Port Denarau, Viti Levu, Fiji - December 2012

Fiji has been in the news a bit lately hasn't it? With Cyclone Winston doing its best to trash the place, lives lost and property destroyed, my heart goes out to what in my opinion are the nicest and most welcoming people that I've met on my travels. Our visit in late 2012 was actually in the immediate aftermath of another cyclone roaring through, Cyclone Evan. We missed the cyclone by around one week but the clean up was still going on and the widespread destruction was very evident, I can only imagine what they are going through now.

Port Denarau.

We sailed into Port Denarau on Denarau Island, the murky mangrove waters surrounding the island not looking like they belonged to your typical South Pacific paradise, no doubt the colour or the water not helped by the debris washing out to sea in the aftermath of the cyclone. If you want to experience Fiji you need to leave Denarau Island, the island is home to a lot of flash houses, hotels, shops, and restaurants but is hardly typical of the real Fiji, if you just want to be pampered however then maybe Denarau is the go. We jumped on a bus and headed out of town on a day that I remember most for the stifling humidity which was also probably made worse by the recent rain after Cyclone Evan's visit. Leaving Denarau Island we headed through the outskirts of Nadi on our thankfully air conditioned bus, passing by the Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple on the way.

The Sri Siva Subramaniya Temple in Nadi.

We were heading south down Queens Road towards the Sigatoka Sand Dunes, the journey down Queens Road whilst appearing quite close to the coast mostly travelled through agricultural land, with the water generally not in sight. Arriving at Sigatoka Sand Dunes we got out off the bus and were immediately bathed in sweat. There has been two occasions in my life so far where I've felt that the humidity was almost unbearable and both of the occasions have been in Fiji, the first time was here and then a little later on the same trip the humidity as we visited Savusavu was if anything worse. You have to admire the locals who were still smiling even though in some cases they were battling through without electricity, yeah I'm soft. Anyway we stepped out into the heat, the Sigatoka Sand Dunes were the first National Park declared in Fiji in 1989, the grey sand rising to around 60 metres high and stretching for around 5 kilometres along the coast.

The Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park.

The dunes rise to around 60 metres.

The beach wasn't your typical Fijian postcard type.

There are quite a few marked tracks through the dunes and we headed down one of them in the direction of the coast, to a large extent the dunes are vegetated so don't expect your Sahara Desert experience here. The dunes go inland about one kilometre so we had a reasonable walk from the visitor centre, the beach itself is fairly unappealing for swimming unfortunately, the grey sand and drift wood still had its own appeal though, it just not what you see in the tourist brochures on Fiji. The National Park is also an archaeological site of some significance with pottery having been unearthed over 2,600 years old, and it is home to the largest burial site in the Pacific, so if you stumble upon any bones protruding from the receding dunes leave them in place. After checking out some of the pottery at the visitor centre it was with some relief that we again climbed aboard our air conditioned bus.

Back on the bus, have I mentioned that it was hotttttt.

After leaving the dunes we passed through the largest town on the Coral Coast, Sigatoka, this place is a major agricultural centre situated a little inland from the coast on the on banks of the large turbid Sigatoka River, with a population of around 9,500 people its a large town by Fijian standards. I'd heard of Sigatoka before this trip though, and not because of the nearby sand dunes, no Sigatoka is the home town of one of my favourite rugby players, Lote Tuqiri. The town is nick named rugby town and a quick Google search will show an honor call of famous Sigatokian (you like that, I made that one up myself) rugby players that have plied their trade around the world, must be something in the water.

Passing through Sigatoka.

The Sigatoka River, with the remains of the railway bridge.

Heading further down the Coral Coast to visit Kula Eco Park, we passed through the small town of Korotogo the road now hugging the coastline, this part of the island was home to quite a few, what looked from a distance anyway, fairly low key resorts. We headed into the eco park, now I'm not a huge fan of some of these places, but with the Kula Eco Park having the support of the National Trust for Fiji as well as plenty of other conservation agencies around the world I figured that the conditions for the animals couldn't be too bad. The park is home to a large captive breeding program and is 80% funded by gate receipts so its all for a good cause.

The Kula Eco Park.

Yeah, I was down the front with the other kids!

First up we headed for a bit of a reptile presentation, of course with reptiles on offer I was up the front with all the other kids. Unfortunately I can't recall the names of the lizards and snakes but they are beautiful creatures. The park features a lot of board walks, steps and walking tracks that mostly feature the native Fijian Flora and Fauna, although I'm not sure the ladies modelling for some kind of fashion shoot in the middle of the rain forest was a typical Fijian experience, but I enjoyed it anyway! After a couple of hours checking out the park we once again boarded our bus and headed back to the ship at Port Denarau, it had been a hot and sticky day but once again we had a good time checking out another small slice of Fiji and once again we had been impressed by the locals patience and good grace towards us, even as they were recovering from a cyclone.

Hey, we even stumbled onto the set of Fiji's next top model err actually I may be embellishing that a bit!

The Dirt.

It appears that a lot of the other punters off the ship didn't venture much past the Hard Rock Cafe in Denarau, but we had a really enjoyable day checking out the Kula Eco Park and the Sigatoka Sand Dunes, I'd recommend either of them. Once again we were cruising with Princess Cruises and we booked the bus trip on the ship, I can't remember the cost (the blog was years away) but it wasn't overly expensive.

Finally, the main reason I decided to write up this post now is because of the damage Cyclone Winston has caused in the last couple of weeks, the people of Fiji need our help so if you've got a few bucks to spare check out these two links, the Red Cross and Unicef, and consider donating. 

This cruising caper is hard work.

Sailing away from Port Denarau, Mt Koroyanitu in the distance.