Neither the likelihood of frequent showers nor an occasional deluge should discourage you from visiting Suva, Fiji's vibrant, sophisticated capital city. Grab your umbrella and wander along its broad avenues lined with grand colonial buildings and orderly parks left over from the British Empire. Its streets will be crowded with Fijians, Indians, Chinese, Europeans, Polynesians, and people of various other ancestries.
Suva sprawls over a hilly, 26 sq. km (10 sq. mile) peninsula jutting like a thumb from southeastern Viti Levu. To the east lies windswept Laucala Bay and to the west, Suva's busy harbor and the suburbs of Lami Town and Walu Bay. Jungle-draped mountains rise to heights of more than 1,200m (4,000 ft.) on the mainland to the north, high enough to condense moisture from the prevailing southeast trade winds and create the damp climate that cloaks the city in lush green foliage all year round.
Suva was a typical Fijian village in 1870, when the Polynesia Company sent a group of Australians to settle land it acquired in exchange for paying Chief Cakobau's foreign debts. The Aussies established a camp on the flat, swampy, mosquito-infested banks of Nubukalou Creek, on the western shore of the peninsula. When they failed to grow first cotton and then sugar, speculators convinced the new British colonial administration to move the capital from Levuka in 1882.
The business heart of the city still sits near Nubukalou Creek, and you can see most of the city's sights and find most of its shops, interesting restaurants, and lively nightspots along historic Victoria Parade, the main drag.
On the beautiful island of Ovalau, some 32km (20 miles) east of Viti Levu, the old town of Levuka still looks much as it did during its heydays before the government moved to Suva. In contrast to Suva, never-changing Levuka remains a charming example of what South Pacific towns were like in the 1870s. Levuka makes a good day trip from Suva -- if you don't mind risking not getting back the same day -- or longer if you don't need accommodations with modern amenities.
