Just the tonic: blending health and hedonism on the Dawn Princess

Thick and rich, the mud seems to pulsate with a life of its own, like an extra from Doctor Who. Scooping a hearty handful, it's just begging to be slapped on your face.

Standing in a green paddock in rural Fiji, clad only in swimmers and smothered from ponytail to toenail in the green-grey goop that smells like cattle dip, it's not what I had in mind when I signed up for a seaward jaunt on board Australia's best-loved ship, the Dawn Princess. Don't get me wrong: it's great fun, just greatly unexpected.

To read more about life on the good ship Dawn Princess, click here.

 This story was published in Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper's Traveller section.