Fiji. A South Pacific tropical paradise of 330 islands and an extraordinarily beautiful place. Once home to cannibals, witchcraft and hostile tribes, Fiji now blends tourism with farming and fishing, yet maintains many of its traditions. Like so much of this part of the world, Fiji began its wrenching journey into modernity with a visit from Cook and his brigade. Until the 1970’s Fiji was a British terrority; a laughable concept today given Britain’s current isolation on the world stage. The British introduced indentured Indian workers to Fiji, who, after their years of subjugation ended, established Indian sub-colonies on these islands, creating a local conflict with the native Fijians that persists to this day.
Fiji is our last stop on our 12 week adventure. We have spent a wonderful 8 days on the main island, Viti Levu, and what a stunning way to end our travels. A sybaritic pair, we found Fiji to be a genuine paradise. Not sanitised like many tropical islands, as can be found in the Caribbean, or the Maldives, Fiji retains character and culture. Fijians, like the Samoans are universally friendly (everyone smiles, waves and yells a ‘Bula!’ as you pass by). Local farmers travel by horseback, along the single road encircling the island. Men with machetes saunter around, initially a little threatening, until you realise that with plenty of rain and oodles of sunshine, plant life here is rapacious and needs constant tending to keep the jungle from encroaching on villages. The seas are azure, and the island is ringed by reefs, which provide a natural barrier along the coast, keeping the Pacific waves at bay.
We stayed at the wonderful Maui Palms, a boutique resort on the Coral Coast. With only 5 members of staff, we got to know them all well, and they couldn’t do enough for us. We had a small villa – one of nine, looking out over a quiet swimming pool to the reef and sea beyond. The food cooked by the extraordinarily hard working chef Neil was exceptional. #soblessed #humblebrag #shutup
We hired a car for a couple of days. The first day was to travel along the coast to Pacific Harbour to join Beqa Adventure Divers for what turned out to be the singularly best dive of our lives. Beqa have been here for over 20 years and work closely with James Cook University and their Marine Biologists to help monitor, conserve and protect the waters around Beqa Island, off the south coast of Fiji.
The dive outfit in particular monitors the shark populations around south Fiji. We like sharks. To attract the sharks and to help fund the work they do, they feed sharks at a feeding station, and invite divers to join and watch the feeding. They count the sharks, place tracking devices on dorsal fins, and take samples on a weekly basis to ensure the sharks aren’t becoming reliant on the food provided by Beqa. With this conservation effort in mind, we felt comfortable diving with thim as this wasn’t just a tourist attraction, there was Real Science going on. Also, they were the best dive outfit we’ve been with.
Both hand feeding and using bins of bait, Beqa create a spectacle that we only ever thought possible to see in a David Attenborough documentary. We were in the middle of a Bull shark, Nurse Shark, Lemon and Reef shark feeding frenzy. Sharks surrounded us – we couldn’t watch our backs, but they weren’t interested in us; they wanted the Tuna. It was without question one of the highlights of our lives:
After the spectacular dive, we spent the next day driving around some of the island, visiting the Sand Dunes National Park, and an orchid garden boasting a sum total of about 6 orchids 🤨.
The driving was easy, but the roads are winding, and the speed limits low. There are police with speed guns everywhere. We saw many flower tributes at the roadside, including one wreath on a stick, with a motorcycle helmet placed on top. Quite chilling.
We took another couple of dives locally on the Coral Coast, which were both very relaxing and easy dives, but with the exception of superb visibility, there wasn’t much to see. It’s apparent that this coast of Fiji is very over-fished.
Another day, we took a tour to the Navua River, which flows 65km through rugged mountainous territory of the island. We were picked up and drove to the Raiwaqa village, where we boarded narrow motorised boats and headed up river.
We wound our way through the Fijian rainforest, hillsides dripping with dense green foliage, and flood plains of the river dotted with huge explosions of bamboo. After motoring our way through several rapids, we were dropped off at a landing spot and walked into the jungle, up a path to a huge waterfall. Here we swam and clambered our way around the cliff side, under the torrents. Our guide, Ziggi – a muscular chap in his 20’s disappeared up the sheer cliffside, and was next seen leaping from around 30m up into the pool under the falls. It was amazing that he didn’t injure himself, but it wasn’t his first rodeo.
After short trip on a traditional Bamboo raft and a swim in the Navua (filming location for the critically acclaimed movie, Anaconda 2), we headed back to the village, where we were shown around by Nim. Nim was hugely gregarious. He looked and acted like a funny, sweet and extremely endearing Don Cheadle, and showed us various facets of village life, from the Kava Ceremony (a narcotic plant root drink, consumed extensively across the South Pacific), Lovo (meat cooked in a covered fire pit), extremely fast basket weaving, and traditional dances performed by the locals. I also got a massage from one of the local village women, which was superb.
The rest of our time in Fiji was spent swimming, reading, kayaking, eating, exercising and lazing around in the beautiful surroundings, all at ‘Fiji-time’ – which is a pace set by the locals, slow, and doesn’t really use watches. 8 days of staying in one place, moving at a local pace and enjoying the delights of this amazing island. What a way to finish our trip. We love Fiji.
Travels with Sklaroffs 