Fiji

Fiji is larger than what you might guess by looking at a tiny dot on a map. The largest island measures roughly 146 kilometers (91 miles) east to west by 106 kilometers (66 miles) north to south and includes a population of about 600,000. Our plane landed in Nadi and a bus took us from there to our resort on the southern shore.

This is the view from the window of our room

and here is the pool.

At the resort, we did some kayaking, played a few holes of golf, and learned how to prepare kokoda, a Fijian variant of ceviche. Away from the resort, we toured a native village, a school, a local market, and a nature center. The Iguanas in Fiji are more colorful than those in the Galapagos

and the aquarium had much clearer water than the Great Barrier Reef.

One advantage of our post-trip to Fiji was the fact that we could fly directly from there to Los Angeles, a slightly shorter trip than flying from Los Angeles to Brisbane. On the other hand, our flight out of Nadi left at 1:30 AM. We arrived home at 1:00 AM the same day, with fresh snow on the ground, just like we had never left Fort Collins.