It's not just the young or native-born who enjoy playing in the water!

    This French backpacker brought along an entire kiteboarding kit with him, and he made good use of the windy conditions, jumping high into the air, and even jumping over several boats full of surprised locals who happened to pass by.

    The visit to the village included a kava or "Yaqonga" ceremony.

    Kava is a traditional root crop in the Pacific; a member of the pepper family, it's valued because of its mild narcotic qualities.

    The taste isn't much to write home about, it tastes about as muddy as it looks, but it's said to create a euphoric feeling of well-being.   It's not addictive, there are no unpleasant after-effects, and unlike alcohol, kava doesn't cause belligerent behaviour.   There's even a theory that it can help against some forms of cancer!

    For me, this sign and its bragging rights are just one of the reasons to visit Taveuni.

    The eastern tip of Vanua Levu, the island of Rabi (pronounced Rambi) and Taveuni all straddle the 180th meridian.   As the sign says, that means that this is "where each day begins" and theoretically if you stand with one foot on the left of the line and one on the right then you're both in yesterday and today or, if you prefer, today and tomorrow.

    Of course no mere mortal can be allowed to enjoy such a mind-boggling concept, so the official keepers of time decreed that the international date line should do a giant dog-leg to the east of Fiji, so that the whole country is in one day at any one time.

    Those Who Must Be Obeyed also decreed that New Zealand's Chatham Islands is the spot in the world which first sees the light of each new day.   When the new millenium dawned on January 1st, 2000 (Yeah, yeah, I know that "officially" it happened on January 1st, 2001 - don't bother sending me your emails!) it was therefore New Zealand which got the honours, in spite of the efforts of a few Pacific island countries to unilaterally modify their timekeeping.

    Now I'm a New Zealander, but even to me it feels like Fiji has much more claim to this prize than we did.   And given the choice, I'd far rather be drinking kava on both sides of the Taveuni dateline than freezing my butt off standing on some windswept hill on the barren and windswept Chatham Islands.

    Unfortunately, in the end I wasn't able to indulge in either of those pleasures, since I was too busy freezing my butt off on December 31st, 1999 in New York's Time Square!

    Here's one of the damselfly's close relatives, a dragonfly which goes by the Latin moniker Agrionoptera insignis or, to its English-speaking friends, the red swampdragon.

    This critter also has an unusual combination of colors.   You'll find many dragonflies which are red and many which are green, but this is the first red and green one which I had ever seen.   I only saw one red swampdragon in Fiji, on the island of Vanua Levu, but it was kind enough to let me get several photos from different angles.

    Large animals have trouble crossing the vast stretches of ocean between Fiji and other countries, but a number of insects like dragonflies have made the journey, probably carried from island to island by storms until they get here.    That's why the red swampdragon can be found not only here, but also throughout Asia and down into Australia.

    I found several types of dragonfly on Vanua Levu, but by far the best spot I came across for these attractive insects was the Koroyanitu National Heritage Park on Viti Levu.   I was able to put together a whole page of Fijian dragonflies and damselflies, and three of these photos were later used as models for a set of Fijian postage stamps!

    Fiji doesn't have as many butterflies as other countries, but this male "blue moon" is one very attractive inhabitant.

    This is another insect which is found in Asia and also in other parts of the Pacific, where it's usually known as the "common eggfly" or "great eggfly".   Personally I much prefer the name "blue moon".

    All male blue moons look much like this one, but the females look quite different, and they even differ markedly from each other.   This happens because females in different parts of the world, all the way from Madagascar to Japan and New Zealand, mimic various different butterfly species which are toxic and therefore taste bad to predators like birds.

    As is common with quite a few butterfly species, the male is territorial and will guard an area of ground against intruders.   However the blue moon females are unusual in that they apparently also guard the sites where they've laid eggs, a rare example of maternal care in the world of butterflies.

    Beetles are the most common type of insect on the planet, but I photographed very few during my stay.

    This one is by far the most interesting, a jewel beetle called Paracupta sulcata.   Fiji has a variety of interesting jewel beetles, but it's very hard to find any information on them.   Since this is the first and only jewel beetle I've ever seen, I was pleased just to come across it while I was staying on Taveuni, but I was disappointed when it didn't stay long enough for me to get more than a few photos.

    This stick insect (in America the term "walking stick" is used) was on Wayalailai.

    This extraordinary little monster is a type of robber fly, a family found around the world whose members sit on a perch and dart rapidly out to catch other flying insects.

    The robber fly jabs its strong pointed beak into the insect it catches and sucks the juices out.

    Robber flies are very recognizable with their strong, spiny legs and thick moustache and beard.

    I ended up photographing about fifteen types of bird, including this jungle myna, a member of the starling family.

    The forest myna and its better known cousin the common myna were introduced from India, along with about 30 other birds from different parts of the world.   About 15 of these species became established.

    There's a lot of ethnic tension between native Fijians and the indentured workers the British brought over from South Asia, who now make up almost half of the population.   Somewhat unkindly, the native people refer to these human immigrants as being like the mynas - loud, greedy, acquisitive, and damaging to the original inhabitants.

    A winged animal of another type, this time a Samoan flying fox, which is a type of fruit bat.

    These were a common sight on Vanua Levu, flying around in the late afternoon and evening.

    I was lucky enough to see this one flying past holding a pandanus fruit, and then land out of sight a short distance away.   I followed it and took several photos, but it didn't seem quite sure what to do with the cumbersome fruit, so in one shot the fruit is hanging incongruously in mid-air right next to the flying fox's head.

    The fruit had of course slipped out of its grasp, and the next few shots feature a flying fox with a somewhat reproachful look on its face as it stares pointedly straight at me.