We had one day to spend in Fiji, so we hired a car in which to do it. It was tight with six people and the accompanying luggage, but we managed it.

We discovered on our one day road trip, that ‘tourist’ Fiji and ‘regular’ Fiji are two very different places. The very touristy Denarau Island, for example, is worlds apart from your average Fijian’s experience. This pic is of downtown Nadi, which is completely different again from the more traditional villages.

In our search for a beach on our travels, we came across a dubious sign announcing a beach, pointing down an equally dubious dirt road, to reach which we had to cross an enormously dubious rickety wooden bridge. You have to understand that we didn’t have reception for gps on our phones, and we couldn’t get a paper map for love or money  (‘oh no, we don’t have those’ – Tourist Information Nadi)  so we were relying on a cached map on my phone. Having said all that, however, on reaching the end of the road that went nowhere, we found this beach. Secluded and lovely.

We visited the ‘Garden of the Sleeping Giant’, so called because it is located at the base of a mountain called ‘The Sleeping Giant’. This garden specialiseds in growing orchids.  Such a beautiful place.  Wooden boardwalks wound through a hushed (except when Andy and Nate were around) rainforesty-type garden.

It was super-humid in Fiji, which sapped our energy, so the Garden of the Sleeping Giant was a nice place to pass some time before we headed back to the airport for our 9:55pm flight to LA.