July has been a busy month! As soon as I got back from Nauru, I met up with some friends visiting from Australia. First stop was Natadola Beach for the day. According to the sign on the Queens Rd, its the 7th most beautiful beach in the world. Stocked up with roti parcels and a pineapple, we had a great day just lying by the beach, swimming in the blue water and catching up on all our gossip. The next day we headed to Nananu-i-ra - an island just off the coast of Viti Levu near Rakiraki. The landscape from Nadi [View Full Entry]

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There is nowhere like Nauru. It is a fascinating place but its recent history has been rather tumultuous. A very brief history - Nauru was inhabited by Micronesian and Polynesian people around 3000 years ago. Nauru was annexed by Germany in 1888 and phosphate was discovered in 1900. After WW1, Australia, New Zealand the UK became trustees of the island. Japanese forces occupied Nauru during WW2 and after the war, Australia, New Zealand and the UK continued their trusteeship of the country. Nauru became independent in 1968. In 1989, Nauru took Australia, NZ and the UK to the Internat [View Full Entry]

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One for the rugby union fans! On my way to Nauru, I had to transit in Brisbane for a few nights. Michelle picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to Suncorp Stadium where her colleagues at work had scored a corporate suite for the Australia v France game. I was quite glad to be in a suite - a Brisbane winter feels quite cold when you've just stepped off the plane from Fiji and no longer own closed in shoes or a warm jacket. It was a fantastic view from the suite with an uninterrupted view across the [View Full Entry]

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A few weeks ago, my sister Michelle came to Fiji for a visit. I showed her all that Suva had to offer including the Pure Fiji Day Spa, a traditional Fijian lunch at my work, great Indian food, the pancakes at Raintree Lodge, happy hour at the Holiday Inn and "Fiji Idol" - Suva's own vocalist competition as part of the Fete de Musique. Then it was off to Nadi for a 4 night cruise around the Northern Yasawa Islands - the chain of islands to the north west of Nadi. First stop was Tivua Island - only 30mins from Nadi [View Full Entry]

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"You are almost late!" Air Fiji check in counter guy Checking in at 7.30am for my 7.45am flight to Nadi and only being "almost late" - I love Pacific time! If any of you miss being able to visit the cockpit during plane trips these days, I highly recommend flying with Air Fiji on one of their EMB-110 planes. If you are seated in the 1st or 2nd rows, you can watch the pilots adjust all the important switches and levers as well as have a look out the front window if you lean into the aisle a bit (like I [View Full Entry]

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A random collection of photos from around Fiji - I was a bit slow getting into this blogging caper so the photos go back to the start of my trip in June 2007. [View Full Entry]

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Last Saturday I headed out with the Rucksack Club for a day on the Navua River, about 45 mins from Suva. We headed out on longboats for about an hour upriver - passing by villages, fisherman, cows and the odd underwater excavator. We stopped for lunch at a waterfall about a 5 minute walk from the main river. To get to the second waterfall we had to walk through the stream - sometimes with the water up to our chests - but it was worth it for a refreshing swim under a 20m high waterfall. Back on board the longboats we [View Full Entry]

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I have long been jealous of my friends' blogs that have the text & pictures right next to each other. So when you are rabbiting on about beautiful sunsets and palm trees (a rarity for me of course ;-) the reader can see if you really telling the truth or just full of crap and trying to make them jealous of your tropical paradise as another cold Canberra winter starts setting in. So I have succumbed and will be trying this out for a bit. Of course names & places will be changed to protect the innocent and if I feel [View Full Entry]

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'Oh no' I hear you say! Not another weekend escape to a beautiful tropical island. Yes this time to Leleuvia Island - the slightly bigger, more developed sister island to Caqalai Island. The island was hosting an art exhibition on the Saturday night - the paintings were amazing and the opening night included singing and dancing by a local dance group. I'll let the photos do the talking but if its any consolation it rained just about all weekend. A storm blew in just before we were about to leave so we were delayed a few hours. But when we did [View Full Entry]

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I spent the Easter long weekend with the Rucksack Club in the Viti Levu highlands. This trip was to Heaven's Edge about 2 hours inland from Nadi. On Good Friday the plan was to walk from Nagado Village to Heaven's Edge. No one was really sure how long it would take to do the walk with estimates of somewhere between 2 hours and 9 hours! We started off around 10am and it was a good but tiring walk through the mountains til lunchtime. An hour later, 5 of the group went with one of the guides on a 'shortcut' up the [View Full Entry]

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