Fiji

Dean Starnes was an impressionable six when he first travelled to Fiji. The week he spent bobbing above the Mamanuca reefs with a leaky mask and a pair of floaties ignited a passion that has drawn him back on many occasions. Dean was also the coordinating author on the 8th edition of this guide and has worked on Lonely Planet titles for such far-flung destinations as Papua New Guinea, Mongolia and East Africa.
Dean now lives in Auckland where he alternates between writing for Lonely Planet, freelancing as a graphic designer and shirking responsibilities. Celeste Brash first visited Fiji in 1987 and seriously considered running away from home so she could stay there. As an adult she moved to sort-of-nearby French Polynesia, where she lived for 15 years before recently moving back to the US. Her awardwinning travel articles and stories have appeared in Travelers' Tales, LA Times and Islands magazine and numerous other publications.
She's wrttten around 30 Lonely Planet guides on destinations around the world but considers the South Pacific her speciality. Virginia Jealous lived, worked and travelled widely in the Pacific from 2004 to 2006, and contributed to Lonely Planet's South Pacifie guides and the 7th edition of Fiji. Since then she's been looking for a reason to go back, and was very happy to share a few kava sessions with old friends while shamelessly picking their brains about the current Fiji scene.
She was also reassured to find that, despite the vagaries of politics and economics, Fiji welcomes travellers as warmly as ever.