Marooned in heaven

By CARROLL du CHATEAU

As we hurtle down the Nadi-Suva road, our driver energetically wiggling a finger in his ear - presumably to dislodge something unspeakable - Robert Louis Stevenson's "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive" seems way off track. Every couple of kilometres, Azim slams on the brakes, edges the creaking car over a mountainous traffic hump, then speeds up again. Occasionally he swerves to the wrong side of the road, lights blazing into the blackness, despite the frantic flicking of oncoming cars.

Two hours after we left the airport and the memory of those cushy front-end Air Pacific seats and champagne is a blur, he makes a hard swing right down a dirt road. Now the bumps are end on end and irregular, the blackness impenetrable. Rather than descending to sea level, we groan up a hill. Then, just when all seemed lost we take another turn to the right - and the holiday starts.

The road smooths out and drops down through a fringe of coconut palms and frangipanis. There in the black we can see white surf breaking on a reef. The sign says Crusoe's. We're there.

Next morning we wake to a green lawn sloping down to an aquamarine lagoon topped by an impossibly blue sky. There's fresh orange pawpaw and baby bananas in the fruit bowl. A notice on the bedside table says breakfast stretches until 10. Heaven.

Even though this was an arranged holiday (as in an arranged marriage) no one could tell us much about Crusoe's resort on Fiji's Coral Coast. All we knew was that it was "three star, maybe three and a half", well down the coast towards Suva - close to a Fijian village and owned by New Zealanders. No one we knew had stayed there, or even heard of the place.

Only when we arrived did we find out why. This small resort on its own shallow lagoon has had identity problems. The very first resort in Fiji, Crusoe's started out in 1962 as Lomalangi, meaning "heaven" in Fijian. Its slogan: "Why wait to die to go to heaven?" And despite two name changes - first to Man Friday's (which for a time cornered the gay market) and Crusoe's - this stretch of the Coral Coast has remained truly heavenly. The lagoon is warm and shallow with underwater gardens of coral where at high tide you can snorkel safe from marauding sharks.

Like many other Fijian resorts, Crusoe's has a co-dependent relationship with the next door village, a couple of steps to the side of the resort (and on the best beach). Here, where the fragrant, bony-bare frangipanis flower even in "winter" and children play in the long grass among the chickens, life strums along as it has for eons. There's a shadowy figure lying in the shaded chief's house, a woman in her sulu laughs sleepily as she emerges after a celebration on the kava the night before.

Crusoe's deputy manager, Noeline, is like family here. She shouts me a lurid blue bubblegum on credit from the tiny shop with its selection of cigarettes, soft drinks and sweets, takes me into the spotless kindy where the walls are adorned with English words and how to pronounce them. Mains electricity arrived last year, there's the odd TV set around - and, though I didn't see them, a couple of cars.

Every morning around dawn, soon after the raucous birds begin their wake-up call, a small army meanders between the village and resort to slowly clip, sweep, scrape and scythe every inch of the lawn and gardens, pick up the coconuts and vacuum the deep pool where tourists lie, despite the heat, for hours. "Bula," they say, smiling in that peculiarly friendly-without-being-subservient-in-the-least, Fijian way.

Down at the activities bure on the beach, Ben and Eroni sort us for everything from snorkelling, to fishing and canoeing ... to preparing almost-instant kokonda from mackerel and lemon juice with freshly grated and squeezed coconut cream. Once tried, never beaten.

Next door, where Ben tells us men never cook, village life goes on as it has for hundreds of years. During these high tides of September, women walk probably 600m across the lagoon to the reef in their bare feet to collect small octopi.

One day I decided to join them. Armed with a stick recommended by Ben at the activities bure, I sloshed through the knee-high water for a surprising 20 minutes until I arrived at the reef, marvelled at the long-legged crabs and coloured coral, picked up the odd shell, marvelled again at how wide (around 50m) the reef was - but always keeping an eye on the village reefcombers in case I got caught by the tide. When the water was thigh-high I decided to head back - and, once panting safely on the beach, waited for what seemed hours until the Fijians languorously sailed through the lagoon, water up to their chins, brim-full baskets of octopi and clothes perched on their heads, chattering and singing.

From that first morning, the days melt into dream time. Fresh pawpaw on the deck overlooking the pool, half-price pina coladas as the sun does its tropical dive for the horizon, snorkelling twice a day if you want.

And, our last day, a trip to the hole in the reef where more intrepid snorkellers can swim among bright coral and spectacular reef fish while the tin boat with reassuring Eroni on board bobs close enough for comfort. Someone saw a turtle, someone much unluckier a reef shark.

Crusoe's Retreat

* Carroll du Chateau flew to Fiji courtesy of Air Pacific and was a guest of Crusoe's.

Case notes


When to go


Being so near the equator, Fiji's climate is relatively constant. "Winter" runs from June to August, with temperatures 19-28C and dry, cool weather; September to May weather is warm and humid with temperatures 20-31C.

How to get there

Air Pacific flies Auckland-Nadi every day except Monday, and Auckland- Suva on Mondays and Fridays. Standard return fares range from $935 to $1127 so check for package deals. Air New Zealand operates Auckland-Nadi every day except Mondays and Thursdays. Standard return fare $935. Pacific Island seaplanes operate year-round from Nadi to most islands. The trip to Vatulele costs A$330 a person.

What to take

Togs, hats and sulus/sarongs, skirts, pants or outrageous clothes for dinner, shorts and trainers for the energetic, sunblock and a light, long-sleeved shirt, insect repellent. For Crusoe's pack a pair of light, rock-walking shoes (about $12 from the Warehouse) which are ideal for messing about in the lagoon.