Fiji Bucket List

When you think of Fiji, what do you think of?

✅ Waterside Villas?

✅ Waterfalls?

✅ Lush tropical forests melting into sandy beaches and turquoise waters?

✅ Scuba Diving among exotic coral and fish?

✅ Traditional Fijian villages with few modern luxuries, but incredibly happy people?

✅ Rivers that cut through thick green vegetation and offer thrilling rapids

✅ Fire dancers?

✅ Rugby???

Well, if that is what you think of, you are spot on and just ticked off all that we experienced during our week in Fiji. We were on Viti Levu, the largest island in the archipelago of 300+ islands. We booked a gorgeous Airbnb just outside of Sigatoka, which is along the island’s Coral Coast. While the weather was mostly overcast with bursts of rain, the temperature was always warm. We managed to do quite a bit on the island, while also getting it a good deal of relaxation.

Highlight Reel:

First up was a boat ride up the Navua River to a Traditional Fijian Village, that included swimming in a breathtaking waterfall, a riverside lunch, and then innertube rafting down class I and II rapids. So much fun!

While the visibility was low most of the week, we finally got two dives in on our last day. The second dive was among feeding reef sharks! No kidding, this was like being in a National Geographic film. We were in the midst of 20+ black tip reef sharks, and one large grey reef shark, as our guide fed them tuna heads. It was so thrilling. The sharks paid no attention to us and swam so close you could reach out and touch them, which Ben, Paul, and Sophia did. I wouldn’t let Ava as I wanted at least two of us to have a chance of retaining all 10 fingers. Luckily, the sharks were not interested in us at all and everyone still has all their digits. Sadly, we have no pictures from under the water. This is when I’m regretting not getting a GoPro before we left.

Packing our last day completely full, we drove 2.5hrs to the capital of Suva to see the first home game of the Fijian National Rugby team, Drua, after 2+ years of a COVID shutdown. The stadium was packed full and the game was thrilling to the very end. Unfortunately, Drua last to the NZ Highlanders by 3 points. Still it was a great way to experience more of the culture and give the kids some insight into the game Ben played all through college.

Bloopers:

Lest you think our trip to paradise has been completely smooth sailing, here’s two less than ideal situations we’ve also had while entering/trying to exit.

1) Upon entering, I did not read the customs declaration form closely and said we had nothing to declare when asked about food (I was assuming fresh fruits and vegetables), however, we had an opened jar of honey in the bag with staples we’ve been taking everywhere like salt, pepper, toilet paper, etc. Because I didn’t declare it, we had to be pay a $400 Fijian Dollars, about $200 US. 😒

2) We were VERY excited to learn that New Zealand was opening its borders to international travelers beginning May 1st and so booked our tickets to there for May 1st. Imagine our surprise when we arrived this morning and we were told that despite the official NZ government website saying as of 1200AM on May 1st travel is open to all international travelers, it actually means that it is open as of 11:59pm on May 1st for arrivals on May 2nd. WTF?!?!?!? It makes no sense and we, along with several other passengers in a similar situation pushed back hard, however, we had to be rebooked for the 2nd and so are paying out of pocket for another night in Fiji and eating the cost of our hotel in Auckland. 😩

Alas, if you have to be stranded somewhere….