8th August 2025

Hello, and greetings from country number 100 for me!  Wow, just wow!  After pretty much a lifetime so far of travel since I became an adult, to the wonderful South Pacific archipelago island nation Fiji goes this great honour and distinction.  And what a great accolade for such a great country – it’s lovely here!  The landscape is stunning, the people are beautiful and incredibly friendly, and the tropical warmth here isn’t too hot – it stays below 30°C during the day, and cools down to around 20°C at night.  In fact, on my first evening walking around there, the wind even felt just that little bit chilly, which was nice.  What more could you ask for in a place to visit, especially for country number 100!

To be fair, this is based on my own system of counting countries over the years, specifically what to count as a country, and also how long one needs to spend there to count it.  I have thus included places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Kosovo in my count for example, even though these are not officially UN-recognised countries.  I have also included Belarus, though I only spent a couple of minutes on the platform of Minsk train station while passing through the country from Poland to Russia – still, I did need to get a Belarussian visa for my passport, even though I was only transiting the country, so I’d like to say that this still counts!

I had also completed 100 “Travellers’ Century Club” territories on a visit to Ireland in 2022, with its inclusion of “geographically and politically distinct entities which are not necessarily separate sovereign states”.  There are a grand total of 330 TCC territories on their list by the way, and I am up to 123 with them.  It will also be a few more years yet until I hopefully complete 100 UN countries, to also include in this count the countries that I spend at least one night in.  So do watch this space still, there’s plenty of country counting yet to come (so far I am on 93 UN member state countries, having spent at least one night in them, out of their total of 193).

So back to my travels: I left chilly Christchurch on actually a fairly mild day, and flew Fiji Airways to Nadi (pronounced “Nandi”), tourist capital of the country though not actually the real capital – that’s planned for later!  It was a great flight, with great food, great service, and an amazing welcome by two guitar-strumming singers at passport control which eased me through the rather long line going through immigration.  I was definitely happy with Fiji Airways.  Customs were even stricter than New Zealand (they seem to have taken a leaf out of the Antipodean customs rulebook down there), and no food at all was allowed through!  Still, they weren’t as strict as Australia, and I at least didn’t have to check whether there was any soil on my shoes or state that my clothes were not wet.

I was met by a pre-arranged taxi and driven to my accommodation for my first two nights there, with the plan to return to the same place for my final night in Fiji so I could leave my large backpack with my host and just travel lightly around the country.  I was warned by the taxi driver about walking around at night due to the stray dogs, and my accommodation host helped me to follow a route to the local supermarket which would avoid them, since it was already after-dark – thank you!

Unsurprisingly, Fiji is a country without microwave ready meals in supermarkets so I transitioned to takeaway meals for my dinners there.  I had a pizza for my first night in Nadi, and a delicious Indian paneer curry for my second.  My accommodation was a delightful apartment going for a song, with living room, dining area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, all fully equipped with all mod-cons you could think of throughout.  I had a whisky that night to celebrate “Country Number 100”, and enjoyed the first hour of the Tom Hanks film “Cast Away” on the apartment’s Netflix channel, in preparation for the next day.

The next day, my first full one in Fiji, was an amazing day trip on and in the water, with lots of snorkeling in three different locations, and having lunch on the very island “Cast Away” was filmed on, hence watching it the night before!  This was only my third time snorkeling, but I felt I was really getting the hang of it, and didn’t feel quite so nervous as before.  Precisely for this trip, I had bought an underwater Go-Pro-style camera, and took some amazing underwater shots of lots of tropical, multi-coloured fish and beautiful coral reefs.  The first snorkel was amazing, being at one point completely surrounded all around by tropical fish, the second was good with quite a strong current, and the third and final one was not bad.  This last one was at Cast Away island though, whose actual name is Monuriki Island, so the most important part of this place was actually the island itself.  It was amazing to walk around this tiny chunk of forested land with gorgeous beaches, and I could easily recognise the main beach which Tom ended up on.  There was a “Help Me” sign there spelled out in coconut shells, and even a “Wilson” ball knocking around for photos!

The lunch provided by the tour company was delicious, the beer and drinks flowed all day, the guides were super-friendly, and I really enjoyed meeting and talking with many of my tour mates.  A German chap particularly stood out for me, doing a similar round-the-world trip to me, but in three weeks not my six – thus it was “Around the World in 20 Days” for him, lol!

Returning to port back in the tourist hub of Denarau which I had had a brief walk around that morning before the tour boat left, I was dropped off again back at my accommodation via the local Indian restaurant (called Indiana which I highly recommend, with a sister-restaurant also in the capital Suva which I was to hunt out a few days later), for more whisky-celebration, curry, and finishing off “Cast Away”.  This seriously is the life!

Before flying away to lovely Taveuni Island the next day, I had time in the morning to visit the Sabeto Hot Springs and Mud Pool for a lovely soak in their geothermal waters, along with the obligatory mud bath as well.  What I particularly liked about this place was the complete absence of commercialism and tourism – it was a locally-owned operation whose land has remained in the family for generations.  The land just happens to have thermal springs rising up out of the water, and organically over the years this has developed into an attraction.  The changing rooms, facilities and buildings were pretty ramshackle and basic, and definitely not what I was expecting considering the current western penchant for luxury spa experiences.  But it was so very welcome, and I enjoyed my time there very much.

The mud and spring waters are said to have healing properties, and I was hoping that this would help with my sunburnt back which was really painful that morning and ended up bothering me for around a week.  With my half-Spanish background (and skin!) I don’t usually get sunburn, and didn’t realise the day before how much my back would have been exposed to the sun while snorkeling.  I’d also never snorkeled for that long before, and not being able to sleep on my back for a week as a result, I guess I learned a new lesson there!

Arriving at the Springs, I initially had the whole place to myself for five minutes until a busload of local teenaged school children on a rugby match outing arrived, all 43 of them with their teachers in tow.  They were so fascinated in me, many of them following me around, watching me, chatting with me, and sometimes taking sneaky pictures of me.  I guess I now know what it’s like to be a celebrity, and I don’t think I’ve had that much attention as a foreigner since travelling in China 23 years ago!  All were good, very friendly and really polite children, especially considering their age.  I was still relieved when they all retired to a large hall to have breakfast, and was subsequently fascinated to hear them singing their grace for their food with such natural melody and harmony!  I think the South Pacific people have a natural sense of singing and music in their blood, particularly in creating amazing and natural harmonies.

Washing off the mud and having had a coconut juice and coffee, as well as buying a few souvenirs, it was time to head to the airport for my onward flight to Taveuni Island.  More on that in my next.