First Time to Fiji: Day 6

Today we visited five resorts in the area. We started with Maravu, where we were greeted by a delightful woman named Ester. She explained that the property was owned by a German gentleman named Jochen, who had visited as a backpacker and fell in love with the island. He returned to buy the resort where he stayed.

Although the resort doesn’t have the amazing views you find at Taveuni Island Resort or Makaira, it does have a beautiful expansive property and extremely friendly staff. The bures are furnished with attractive palm wood furniture, all locally made, and feature private Jacuzzis. The property is surrounded by jungle, where visitors can easily find parrots, woodpeckers and a variety of other beautiful native birds.

Photos of Maravu

We start walking down the street toward Coconut Grove. Do spots us from her truck and gives us a lift. At Coconut grove we are greeted by owner Ronna. The bures at coconut grove are conveniently located right on the beach. The resort has its own restaurant that serves everything from curries to hamburgers.

Photos of Coconut Grove

We move on to the Garden of Eden, a vacation rental owned by Toni Hauswirth, a friend of one of this trip’s benefactors, Rob Kay. We are greeted by property manager Peter who shows us around the house and explains its history. Peter tells us that Rob used to stay in this house. Every morning he would see Rob “standing on his head” in the yard (apparently doing yoga), which the locals found very entertaining. The house is a spacious two story, two bedroom structure with a large pool surrounded by fruit trees. It has an authentic “someone lives here” feel to it. Peter explains that it has had a number of famous visitors including models, actors and large business owners.

Photos of Garden of Eden

We start to work our way back toward Taveuni Island Resort. Along the way we stop by Todranisiga. The owner is out showing her visitors around the island, so we photograph the property and chat with house keeping. The bures are located on a small cliff overlooking the ocean. It's a nice property.

Photos of Todranisiga

After a short break in our bure we head to our last stop for the day, Makaira. The owners, John and Roberta, are from the Big Island of Hawaii. With its fancy beds and focus on privacy (each bure is on its own acre), this place is clearly targeted toward honeymooners. John jokes, “they make a lot of babies here.” Roberta says that those who don’t get pregnant are often back within a few years. They are very happy with the fact that they get a lot of repeat business. We have no trouble believing this.

Photos of Makaira

John is a pro fisherman from a fishing family. He explains that fishing in Fiji is the way it used to be in Hawaii 50 years ago. John tells us a story about his father going fishing with Sam Choy, a now famous chef in Hawaii, back when they were both working at the same resort. His father brought pork and beans sandwiches on white bread for lunch. Sam thanked him for lunch and suggested that he make lunch next time.

John often takes visitors out fishing. Makaira has a seafood night once a week where they prepare poke (a Hawaiian dish consisting of marinated raw tuna cubes – basically Hawaiian sashimi), grilled fish and a variety of other delicacies from the day’s catch.

Having lived in Hawaii most of my adult life, we quickly fall into “talk story” mode, which continues for about three hours. We hear lots of interesting stories, most of which we can’t share on the web :-)