Fun and Frolics in Fiji

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Following on from our whirlwind tour of Oz, it was time for some serious R&R. Seeing people wearing shirts and ties - and even gatecrashing a Commonwealth Bank office party! - was too much of a reminder of the real world, so it was time for some more blatant escapism... Roll on Fiji!

Having talked to a number of people and scoured the web and the guide books like good little travellers, we decided to forego mainland Fiji and head straight for the islands. We chose the Yasawa group as our destination - more remote and hence a little less spoilt than the more easily accessible Maanucas group. There are other, more far-flung islands in Fiji, but given our short time we wanted to minimise travel as much as possible.

A four hour cruise took us from Denerau port in Nadi to the beautiful island of Nacula, near the top of the Yasawa group. Our destination was the Oarsmans Bay Lodge, chosen mainly because Andi read that it boasted one of the loveliest, whitest beaches in Fiji. And she wasn´t wrong! The stretch of long deserted beach outdid anything we saw in Thailand (with the possible exception of Koh Lipe, but the debate goes on...) Best of all was the seclusion; our resort was the only one on the beach and held at most about 30 guests!

Our accommodation was a little bungalow situated right on the beach, no more than five steps from door to sea at high tide. It was a beautiful setting, with lush green hills, white sand and turquoise water. The snorkelling off the beach was great, with lots of marine life and coral reef. The water temperature being like a warm bath helped too! We did a day of diving while we were here and that was equally spectacular - helped to make up for the disappointment of the Whitsundays!

We made a token effort to do a trip, visiting the place where Blue Lagoon was filmed, but pretty much spent most of our time lounging on the beach, playing in the water and generally recoving. Lazy days were followed by evenings spent drinking Fiji Bitter and duty-free vodka with some of the lovely people we met here. There was a good group of english speaking people who were up for a laugh and a few drinks every night, but it never got too out of hand.

We stayed at Oarsmans for 5 nights, enjoying every minute of it (despite being made to learn fijian dancing!) We were sad to leave, but the blow was softened by the fact that we were moving on to yet another lovely resort on Waya Island. Our initial impressions of Octopus Resort were not great (Andi being particularly underwhelmed); no singing when we arrived, more expensive prices and a room that wasn´t en-suite (oooh the hardship!). Normally we wouldn´t have been in the slightest bit bothered, but given that Fiji was such a huge splurge on our otherwise tight budget, we were expecting a bit of luxury. Didn´t help that it rained on the day we arrived!

Octopus was slightly bigger resort than Oarsmans, with a longer, slightly more off-white beach. After the first dodgy day we actually ended up really enjoying our time here. The food was really good, we met some great people (including a couple from Brum who came down with us from Oarsmans) and the place generally felt quite ´posh´. The highlight of the stay was definitely the day-long snorkelling trip we bullied the events manager into organising for us. It shouldn´t have run until the Saturday, our departure day, but we made them go on a Wednesday instead (by popular demand, which translates as Andi bullying all the other guests into signing up for it!) We are so glad we managed to go - we got to snorkel for more than half an hour with the largest manta ray we´d seen! It was well over 4 metres across and was just gliding along about 5 metres below the surface. It (and some of it´s smaller manta buddies) seemed totally unfazed by our presence, gliding effortlessly in the current while we swan above and around it. The current was very strong and swimming against it was pretty exhausting, but it was so worthwhile. Unfortunately neither Andi and I could duck-dive down very far due to ear infections and blocked sinuses :-( Was still a great experience - all the other passengers (there were 10 of us) thanked Andi for bullying them into coming. (For those of you who can´t imagine Andi bullying anyone, just remember how persuasive she can be when she wants to go dancing on a Friday night...!)

Heading back to mainland Fiji was sad. We were significantly poorer, slightly browner, and, with the exception of Andi´s ear infection, in better shape than when we arrived. After a nights layover in Nadi (in something akin to the Bates Motel) it was time to get back to some proper travelling and head off to South America...

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Photos

A Room with a View
Watching the sunset from our balcony at Oarsman Bay Lodge on Nacula

Shake It!
If you can't beat em join em!

Another Hard Day at the Office
Paul relaxing hard on the beach at Octopus Resort.

Comments

[Sharon Tomasi]

Need advice...
We fancy Fiji but it seems very expensive - flights and acccommodation, too. Would you highly recommend it? It looked like you had a great time... Was the snorkelling offshore good...or great...or fantastic?!

[Andi and Paul]

Go for it!
It is uber expensive, and you have really got to choose your destinations well because some of the beaches are awful. We did a day trip to one popular backpackers place (i.e. cheap!) and it was awful. Oarsman Bay Lodge on Nacula is definitely THE place to go. You can stay in a dorm and save a lot of money, but I would recommend splurging on a private room because they are gorgeous! The snorkelling off the beach here is some of the best snorkelling I´ve done off a beach, and was better than Ko Lipe. We did two dives, the first of which was really good - great vis, very warm water and coral on a par with the Whitsundays. I´m really glad we did it and would highly recommend it especially for beach bums like you two!.

[Andi and Paul]

PS
Here´s a link for Oarsman, just in case you still need convincing! http://oarsmansbay.com/