<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by t-bone:
my wife and i are hoping to visit fiji in the upcoming months. we were hoping for the middle of jan. but i have been told that is a busy time. i know air pacific goes there from lax (id75) and also air nz (id90). this would be ourfirst time to the south pacific and i was just hoping maybe someone could give us some insight on the best routes to take and months to go. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

t-bone, welcome to the forum. Whoever told you it is a busy time was spot on - Jan is probably one of the worst times you could pick to visit. It's summer school and corporate vacation period for Oz and N.Z. While Fiji is always popular with family groups from N.Z. and Oz, it will be much worse this year due to Australians still avoiding Bali to a great extent. (Bali and Fiji are the perennial "island getaway" favourites with Aussies). Flights are limited at the best of times, let alone over this period where there is a lot of VFR traffic doing the Xmas reunions that continue into January as well. FJ fly from HNL to NAN, but there again you have the age old problem of getting to/from HNL from the mainland.
NAN is used as an alternate route for the many who can't find seats/fares on the nonstop SYD-LAX/SFO flights at this time of the year as well.
HA fly to Pago in American Samoa a couple of times a week and AQ is now flying to RAR in The Cooks, both of which offer connections to NAN which while may be better, still come with their own pitfalls. (From PPG you'd need to do the quick hop over to Samoa and from APW to NAN).
Your best option if you're really keen and don't want to buy a package, sticking to nonrev but without all the uncertainty a direct routing will bring is maybe head to Osaka in Japan first and then on FJ from there into NAN. The Japanese aren't travelling as much as they used to, so it should theoretically be easier. Still doesn't solve the problem of a crowded Fiji when you get there though with all the holiday makers !!!
If I can help any more, don't hesitate to holler.
Cheers!