Garden of the Sleeping Giant

One of my favorite side trips in Fiji was to visit the Garden of the Sleeping Giant just north of Nadi ("Nandi-town", as the locals say) in the foothills of the Nausori mountains. This gorgeous, rustic botannical garden was originally owned by Raymond Burr of TV's "Perry Mason" fame, for his private collection of orchids and a vacation cottage in Fiji.

As we got out of the van we couldn't help inhaling deeply–the air was incredibly perfumed with the scents of more than 200 varieties of flowers.

More frogs! I started taking phtoos of frogs to show Daniel when we got back, but I soon stopped when I realized they are EVERYWHERE. There are eight in this photo alone. Unfortunately they are an invasive, non-native species that are becoming a problem in Fiji. They're called King Frogs because they have no natural predator–they are poisonous to anything that eats them!

My goofy husband… he hates bananas, but he can spot them a mile away. There were sure some fun varieties in Fiji. Much smaller than and more flavorful than the typical big yellow ones at home. Another odd thing for us was green oranges. Inside was just the same, but outside it was bright green and pebbly. The pineapples were surprisingly small as well. Don't worry, I took lots of food photos : )

This little guy came to see what we were up to, walking on the netting that was over some areas to protect the orchids from debris falling from the rainforest. Rainforests are gloriously messy places!