Island paradise

There are many contenders for the “friendliest people on Earth” accolade. The Irish, the Nepalese and others have been mentioned to me in the past but I want to put the Fijians forward for consideration. After spending 10 days traveling round the islands I realised that I hadn’t met an unfriendly person in all that time. In fact they couldn’t have been nicer. Everyone says Bula (hello) to everyone and it’s smiles all round.

There was a real community atmosphere wherever you went and even though things often took longer than expected to get arranged (everything runs by ‘island time’) people really went out of their way to be helpful. One highlight for me was playing rugby with a village team. They are big strong lads and very quick and I have the grass burns and bruises to prove it. Rugby is almost a religion in Fiji with most schoolboys starting training under 7 years of age.

The waters are some of the clearest and most abundant in life that I have ever witnessed with some of the best dive sites in the world just a kilometre from shore.

With all this and the fact that mangos, avocado and all manner of fantastic food grows in every garden it seems to me almost the perfect place to live. Minor downsides are the heat and humidity that sap the life out of you and mozzies that ravage you relentlessly.

However, I’m looking forward to getting home. I have been on the road for 5 weeks and miss my family and friends. Thanks to email, skype and SMS I have been able to keep in touch with the important people in my life more than I used to. I’m tanned, tired and ready to sleep in my own bed. Just a few days in Vancouver stand in the way - bring on the snow!