Fiji here we come!

Some of you might remember we had an October/November 2023 trip to Boston, and we happened to fly on Fiji Airways via Nadi. On the way over the the USA it was only a quick couple of hour layover, but we had a 28 hour layover on the way back so we made the most of it with some pool and cocktail time. The kids were all rather disappointed our Fiji stay wasn’t longer but we’d had a Fiji Island holiday booked for January 2024 for many months before the Boston trip came up. So, they we in luck and more Fiji time was in order.

It was a midday departure from home on travel day, very civilised and time for our traditional Canberra airport photo!

It was the 14th of January and a month into the Summer holidays, so we were all ready for some travel. We’d booked this Fiji trip a long way in advance, taking advantage of some very well-priced direct international flights from Canberra. The experience had been great on the connecting flights through to San Francisco, the couple of months prior.

Again it was an easy international experience, compared to having to transfer through Sydney or Melbourne. Despite the incoming aircraft being a little delayed we were on the plane by 2.30pm in the afternoon. The flight was pretty empty, surprisingly. So, Astrid and I scored a row to ourselves, and all 5 of us passed the 4 hours flight time with a couple of movies and the exact same meal we’d eaten multiple times on the previous Fiji Airways flights 😉

With the time change we landed a bit after 8pm to darkness and storms. Aside from the usual immigration process running on Fiji time, we were fairly efficiently (for Fiji) collecting our bags and in the transfer taxi off to our first accommodation at Club Fiji, which was only 10 minutes from the airport.

Tropical breakfasts and morning swims…..

Despite no one making it to bed before 10pm, the perils of travel days……..even it if was really only a half day (bliss for international travel) we were all up by 7am! Luckily a tropical breakfast in the open air restaurant awaited. This is when you know you are on holidays 🙂

The main part of our Fiji holiday was out on Mana Island. As the island ferries are set times of the day and the direct flights from Canberra only fly on certain days of the week, we ended up with some time on either end of the island portion of our trip. We were having the first 2 nights at Club Fiji as it was a reasonably priced resort, not too far from either the airport or Port Denarau, where the ferry departed from….. and we could get a room that fitted 5 of us!

After the storms of the previous afternoon, that had made for a bit of a turbulent flight into Fiji, we awoke to no rain and perfect swimming weather….. so swimming it was! The water was well and truly a beautiful warm temperature and the tropical views weren’t half bad….

It started out fairly overcast and humid but before long the blue sky appeared and it was cracking well over 30 degrees

In need of a leg stretch and a bit of exercise, we decided post-swim that we’d walk down the beach from the hotel to the supermarket for some supplies and then some lunch, saving eating at the hotel for dinner when we would no doubt have less energy!

It was a very warm walk and in 5 minutes flat we were all drenched in sweat. The beach route took us through various sections that we had to cross through water, as the tide was coming in. It did mean we got to cool off our feet.

Along our beach route we were passed by tours on dune buggies and horses. The horses later passed us going in the other direction with tourists out on a group ride.

After enjoying the blissful air-conditioning in the supermarket, and stocking up on some snacks and drinks, we had to negotiate with a very over-tired Zinnia. Apparently the late night in conjunction with only eating pineapple for breakfast (there were plenty of other options, she just really liked the pineapple) left Zinnia a little non-compliant!

We finally extracted her from the supermarket and planted ourselves in the shade at The Beach Club for lunch.

All the kids were placated with cold drinks, pizzas and fish and chips, and friendly restaurant dogs who were keen on pats. The adults enjoyed a mojito and margarita while admiring the tropical views!

By the time we left lunch it was even hotter and the 2.5km walk back was not super appealing, especially for Anto who had a backpack full of drinks and snacks. We definitely sweated off lunch, and apparently most of our sunscreen, and were looking forward to an afternoon swim and some air-conditioning….

Of course when we got back to the hotel they had just arrived to clean our room. Once that was done everyone was in need of an air conditioning and a nap.

Rainy kayaking…

The kids had been keen on taking the resort kayaks out, and we had agreed that we’d let them loose for a paddle post nap. Of course by the time we’d gotten back to the room it was after 3pm and I woke up at 5pm to a massive downpour.

Once the rain had subsided a bit we couldn’t hold off the keen kids any longer, so it was down to beach for kayaking……

The beautiful sunshine of the morning had gone but on the upside it was a better temperature. Life jackets on and Anto commenced dragging kayaks out into the rather shallow water. As the tide was right out it was a long walk out with the kayaks…..

The stormy tropical afternoon made for some dramatic skies, so I was happy to take photos with the interesting light, and watch the kids paddle around. The rain was now only intermittent so we had a hard time dragging the kids out of the water.

Stormy swims and tropical dinners……

As the rain got heavier we dragged the kids in from the ocean and all jumped in the pool again instead. The pool water was blissfully warm. The near torrential rain wasn’t putting off many hotel guests as we had quite a crowd sitting around in the pool, listening to the hotel bar pump out some music, while our kids entertained everyone with their fish like antics in the water.

With the downpour continuing we were glad we’d decided to eat at the hotel for dinner. Even with umbrellas it was impossible to get between our room and the restaurant without getting soaked. At least it wasn’t cold!

The hotels cats kept us amused during dinner. Astrid and I enjoyed soup and dahl respectively and the others kokoda fish and fish tacos.

The first full day of our tropical break was done and we were starting to get into relaxation mode. The next day we were off to Mana Island, where much eating, swimming and kayaking awaited.

Farewelling Club Fiji

Everyone managed to sleep in until 8am the next day, which was great for the adults, but left the kids rather annoyed as it cut into their swimming time before we had to be on our transfer to Port Denarau.

We did awaken to no rain, and enjoyed another tropical breakfast, where Zinnia again ate mostly pineapple!

The hotels second pool had been closed the day before as they were painting nearby. The kids were not happy and Soren and Zinnia insisted they get a quick swim in the ‘other’ pool before we had to leave. You’d think they spend enough time in pools! In the end we agreed and I supervised the pool reconnaissance while Anto packed up our bags ready for our transfer, and Astrid practiced her pool skills on the pool table.

Off to Mana Island

We’d enjoyed our short stay at Club Fiji. It wasn’t 5 star luxury but a great little resort for a short stay and we certainly could have stayed longer. Our transfer bus arrived by 10.20am and we were the only ones on it, so it made for a quick trip into Port Denarau. Zinnia happily spotted cows on the drive.

It had been a number of years since the last time we were at Port Denarau, back in a 2013 trip to Fiji, with Astrid who was about to turn 2 and I was 5 months pregnant with Soren. Not much had changed and we quickly found our way into the terminal, checked in for our ferry and dropped off our luggage to be tagged and loaded.

There were plenty of boats going out to the various islands so the kids had fun checking out the maps and ferry routes.

With some time to kill before our ferry boarding, we engaged in a little souvenir shopping, which mostly involved enjoying the air-conditioning to escape from the heat and humidity outside. While debating with the kids how much of their pocket money they wished to spend this early on the trip…..

We grabbed some coffees and icecreams and had a wander around the dock, checking out the expensive boats and patting the many cats lazing at the cafes, waiting for attention.

Our boat the Tiger V was docked and waiting for us and finally it was time to board at midday. Seemingly all people with kids got to go into the Captain’s lounge, which had more space and air conditioning. We weren’t saying no to that offer! I think it was to keep noisy children contained and stop them from throwing themselves off the boat accidentally, but we weren’t complaining. We found a nice booth to spread our stuff around and settled in for the hour and a bit long trip out to Mana……

As we headed out of Port Denarau we enjoyed the views of the many hotels around the Port. We’d stayed at the Hilton on the beach there, back in 2013, and could recognise it even from a distance.

The kids wanted to enjoy the deck views rather than the air-conditioning. Luckily after a couple of visits to the deck to watch the large bunch of day-trippers set off on their transfer boats to the first of the islands, they were happy to come inside and watch the passing islands through the windows.

The water was a magnificient colour and we could see plenty of fish and coral so talk of kayaking, snorkeling and diving, passed the time. Along with consumption of every snack we’d packed for the ferry trip.

Welcome to Mana!

We were greeted at the Mana Island jetty with singing and music and the holiday vibe was in full force. The kids were very keen to get checked in and the next part of the holiday underway. Sadly for them everything works on Fiji time!

Our ferry continued on it’s way off to the next island and the several families staying on Mana all wandered down the jetty. The skies were blue and the pretty fish were circling below us in the beautiful coloured water, so we were pretty sure we weren’t going to have an awful time…

We were all ushered into reception and presented with the ubiquitous shell necklace and tropical juice while we waited for our paperwork to be done. The island had a power outage when we arrived so this slowed everything down a bit further and meant our rooms were not ready. Given we’d been on the ferry over lunch time we were all a little hungry so we were happy to head to the other side of the island to the restaurant for some lunch.

Definitely no diets here….

Luckily the lunch a la carte restaurant was still open as all the children were absoultely ‘starving’ despite consuming half their body weight in snacks on the ferry. We had 3 meals a day included in our package so we were keen to use our lunch vouchers on the first day as we figured we probably werne’t going to be that hungry most of the other days with constant buffets. The main restaurant is beachfront so we had a little explore while waiting for our lunch to arrive………

Despite it being after 2pm when we ordered lunch and the restaurant not being that busy, they definitely operated on Fiji time so lunch took awhile. By the time it arrived I was actually quite hungry but not quite as starving as the kids (apparently). We got a 2 course lunch included and dessert seemed like a great idea when we were really hungry. We were absolutely not hungry by the time we finished it!

Home for the next 6 nights….

By the time we finished lunch it was well after 3.30pm and our room was definitely ready. We were in an Oceanfront Suite for our stay. These rooms were all on the opposite side of the island to the main restaurant and pool but, had a lovely and quiet beach opposite. The 2 storey villa was plenty big enough for all 5 of us.

Soren and Zinnia claimed the downstairs beds, while Astrid decided she wanted the upstairs Queen sized bed. We also had bathrooms on both levels and a deck off the top level. Despite having foot washing buckets at every door, the rooms quickly got covered in sand!

The room was plenty big enough, although we actually spent very little time inside, other than when sleeping. The back sliding door led straight onto the beach and it was very convenient. The front door lead out to the paths which ran between other villas, restaurants and kids club. While Mana Island Resort is quite spread out, it was really only a short walk between most places and we didn’t mind walking off some of the extra food. The back verandah was our snorkel gear dumping ground for whole trip, and the kids made friends with plenty of other families staying in the same block of villas.

Checking out ‘our beach’

Out or back sliding door it was about 30 steps to this paradise of a beach……..

The kids immediately checked out the pontoon. We hadn’t bothered unpacking all the snorkel gear yet, but there were so many fish that we had a quick impromptu snorkel with just goggles and masks. We were pretty keen to get all the gear out for a good explore of the reef the next day!

The kids had been keen for a kayak but sadly kayaking was closed for the day. We did promise there was plenty of time and we’d have it on the agenda for the next day.

No one was particularly keen to get out of the ocean but the kids, being kids, thought they had better check out the pool. This seemed like a perfectly acceptable way to get rid of the beach sand.

The pool was quite large so we had a good swim around and checked out the beach bar and views of nearby islands.

We were lucky enough to see a beautiful rainbow off the beach. Zinnia was in heaven and was definitely living her best tropical island life!

International crab racing…..

Our very late and large lunch meant no one was that hungry for dinner, but by 7.30pm we decided we had better go and eat. Our resort deal included either the nightly buffet or 3 courses at the a la carte restaurant. Given we’d eaten at the restaurant for lunch and the dinner menu was almost the same we opted for the buffet.

We had seen International Crab racing was the evening activity. Zinnia was definitely rapidly running out of energy, so Anto decided to take her back to our room so she could get to bed while Astrid, Soren and I headed to the lounge for some crab racing fun.

The kids weren’t overly familiar with how betting works, but quickly caught on and we had a fun time while guests picked their favourite crab and they were let loose for a race. It was a noisy affair but fun. It was well after 9pm when the final crab was captured and time for us to call it a day. Ready for a big day of swimming, snorkeling and exploring Mana Island to come…..

Up Next….

The next couple of days on Mana Island featured plenty of sunshine, snorkeling, kayaking and beautiful sunsets…..