Fun-tasy island
We took the flight to Nadi from Hong Kong. Both being visa free destinations, we made the plan in a jiffy. Finally we took off. The flight attendants had cream frangipanis tucked behind their ears. Drinks were multicoloured. It was a South Pacific holiday after all.
Nadi was my arrival point as many of Fiji’s highlights were easily accessible from here.
My first port of call was the Viseisei village, one of the largest, with approximately 800 residents, where the ancestors of the modern Fijians are fabled to have first landed. It is located between Nadi and Lautoka, and is also where the current president of Fiji is from and still resides, two weeks every month (remaining time in Suva). The tour started with a small market of stalls, run by women who sold things like mother of pearl necklaces, masks representing tribes made out of treated wood and beautiful amethyst bracelets. Next, I saw the native bread fruit, which when cooked is similar to potatoes, but grows on trees and is quite big.
The houses the villagers lived in were simple and small and they followed two religions within the village, The Methodist Church was near the village, while the Catholics had to travel into town for their church service. I also saw memorial burial sites for each tribe and loved this insight into their culture.
The next two days were spent on Denarau Island. The port Denarau Marina provides direct transit and access to many resorts, day cruises and other activities such as game fishing, island hopping and dinner cruises, whilst enjoying the tranquility of the Pacific sunset.
If you want to experience a bit of the tropical island lifestyle, this is a great way to do so. So, at Denarau we boarded the South Sea Cruises catamaran, the “Cheetah” for a journey to Mana Island and began our boat ride to the smaller islands before finally landing at Mana Island. It was gorgeous. We had the whole day and night on this island and lots of entertainment. While snorkeling here I even saw a Crown of Thorns starfish amongst all the tropical and corals, which I wasn’t expecting.
The next day, we were transferred to the deserted Modriki Island, which is famous for being the location of Tom Hank’s film Castaway. The beach was scenic and a quick stroll along the beach also took me to “desperation point”.
It was a great week in absolutely amazing surroundings before I finally reached Nadi again, where I visited the Hindu temple and like a true Indian shopped till I dropped at the Nadi market.
Fijians are very friendly and South sea cruises and island hopping was an amazing way to make the most of Fijian island life and to top it all, good value for money. Bula (a word for having a good time in Fijian) is how I would describe my experience.
The writer is a travel enthusiast
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