Lautoka

Helen: Short post today - not feeling particularly inspired - but thought I ought to write to let you know that we're not in Suva after all. No, we did what cruisers are wont to do - we listened to gossip on the cruisers' grapevine that said Suva was a big, stinky, rainy waste of time, so at the last minute we went north instead of south from Ovalau, dodged numerous reefs (God knows how people survived here without GPS) and ended up in Lautoka on the west coast. It's a big, bustling Indian city full of palm trees, colourful saris and yummy curry smells. Not much to do here, but people watching is fun and it should be a good place to spend Diwali - the Hindu festival of Light which is on Tuesday. We might even set off a few out of date flares to join in with the merriment.

C and I might embark on our own overland trip to Suva for a couple of days (not sensing much enthusiasm from Mr P though - he is 100% focused on getting to NZ at the moment and anything not furthering that cause is surplus to requirements) and then it's off for a few days swimming at Musket Cove (near the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway apparently) before we finally set sail for NZ (Horribly aware that I've said that several times now - hope we're not still here for Xmas!)

OK, said it would be short
Lots of love
Hx