I was psyched planning a trip to Fiji. Just saying that you're traveling to Fiji sounds exotic. Plus I didn’t expect to be in that area of the world again anytime soon when I’d first booked, and how often is Fiji a convenient stop off point to break up a long flight? I was originally meant to go for just a few days on my way home and do the main island, but then Lewis decided to come along and we extended the trip.
It was kind of a compromise on specific destinations. I am more interested in culture and activities, so I wanted to do the Feejee Experience bus around Viti Levu, but Lewis likes beaches and relaxing, so we also added on 5 nights through the Yasawa islands which is what I’ll be covering here in part 1.
Day 1 Landing in Nadi
Unfortunately, the day of departure did not start off well. We had a Budweiser sponsored staff party the night before at Dakota with free booze for all, and despite my efforts to drink water through the night, it didn’t quite negate all of the straight bourbon I also consumed.
We were miserably up at 6 AM to head to the airport. The shower and cab are a blur. I took a nap at the gate lounge in Auckland and luckily felt a million times better when I woke up to catch the three hour flight to Fiji.
Nadi is located on the large island of Viti Levu and was the hub to both our tours. I was in an amazing mood stepping off the plane. It was so warm outside, and there was a small band playing acoustic instruments and singing when we walked in the airport to welcome us to Fiji.
We pretty quickly learned that “Bula!” means hello, and we exchanged many bulas at any opportunity through the trip. “Vinaka” means thank you, and we employed that one often too.
We checked in downstairs at Awesome Adventures, the tour company running our Yasawas trip, and then we caught a shuttle to our Nadi hostel for the night, Smugglers Cove. We stayed in a huge dorm that night, 30 beds I think, which wasn’t too bad. There were dividers between every two bunks and lockers to store your things.
What I loved about Smugglers Cove was out back! There was a huge wooden patio area for the restaurant with large sandboxes and tiki torches. Each table had a lantern and some had straw canopies. It was right on the beach, and you could watch the ocean while you ate. They even had entertainment on sometimes. I couldn’t stop smiling. It was the perfect tropical holiday.
The food was absolutely fantastic too. We had some cocktails and herb bread, and I ordered possibly the best soup of my life. It was called rou rou soup and was made with taro leaves and coconut.
I had packed light for the trip and left most of my stuff in Wellington even though I was heading home afterwards for five weeks, but I was also able to leave a bag at reception for the next five nights while we did the islands. We had an early start the next morning so went to sleep early.
Day 2 Beachcomber Island
We had breakfast outside in the warmth at 6:30 AM looking out at the water before catching a shuttle out front to the Denerau marina. We made sure to take out money at the ATM before going, because many of these islands do not have cash machines. As a side note, Fiji money is some of my favorite money. It’s so bright and colorful with happy looking people and animals on it.
We caught our boat, the Yasawa Flier, and sat on the top deck to watch the islands as we passed by. The way this boat works is as a hop-on, hop-off. You book your itinerary before going and pick which islands you want to see. They’ll put your next destination on your luggage when you board, and if you reach your departure point, you just hop off when they call for you. You can visit one island or a bunch. Stay however many nights you like. The itinerary is up to you.
We’d chosen three islands, each offering different sorts of things. Our first stop was the party island, Beachcomber. From the boat, it just looks idyllic. It’s this perfect tiny island against the bright blue sea. You can walk around the shoreline in ten minutes.
We hopped onto a smaller motor boat off of the Yasawa Flier which brought us to land. A group of staff members from the resort were waiting to greet us on shore with ukuleles and singing, a trend that would continue on every island we visited. It was all just so happy!
Staff took our bags to our room and we went to check in and receive a tropical juice welcome drink. We stayed in a dorm again which had about six bunks (each with a locker underneath large enough to fit your whole bag in), but there were only a few other people there. Our bunk was right next to a window with wooden slats by the door which went right outside to a stone path leading right to the beach. There was foliage everywhere. The showers were nice and hot, and the sinks were outside.
We immediately put on our swimsuits and walked out onto the sand. The views were gorgeous. The beach slants down to the water on an incline, and the ocean was so clear. You could see other islands in the distance. We brought an iPod and a book and just chilled out sunbathing until lunch.
Meals on Beachcomber were served buffet style in a pavilion of picnic tables. We also stupidly listened to our very flamboyant waiter, Dora, when he offered us a choice of cocktails that ended up being ridiculously expensive and too strong to actually be enjoyable. We realized afterwards it had been the first of many happy hours during which we could have gotten very cheap drinks if we’d been paying attention.
One great source of amusement was this song that they literally played at least once an hour. Actually I’m very excited because I just went searching for it and found it! It is called Waist and Power by a band called 4x4 out of Ghana. I haven’t heard this song in three years and I’m hoping nobody goes through my work search history now and sees my lyric searches about needing a strong black man.
We did the ten minute tour of the resort after lunch before going to lay out in a hammock in front of our dorm. Unfortunately rope hammocks are never as comfy as they look, so we went to nap inside on the bunks instead for a few hours.
We got up again for dinner and hit the bar which is pretty cool. It’s all wooden and open air with two stories, a sand floor, and a pool table on the balcony-style second story.
This time we went for the cheaper frozen slushy cocktails- I had the sex on the beach which was really good. We stayed at the bar for awhile and sat up top to watch the staff teaching a bunch of people the “Bula Dance”, forced our way through a jug of horrible Fiji Bitter, checked out the gift shop, then went to bed.
I know that Beachcomber has a massive 86 bed dorm on the property and gets very full during the high season, but being that we were there in the off-season, it wasn’t as much a party island as I expect it can be.
Day 3 Waya Lailai: Crafting & Cultural Night
After breakfast, we rushed to check out and catch our boat to our next island, Waya Lailai.
This island was so different from the last, but just as pretty. The scenery reminded me of LOST- I even found a hatch!
There was a small beach by the shore and views right across to the neighboring island, Kuata, with its rock formations. The stairs behind the beach would take you up to a grassy level with straw huts and the very basic main building with picnic tables on the deck. The next level up held the dorm buildings, then behind that were steep, forested hills rising up into a huge cliff peak.
While I was a fan of the island, I was not such a fan of the resort. First of all, we’d booked a private double, and the lady took us to a room with two single beds and a bunk. I pointed that out to her, and she told us nobody else was coming and we could move the beds around to make a double. Like, I feel like that doesn’t count when you paid for a double bed? Whatever. So we shoved the bunk bed to the side and moved the singles together, but they were at different heights and it did not so much make it a unified bed.
We had our own bathroom, but the water was freezing and it was turned off at 6 PM every night. Meanwhile, the electricity was turned off during the daytime hours, so you only generally had either water or power, never both. We didn’t have a fan in the room either. It was lucky the island was so pretty.
Oh, this is a good time to mention that we had been told we could drink the tap water in Fiji. I did through the whole trip with no issues, but Lewis, who has a really sensitive stomach, was messed up for days and days. If you’ve got issues handling foreign food or water, I might err on the side of caution.
We went down to the buffet style lunch after settling in. They’d ring a bell whenever it was time for a meal. There was a weaving class after lunch at 1:00, so we joined that and went over to a little area where old ladies were sitting on blankets with crafting materials. We each sat down with one who taught us to first weave tan and green wooden bracelets followed by letting us make an anklet out of their collection of tiny shells. They were also selling handicrafts on their tables, so we left with a wooden tribal mask.
Afternoon coffee was served at 3:30, then we laid out on the beach hammocks reading. It was all a very chilled out day.
That night was a Fijian cultural night, so we went to get changed into something nice when it started to get dark out and walked down when we heard the dinner bell. They had put together a slightly fancier set-up with tablecloths and moved the buffet outside between all the tables. The villagers across the island had come to visit and were all sitting around in the corner of the patio drinking kava (more on kava later).
The one negative was that, traditionally, Fijians do not use silverware, so we had to eat the whole meal with our hands. This is fine for things like bread but no so much when you’re trying to eat spinach or roasted pumpkin. We bought some Fiji Gold beers afterwards (marginally better than Fiji Bitter, but only just), and sat to watch the entertainment.
A group of villagers came out in traditional clothing- basic dresses for the women and grass skirts and neckpieces for the men- and sang songs for us. We even had a dance train around the tables. It was really nice and enjoyable, but we went off to sleep right after it was over.
Day 4 Waya Lailai: Shark Diving
The real reason we chose to visit Waya Lailai as one of our islands was because they offered a snorkel with actual sharks. The only ones going out to sea were us two, an Irish guy, and two Fijian dive guides. The scariest part ended up not being the snorkeling nor being the sharks, it was the ride out onto the water.
We boarded this rickety little motor boat, sat on the ground, and braced ourselves as we crashed against the direction of the waves. The sea was rough and I had to close my eyes because of the rocking. I was sure the tiny thing was going to capsize.
I was so relieved when we finally stopped what felt like centuries later, and it was more than worth it. This is the best snorkel I have ever done in my life. The water was calm at the spot we stopped, I had a life jacket, and my mask stayed clear. The sea was beautiful and I thought the reef was nicer than the area I saw of the Great Barrier Reef.
But most of all, sharks! We swam along the outskirts of the reef and saw a few white-tipped reef sharks who began swimming along just a few feet below us. Our guide had a fish on a spear that he was using to tempt them to come to the surface. Once they’d swim up to him, he’d reach out and grab their fin. He even fully lifted one out of the water and held it over his head! It was crazy.
We stayed out for about twenty minutes and I enjoyed every second of it. The small group, the clear water, the freaking sharks swimming almost within arm’s reach. We even had a quicker and calmer ride back to shore now that we were going with the current.
My one regret is that we have no photos underwater. We didn’t think to buy an underwater camera before leaving the mainland and did not realize just how basic the Waya Lailai resort would be. They had a tiny shop you couldn’t even go inside (order at the window) for basic necessities, but nothing like a disposable camera. Super disappointing, but at least I’ve got the memories (I say bitterly).
I spent the rest of the day beyond bored. I do not like beach holidays. I can deal with two, maybe three hours max on a beach, then I’m losing my mind. What’s the excitement? If I wanted to sit around reading a book or using electronics, I would have stayed at home. People go and just… sit. I can’t handle it. We read books, laid on the hammocks, had dinner, watched a movie in the room, then went to bed. I was so ready to move on in the morning.
Day 5 Manta Ray Island
It took an hour on the boat the next day to reach our final island stop, Manta Ray. Holy shit, I was in love. We docked on shore to the typical welcoming band, and I immediately noticed the cute bar area and long beach with volleyball net. They sat us down at a picnic table to brief us on the resort and gave us welcome smoothies.
Next to the bar with its plethora of drink options, there is a covered lounge area with loads of comfy couches. Behind that, everything is buried in the jungle with paths leading to the different buildings.
Bure is the Fijian word for a bungalow or wood/straw hut, and we were staying in one of the tree bures. It was our own little one room house on stilts right behind the bar area.
We had a front porch, a stone basin at the bottom of the stairs to wash off our feet, hammocks out front, and an absolutely adorable room with a pebble floor, sliding glass door, lots of wooden slat windows, and a big purple bed with fresh flowers at the bottom. I was beside myself with excitement. Everything about the resort put me in the best mood.
The shower and bathroom bures were a short walk away...
...then the dining hall rises above the trees at the back of the path. There were gorgeous views from up there over the treetops facing the water. They even had a resident orange cat who was always scrounging around for food.
My favorite thing about the dining hall was that we got to choose our meals off an actual menu! We’d had to pay for a ridiculously pricey compulsory meal plan- like $87 a day or something- in order to stay at the resort which cost way more than either of us would have spent on our own, but at least it meant we could get whatever we wanted. They would have 12 or so options written on the board every day to choose from, then a waitress would come over to take our order.
After our lunch the first day, we went down to the beach to try to nap, but I was still tired afterwards leading me to order the most amazing iced blended coffee from the bar to treat myself. It was fantastic and I was hyped up on a caffeine buzz the rest of the evening.
Lewis and I went wandering down the beach past the nicer jungle bures, then went the opposite way where we found a rocky cove and took some photos.
That night was a buffet dinner in the hall, then we stayed up a little bit near the bar to watch the entertainment. It was basically the same as the singing and dancing we’d seen on Waya Lailai two nights before though, so we had an early night.
Day 6 Manta Ray Island: Manta Ray Swim & Snorkeling
The biggest draw on Manta Ray Island is the option to snorkel with manta rays. They had been very noncommittal about a timeframe when we’d checked in the day before, basically telling us they would probably leave from the beach around 2-3. That’s a full hour, but we didn’t want to miss it, so instead of exploring or anything, we’d stayed on the beach and waited in case they sounded the drums that meant the group was heading out.
Well, around 4, nothing still had happened. I went up to one of the guys to ask if the swim was happening, and he said no, maybe in the morning. The other guy next to him jumped in to tell me that he was lying, they had no idea, just listen for the drums.
There’s a phrase in Fiji called “Fiji Time” which basically means that there is no timeframe for anything and everything happens on an arbitrary schedule. It proved to be a very accurate way to sum up my experiences in the country.
Anyway, on this particular morning, we woke up to the sound of drums at 7:45 AM. Lewis said it must be the swim, but I told him it was just breakfast and to go back to sleep. Luckily he did not listen to me and decided to go out to check, because sure enough, everyone was gathering on the beach for the manta ray swim. I was not pleased.
I got up, threw on a bikini, and headed to the surf shop to rent my snorkel. This is where I made a potentially fatal mistake and turned down a life jacket. It is only by very good luck and having Lewis there that this decision did not lead to my lifeless body needing to be dragged out of the ocean.
We had also caved and spent an extortionate amount of money the day before on a disposable underwater camera. That resort took full advantage of their monopoly on the island market and charged us somewhere around $60 for that stupid camera. I actually can’t believe we paid for it. It turned out to be a terrible decision too, because whether it was due to the film being expired or possibly the x-ray at the airport flying home, only about 5 of the photos came out.
There were quite a lot of people piled into the small boat and we went a short way out to the area where the manta ray had been spotted. The first time they told us to jump out, I did. Nobody in the group had a life jacket and I figured I could manage. I was wrong. Before long, the whole group was far in the distance. The current was strong, and I was on my own trying to keep my head above water knowing I’d never catch up.
Luckily Lewis was still nearby keeping an eye on me, so I yelled to him that I couldn’t swim and needed to get to the boat, but our own boat was too far away and kept moving. I was panicking a bit and may have tried to drown Lewis in the process of staying afloat, but so very thankfully there was a boat from a different resort within earshot and I called out to them that I needed help. We managed to make it there and they helped us on before taking us back to our own boat.
I was feeling pretty useless and shaken by nearly drowning, so when they took us to the next area to look for manta rays, I just sat on the boat. I had asked our guide if I could use a life jacket, but he told me that all of the ones there were built strictly for life-saving and not swimming, so I wouldn’t even be able to get my head in the water with it on.
I was pretty bummed, but the one Fijian guy left on the boat with me looked like he was feeling bad for my predicament. He asked why I wasn’t going back out, I told him I wasn’t a good swimmer, and then he went and picked up the one hidden life jacket on the boat that was for swimming, put it on me, and told me to go. He was so nice! I was so grateful.
I was glad too, because I did get to see a manta ray. It was a big, black ray just gracefully gliding through the water below us. It even picked up its head once or twice! They’re such cool creatures. We swam with it for about ten minutes until it dipped down too low, then we got back in the boat to head to shore. Of course, none of our photos of the manta ray came out, so that sucks.
We had missed breakfast time, but they’d kept the food out for the manta ray group until we returned. We laid on the beach then until lunch followed by a nap in the room afterwards. Beach holidays=boring even when your resort is super cool.
A cool thing about the island was that the reef was literally a minute’s swim from the beach, so we took our snorkel gear back out later on our own and swam out. As soon as the water started getting less shallow, we began seeing brightly colored fish, coral, and even blue starfish. It was really pretty! I was, of course, a mess in the sea though and kept choking on water in my tube, flailing around, and being massively paranoid about stepping on a stonefish (one of the most venomous fish in the world) and dying.
That did not happen, but after the current carried us all the way along the shoreline, I was happy to be back on land. We celebrated with cocktails on our porch before hopping back on the boat to go out for sunset tubing. We bought a few Vonu beers to take out with us (“vonu” is turtle in Fijian and turtles are good luck), probably the best beers we had in Fiji.
The guides took us around to another side of the island. We could see the nearest bank which was free of people with the moon starting to appear above all of the palm trees. We all grabbed black tubes off the boat and jumped into the water. It was one of my favorite activities of the trip, just so relaxing.
We floated around peacefully on the waves for about an hour while the sun went down. I had one of those real moments of life appreciation there with my feet in the water, beer in my hand, and the water glowing orange and sparkling as the sun set.
I also got fairly tipsy off of four beers which was pretty great. Once the sun had disappeared, we headed back to the beach and went up to the dining hall for dinner. It was back to a menu again for the meal, and I had a pesto gnocchi that also came with soup, salad, and dessert. Probably not worth a third of that $87, but hey.
To show you what a small world it is, we really coincidentally sat with the strangest assortment of people that meal. Two of the girls were not only from Ohio, but one was from North Royalton and the other had attended John Carroll. AND they were flying on the exact same flight back to the USA with me out of Nadi. I ended up seeing them in the row right behind me on the plane. Crazy. The third girl was a Canadian who had been working at Blend bar in Wellington (where we lived in New Zealand) for the past three months and was friends with one of our good friends and future roommates there. What the hell are the chances?
After dinner, we headed to the bar for games. First was a game that involved partnering up and pushing a rock as far as you could past a line without actually touching the ground past the line. It involved a lot of flexibility (one of my strong points) and we almost won it. I was doing straight splits by the end. Literally the only reason we lost was because the guy on the other team had a foot of height on me and I could not make my leg span any wider after four rounds of back and forth between our teams. Not so fair. I think everyone knew I was the real winner (but they got the drink vouchers so that means literally nothing).
I also made it to the final three on the limbo before we gave up on games and just chilled on the loungers with some beers before going to bed.
Day 7 Back to Nadi
Our boat didn’t leave until the afternoon, so we spent the morning just reading on the couches. Eventually the staff called us over to sing us a farewell song which was super sweet. It was a few hours on the boat to get back to the Denerau marina, and it was not such a relaxing ride as we noticed one of our ex-coworkers from the Ave who nobody liked on the boat and put all of our energy into not being seen by her.
We reached Nadi around 6 PM and got a free shuttle back to Smugglers Cove. After checking back in, we went out back for dinner where I had another completely spectacular soup (tomato basil this time), some wedges, and a strong Fijian Sling. We watched the fire spinners who were performing then headed to bed because part two of our trip was beginning in the morning.
I’ll finish up Fiji next time with three nights around the mainland rainforest trekking, sandboarding, rafting, and meeting the locals.
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