I have been blessed to have the opportunity to be in many beautiful places in my life. This is quite possibly the most heavenly location I have visited on this planet. We weren’t here half a day before Keith declared it the best vacation ever.
We arrived at Labasa on the north island of Fiji the day after we left Melbourne. We stayed overnight at a very nice hotel across from the Nadi airport as there is only one flight out to Labasa and it’s at midday. When we got to Labasa a portly man with a wide smile came up to us and said “Keith? I will take you to Nukubati.” The bags came into the aiport on a wagon, we got our bags and got into the Land Rover and were off. We traveled most of the way in comfortable silence. He would occassionally point out things of interest, women coming back from church, sugar cane fields and the local school. It took about an hour to get to the boat dock. There John was waiting for us, he took our bags and helped us in to the little blue motorboat. It was a quick jaunt across the water and as we arrived into the beach on the island the staff had come down to the beach and were singing to us in welcome. They all greeted us by name and gave us beautiful leis made of rope with bouquets at each end. Gordon, the island manager, brought us into the main bure where there were fresh coconuts waiting for us as welcome drinks. He is a broad man with a wide, gap-toothed smile covered by a moustache. His eyes always look like they’re smiling. He sat with us, we got to know each other a bit and he told us about Nukubati. Nukubati is Fijian owned and operated. Gordon leases it from another Fijian man and runs the resort. It can accomodate 7 couples but there are only 5 other guests on the island with us at the moment. Because it’s so small everyone knows everyone. This took a few minutes to get used to as you usually go on vacation with total anonymity. Here everyone knew our names before we arrived.
After our introduction to the island and our coconut drinks they made us lunch. I thought we might miss lunch because we weren’t arriving til around 2pm but hadn’t realized that at Nukubati you get 3 meals a day but they can be anytime and anywhere on the island. So, there was no question we would be hungry and have lunch when we arrived. The reviews I had read had mentioned how amazing the food is here but still you aren’t prepared for how amazingly fresh everything is. There is a garden on the island and most of the fruits and vegetables are grown here and then the guys that work here catch a lot of the seafood that’s a staple on the menu. Lunch and dinner have two choices and you usually pick your next meal at the one you’re sitting. Every mouthful of food was heaven. I was worried I had oversold the resort in my head before arriving and within the first hour I knew that it would live up to all my expectations.
We then went to our bure which is close enough to the main building to get the Wifi (which put my mind at ease a little because it meant we could ask about the kids - we weren’t expecting Wifi here). The bures are all set up to maximize views and basically the rooms are all white and windows. I am currently sitting in the front room and I can see the ocean and palm trees everywhere I look. There are no keys here because Gordon says "we have not seen pirates in a very long time" :) I can also see Keith on our own little section of beach. Every bure has a beach area with 2 cushioned deck chairs and a wide rust-coloured beach umbrella. These little areas of beach are seperated by neatly trimmed hedges so you fell totally cocooned in your own little space. The only kick-back into reality is when you hear Sarah’s amazing laugh which can be heard throughout the island. Sarah serves the meals and she’s this wonderful round mama of a woman with big brown eyes (she has 4 kids, the youngest is a couple months older than Emily). She served us breakfast yesterday and as we were leaving said “Have a good day guys” like she was sending us off to school. Like a mama duck looking after her ducklings.
The most amazing thing about Nukubati is how you feel like you’ve just become a part of your own little Fijian family. Yesterday we had a traditional Fijian barbeque for lunch. Some of the guests had gone out fishing with the guys and then they brought home their winnings of the day and it was barbequed up for our feast. We all sat together Fijians and “guests” and ate kassava, fried egglants, octopus, fish, coconut “marshmellows” and sugar cane. We had “plates” of leaves and it felt totally natural to all sit together and enjoy this amazing food as one big happy family. I have never seen that before at any other resort and it puts it over the top of anywhere else I’ve ever stayed. It’s like coming to my Grandma’s house but in a beautiful tropical location. The tenderness of being cared for on such a personal level is so lovely.
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