FIJI

Fiji is back in business after covid and with the borders open and flights operating again Aussies and Kiwis are flying to the sun.

Most travellers from New Zealand and Australia spend most of their time in Fiji in one of the resort hotels on Denarau Island. It’s called “fly and flop”. Get up, eat too much at breakfast and then sit around the pool all day.

IN YOUR OWN SUNNY WORLD IN DENARAU FIJI

Words. John Bishop // Photos. Tourism Fiji

The attraction of this is easy to understand why: Denarau is about twenty minutes from Nadi airport and transfers come with most hotel packages.

The big international brands, Sofitel, Hilton, Sheraton, Westin, Wyndham and Radisson Blu, are all here. They all offer a similar experience, several pools, a couple of restaurants, a couple of bars, pool side service, massages and water sports and a kids club.

Some have adults only areas: maybe just a separate pool or part of a dining room kept child free.

At the Sofitel the Waitui section has its own pool, separate breakfast service, complimentary cocktails and canapes in the late afternoon and a high-end restaurant (although that is available to others). It comes with a price premium but may be worth it for that totally relaxing experience.

The Sheraton has two offerings; a hotel (probably the best of the range), and a set of villas which used to be self-catering, but I noticed that the set of shops adjacent to the hotel that sold fresh fruit, meat, vegetables and the like are closed.

Ordinary mortals stay in the public areas and put up with the kids and the constant music around the pool. School holidays in Australia or New Zealand are obviously when there are most kids around, but outside that time don’t assume that a school age child will be absent.

Many parents are happy to take kids out of school so they can all have a family holiday. And there are always kids under five about, often accompanied by grandparents as well.

It used to be possible, if one was energetic, to walk along the beach or on a beach walkway from one hotel to the next (Distances varied). There are now fences discouraging this; another sign of the impact of covid has had here.

So, the Bula Bus, a series of converted trucks with covered seating, is the main method of getting from hotel to hotel and down to the port which is now flourishing again.

Day cruises and longer depart from here and there are several good restaurants and shops for clothing, souvenirs and groceries including wine and beer. Get a one day or a five day pass for unlimited travel. The buses run on a continuous circuit every 15 minutes from 7.30am to 11.30pm daily. 

__________________ John Bishop visited Fiji in June at his own expense, his ninth visit in 17 years.

DENARAU CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF COURSE.(PHOTO: GARY LISBON GOLF PHOTOGRAPHY).

46°BELOW

OUT of this world adventures await on New Zealand’s wild and remote Subantarctic Islands with Kiwi expedition cruise company Heritage Expeditions

It feels like we’ve stepped onto the set of a 70s sci-fi movie as we pass the nodding golden cylinders of Bulbinella rossi and dusty pink cauliflowered spheres of Anisotome as waves crash on rocks far below. The first stop on pioneering Christchurch-based expedition cruise company Heritage Expeditions Subantarctic voyage, Campbell Island is now a conservation cornerstone of New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands.

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While no landings are allowed at The Snares, a Zodiac cruise of this imposing clutch of inhospitable ancient fractured granite islands, home to more nesting seabirds than all the British Isles including some 60,000 endemic Snares Crested Penguins, is an unforgettable experience. Watching the antics of thousands of plucky, and often clumsy, Snares Crested Penguins navigate the treacherously steep thoroughfare known as the ‘Penguin Slide’ is endlessly fascinating – and filled with some seriously comical moments.

A treasure trove of adventure awaits on the Auckland Islands Enderby Island where nationally endangered Yellow-eyed Penguin/ Hoiho flourish and we enjoy front row seats watching life and neardeath play out at a New Zealand/ Hooker’s Sea Lion breeding colony on Sandy Bay – complete with newborn pups. Exploring flame-tipped rata forests we marvel at UFOshaped clouds, on neighbouring namesake Auckland Island a 200-metre hike up Southwest Cape offers incredible views both down Carnley Harbour and over the flurry of avian activity at the Whitecapped Albatross colony below.

When it comes to wildlife encounters, Macquarie Island takes some beating. Heaving with Elephant Seals and penguins, Macquarie Island is the pavalova of the Subantarctics with Australia staking its claim on this geographically New Zealand island too. The only place in the world where Royal Penguins breed, their raucous flipper-to-flipper ‘Penguin City’ is an action-packed multi-sensory experience, while it’s standing room only for the hundreds of thousands of regal King Penguins nesting defiantly around the ruins of Joseph Hatch’s animal oil extracting digesters, which decimated the local Elephant Seal and penguin populations, as we Zodiac cruise the shoreline surrounded by rafts inquisitive penguins. The wildlife here is fearless, sit down and penguins waddle up and give you a cheeky peck, cute and affectionate Elephant Seal pups (weaners) caterpillar over and cosy up, while out on the water King Penguins try and catch a ride in our Zodiac – only in the Subantarctic Islands.

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© Nathan Russ © Alistair Guthrie

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