Bula, Bula, Bula!

G'day from Cairns. We are now in Australia after finishing USA and Fiji.

The last week or so in USA was spent in Palm Springs, Joshua Tree National Park, San Deigo and LA. Palm Springs had glorious weather and was very relaxing. We spotted several people fresh from their plastic surgery looking very plastic. The streets were full of Gay couples walking their dogs, so the place was very clean and friendly as one would expect.

San Diego, we found, was the best City we visited in California. Very attractive place and would recommend a visit. Of course we headed to the zoo first, then the following day went to a Padres game. Had a great time at the game, but must admit it was nothing close to going to a 'soccer' game. The only time the crowd made any noise was to sing the national anthem while admiring the stars and stripes flag and when the final innings started, but the game was a good tense affair finishing at 2-1 Padres.

We spend most of LA in Santa Monica which was a nice place. Nikki saw Lucy Liu (I don't believe her though). We also had a huge celebrity staying in our hostel - Noah Huntley, the guy who used to be in Dream Team and the Captain of Harchester United. Being the children we are, everytime he walked passed Nikki would giggle like a school girl while I hummed the theme tune!

Fiji in a nutshell is best described as more beautiful under the water than above it. It was a shame because the beaches looked amazing but most of the time the weather was pants and it was raining. We still managed to burn while it rained though.

The first place we stayed (the oarsman) had a reef starting from about 1 meter from shore. Here we saw hundreds of tropical fish. My excitement was reserved for the sting rays, lion/scorpion fish and flying fish. Nikki just enjoyed the fish from Nemo.

So finally we came to the chance to swim with the Manta Rays. We took the boat ride out to the correct place and went a looking. The coral and fish were amazing, but there were no Mantas. Gutting. Especially as the people we were with saw a reef shark swim by beneath us but I missed it or couldn't see it. So we were swimming with sharks and I missed them! Was still a great day though but reminded us of the first whale trip. There will be another chance in Australia.

On one of the islands we visited the local village. Here I imagined what it would have been like in Guadaloupe where mum was from. We visited the school where the children performed some traditional songs and dances and Nikki had a Coconut Leaf weaving lesson.