Fiji

Fiji was one of the few 'unplanned' parts of my trip, and it was only 'unplanned' as Trailfinders had only a single hotel/resort they could book for me, and it was a bit more expensive than I wanted.
I had good intentions of doing some online research about where to go and what to do in Fiji, but kept on putting off, mostly because I was too tired/lazy. By Peru I had decided to not bother trying to do it myself, and to just go to a travel agent in New Zealand and work it out then.

New Zealand does a fair amount of tourism to Fiji because it's one of the closest foreign destinations available, so the lovely Travel Agent at Hello World in Timaru had no problem offering me lots of options. I ended up moving around a bit and had a few days on Treasure Island, a few on Castaway island and a few at a mainland resort, Outrigger.

I almost didn't get into Fiji at all as, after some last minute repacking, I didn't have a pen in my carry-on bag. This meant I couldn't fill in the immigration form, and the airport didn't seem to supply any pens! Eventually a nice German lady lent me her pen and I was able to fill in the form. Needless to say I make double certain I've got a pen on me at all times when travelling now.

Treasure Island:

First stop was a small (you could walk slowly around it in half an hour) coral cay, Treasure Island. I did a moderate amount of lounging, some snorkeling and had a dive too.

Left hand side was mine.

View from the hut.

One of the beaches

Considering the small size of the island there was a fair amount of wildlife there, including fruit bats!

Red Shining Parrot (best photo I got)

Buff banded rail. These wee guys were all over the place like rats!

Bats!

Highlights of the underwater life there were definitely the cuttlefish.  We saw a whole shoal of them at the end of the dive, and I saw several snorkeling too. So curious and their colour changing was incredible to see up close.

Brief glimpse of a white tipped reef shark

Next up was Castaway Island. It's not the island where the Tom Hanks film was made, though I could see that one on the horizon. It was a bit posher than Treasure, which had more of a family feel to it.

My hut

The ceiling in my hut

Welcome drinks

Welcome drinks here included a big bowl of traditional kava. It is an infusion made of ground root and water. It has mild sedative properties and tastes a bit like mud. If you drink enough you end up in a bit of a stupor, which it why it's traditional!

As well as the kava, the staff sang us some traditional songs and dances in traditional dress, and it was very pleasant. One of the kids at the resort was participating, though he mostly looked a bit lost and bewildered!

Castaway actually had a bit of a hill to climb and a nature walk, so I did that! A couple of frogs, hermit crabs, goat tracks and bee/wasp nests of some sort.

I went for a dive here as well to a site called 'Supermarket' (because it has everything). My desire was to see sharks, and boy did we get sharks!

To start the dive we went down a chimney

At the bottom in a cave was a white tip! (I called him Ronald)

Ronald followed us for the rest of the dive

Quite a few of the sharks had attendant remoras (which I've seen before) and also some small yellow fish swimming just in front of them. The sharks were close enough that one of these little yellow blighters jumped over to me and swam with me for a while!

As well as the white tipped and black tipped reef sharks, we also saw some Bronze Whalers, which are a bit bigger than the reef sharks. Luckily they stayed further away.

Outrigger.

Next stop was the resort on the mainland - Outrigger. It was very posh, with champagne and canapes being brought to your room at around 4pm, but overall I was underwhelmed, this sort of posh just isn't me.

There wasn't even very much of a beach there, but what there was, which apparently I have no photos of, a reef about 100 meters out. This broke the waves making a sort of long thin calm lagoon all along the coast. Below is an image from the web so you at least have some clue what I'm talking about!

What I did do down there was a day trip to Robinson Crusoe Island. I had been recommended to do this by one of the staff back on Treasure Island who used to work there, and it was quite good.

The trip started with a visit to a local village, which was pretty much what you get when you visit local villages anywhere. Awkward tourists goggle at people living in their own homes, followed by uncomfortable participation in a 'traditional' local ritual, the authenticity of which you have your doubts about. Then it's time for a look at the local church, and the inevitable attempt to sell you generic tourist tat while you desperately want to leave as soon as possible. Maybe I'm getting cynical...

We did then go on to the island for lunch and a swim on the reef. The guide was very clear that you shouldn't go out to the reef unless you could swim, so of course there were 2 oriental gentlemen who absolutely could not swim but went anyway. I was so angry at them, maybe they didn't understand. Also the swimming was fairly poor due to awful visibility.

The evening show was good though. Lots of traditional dances and fire juggling!  I've tried embedding youtube videos below - do let me know if they work!