Highlights of Fiji

For many people this is the very image of paradise, Fiji-style.   Beachcomber Island is a self-proclaimed "party island" in the Mamanuca island group north of the main entry point to Fiji, Nadi.   The coconut palms and coral reefs might be exotic, but everything else is comfortingly familiar, though with a slight twist.   The local people speak very good English, but thanks to the early missionaries and their lexographical ideas, Fijian spelling is unusual, which explains why Mamanuca is pronounced Mamanutha, and Nadi is pronounced Nandi.

Treasure Island has more watersports but in a more adult atmosphere than Beachcomber, with canned culture in the form of a kava ceremony and "Polynesian" hula dancing and fire dancing - a slightly odd idea, since Fiji is really a Melanesian country.   In a bid to grab as many "eco-dollars" as possible, the resort has introduced various native animals such as crested iguanas and banded rails to the island, and operates its own captive breeding programme for green turtles.

Here's a view from the top of the hill, with Kuata island across the channel, and the mainland just visible on the horizon.   Kuata is one of the best places to go snorkelling around here, with sheltered areas no matter what direction the wind is coming from.

With so much water in Fiji, it's no surprise that much of the play time for these kids involves swimming and diving; the ones above have learned to expertly time their jumps to coincide with the incoming waves, and this group below looks like an intrepid band of explorers!   Fiji is a slower-paced and simpler place than western countries are now, so the kids amuse themselves, often out of sight of parents, and use whatever is around for their enjoyment.

It's not just the young or native-born who enjoy playing in the water!

This French backpacker brought along an entire kiteboarding kit with him, and he made good use of the windy conditions, jumping high into the air, and even jumping over several boats full of surprised locals who happened to pass by.

I trekked across the island with a couple of kids from the village as guides.   I didn't see as much wildlife as I hoped, but it was still a great walk, with excellent views including Waya, the next island north.   The name Wayalailai actually means "little Waya", but Wayalailai also goes by the name Wayasewa.

The visit to the village included a kava or "Yaqonga" ceremony.

Kava is a traditional root crop in the Pacific; a member of the pepper family, it's valued because of its mild narcotic qualities.

The taste isn't much to write home about, it tastes about as muddy as it looks, but it's said to create a euphoric feeling of well-being.   It's not addictive, there are no unpleasant after-effects, and unlike alcohol, kava doesn't cause belligerent behaviour.   There's even a theory that it can help against some forms of cancer!

Here is Savusavu, the second largest town on Vanua Levu!   I'd been trying unsuccessfully to contact Silktail Lodge on the Tunuloa Peninsula for some time and when I got there I found out why it was so hard - there was no email, no telephone and no mains power.   By a sheer stroke of luck, though, I met the son of the family at the airport and got to the place that way.   I stayed a few nights and got several of the wildlife photos you will see later.

For me, this sign and its bragging rights are just one of the reasons to visit Taveuni.

The eastern tip of Vanua Levu, the island of Rabi (pronounced Rambi) and Taveuni all straddle the 180th meridian.   As the sign says, that means that this is "where each day begins" and theoretically if you stand with one foot on the left of the line and one on the right then you're both in yesterday and today or, if you prefer, today and tomorrow.

Of course no mere mortal can be allowed to enjoy such a mind-boggling concept, so the official keepers of time decreed that the international date line should do a giant dog-leg to the east of Fiji, so that the whole country is in one day at any one time.

Those Who Must Be Obeyed also decreed that New Zealand's Chatham Islands is the spot in the world which first sees the light of each new day.   When the new millenium dawned on January 1st, 2000 (Yeah, yeah, I know that "officially" it happened on January 1st, 2001 - don't bother sending me your emails!) it was therefore New Zealand which got the honours, in spite of the efforts of a few Pacific island countries to unilaterally modify their timekeeping.

Now I'm a New Zealander, but even to me it feels like Fiji has much more claim to this prize than we did.   And given the choice, I'd far rather be drinking kava on both sides of the Taveuni dateline than freezing my butt off standing on some windswept hill on the barren and windswept Chatham Islands.

Unfortunately, in the end I wasn't able to indulge in either of those pleasures, since I was too busy freezing my butt off on December 31st, 1999 in New York's Time Square!

Bouma is also a good place for scenery, including a series of three waterfalls.   This one is the lower Bouma falls and in case you're in any doubt about how high they are, just see how small the people are standing next to it!

Here's one of the first animals I found at Bouma, right at the lower falls.   It's a rare Fijian ground frog, one of only two frog species in the country, the other being a tree frog.   You might think that Fiji with its forests and high rainfall would have lots of frogs, but in fact it's so far away from other large land masses that only a few species have been able to colonise.   And now the ground frog is in serious trouble because of ignorant westerners introducing rats, mongooses and the very large and voracious South American "cane toad", which likes nothing better than to eat the native wildlife of Fiji, Australia and other places where sugar cane farmers took it.

Here's one of the damselfly's close relatives, a dragonfly which goes by the Latin moniker Agrionoptera insignis or, to its English-speaking friends, the red swampdragon.

This critter also has an unusual combination of colors.   You'll find many dragonflies which are red and many which are green, but this is the first red and green one which I had ever seen.   I only saw one red swampdragon in Fiji, on the island of Vanua Levu, but it was kind enough to let me get several photos from different angles.

Large animals have trouble crossing the vast stretches of ocean between Fiji and other countries, but a number of insects like dragonflies have made the journey, probably carried from island to island by storms until they get here.   That's why the red swampdragon can be found not only here, but also throughout Asia and down into Australia.

I found several types of dragonfly on Vanua Levu, but by far the best spot I came across for these attractive insects was the Koroyanitu National Heritage Park on Viti Levu.   I was able to put together a whole page of Fijian dragonflies and damselflies, and three of these photos were later used as models for a set of Fijian postage stamps!

Fiji doesn't have as many butterflies as other countries, but this male "blue moon" is one very attractive inhabitant.

This is another insect which is found in Asia and also in other parts of the Pacific, where it's usually known as the "common eggfly" or "great eggfly".   Personally I much prefer the name "blue moon".

All male blue moons look much like this one, but the females look quite different, and they even differ markedly from each other.   This happens because females in different parts of the world, all the way from Madagascar to Japan and New Zealand, mimic various different butterfly species which are toxic and therefore taste bad to predators like birds.

As is common with quite a few butterfly species, the male is territorial and will guard an area of ground against intruders.   However the blue moon females are unusual in that they apparently also guard the sites where they've laid eggs, a rare example of maternal care in the world of butterflies.

Where there are butterflies and moths there must also be caterpillars.   This attractive specimen is a variety of looper or inchworm, which means that it belongs to the very large family Geometridae, also known as "geometer" moths.   In keeping with the inchworm name, the Greek term geometer means "earth measurer".

Beetles are the most common type of insect on the planet, but I photographed very few during my stay.

This one is by far the most interesting, a jewel beetle called Paracupta sulcata.   Fiji has a variety of interesting jewel beetles, but it's very hard to find any information on them.   Since this is the first and only jewel beetle I've ever seen, I was pleased just to come across it while I was staying on Taveuni, but I was disappointed when it didn't stay long enough for me to get more than a few photos.

This stick insect (in America the term "walking stick" is used) was on Wayalailai.

This extraordinary little monster is a type of robber fly, a family found around the world whose members sit on a perch and dart rapidly out to catch other flying insects.

The robber fly jabs its strong pointed beak into the insect it catches and sucks the juices out.

Robber flies are very recognizable with their strong, spiny legs and thick moustache and beard.

The robber fly was in Bouma national park, as was this mighty hunter, a small skink which has caught an earwig.   The earwig's pincers were obviously of no use against such a formidable foe!

I ended up photographing about fifteen types of bird, including this jungle myna, a member of the starling family.

The jungle myna and its better known cousin the common myna were introduced from India, along with about 30 other birds from different parts of the world.   About 15 of these species became established.

There's a lot of ethnic tension between native Fijians and the indentured workers the British brought over from South Asia, who now make up almost half of the population.   Somewhat unkindly, the native people refer to these human immigrants as being like the mynas - loud, greedy, acquisitive, and damaging to the original inhabitants.

A winged animal of another type, this time a Samoan flying fox, which is a type of fruit bat.

These were a common sight on Vanua Levu, flying around in the late afternoon and evening.

I was lucky enough to see this one flying past holding a pandanus fruit, and then land out of sight a short distance away.   I followed it and took several photos, but it didn't seem quite sure what to do with the cumbersome fruit, so in one shot the fruit is hanging incongruously in mid-air right next to the flying fox's head.

The fruit had of course slipped out of its grasp, and the next few shots feature a flying fox with a somewhat reproachful look on its face as it stares pointedly straight at me.