I was fifteen and on my first date. I took her to the movies, where “South Pacific” was playing, the room was dark, and love was in the air. I spent two hours and thirty-seven minutes trying to work up the moxie to put my arm around her. I never succeeded.

Instead, I became infatuated with swaying palm trees, warm sun on sand, and mahogany natives with flowers in their hair. It was, indeed, One Enchanted Evening – but not with the girl in the seat next to me. It was with the South Pacific itself.

Ah, the South Pacific: sandy beaches with turquoise waters under periwinkle-blue skies … or so we hoped. Instead, for eighteen days we visited one soggy land of cloudbursts and shipping containers after another.

At 949 feet – about the size of a modern aircraft carrier – you can’t park the Grand Princess just anywhere. In the South Pacific, where all land is an island and all port facilities are precious, you park with the big boys, where shipping containers are the dominant life form and the air is redolent with diesel fumes. After eighteen days I had given up on Bali Ha’i.

Until yesterday. Yesterday was the day we visited Dravuni, a tiny island in the Fiji archipelago. 

This is it! This is the place that comes to mind when you hear the words “South Pacific island”! This is the place where Mitzi Gaynor washes that man right outta her hair, the place where everyone talks happy talk, and the place where everything is viewed through a color filter.

Louise and I hiked across the width of the island (about a quarter mile), claimed a deserted sandy beach (it wasn’t hard to find), and spent the afternoon in tepid, azure waters, wishing we never had to go home.

We’re back at sea today. Tomorrow will be Tuesday and the day after that will be Tuesday again while we cross the International Date Line heading east. Soon after that we will arrive in Papeete, in Tahiti. If our luck holds out, there will be more sandy beaches and turquoise waters. If I get really lucky, maybe I’ll work up enough moxie to put my arm around my date, only this time my date will be my wife and my visit to South Pacific will be complete.

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