

Overall the Fijians are the happiest bunch of people we have had the pleasure of meeting. They say ‘Bula’ with a huge smile to everyone and are just so friendly. We put this down to the sunshine, beautiful surroundings and a simpler way of life, we’re not sure they would like London very much at all!