Savusavu

The geothermal vents at Savusavu are hot enough that local women use them to cook — you can watch someone lower a pot of rice into a spring at the edge of town and retrieve it cooked twenty minutes later. The harbour beyond holds yachts from a dozen countries, mid-Pacific crossing. This is what the back of Fiji looks like when nobody from the resort industry has arranged it.

Savusavu is the main town on Vanua Levu, Fiji's second-largest island, and sits on a deepwater harbour that has become one of the Pacific's most important cruising yacht anchorages. The town's geothermal springs vent at the waterfront, hot enough to cook, and the local population has integrated them into daily life without fencing or interpretation. The surrounding area is the centre of Fiji's black pearl industry — pearls cultivated in farm bays off the coast and sold from waterfront showrooms. Vanilla and ylang-ylang are grown nearby by growers who supply international fragrance companies. Savusavu has attracted a community of expatriate residents, giving it a character more mixed than most Fijian towns.