Into the wide blue yonder

Cruise Fiji's southern Yasawa islands to stunning beaches and lagoons.

The Reef Escape at anchor.

IT'S gonna be a bright, bright, bright, sunshiney day. Crew members are singing these merry lyrics as they supervise a curry buffet lunch in the Chart House room and serve trays of Fiji Bitter beer and cocktails with names as radiant as Pacific Dream.

I am aboard the motor vessel Reef Escape for a three-night cruise to the southern skirts of the Yasawas, an archipelago off the northwest of Viti Levu, Fiji's main isle. It is indeed bright and sunshiney and has been since we pulled out of Port Denarau, near Nadi, for this convivial voyage.

The 116-passenger Reef Escape is operated by Captain Cook Cruises, an Australian company that also runs trips on Sydney Harbour, along the Murray River in South Australia and around Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. The unspoken motto is to keep things simple, with a rough-and-ready charm; there's a feeling of fun and fellowship on board and Reef Escape's dress code is no more complicated than beachcomber (with shoes for dinner).

Otherwise it's a barefoot cruise with multiple stops each day for beach visits, swimming in pretty lagoons and snorkelling or scuba diving. There are two launches at the rear of the 68m Reef Escape and these are loaded with passengers and lowered several times a day. One of the craft has a glass bottom so you can engage in what we soon dub "sit-down snorkelling" while zooming to shore over festive-coloured corals and darting fish.

There are cultural visits, too, including a Sunday church service at Nalauwaki village on Waya island. No matter that the promised sermon turns out to be a choir practice; it's rumoured, with many giggles from the congregation, that the pastor is somewhere up a hill with a radio tuned to an overseas rugby match.

More organised is a visit to Namara village primary school on the island of Waya Sewa where the children put on a show for us, including a spirited rendition, complete with high cackles, of Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree. It's all a bit calculated but enormous fun nonetheless; passengers are each led by a small hand and taken off to admire schoolwork. My little guide is Milli, who's at pains to show me her running writing, carefully copied in an exercise book, and her drawings of houses with pointed roofs and bare windows. She has so many rubber stamps and gold stars in the book she has to be teacher's pet.

On the last night, we attend a meke feast at Yalobi village on the southern end of Waya island and I am taken to task for sitting in the front row, which is apparently reserved for the more exalted male species. It's a small cultural gaffe and the only information oversight by Reef Escape's hospitality manager Mark, who has guided us through the wearing (or not) of hats in front of chiefs, the covering of knees, correct procedures at the church and school, and an intriguing array of folk tales that pose conundrums such as "How did bananas come to Fiji?".

Mark is never introduced by his family name and it's an informality that starts with the chap in charge, Captain Paul, an ex harbour master and merchant navy man who's more often in a busily patterned bula shirt than his nautical whites. ""I am just the conductor," he tells us.

When the kava bowl comes out in the Ra Marama Lounge after dinner, Captain Paul and Jocko, the chief engineer, strike up duets and entertain the guests as bartenders Jope and Isimeli shake another fiercely addictive Shark Attack or Iguana cocktail.

After three days, I am very sorry to leave and surprised how much I have enjoyed the experience. If that sounds snobby, let me explain my initial misgivings. Reef Escape is in need of a full refurbishment, from soft furnishings and carpets to the replacement of interior fittings. The brochure shows a picture of a stateroom with passengers appearing to stand on its balcony. That private-looking patch is actually a public walkway that runs around the two passenger decks and cabins open on to it via sliding glass doors. As I unpack there are kids racing up and down the walkway; the wooden boards are vibrating and it sounds like the proverbial pack of elephants thundering by.

I understand their excitement at the prospect of a grand adventure, but it doesn't augur well for other passengers' relaxation. But at the safety briefing on the first afternoon, Captain Paul makes it clear that running around the ship and jumping in the pool are not allowed and hints, with a smile, that unspeakable penalties await. ("What's a brig, Mummy?") It does the trick and all the kids -- dozens of them, from toddlers to teens -- behave impeccably thereafter.

My concerns about the food are all to do with the uninviting decor of the Yasawa Saloon dining room. Again, I am proved wrong. There's a reasonable menu choice -- New Zealand prime steaks, local fish, soups such as minestrone and French onion -- and meals are well balanced and nicely prepared by head chef Waqa and her brigade. Captain Paul reveals that crew members have to know how to entertain passengers as well as perform their duties.

We are therefore not too taken aback to discover third chef Nilesh dressed as doomed missionary Thomas Baker for the Sunday night fashion parade and staff show. He produces a pair of underpants and a deodorant stick from his god-fearing bag before locating the Bible and his fellow crew laugh fit to burst.

"Every week it's a different person playing the missionary and you never know what's in that bag," hoots Captain Paul.

Baker was eaten by the villagers of Nabutautau in 1867, so one wonders what his descendants (who received an official apology from the Fiji government in 2003) would make of the little tableau.

Days aboard Reef Escape assume a pleasant regularity of buffet breakfast, an efficient beach landing (we must look like invading forces, albeit with straw hats and suncream-swiped noses) for swims and snorkelling, lunch back on board and perhaps a wee siesta, then an afternoon activity (sometimes twice in an afternoon) at another beach backed by high hills braided with thick white-flowering vines.

Our average speed is a glacial eight knots and some anchorages are overnight, so it's a good option for timid sailors, and the getting into, and out of, the landing craft is very easy, with barely a wet toe in it.

The crew is wonderful, attuned to passengers' needs and always in good humour. "Bula" is heard umpteen times a day, always with a laugh; even passengers call out this Fijian greeting to each other and many of us know each other's names by the end of the first day.

It is a lovely way to experience a Fiji of village life (fishing and goat farming are the mainstays) and untrammelled beaches, seemingly miles removed from the high-rise hotel culture of Denarau. Effortlessly one adjusts to the tensile nature of Fiji time, with its disregard for clocks and schedules. Wake from a snooze on the sand, take a final twilight dip with the fish before spa therapist Edwina packs up her folding beach massage table and the last launch returns to the Reef Escape. What's not to like?

Susan Kurosawa was a guest of Captain Cook Cruises.

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Checklist
Following the expulsion of Australian and New Zealand high commissioners from Fiji by the interim government, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains an advisory of "exercise caution" for the country, except Suva, where travellers are advised to exercise a high degree of caution because of the potential for civil unrest. More: www.smartraveller.gov.au.

Three or four-night (or combined seven-night) cruises on Reef Escape depart from the marina at Port Denarau, about 25 minutes from Nadi airport. Book at least two months ahead to save 25 per cent; from $900 (including early booking saver) a person twin-share for the three-night cruise, covering meals, activities and use of snorkelling gear.

Ask about free bonus cabins for families travelling with two or more children aged three to 15. More: [phone]; www.captaincook.com.fj.

V Australia will launch direct daily full-service flights between Australia and Fiji from December 18 using three-class Boeing 777s; the new services replace Pacific Blue flights. More: 131 645; www.virginblue.com.au.
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