Fiji

I have landed on the "island where the new day begins" -- Fiji is located just west of the date line, so every new day, in a way, starts here.

Cori has joined me and we have checked into our first hotel in Nadi. It was a good deal we had booked through the Internet, located between the airport and Nadi town. It is nice and even has a small pool.

The weather here is just as I had expected it -- tropical, but less hot than, say, Malaysia or Sri Lanka where I've been before. It is cloudy but warm (26 degrees in the afternoon when we arrived). The air is admittedly not very pleasant, it is humid and rather smoke-filled here at the main street in Nadi (they light wood fires for barbecues at the streetside). But all in all the temperatures make for a much better climate than Brisbane at this time of year, so I feel good and am happy to have come here.

I also think Cori and I have arrived just at the perfect time of year -- the weather is best here in June to September, and from our first impressions they still seem to be in off-season, the plane was half empty and the hotel looks like the same. So we figure we should find accommodation easily when we travel around here, and not too expensive.