Fiji stopover (Los Angeles – Australia)

After 11 hours of flight we landed in Fiji, which is about two thirds of the way from Los Angeles to Sydney. I realized that this was my first time in the Southern Hemisphere.

When we exited the plane at 5 am local time, the air was warm and humid – even more so than in southern Mexico it seemed.

We were welcomed by a local band who played live while we quickly passed border control. Here is a short clip of them that somebody else recorded:

Fiji airport turned out to be pretty small, but they have their own airline – Fiji Airways – on which I flew to Australia.

After sunrise, I asked to take a few pictures outside. This is as much as I got to see of Fiji:

Fiji mountains

Fiji and the plane that will take me to Australia

The flight from L.A. to Fiji went by fast since I slept through most of it. Having been somewhat sleep deprived definitely helped in that.

Tip: Bring ear plugs and eye cover. This can also come in handy if you are planning to stay in a hostel somewhere.

Passing the international date line is pretty strange as it means that we jumped almost a full day into the future (20 hours). There is a 4 hour time zone difference between Fiji and L.A.

Fiji airport shops