Fiji island transfers hack to save you time on your next holiday
We have found a travel hack to ensure you don’t waste any potential pool time on Nadi waiting to transfer to a luxury island resort.
One thing has always niggled me about Fiji. Perhaps it’s reflective of my own hit-and-miss planning skills but I’ve always struggled to find flights from Australia that match neatly with same-day transfers from the main island of Viti Levu, where the international airport is located, to the archipelago’s outer isles.
Generally, a Fijian holiday at any of the more secluded resorts often requires what I see as a wasted night on the mainland.
The two brand-new Fiji Airways flights from Canberra to Nadi do little to solve this issue (and to be fair they’re not magicians: a two-hour time zone difference is a two-hour time zone difference), with flights landing at 12.20pm or 7.40pm.
On my recent trip, I catch the latter, which means a fairly late-night arrival at my Nadi hotel once baggage and transfers are all accounted for.
But this time, instead of seeing my Nadi stopover as an unwanted hindrance, my hosts have a trick up their sleeve. I can take an early-morning half-day trip out to Tivua Private Island before my resort transfer the next day.
Suddenly, the extra night feels like a bonus, not a bummer.
At a very early hour the next morning, our group makes its way to Port Denarau Marina where we are met by trays of Veuve Clicquot champagne (an anytime food when you’re on holiday, obviously) and the team from Captain Cook Cruises to whisk us out on a half-day tour to their private island.
Tivua is a speck of white-sand seclusion in the Mamanuca Islands group, around 18km from Viti Levu and this tour kicks off at 8am.
“The great thing is that you get to be the first footprints on the beach,” explains Captain Cook Cruises general manager Jamie Lowe, adding that the alternative full-day trips on the company’s catamaran take 90 minutes to reach the island compared to our 30-minute sprint.
In what feels like mere moments later, we’ve arrived by speedboat and it’s just our group of 18, crooked palm trees, a bunch of sun lounges separated by buckets of bubbles and mineral water, and 200ha of coral reef.
There’s also a bar, a spa and a hut where snorkelling gear awaits, all assembled underneath sun-dried palm thatching.
As we walk down the jetty, baby black-tipped reef sharks dart around the shallows hunting for breakfast, and schools of garfish flash through the waves like silver daggers. Eager to meet them, I join marine biologist Amos, and the two of us are soon beneath the waves.
The little sharks keep their distance but the bug-eyed garfish are hilarious up close.
The trophy sighting is a spotted eagle ray, soaring through the water like its avian namesake.
After about three hours of letting the sun add a few more freckles to my nose, we return to the main island by 11.30am and I have an hour or so to wait until my transfer to Six Senses on Malolo Island, which is enough time to grab a manicure. Nailed it – literally and figuratively. Fiji time, I have you cornered.
The next three nights are spent at Six Senses, where time doesn’t seem to matter. My villa, footsteps from the beach, has its own plunge pool, soothing dark-wood walls that create a sense of restful calm at night and an outdoor shower and bath.
Despite being a curiously non-bath person, this one wins me over with its deep, eggshell curve and the fact I can lie back and gaze at rough-hewn stonework and sun-splashed palms.
Wellness is part of the fabric at every Six Senses. There are a lot of leggings and sneakers being worn by guests, and the menu at all three main dining spaces – Tovolea, Rara and Tei Tei pizza – are carefully marked with symbols for vegetarian, gluten-free and other dietary requirements.
But you can be as wellness-conscious as you want to be, and days are designed to be paced entirely at your leisure. For me, that means early-morning gym sessions followed by a shot of what my favourite waiter, Eliki, calls “Rocket Fuel”, a fiery amber-coloured shot of cider vinegar, ginger, garlic, turmeric and other seasonings. But that’s as far as my commitment to stringent healthiness really stretches.
The rest of the day is spent lounging by that private pool, snacking on coconut ice-cream from the gelateria, tucking into rich curries made with chicken and Fijian spinach, or disappearing into the outer reef to scuba dive.
On my final night, around 7pm, a soft, warm darkness envelops the island as I meet Six Senses’ sustainability officer Karalaini Taivalu in a leafy glade of noni trees and Fijian chestnuts to see if we can spot the resort’s mascot, the endangered Fijian iguana.
In 2018, when the resort was built, there were only 17 known iguanas on the island but their numbers are now up to 38, thanks to the green corridor of the island’s original vegetation that the Six Senses team preserves for their benefit.
Karalaini swipes the torch around but we’re only able to spot two, clinging high and motionless at the very tops of two towering noni trees. The iguanas sleep at night and eat during the day but they are easier to spot with torches at night, even though they’re not as active. I may not have enjoyed the best viewings but I accept that these guys are on their own Fiji time.
Like all good trips, this one seems to slip away from me almost as soon as it began, with the Six Senses transfer zooming me back to the mainland before I know it, the sweet sounds of Isa Lei, the gentle Fijian farewell song, fading into the paradise behind me.
From the dock at Port Denarau, it’s a simple and seamless transfer to the airport and homeward. Seems like Fiji time got a bit of a makeover for me on this particular visit. And my journey was all the better for it.
In the know
Fiji Airways flies to Nadi from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. Captain Cook Cruises’ half-day private island experience on Tivua Island starts at $299 a person with an option to add food and beverage packages or reserve private cabanas. Check-in begins at 7.30am for an 8am departure on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Hideaway Pool Villas at Six Senses Fiji from $FJ2115 ($1440) including taxes. Beachfront Pool Villas from $FJ2775.
Alexandra Carlton was a guest of Fiji Airways.
