Monday 10th June
Mark and I are finally heading to Fiji and escaping the Sydney winter. We were advised by one of our uni friends about a particular island location to stay and so we made a booking for 6 nights at the adults-only resort. Our late afternoon arrival into Nadi didn’t allow enough time to get across to the island and this meant we had to have an overnight on the mainland before catching a ferry out to the island the next day.
Our first night was spent at The Palms Denarau and I booked this through Booking.com. Trying to find somewhere decent to stay, and near to the ferry terminal, for under $500 AUD per night was a bit of a challenge but I succeeded in the end. We were allocated a 2 bedroom apartment and this was despite the absence of my nemesis, Dagwood Defy. Yes, no bike for this trip!
The flight was uneventful which was a good thing and our transport met us as planned at Nadi airport which was another good thing. It was a 20 minute car ride from the airport to Port Denarau and the crossing from the mainland over to the little island of Denarau was quite noteworthy. Denarau is a luxury enclave, ‘where all the wealthy live’, as our taxi driver told us and the transition from humble besser block bungalows to palatial homes and resorts was a little bit confronting.
Our Port accommodation was ok but it actually presented a lot better on the website. It was totally adequate for our one night stay though but I definitely wouldn’t want to be staying here as my major Fiji holiday destination! It was large and clean however, and right across the road from the Port where we had our next morning 10.30 am ferry departure, and so it was entirely suitable.
We ventured across to the Port area after dropping our bags and checked out the ferry terminal and explored restaurant options for dinner and breakfast. We ended up dining at Bone Fish, which was only ok, and opted to buy breakfast supplies of porridge and yogurt from the convenience store. So far, Fiji is not quite what we were expecting but we’re hoping it goes up a notch or two tomorrow when we reach the resort.
We woke early the next morning and took a walk around the area to check out some of the local resorts and had a coffee at the Hilton. This was a much nicer place than where we had spent the night but then it all comes down to the price doesn’t it! We would have been just as well heading to our Lomani resort as staying at a more up-market Denarau location.
Tuesday 11th June
Our accommodation for the next 5 nights was at Lomani Island Resort and out transfer out to the island was by way of a 10:30 am catamaran booked through Malolocat. We chose a Beachfront Pool Bure for this Lomani trip and we were not disappointed; it was a lovely large room with an attached deck and plunge pool area and an enormous yard that fronted onto the beach. We had lunch when we first arrived, as our room wasn’t quite ready, and the open air restaurant looks out over the main pool area and beach. The resort has only the one restaurant but you are also able to dine at the neighboring sister resort of Plantation Island Resort or at the other resort of Musket Cove. They are the only three resorts on this island and there are no Fijian villages. Lomani resort only has 30 rooms and we were soon to discover that most of the other holiday makers were from Australia with a few from New Zealand. In fact, for the little we have seen of Fiji, there doesn’t seem to be much of an international presence other than from its fellow pacific nations.
We spent the next couple of hours out on the day-bed by the pool as the beach in front of our bure wasn’t deep enough for swimming. It was, however, very suitable for gazing across whilst lying on the daybed and by the pool.
For the late afternoon we opted for a change of scene and visited the main pool where we stayed long enough to reach happy hour. Mark had a few beers before we went back to our room to change for dinner.
Our table for dinner was the same as the one we had for lunch and this meal was lovely as well. It has been a long and full day and so we ended up heading back to our room for an early night.
Wednesday 12th June
It was a mild and slightly overcast morning and very quiet. The resort only has 30 rooms so that probably explains the calm. We headed out for a walk but found we had limited options. The tide was high so it wasn’t easy walking the beach sand and that just left the sand roadways into the resort and around the island. We made it as far as the sister resort of Plantation island but there wasn’t much to see there. We were both glad we hadn’t chosen this resort to stay as it was not very appealing.
There was a bit of time to kill before our 10:45 am snorkelling tour so we went back to our room where I did some yoga and had a swim before we both went to breakfast.
The morning snorkelling activity was complimentary, as part of our room rate, and it was great. We ventured out by boat for about 10 minutes to a coral reef that was teeming with fish. Any anxiety I had about the snorkel face covering soon disappeared as there were just too many distractions to consume my attention! It was literally like Finding Nemo.
The boat got back to shore around 12:30 and we headed for some down-time by the main pool. Breakfast had been quite filling so we opted to just share a chicken wrap poolside for our lunch. I had a facial booked for the afternoon and Mark was going on a bike ride. He was doing a reconnaissance outing to plot a path that might be safe for me to join him on later. At least there won’t be any geese to contend with here.
My facial ended up being a most unique experience and unlike one I’ve ever had before. I did, at one point, wonder if anyone had ever died on the table during one of these sessions and my thoughts then drifted to the poor Mosley family after their recent tragedy and then all the complexities that must surround a death abroad. Suffice to say, it was the most vigorous facial I had ever experienced. Mark just wandered in after his bike ride and, on my question about how it went, he informed me that he found the waste management area on the other side of the island. I’ll try and get more out of him later!
One thing I will add here is that I wished I’d brought a second swimming costume on this trip. For a trip where so much of your time is taken up with water-based activities, then one set of swimwear is simply not enough. Take note.
We were invited to drinks with the management team from 6-6:30pm and I hope they don’t ask if I have any suggestions because, as always, I have quite a few. We shall see how that goes. It turns out everyone was invited to this 30 minute soirée and they actually did ask for input but I kept my mouth shut! Dinner was a set buffet at the poolside restaurant which was ok but this capped off a full and lovely day. Tomorrow we have a local village visit in the morning and more snorkeling in the afternoon.
