It's 4.15am, an ungodly hour anywhere - but when you're on holiday in a tropical island idyll in the South Pacific, it is veritably demonic. Nevertheless, 15 minutes later I am waiting groggily outside my hotel to be picked up by Adrenalin, Fiji's biggest adventure tour company. All being well, I am about to float silently over jungle-covered mountain slopes just as dawn breaks, from the interior of Fiji's largest island, Viti Levu, to the glittering sea.
By 5am we're driving inland on tarmac that within minutes becomes bumpy dirt track. The figures of slinking dogs, panicked chickens and early-rising Fijians appear momentarily in our headlights, before plunging back into blackness. During the one-hour drive we make two stops; each time Kevin Flanagan, the 'hot-air balloon guy' and our pilot for the trip, releases a biodegradable balloon with a small LED light attached. We watch each small balloon's path into the night sky to determine wind direction and speed - both will dictate whether we take off. If the flight is cancelled, we can try the next day or get our money back.
We reach a village hemmed in by hills that rise towards the ridges and mountain peaks of the central highlands. Adrenalin has negotiated with the village chief to use an open area by the Nadi River - during the day it acts as the village rugby pitch and the fee paid for its use as a launch pad is a source of income for the village.
As the enormous balloon is unloaded and laid out in the field, the treetops become black silhouettes, the sky turns purple, then mauve. Dawn is approaching. The giant balloon slowly takes shape as hot air is blasted into it, rising to the equivalent of a 10-storey building.
There's no graceful way to enter a hot-air balloon, so we clamber over the sides and tumble into a basket big enough to hold 12 people.
'OK, could everyone jump up and down,' shouts Flanagan. When we do, he adds, 'It doesn't do anything, but it's just kind of fun, isn't it?'
Flanagan, it turns out, is a gentle joker, the perfect companion for this genteel form of transport. The anchor ropes are released and we ease up into the air; the heat from the initial blasts of blue flame has to be intense, to get the balloon above the treetops, but after that the burners are used infrequently.