Beautiful Fiji

[Wed 12/7 - Fri 12/9] 

Miraculously, we woke to our 3am alarm (on 2.5hrs of sleep!) Wednesday, packed up and were off to the airport a few minutes earlier than planned. Dropped the car, checked in, cleared security, stopped in the duty-free store to pick up a few bottles for Fiji, then boarded our flight to Nadi, on the main island of Fiji. Our resort had arranged for a van to shuttle us to the waterfront where we waited an hour or so before catching a seaplane for a gorgeous 35-minute flight over several Fijian islands to Turtle Island. A small boat was waiting to shuttle us (a nice twist on planes-trains-and-automobiles) 5 minutes to nearby Tavewa Island and Coconut Beach Resort - our home for the next 6 nights. The float pilot was kind enough to circle over Coconut Beach just before we landed.

Co-pilot Karri

One of many spectacular Fijian islands

Coconut Beach

Our plane loading up passengers from Turtle Island for the return trip

Home stretch to Tavewa Island

Our boat was greeted on-shore by a crew of resort staff singing a welcome song, then shouting 'bula!', the ubiquitous Fijian word (it seems) for 'hello', 'welcome', 'congratulations', 'cheers' and more. We got a tour of the facilities and a run-down on activities, meal schedules, etc., then were taken to our respective beach huts ('bures'), where (at least Karri and I) un-packed, excited to be in one place for several days.

Staff greeting us with a song

Bath towel origami

The beach in front of our bure

We swam and relaxed a bit, then cleaned up for happy hour and a delicious dinner in the open-air lodge.

The staff here, the majority Fijians from nearby islands, are amazing - warm, friendly and happy, always greeting us with a 'bula!' and a smile, and excited to share their culture. During happy hour and at breakfast and dinner, there is guitar music and singing of traditional songs - with a few re-makes of pop music (from the Beatles to Neil Young to Guns N' Roses) thrown in.

After dinner, we joined a kava ceremony - a demonstration of the making and sharing of the traditional Fijian beverage or grog (which has sedative properties - just what we needed!). Afterwards, we stopped at the beach to star-gaze, before heading to bed around 9, exhausted after a short night of sleep and a long day of travels.

Moonrise from the beach

The resort offers scheduled activities every day - snorkeling or SCUBA diving tours, a trip to the nearby town, craft-making, plus presentations on the local culture. Thursday we decided to take it easy - relaxing at the beach, reading, swimming, and/or napping in a hammock. In the afternoon, Karri and I kayaked down the beach, stopping for a swim, and snorkeled a portion of the reef just off-shore. Victoria and Keenan took a stand-up paddle board for a spin.

Beach R&R

Coconut Beach at high tide

Afternoon paddle

Perhaps the reason Victoria wanted Keenan to come on the trip

Had another great dinner, followed by crab races - a fundraiser for local school children (Karri and my crab, 'Speedy', won earning us 2 free drinks at the bar!). Star-gazed and pondered the universe a bit from the beach before heading to bed.

Friday morning we lounged at the beach, swam and snorkeled. In the afternoon, Victoria went on a SCUBA dive (she recently got certified) to a nearby reef, while Karri, Keenan and I went on a snorkeling trip to Blue Lagoon Beach (near where the movie was filmed). Both awesome - we saw a bunch of colorful fish, sea slugs, a sea snake, and Keenan saw stingray, while Victoria saw a 3-foot reef shark and bunch of fish. A great day. 

Some of the many tropical fish we saw while snorkeling

Fish swimming along the reef

Here fishy, fishy!

Got back to the resort, relaxed and cleaned up for the evening. Listened to some of the local music during happy hour. One of the guys, Ili, has a particularly amazing voice. He's apparently a famous singer-songwriter who has had several songs top the Fiji pop charts. After dinner, the staff performed a traditional 'meke' - dancing and story-telling through song. They were so good - their voices and harmonies are amazing. They clearly were having great fun performing. Several of the locals came by with small children to enjoy the show. At the end of the show, they got all of the guests up to join in the dancing. It was a really fun night.

Josh (l) and Ili (r) playing during happy hour

Meke performance

Star-gazed and watched the moonrise before heading to bed. Another amazing day.