Fiji First Impressions

Fiji is a big country with many different regions that are very different from each other. It’s much like French Polynesia in that sense. We’ve seen very little of it this early in the season.

We’ve been moving around in Fiji charter style – trying to find our “fit” in this new country. Because we came to Vuda Point for the cyclone season we are starting on the “wrong side” and most of the tasty bits of Fiji are to weather (non-sailors: this means trickier sailing or to some people a no-go).

We also figured, based on reading blogs and chatting with people, that the Mamanucas and Yasawas were less likely to house our favorite places because they are loaded with resorts and not loaded with underwater goodies. So far in those areas, we are finding lots of lovely places, have found one difficult but great place (Navadra – logbook soon), are having a good time, meeting very friendly people, are finding it exceedingly easy to cruise here (much like Mexico) but haven’t fallen in love with the country yet.

Our general plan for Fiji is that unless we are tired, or needing to do boat work, we plan move around until we do say “WOW” and then stop for a while.

As always, YMMV. We are nature people more than culture people which is less usual in cruisers. It’s also difficult to convey why we are (so far) underwhelmed when Fiji is so damn photogenic that every picture I take looks like paradise.