UnderWater Photos

The Mamanucas

The Mbengga area

Fiji-life image Log.

2011-2013

2014

2015 ; second page ; third page

2016 ; second page

2017 ; second page

2018

2019

2020

2021

CloudBreak ?

Check out JP riding CLOUDBREAK !!!

Viti Levu
The rest of this page

Pacific Harbour is a planned Ocean access/golf course development with
a "Cultural center"(shows) and "Arts Village"(strip Mall) in the middle of it.
It is on the south coast of the Island, an hour from the Capital, Suva.
It is surrounded by fabulous Rainforest Mountains, Rivers & Waterfalls.
It is an excellent Ocean base in the South Pacific, with one of the most incredible
Ocean environments in the World, even though it lacks a real marina.
All this is within an hour's car, mountain bike, or boat, ride from your front door!

Arts village rooms for $65 FJD/night ($38usd).

The Arts Village.

Residential neighbourhoods.

34 degrees Celsius in the pool most of the time ! (summer)
Beat THAT, Hawaii !

Greenery around Koro place.

C.C.C.

The sublime golf paradise of Pacific Harbour !
Backdrop: the awe-inspiring 1000m peaks of the fabled Namosi highlands.

The Canal meets the Sea at the Pearl Resort.

The 'Pearl' looking swanky at night.

The "Pearl" doing upgrade, 2014.

Upgrade finished, 2016.

M&D at the Uprising. 2011.

D m.i.a. in 2016.

The Pacific Harbour beach with Beqa (Bengga) Island in the background.
The beach has poor water quality and not much of a barrier reef,
due to a lot of fresh water run-off and silt in the area.

Some mediocre sailing (Kihei kine) can be done here on the beach, but the good
stuff is offshore; you need a boat to get there, and I don't have one. The trades in Fiji
are annoyingly weak, with the possible exception of a few months in the winter (May-Sep).
Why the trades are stronger in the winter instead of summer makes no sense at all to a Maui boy.
My next research project is to figure that one out.

Update: figured it out a few years later; the reason (as I see it) is that the trades
in this part of the south Pacific seem to get a lot of interference from the ITC in the
summer (the inter-tropical convergence zone), which never drifts as far north as Hawaii.
As Fiji is slightly closer to the equator the ITC tends to shut down the trades in the summer
for days/weeks at a time, and also spawn a hurricane or two more than Hawaii usually gets.
The Hawaiian hurricanes come floating in from tropical America and usually miss the Island
chain, whereas the south Pacific hurricanes (Cyclones) tend to be born in Fiji's immediate vicinity.
Warm west pacific ocean currents add to the equation, helping raise sea surface temperatures to
phenomenal levels in the summer (30+degrees Celsius!), never seen in Hawaii, causing a tropical-like
rainy season as well, also non-existent in Hawaii; Hawaii's rain comes either from trade winds piling up
moisture on the windward sides of the high main Islands, or from winter storms fronts drifting in from
the northwest. To top it all off, there seems to be some kine weird semi-permanent atmospheric trough
extending from the equator east of Papua to the south east right over Fiji, causing abnormal
(trades-interrupting) weather patterns to develop. The winter trades in Fiji are also interrupted
when low pressure systems that circle the Globe in the southern Ocean drift up from the west-wind belt
and into the sub-tropics (like the winter low-pressure systems in the north Pacific sometimes
reach Hawaii), temporarily replacing the trades with south/south-westerlies.
Hawaii and Fiji: so identical on the map, yet so far apart, by Oceanographic magic!

Coconut Boy, March 2011.

Taunovo beach, just West of Pacific Harbour.

It's a nice spot.

Taunovo, with 'Sacred hill' in the middle of it. 'Shark fin'(204m) behind, on left.

THAT is a CARBON COPY of Rio de Janeiro !!!!Holy shit!!!!spooky!!!

Here's Rio! Brazil.

Suva, the Capital.

Two different Malls, Downtown.

The Suva Seafront.

The Lami area.

The Namosi Highlands

Heading up Navua River.

A religious brain washing institution in the heart of Viti Levu.

Going up Namosi road.

The Coral Coast

Waindroka, 30 min. west of Pacific Harbour.

Waindroka Surf resort.

This is where foreigners come for Huelo-style off the grid living on Viti Levu.
Found a small, swampy 'Ocean front' lot here in the boonies for ~ 60.000 U$D (2011).

The road out of Waindroka, 15 min. back to the Highway.

Next stop West, about halfway to Singatoka, in the middle of the Coral Coast, is the very remote "Maui Bay" development,
for people who don't mind driving 30 minutes to the nearest anything (2hrs from the Capital). I'm somewhat surprised
that anyone invests here, but, I guess, if you get a Giant fridge and a Giant freezer, and grow your own vegetables....
Also, very far to anywhere by boat. Good luck to the brave.

It's a pretty place though. But boring. Neutral.

They have this great pier for the lot owners to use.

Not yet finished(2011).

There are Oceanfront lots, and some great view lots too.
All way overpriced, considering the location.

River water and Ocean water meet.

Singatoka, the western gateway town to the Coral Coast.
Some really scummy Indian food can be enjoyed here.
Pacific Harbour is over an hour to the east, at the other end of the Coral Coast.

The remote Momi Bay area.

A mostly swampy coastline & boring, ugly, mostly treeless, shrubby landscape.

A failed, but to be revived?, development, Momi bay. It's the closest 'mainland' to Cloudbreak.

Nandi (Nadi)

Nandi is a busy little town with plenty of Indian influence.
A Hindu Temple, and some OK Indian food, can be found here.

Downtown Backpackers on Main Street, thee ONLY place to stay in Nandi.

Denarau is on the Nandi coast.
It's a soulless commercial tourist hub and golf course development, for people who
insist on isolating themselves from anything "Fiji" during their "Fijian" holiday.
That, of course, makes it a great place for expat locals to get away from Fiji without
having to pay for an expensive plane ticket on an over-priced un-competitive airline (Fiji air),
which is only in business because it is protected by a monopoly, enabling it to charge 30% more
than it otherwise could (in a free market).

Some expats actually live here in this arid uglyness, with brown seawater,
in the middle of nowhere (over 3hrs. drive from the city), and over 1hrs. boat ride from useable Ocean.

The Radisson.

The Sheraton.

Port Denarau is the access point for the Mamanucas (arid tourist Islands of little interest).

HorroShoo!

Northern Viti levu

Hindu

A Fiji town.

A Mosque in Lautoka.

Lautoka is an OK town, the second largest on Viti Levu.
Lots of Indian influence here too.

"Fiji Water" comes from these Mountains.

Ellington Wharf.

Heading out to Nananu-i-Ra Island.

Some other Islands on the way, Nananu-i-Cake & Yanutha.

NANANU-I-RA !

The west side.

Still west side.

Back on east side.

We stayed at the excellent Safari lodge.

Heading back to Ellington Wharf.
And I thought 'Maui Bay' was remote....This is well and truly in the remote boonies!
Pleasant enough for a visit, but not much here to justify such remote living, though.
No waves, no deep Ocean (bad fishing?), good diving not tooo far away and good wind for
sailing (windsurfing), but without waves...what's the point?