Bula from Fiji! You’ll hear that friendly greeting from everyone in this lovely island nation.

Located in the South Pacific about halfway between Hawai’i and Australia, Fiji is an archipelago of more than 300 volcanic islands. The country has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific, thanks to its natural resources like timber, fish, and, of course, water.

But there’s more to Fiji than just the world-famous bottled water!

Three quarters of the country’s population of nearly one million people live along the coast of Fiji’s main island, which is ringed by coral reefs that are popular with scuba divers and snorkelers.

Beneath the surface, you might swim with sharks, dolphins, manta rays, sea turtles, and even the occasional humpback whale.

Fiji is also a major destination for surfers, and it’s home to the famous wave known as Cloudbreak, which is one of the world’s most challenging waves to surf.

One of our favorite days in Fiji was spent at Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park, with its towering seaside sand dunes, lush wooded paths, and hundreds of Pacific flying foxes.

You can arrive at the park in the morning to beat the heat, or visit in the afternoon when the crowds are gone and you have it all to yourself. Except for the bats, that is. Fiji’s native megabats roost high in the trees of Sigatoka’s Mahakoni Forest, and it’s fun to listen to them chirp at each other when they hear you hiking below.

To get a bat’s-eye view of Fiji for ourselves, we climbed to the peak of historic Tavuni Hill Fort. A clan from nearby Tonga stopped to admire the sweeping vistas when they arrived on Viti Levu in the 1800s, and they’ve been there ever since. Naomi Taufa, who manages the fort’s visitor center, is a Tongan descendent herself and told us all about the history of this land, which is still co-owned by people from both Fiji and Tonga.

Fiji’s main island has many other historical sites, including the Naihehe Caves. The name means “a place to get lost,” and the caves are a primitive underground fortress featuring the ritual platform and oven used by Fiji’s last known cannibalistic tribe.

Don’t let the stories scare you away from Fiji, though — archaeological evidence has shown that cannibalism in the country was a much rarer occurrence than legend made out, and the practice ended more than 150 years ago.

The last meal made from a man graced the table in 1867. Methodist missionary Rev. Thomas Baker was the main course, and the remains of his shoes are on display in the Fiji National Museum.

Also on display are many of the artifacts found at the Tavuni Hill Fort, as well as traditional South Pacific jewelry, hand-hewn watercraft, and relics of Fiji’s colonial past.

To see how the country’s past and present come together, we made a stop at one of Fiji’s pottery villages with their traditional wood and straw bure houses.

We experienced a kava ceremony, where the village chief’s daughter, Marini Turukawa, and two dozen lovely ladies warmly welcomed us with the traditional beverage made from a ground plant root. It’s mixed with water to make a cold tea-like beverage with an earthy flavor we found to be reminiscent of matcha.

The women of the Nakabuta Village demonstrated their lapita pottery-making techniques for us, using the same methods perfected by their ancestors over the past 3,000 years.

Raw clay straight from the earth is mixed with sand and other tempering materials to make it workable and durable. The potters shape this material by hand, similar to kneading bread dough. Then they quickly and skillfully create the vessel, smoothing and thinning the clay with their hands and with wooden paddles. The finished piece fries before it’s fired over an open flame, then natural tree resins provide the shiny, protective glaze.

The finished pottery pieces are beautifully decorative, but they’re also highly functional and often used daily for meals. And while you might think meals in Fiji are mostly fish and fruit, you might be surprised at the prevalence of Indian cuisine.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, nearly 61,000 indentured laborers arrived from another of England’s colonies to work the sugarcane fields in Fiji. At the end of their contracts, they could return to India, but many of them chose to stay. Fiji’s population is now nearly 40 percent Indian Fijian, which means lots of delicious spices, curries, and flatbreads on many restaurant menus.

Another import to Fiji was Canadian actor Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame. He was an avid orchid lover and established a botanical garden in Fiji called the Garden of the Sleeping Giant.

It features more than 2,000 types of orchids along with native plants surrounding a lovely pond that’s perfect for picnics.

While there’s lots to see and do in Fiji, you can make the most of your travel budget and the long flight across the Pacific by visiting neighboring countries while you’re in this part of the world. Next up for us is Vanuatu!

You can see more photos from our around-the-world adventure on Instagram and Facebook.