Cyclone Tomas!

So here we were thinking that we would be having a week of great sunshine in Fiji when a cyclone decides to head our way! Cyclone Tomas, the biggest to hit the Fiji islands since 1972 which unfortunately killed around 180 people was about to hit Fiji. The country was better prepared this time and the whole of Fiji was under curfews which forced people to stay indoors and all roads were closed. The countries schools and international airport were also closed.

The storm was more than 300 miles in diameter and grew into a huge category 4 cyclone and hammered the northern Fiji Islands with heavy rains and winds of up to 170 mph (275 km). This forced thousands of people to flee their homes into over 100 emergency evacuation centres set up.

Where we were didn't seem too bad, there was very strong winds and some brief torrential downpours but we were still asked to stay in our rooms. We thought ok it's not too bad as we had picked this hotel based on the fact that it had Sky TV and wifi access which we could use to pass our time. This was all fine up until the power got cut off as the cyclone passed over our heads and we were left in complete darkness. The power was off for around 19 hours and with the weather being bad outside we were still supposed to stay in our rooms. However they did have a generator that ran the kitchen and dining room power so they put on a few dvd's but the wind made it hard to concentrate on the film so we went back to our rooms and read books all day!

When the lights and TV clicked back on it was a great feeling and you realise how much you rely on power. Firstly, the shower had no windows and we had to shower in complete darkness and it was also extremely boring being trapped in a dark room all day!

Luckily the storm eventually dissapeared and the skys cleared the next day and we were able to go and enjoy a little bit of sunshine!