After 12 hours of flying over a dark ocean, past the dateline and the equator we dove through the scattered white clouds over a lush green, hilly island, ringed by white beaches and with scattered small building amongst the dense foliage. There were no tall buildings, no downtown clusters, just scattered resorts, recognizable because of their pools, along the leeward coast. As soon as we left the plane at Nandi Airport on the main island of Viti Levu, the humidity and heat engulfed us like a sauna. We were still dressed in Vancouver garb: slacks, socks, sneakers, sweaters and we immediately headed for the air-conditioned terminal building. 

Customs and check-in were pretty standard and we moved through quickly, collected our luggage and met our pre-ordered driver who deposited us at our Airbnb, listed as a ‘Quaint Rooftop Apartment.’ It was quaint, meaning small and was on the top floor (roof-top) of a two-storey house with a view of the tin-roof of the lower storey, in a residential neighbourhood, not too far from the airport. It is clean and fully equipped including a large TV with Netflix. There is a rickety back-porch right under an enormous mango tree full of noisy myna birds. Nowhere near the water but 5 minutes walking distance from a mall. Our host Filo is a super nice woman who took care of us and even served us up a traditional Fiji breakfast: homemade doughnuts with strawberry jam and lemon-grass tea.