We were looking forward to Fiji to get a break from the rather difficult travelling in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Finally there were cheap busses available, actual working Wi-Fi in the hostels and some good Indian food. Yummy!
The first night we stayed in Nadi after arriving late from Port Vila, but didn’t really get to see the city. We only stopped by a medical clinic the next day to get Mathijs‘ wound finally checked by a doctor. The clinic was rather simple – not as shocking as Nepal back then with my dad, but not very clean or modern. Somehow we had thought Fiji was more developed already. Anyways, all the equipment was sterile and new, so good enough!
We then hopped on a bus all the way to Suva, which took 4.5 h on a modern, air-con service. In Suva we treated ourselves to some delicious Indian food and then took yet another bus to get to the Colo-i-Suva Eco Lodge next to the rain forest park with the same name. It’s a nice lodge with a pretty setting for breakfast and you wake up to the sound of birds. The rain-forest park was a bit odd on the other hand. No-one had informed us that you had to walk about 2 km on a gravel road to get to the trails. Mathijs didn’t join in the end due to his foot. The trails were odd and not marked at all. I followed the main trail until it brought me back to the gravel road – but never really knew where I was headed. There are some pretty little waterfalls and pools you can swim in – with groups of locals jumping from high rocks. It was nice to follow the trail along the river for a bit – but I always felt like I was walking without a „purpose“ – like a point you want to reach. As I was by myself and didn’t know about the swimming options anyways, I didn’t stay too long. Well – when the trail was finished, I just walked back! There were some smaller trails along the way but they were quite overgrown, full of spider webs and without knowing where they would bring me, I didn’t feel in the mood to fight my way through the jungle. Lol. That being said, if you’re coming by car and want a nice dip in some pools, slide down a waterfall etc, then this park is for sure a nice stop along the way!
After we lost about 4 h of our day to Tongan travel planning (and still have to hope it all works out in the end), we made our way to Suva, had a small lunch snack and then walked around the city for a bit. Our verdict: Not much to see but it’s very green and so far the nicest city we’ve seen in the South Pacific!
Another 1.5 h bus ride brought us to Pacific Harbour where we spent lots of time relaxing and planning our time in Tonga and French Polynesia. Booking the air pass for French Polynesia took us about 6 h and cost us many nerves… but it’s done!! And that’s the most important.
The original reason to come to Pacific Harbour though, was to go shark diving! Unfortunately Mathijs couldn’t join due to his wound, so I did 2 dives by myself. What an experience!! I expected lots of sharks but thought that most would be smaller reef sharks. Nope! At times there were 10 massive bull sharks circling around the feeding station!! Plus some huge nurse sharks and the really cool lemon sharks. In addition there were the usual reef sharks of course, but these were so small in comparison that I didn’t even pay much attention to them. But seeing those bulls was freaking awesome!!! It was quite a show dive though of course. The sharks are being fed, and you have to kneel behind a wall of dead coral and just watch. It’s cool to have experienced it, but I don’t need to do it again. I prefer „real“ dives.
We then made our way to the Beachouse accommodation at Coral Coast for a night. The location was beautiful!! Lots of palm trees, a white sand beach and clear water, looking very inviting. We had some good relaxing time here. Originally I had wanted to go snorkelling, but there was a cold wind for most of our time there, so we were in long sleeves and not really tempted to go for a swim. Ok, after all it is winter on Fiji!
From the Beachouse, we took a minibus back to Nadi, where we just spent one more (short) night before our flight to the next South Pacific nation: Tonga! Because our time in Fiji was so short, I won’t do the usual country summary – but here are some more pictures for those interested: Fiji Pictures
Just Booked A Trip 