Fiji

Devin Beliveau
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Whenever I see a palm tree I get excited. It’s been this way since I saw my very first one as a middle schooler on a trip to Phoenix. To me, a palm tree means vacation. And a palm tree in Fiji signifies the ultimate vacation. I feel like a cool kid when I say, “oh yeah, one year I went to Fiji for spring break.” Here’s the thing no one tells you about Fiji: their wet season is eight months long. We didn’t travel to Fiji in peak tourist season, so we got rain every day. Luckily, the clouds and rain only rolled in for a few hours each day, but it was surprising regardless.

View from a boat near Malolo Island. 2007.

We spent the first night after we landed at a hostel in Nadi (pronounced Nan-dee). To this day, it’s the only time I’ve slept with my passport under my pillow. Not that Nadi is a particularly sketchy place (though we were told to never get in a taxi unless we had called it ahead of time), but there was an advisory for Fiji on US government sites because the Fijian government had been overthrown in a coup months earlier. An Australian had told us not to worry too much because the coup was a soft one that was actually put on hold so people could watch the finals of a popular rugby series. Whether or not that’s true, I have no idea.

The next day we got on a boat that left very early “no Fiji time,” meaning the time the boat was scheduled to leave was very much non-negotiable, unlike most of Fiji which ran on “Fiji time,” or rather, whenever people feel like making things happen, whether it’s a few minutes or a few hours late. We went in one small boat and our luggage went in another. We landed on Malolo Island, home of the Funky Fish Resort. The resort was empty except for us and a couple on their honeymoon. They had a private hut, while we were in a shared hostel-style hut with a lot of beds, though we were the only people there so we had the large hut to ourselves. We drank, we snorkeled, we did a little island hopping. One of the coolest things we did was fish. Our resort had staff that would took us out on a boat to fish for a few hours. They took our catches back to the resort and cooked them up for dinner for us. At the time, there was nothing else on the island except this resort. No stores, no other facilities. If you didn’t bring food and drink to the island, you had to make do with what they had. And make do we did. It was a relaxing vacation filled with fresh island food and whatever alcohol they had on hand.

I probably won’t find myself in Fiji again, but not for a lack of wanting to go back. I’d love to see Fiji in all it’s peak-season glory, but I’m glad I got a rainy, off the touristy track view of the islands. We essentially had an entire island and resort to ourselves for a few days, which is an experience I will always remember.

Taken on a cloudy day spent island hopping. 2007.
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