We arrived in Christchurch on Sunday 2 May - it was nice to not have to adjust to a time difference! We didn’t have anywhere booked for that night, but there’s a freephone in the airport you can use and some very helpful tourist info people.

We got a free shuttle to the Kiwi Basecamp hostel that someone had recommended to us, it was nice, just like a big house converted into a hostel! We dumped our bags and went for a wander around the town which was only a short walk away.

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After leaving Caqalai we had planned to head back to Nadi via the Queen’s Road to the south of the Fiji mainland, spending a couple of nights near Suva.

Instead, when we arrived back on the mainland we followed a recommendation and headed north on the King’s Road by public bus to Rakiraki, staying at a resort called Volivoli. The King’s and Queen’s Roads are the two major roads in Fiji, but are still unsealed in parts and some of the bridges looked really quite dodgy - especially for such big buses!

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We got on the boat to Caqalai (pronounced Thanga-lai) after a bit of a worry that it wouldn’t come and get us, it rained a lot that morning and the sea was quite rough, but we got there in the end. Photos of the approach to the island don’t really do it justice as the sky looks a bit murky! We arrived and were shown to our beautiful beachfront bure (pronounced burr-ay) and settled in.

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