Fiji

Fiji is scattered across the South Pacific in more than three hundred islands, but Viti Levu and Vanua Levu hold the bulk of its land. Trade winds soak their south-eastern sides, while the western coasts lie in a rain shadow, dry enough for cane. Taveuni sits on the antimeridian, and the date line bends around the country so that all of it keeps the same day.

Lapita potters reached the islands roughly three thousand years ago; later generations traded, married and fought with Tonga and Samoa. Abel Tasman sighted Fiji in 1643, and in 1789 William Bligh, cast adrift after the Bounty mutiny, was chased by war canoes through the channel named after him. Missionaries and sandalwood traders followed. In 1874 Ratu Seru Cakobau and other chiefs ceded the islands to Britain, and from 1879 planters brought indentured labourers from India to cut cane. Independence came in October 1970.

A bowl of yaqona, the peppery root drink also called kava, opens village ceremonies, and fire-walkers from Beqa cross hot stones. Methodist hymns fill Sunday mornings and Diwali lights up Indo-Fijian towns. Kokoda, raw fish soured in lime and dressed with coconut cream, marks celebrations. The men’s rugby sevens team won Olympic gold in 2016, Fiji’s first medal at any Games. Sugar milled at Lautoka, Ba and Labasa long led exports; tourism, gold from Vatukoula and artesian water bottled at Yaqara add to it.