Fiji in a Flash: A 48 hour stopover in paradise
What are you able to do with 48 hours in Fiji?
I made an unlikely, midlife entry into the world of wellness.
My every day moisturising routine entails remembering to get my face moist within the bathe.
However 24 hours after touching down at Nadi Airport, I’m getting ready to lather my crow’s ft in papaya pulp.
“The enzymes are nice for exfoliation,” says an teacher on the Alchemy Bar, a do-it-yourself wellness program at Six Senses, a luxurious resort in a rural setting on Malolo Island.
Nodding as if I understood, I blended the fruit right into a base of honey.
Greater than a stopover
Fiji has lengthy been a preferred vacation vacation spot for Australians.
However with four-hour flights from Sydney and new Fiji Airways connections to North America (Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco) and the broader Pacific, its enchantment as a stopover is on the rise.
Passengers transiting by means of Nadi Airport may even spend a number of hours on flying foxes and jungle treks at a close-by journey playground.
What a few barely longer layover?
A visit on the debut Fiji Airways flight from Canberra to Nadi is an opportunity to search out out.
Putting off
Swapping a Canberra Winter for Nadi’s inexperienced and blue landscapes looks like stepping out of a black-and-white portray into color.
It’s a brief drive to the Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa in Port Denarau, the place the lawns are manicured and lined by palm bushes, and workers welcome you with a contemporary coconut and “bula” (whats up).
The rooms are massive and chic and the resort affords a youngsters’ membership, teen zone, and adult-only seaside membership that serves visitors of all ages.
I’m feeling extra adventurous.
Opening up the throttle of a jetski, the Sofitel fades into the background whereas jagged silhouettes come into sight on the horizon.
The most important, Monuriki, is the island the place Tom Hanks shot “Castaway”. Solely barely much less impressively, the brand new “Love Island” sequence is being shot at one other island close by.
Right now, there’s not one other particular person on the horizon.
Leaping into the waters of the Malolo Barrier Reef offers method to a vivid tableau of flourishing coral, and colleges of fish in purple and yellow, weaving between.
Again On the Sofitel, the meals is even higher than the welcome.
The Bazaar Kitchen & Bar buffet consists of tropical fruits, resort staples like sushi and pastries and Fijian-Indian choices like steamed coconut Lolo buns and taro leaf pinwheels.
Dinner, a particular tasting by Fiji Airways’ govt chef Richard Cross, features a starter of braised Vuda pork stomach with pineapple and apple jam and sea scallops and a major grilled Yasawa Lobster in truffle butter sauce.
Island detour
The 30-minute boat experience from Port Denarau to the personal island of Tivua is an expertise in itself.
Captain Prepare dinner Cruises supply half-day journeys to Tivua, amid the Mamanuca Islands, and panaromas that includes mangrove clusters, white sandy seashores and turqoise waters.
Actions embrace a glass backside boat tour, snorkelling, scuba diving and kayaking to discover the picture- excellent island.
Our group receives a welcome tune on a ukulele earlier than being proven to our cabanas, the place brunch, champagne and contemporary fruit are ready.
It’s virtually decadent. Packages begin from $299.
Reconnecting
Six Senses Resort on Malolo island affords lovely personal villas and a fully-fledged wellness program that goes past tutorials in artisanal skincare.
The resort is house to hen coops, a beehive and even its personal inhabitants of 39 critically endangered Fijian Crested iguanas (their numbers are up from 17).
It looks like a conventional Fijian village however with some life-style touches from Silicon Valley.
Friends can join sleep research, sonic remedy or a common checkup by an onsite Ayurvedic drugs practitioner.
Mark Kitchen, the final supervisor, says visitors need a give attention to wellbeing when taking holidays after the pandemic.
“We have now a complete lot of various therapies that you could be not have considered, and individuals are very open to experiencing that now,” he stated.
“It was such an intense time; now individuals wish to reconnect.”
“That’s type of our mantra—reconnecting with your self, with others, and with the world round you.”
Later, washing orange pulp off my face within the mirror, I believe he is likely to be onto one thing.
Fiji Airways’ Sydney-Nadi route runs twice every day, there’s a every day from Melbourne and Brisbane, and flights twice every week from Adelaide.
Return Lite fares to Nadi begin from $A539 per particular person in financial system class.
Return Lite fares to Los Angeles or San Francisco begin at $A1250 per particular person in financial system class, and fares to Vancouver start at $A1713 per particular person in financial system class (Lite).
James Robertson flew as a visitor of Fiji Airways
