This blog entry for our Fiji trip was meant to be very short: eat, rest and play – but we got carried away with some trip details to support some of our pictures. Our visit to Fiji, namely the Yasawa islands, exceeded our expectations. Hope everyone can visit Fiji one day.

“When you land in Fiji and are first welcomed with the greeting “Bula!” (pronounced boo-lah!), you will certainly feel you have arrived somewhere special. The Fijian people are exceedingly warm and friendly and they love to express their love of life and their genuine hospitality with infectious, enthusiastic, and ubiquitous “Bulas!”” quoted from

2018.01.18 – Auckland (NZ) – Nadi (FJ) – Finally the day had come for our reward vacation to Fiji. We started to plan for this trip during our stay in Wellington over the Christmas holiday. We knew little about Fiji until we read the Lonely Planet(LP) travel guide. We realized that Fiji was not a single island but was made up of over 330 islands, of which 110 were permanently inhabited. We also learned that most visitors who wanted to enjoy beautiful beaches and snorkeling headed out for two groups of islands, the Mamanuca and the Yasawa, located west of the main Fiji island of Viti Levu. These islands were serviced by a daily large catamaran boat, dubbed the Yasawa Flyer(YF). The furthest island stop was reached after 5 hours of riding the YF.

We left our Auckland hotel at 6:30am using the hotel’s courtesy airport shuttle. We left behind our cycling equipment and tandem at the hotel’s luggage room. Our travel luggage consisted of only our two front bicycle panniers and our small day pack. We needed to purchase some suncream at the airport’s duty free as we had left our newly bought suncream at the hotel knowing that we could not go through the security screening with it. Our 3.5 hours flight to Nadi, a city on the west coast of Viti Levu, was uneventful. The Nadi custom and immigration were quite efficient. Outside the airport, we were expecting a bit of a chaotic haggling environment but we were surprised by the orderly and respectful folks. We took a taxi to our backpacker hotel. Around 2:00pm, we checked into the Aquarius on the Beach hotel, located half way between the airport and Nadi’s city center. Feeling the warm heat of Fiji, we felt sorry for all of our family and friends back home going through a cold winter (well not really!). We had lunch beside the pool and splurged on some cocktails. Later, we visited a store to stock up on bottled water for our island hoping adventure. A salesperson at an outdoor store in Auckland, who had visited Fiji, advised us that water was quite expensive on the islands – the further the island was from main island of Vitu Levu. Based on his advise, we opted to buy 4 bottles of 3 liters of drinking water (more on that through out this post). We had our evening meal at a near by Korean fast food.

2018.01.19 – Nadi – Mantaray Island Resort (FJ) – We had our complimentary hotel breakfast at 6:30am as we had a courtesy shuttle bus pickup from the Awesome Fiji boat company at 7am. We had expected a small 10 passenger shuttle bus but we were surprised by the large 50+ passenger luxury bus. As we boarded the bus, we were given our previously purchased catamaran vouchers for each segment of our island hoping for the next 10 days. The bus brought us to the Denaurau Marina where we boarded one of the five catamaran boat, owned and operated by Cruise South Sea/Awesome Fiji boat company, which alternate the daily servicing of over 20+ island resorts along the two stretches of the group of islands of Mamanuca and Yasawa. Early on in the boat ride, we were excited to see how passengers were off-boarded from the catamaran and brought to shore while others on-boarded the boat. Along the way, we passed by the island of Motori which was used for the filming of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks (ok – we did not really see the island as it was behind another island but we could easily imaged it!). After three hours riding the Yasawa Flyer, we were off-boarded onto the Mantaray Island Resort passenger boat. As we arrived on shore we were greeted with a Fijian welcome song and a fruit drink. Three other passengers joined us during the reception and introduction to the resort. The resort offered dormitory beds, treetop houses and beach front villas. We had opted for the mid-range treetop house. The resort accommodation required the purchase of a mandatory meal plan including breakfast, lunch and dinner. After lunch, we explored the beach front. We discovered that the resort’s shores were best explored by snorkeling over its reef. In the evening we attended a Fijian singing/dancing show offered by the resort staff.

2018.01.20 – Mantaray Island Resort (FJ) – Jenny woke me up early in the morning to catch the beautiful sunrise directly in front of our treetop house. After breakfast, I attended a jewellery making session, as part of the many free of charge and charged activities offered by the resort. I made a bracelet for Jenny! The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the breach front.

2018.01.21 – Mantaray Island Resort (FJ) – Jenny learned to make a bracelet as well. In the afternoon, we rented some snorkeling equipment to discover the nearby reefs. Unfortunately, Jenny gave up early on as she did not feel comfortable breathing only through her mouth. I enjoyed some great snorkeling for an hour or two and understood why the reefs at Mantaray were part of a protected marine reserve. Jenny adopted one of the many beach front hammock while enjoying her wifi connection. I attended a weaving session where a fan and basket were created from a single coconut tree branch.

2018.01.22 – Mantaray Island Resort – Nanuya Island Resort (FJ) – After breakfast, we checked out of our treetop house and waited for our boat scheduled for 11:30am which would bring us further north to our next island resort. Before our departure, we were sung a farewell song by the staff. We really enjoyed the friendliness of the resort staff which greeted us earnestly with “bula” each time we crossed path. Most of the staff members came from a village some 45 mins away by boat. They typically lived and worked at the resort for 24 days after which they had 5 days off. We clearly enjoyed our simple treetop house accommodation, especially the nice breeze that swept through. The treetop house was on the hillside. Jenny did not particular enjoy the shared compost washroom or the luke warm showers, but these were a small deterrents from our overall enjoyable stay in Mantaray. Although drinking water was readily available and free from the two bars, we managed to consume one of our four bottles of drinking water.

We arrived at our second resort, Nanuya Island Island, after 1.5 hours riding the Yasawa Flyer catamaran. We were again greeted with a welcome song, necklace and fruit drink upon our arrival. Five other passengers joined us during the reception and introduction to the resort. The resort offered treetop house and beach front villas. We had opted for the treetop house. The reception was not as friendly as our previous resort. We were demanded our credit card and passports details by some rather unfriendly staff. We checked into our treetop house, twice the size of our previous treetop house, which now offered its own washroom. There were no mandatory meal plan at this resort. We had some early disappointments with the resort’s wifi – initially in terms of cost and then reliability. Late afternoon, we enjoyed swimming at the nice sandy beach in front of the resort. As we had a very late lunch, we skipped the evening meal.

2018.01.23 – Nanuya Island Resort (FJ) – After our complementary buffet breakfast, we took a double kayak and we paddled to the nearby beautiful and sandy Blue Lagoon beach (yes, the very own beach used for the filming of the Blue Lagoon movie!). After a shared lunch, we were treated to a complementary 10 min. foot ritual massage. We learned that the resort offered some full face snorkeling masks which allowed normal breathing using nose and mouth. Jenny was thrilled to be able to snorkel with such a full face mask. We had our evening meal at the resort (where else!).

2018.01.24 – Nanuya Island Resort (FJ) – After our breakfast, we set out for a 30 mins hike to a nearby settlement where we had learned about the existence of a modest tea house. The walking trail was quite enjoyable – even under the morning heat. As we arrived in the settlement, we saw a lady in the middle of the bay waving at us. We arrived at Lo’s tea house, but it was closed. We waited a bit to see if anyone would be showing up. Shortly after, we were warmly greeted by Lo, the tea house owner, whom we had seen in the bay fishing. We enjoyed some of Lo’s famous lemon tea and donuts as well as some good conversation with her. We learned a bit more about local life on the islands. In the afternoon, we took the kayak and our snorkeling equipment and returned to the Blue Lagoon beach. Before starting our snorkeling, we did some fish feeding using dried bread/toast provided by the resort staff.

2018.01.25 – Nanuya Island Resort – Navutu Stars Resort (FJ) – After breakfast, we enjoyed the last few hours of our treetop house before checking out. As our resort was at the end of the Yasawa Flyer catamaran itinerary, we waited until 1:30pm for our pickup to head back south for our third and final island resort. We left Nanuya Island Resort with some disappointments. Although the manicured grounds, accommodation and food were great, we were clearly frustrated by the wifi quality and its associated cost. Except for a few staff members, we felt folks were not overly warm and friendly as we had experienced at our first resort. The resort management did not appear to be overly responsive either when reporting maintenance issues – e.g. the lightning along the path to our treetop house was not working. Although two complementary 1.5l bottles of drinking water were included in our mini fridge, we still managed to consume one of our three remaining drinking water bottles.

Needless the say that during our short boat ride of 20 mins to our next resort, we were a bit concerned about moving to an even higher-end resort – would we encounter similar disappointments? The greeting from Navutu Stars Resort staff did not only include a welcome song and fruit drink but they had also rolled out a large banner from the beach – a nice touch! The registration was friendly and quickly addressed Jenny’s number one concern about wifi quality and cost. They offered every bure with a portable cellular wifi device and it was free! Although the resort did not carry a full face snorkeling mask, the staff reassured Jenny that they would ensure she would learn snorkeling, with traditional equipment, before she left Navutu Stars Resort. Our garden bure (Fijian word for a wood-and-straw hut, sometimes similar to a cabin or bungalow), one of the nine accommodations at the resort, was simply awesome. We couldn’t imagine what the other higher-end villas could look like. About five to six times the size of first treetop house and two to three times the size of our second treetop house. Jenny and I opted for two different meal plan, one full board and one half board. With reliable wifi, we spent a few hours catching up to the world while enjoying our beautiful and spacious garden view bure. We got introduced to the resort’s great cuisine during our evening three course meal. Jenny had a large plate of crabs. It was clearly a great start to our three night stay at Navutu.

2018.01.26 – Navutu Stars Resort (FJ) – We had planned on attending a yoga class at 7am on the resort’s sunset deck facing the ocean, but as it had rained shortly after sunrise, we had presumed the class would be canceled but it had not. We had a superb breakfast. We both enjoyed a 30mins complimentary massage in the late morning. In the afternoon, Jenny cautiously tried breathing through the snorkeling tube and managed to head out into the water for an hour or so of snorkeling. By lunch time, we were already amazed at the genuine friendliness of the staff members. The service provided by staff was well above any of our expectations. In the late afternoon, we participated, with several resort staff members, in our first Fijian kava session – it was a great learning experience. We had complementary cocktails (with our meal plan) before our evening meal. Jenny savored a great lobster tails meal.

2018.01.27 – Navutu Stars Resort (FJ) – We attended our 7am yoga class before breakfast. Later after breakfast, we went snorkeling in search of some reefs. In the early afternoon, we met, at the pool, a friendly couple from the US that had recently arrived at the resort. The four of us joined in a short mid-afternoon hike to a nearby hilltop with some great views of the surrounding islands. Later when we arrived at the dining room, Jenny and I were surprised by the resort staff when we were directed to secluded gazebo tent in front of the beach for an intimate evening dining experience. This arrangement was yet another of the many gestures the staff at Navutu Stars Resort made to simply go well beyond our expectations.

2018.01.28 – Navutu Stars Resort – Nadi (FJ) – We attended once again our 7am yoga class before breakfast. As it was Sunday and we had heard that attending a church service in a village was quite an experience, we were really pleased to join the resort, in its free of charge activity, involving a church service. We walked over a km on a trail to the nearby village accompanied by a resort guide. As we entered the village, children would shout out “bula” from their home. The church service, spoken and sang in Fijian, offered a glimpse at the community life in the village. The church was quite hot and the service was especially long (1.5h) because there were additional speeches in honor of the current pastor retiring (or moving to another island). As the resort was preparing to host, in the dining room, a group of 25 doctors from the US for a week as part of medical outreach to local villages, we were gracefully moved to the secluded gazebo tent for our last lunch. Jenny and I were touched when we offered a farewell song attended by a very large group of resort staff – who were on hand awaiting the large medical group. Leaving Navutu Stars Resort was hard as we really enjoyed the friendly, almost family atmosphere, of the staff. Accommodation and food were simply top notch. Clearly if we ever win a lottery, we won’t hesitate to pack our bags for Navutu Stars Resort.

We boarded the Yasawa Flyer catamaran for our four hour journey south – while the group of doctors were stepping off the boat for their arrival at the resort we had just left. Along the long boat ride, we envied folks that were getting off at other island resorts along the way. We felt like it was only yesterday that we were heading north on the catamaran. Upon our arrival at the Denarau marina, we took the shuttle bus back to our hotel, Aquarius On The Beach. After our check-in, we had hoped that the unreliable wifi issues we had encountered upon our first day in Fiji had been resolved, but unfortunately these persisted for the duration of our three night stay. We had our evening meal at the hotel as the few nearby restaurants were closed on Sunday.

2018.01.29 – Nadi (FJ) – After our breakfast, we rested on our balcony for the morning. As we wanted to visit Nadi’s city center, we attempted to take a local bus but after waiting for more than 30 mins. we managed to get a cheap taxi ride instead. Once in Nadi, we quickly found a shoe repair man working on the sidewalk. We needed to have my unglued bicycle shoe soles repaired. The shoe repair expert recommended a more durable solution of stitching the sole instead of gluing it. We left the shoes with him while we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The young man delivered the repaired shoes at the restaurant. We walked a few of Nadi’s main streets – but they were little to visit. We took the city bus back to our hotel. At the hotel, we had a quick dip into the ocean and then swam into the pool. We had our evening meal at the same Korean fast food as we visited on our arrival in Fiji.

2018.01.30 – Nadi (FJ) – We spent the day enjoying our room and its ocean view. We had breakfast and lunch at the hotel. We returned to the Korean fast food restaurant for our evening meal.

2018.01.31 – Nadi (FJ) – Auckland (NZ) – The sky was dark with clouds when we woke up. It rained heavily before our breakfast. We checked out from the hotel after paying our food tab with our remaining Fijian dollars. The taxi ride to the airport appeared longer than when we first arrived in Fiji. At the airport, we reviewed our pictures and made our selections for our blog. We had to board the plane with our Burger King meals as we had lost track of time. The flight to Auckland was uneventful. Unfortunately, going through custom took us over an hour as there were quite a number of passengers from various flights and the NZ custom, rightfully so, were very thorough in their inspections. When we finally exited the airport, we called our hotel for their courtesy airport shuttle. We had expected to have our evening meal at the hotel but the restaurant was fully booked by three different tour groups.