Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Most yachts depart Fiji by September or October before the start of the hurricane season and
start to arrive again, often having sailed via Tonga or Tahiti, from May to August.
CRUISES
P&O Cruises
Australia 13 24 69, New Zealand 0800 951 200;
pocruises.com.au
.
Large passenger cruise ships departing Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland and visiting various
ports including Suva, Lautoka and Savusavu as well as Beqa and the Yasawas, usually on
twelve-day itineraries.
Soren Larsen
New Zealand 09 817 8799;
sorenlarsen.co.nz
. New-Zealand-based tall
ship adventure cruise broken into twelve independent legs across the South Pacific. The Fiji
leg arrives in Levuka from Samoa/Tonga in August and spends six days cruising around the
islands before heading on to Vanuatu.
GETTING AROUND
Fiji is spread over a huge area of the southwest Pacific, covering almost 1.3 million
square kilometres. On a map, the islands may look close enough together to hop
between, but with limited infrastructure this can be a time-consuming process, often in-
volving back-tracking to either Nadi or Suva. Viti Levu, the main island, is extremely
well connected by public transport and easy to explore, as are the popular beach destin-
ations of the Mamanucas and Yasawa Islands, connected by fast catamaran. Exploring
further afield, though, requires patience and a sense of adventure, with cumbersome
passenger ferries and cargo boats visiting the outer islands on a weekly or monthly basis
and flights in small propeller planes landing on gravel and sometimes even grass air-
strips.
Nadi
, on the main island of Viti Levu, is the nation's tourist hub, home to the international
and main domestic airport and with sea access to the Mamanucas.
Suva
, 120km away on the
opposite side of the mainland, is the transport hub for all outer-island shipping, as well as
having air access to ten outer-island airstrips.
On the two largest islands of
Viti Levu
and
Vanua Levu
, as well as on
Taveuni
, exception-
ally cheap buses travel around the coast and countryside on a fairly regular basis and carri-
er vans or taxis can be hired for private tours. On all other islands, though, getting around
usually involves a boat journey, often in a small, ten-passenger fibreglass boat with a 60HP
single engine, and these, when chartered, are expensive. Hitching a ride with the locals is
much cheaper but more often than not boats are filled to the brim, sometimes with as many
as twenty large Fijians plus their luggage.
