Dravuni Island, Fiji 6th January 2013

The start of 2013 found Sam and I cruising around the Pacific, one of the stops was on an island called Dravuni. There wasn't a lot of info floating around on this place so we didn't have huge expectations, however it turned out to be a great place.

Maybe the villagers dinner.

The day started with the usual disorganised tender process, but once on the island things started looking up. Most people were congregating on the beach in front of the small village where the tenders were docking, but we decided to head across the island to a beach on the other side, being a cruise I figured that most of the punters would be unable/unwilling to walk across the island.

Heading for Mt Dravuni.

Our ship from the top of the hill

Finding a path under the Palm trees we were first aiming to climb the islands high point, we'll call it Mt Dravuni for want of another name. We managed to summit, no doubt helped by my high tech hiking havaianas. The top provided a great view of the whole island, as well as a nice shot of the boat anchored just off shore. With a nice breeze taking the edge of the humidity it was a good spot to linger for awhile.

The summit is bagged.

Looking back towards the village

Looking towards the beach where we went snorkelling, the reef is part of the Great Astrolabe Reef.

Leaving Mt Dravuni we headed to a spot on our mud map named the Blue Hole, expecting to find a nymph like Brooke Shields cavorting there we instead found a mob of the local kids splashing about. Oh well, nothing else to do but to jump in with them, judging by the smiles on there faces I don't think many cruise passengers make the plunge. By the way the Blue Hole was actually more brown, but the Brown Hole doesn't sound so enticing, hey!

Making the plunge into the Blue Hole with the locals.

I reckon the kid on the right is flipping me the bird!

The kids are happy enough to have someone share there swimming hole.

After my dip with the kids it was time for us to head to the beach for some snorkelling, I'd been able to check out the surrounding reef from the top of Mt Dravuni , and it looked promising. Arriving on the beach the first thing we noticed was that the trek over had indeed thinned out the crowds a fair bit, there was only a handful of people on this side of the island. Wandering along the sand for a bit we soon found a beautiful spot to lay the towels down.

The beach on this side of the island was almost deserted.

The snorkelling here was more than I'd expected, there was plenty of coral and a large number of colourful fish, apparently we were diving on the Astrolabe Reef, the world's fourth largest barrier reef in the world, that's what the interweb tells me so it must be right! Our afternoon was spent either laying on the sand or diving. If only I could fund this lifestyle for ever.

Eventually we had to slip on the hiking havaianas again for the trek back to catch the tender out to the boat. On getting back to the beautiful beach in front of the village we joined the throngs waiting to get back on the ship. Once on board we did our usual thing and headed to our spot at the stern of the ship to watch as we sailed away and the island receded into the distance. Its rarely crowded as you leave as most of the punters head straight to the buffet. After watching the sun set we eventually retired to our room, satisfied with another hard days travelling.

Watching Dravuni Island slip into the distance, from our spot on the back of the ship.

The Dirt

Dravuni Island was more than I expected. The diving was really good, the locals were really friendly, and with a small amount of effort it was possible to get away from the crowds. I don't think the small hill has a real name, but Mt Dravuni sounds good to me. As for the Brown Hole er Blue Hole, you'll have to make up your own mind whether to take a dip with the local kids. The walk over to the beach on the other side of the island is probably only 1 or 2 kilometres and you can bet it'll be mostly empty. Don't go here expecting bars, restaurants, and shops, there's nothing, you make your own fun.

It appears Princess Cruises has injected some money into the local community here in return for them being allowed to visit occasionally. The local village had a nice new jetty and also a new ablutions block, so its good to see something going back for the benefit of the village.

High tech pilot boat guiding us out through the reef.