Bula from Fiji!

As soon as the Yasawa Flyer reached  Nacula Island in the Blue Lagoon region of the Yasawa Island chain, a smaller taxi boat came and picked us up and whisked us away to our resort (Blue Lagoon Beach Resort).  The region is actually where they filmed the movie “Blue Lagoon.”

Pictures don’t do this place justice! It’s absolutely breathtaking, soft golden sand and the water was every possible shade of blue. Tripadvisor definitely did us a solid with this pick.

After we were greeted by singing resort workers we were shown to our garden villa where we stayed the first three nights of our stay. The room was spacious, clean and had a lovely outdoor bathroom complete with outdoor shower and toilet. When we arrived, there was a bottle of chilled champagne waiting for us, just perfect! The garden villa had its own hammock, which was great for nights when we wanted to relax and star gaze. Cheesy, I know but it definitely happened. We even saw a shooting star.

The food at the resort was out of this world but lunch was my favorite. Every day you could pick from the a la carte menu and it was just so yummy. It had a good mix of Fijian dishes and some of our favorites from the States as well.  The bar was just as great serving the stereotypical tropical cocktails. Some of our favorites were the pina colada (duh!), shark bites (which is like a long island) and the Nacula Sunset. The bar also had an amazing happy hour!

We also booked a special “romance” type package. It came with upgrade to the Captain’s Lounge on the Yasawa Flyer, hour-long couple’s massage and a private lobster dinner on our porch with champagne. The lobster dinner was delicious and obnoxiously huge. It came with two full lobsters, calamari, grilled fish, Fijian kokoda, and mussels along with salad and dessert. We had the lobster dinner on our front porch and it was so romantic and perfect. The couple’s massage was literally full body all the way from our toes to our scalp. It was as our PADI (more on that later) buddy put it “slimy yet satisfying.”

We never once got bored. The resort offered a plethora of different activities from basket weaving to crab racing to cave exploring to Kava Ceremonies (it tastes just like Samoan Kava)! However, our entire time was spent with the dive shop obtaining our PADI certifcations (more on that in the next blog).  It was equally wonderful lounging around in our hammock as it was staying busy, though.

After three nights we switched our room to a premium beachfront villa. These were fully booked the first three nights of our stay, which is why we were in the garden villa. The beachfront villa came with a hammock on the sand and two reserved loungers. It was out of this world! They had a promotion going when we booked that allowed guests staying four nights or more to get a free lobster dinner so once we were in the beachfront villa we had our second private lobster dinner overlooking the ocean. It was just as fabulous if not better than the first.

We were in the water almost constantly swimming, kayaking, snorkeling or diving. The snorkeling right off of our room was absolutely amazing! There was also a great sand bar that Saul discovered on one of our kayak adventures where we spent some time.

After six nights in paradise we packed our bags and waited for the water taxi to come get us and take us back to the Yasawa Flyer. This was hands down the hardest time I’ve had leaving from a vacation ever. Everything about it was absolute perfection!

Another 4.5 hours on the Yasawa Flyer and we arrived back at Port Denarau. We went to the Hard Rock Café and overindulged on nachos, burgers, mac n’ cheese and beer because our flight wasn’t until 1:45am and we got pack to the port at 6:00pm. This had been planned since we before we had booked our tickets to Fiji even and was a total necessity. Greasy [sorta] American food. 

We made our way to the airport around 9:00pm with the most amazing taxi driver ever, Naraj, who just had some awesome stories about his life, kids, Fiji and pretty much everything.

By the time we got to the airport a little before 10 we were so exhausted. Every night on Nacula we went to sleep between 9 and 10 so after traveling all day we were ready to go to sleep. We found a corner and knocked out until the Fiji Airways counter opened. Nadi International Aiport is a great airport with all the amenities you can find in a larger airport. We killed some time checking out the Duty Free stores and then found some more benches to catch some shut-eye on.

Our flight finally boarded and we had the whole row to ourselves thanks to the amazing Fiji Airways employee that blocked the window seat out for us. It’s a short flight back to Apia, so we only caught about an hour and a half of sleep. We arrived in Apia at about 5:30am where we caught a transfer back from Faleolo to downtown Apia. We went to McDonalds and got breakfast to kill some time, as our flight from Fagalii back to Pago wasn’t until 12:45pm.  We became pretty anxious and headed to Fagalii prematurely at 8:00am. More time to kill meant more sleeping on airport benches. Fagalii is a TINY airport with about four wooden benches and not much else. People started showing up around 10:30am and after much stress we boarded our plane. We asked the worker at Polynesian Airlines if he could make sure our bags made it on the plane (the airline notoriously leaves bags behind) and he was nice enough to get our luggage on. We landed back in AmSam, tired and with some ridiculous wet suit tan-lines.

After all is said and done, I think Saul and I both agree that Fiji is one of the best if not the best vacation we’ve ever had. Everything about it is beyond perfect (the hospitality and the sheer beauty of the place), we love love loved everything about it.  

-C

Arriving to Nacula Island.

On the taxi boat heading to the resort.

Our garden villa right after we checked in complete with champagne.

Saul's fish and chips for lunch

Decompressing after traveling all day.

Snorkeling pictures! All of this was right off the beach at our hotel. Our underwater camera doesn't do it justice!

Pretty impressive of Saul! Mr. Agile Husband.

Kayaking to the sand bar Saul discovered.

Our tree. We went and took a break on a private beach we found on our way to the sand bar.

The sand bar looking one way.

The sand bar looking the other way.

Our kayak parked.

Yoga swag inspired by Addie :)

Saul's yoga swag also inspired by Addie. :-P

Kind of like an ostrich! ;)

The view from the restaurant.

Fijian Kokoda. Raw fish marinated in citrus. YUM!

My handsome kayaker husband.

Looking back to the resort from our kayak.

Always gotta have the selfies!

The "garden" part of our garden villa. The square bowl type thing was to wash the sand off your feet before entering the room.

The first private lobster dinner we had.

A little friend I made at the restaurant. He was a fisher by day.

Our beachfront villa.

Outdoor shower.

The ceiling of our villa.

Our little puppy friend, Padi. (we named him)

Saul lounging in our hammock.

Just because I have the cutest husband ever.

Our hammock and the beach in front of our villa. When the sun was bright the water was AMAZING!

Check out those wetsuit tan lines. Yesssss.

Saul and Padi! :)

The massage hut was literally a hut. Not much in the way of privacy

Lounge space around the resort.

Lobster dinner part 2.

Hammock lounging after dinner.

Pina Coladas! Nom.

Sunset watching from our hammock.

Not a bad view ;)

Chrissy and I dancing with an employee on Fijian Night.

Saul dancing and our scuba buddy Chrissy.

A shedding gecko that made it's home in our bed.

Self-timer pictures for the win.

Saul did some fishing and caught this little guy.

The staff singing as we left the resort by water taxi.

Captain's Lounge in the Yasawa Flyer.

Leaving Fiji! :(

And finally Saul sleeping at Fagalii Airport in Western Samoa. This picture shows the ENTIRE airport. :)