Treasure Island

Treasure Island resort is actually on the island of Elevuka, a member of  the Mamanuca group, a few kilometres west of Nadi. It's only about 200m by 100m in size, which worried us a bit when we were booking our Fiji trip. It was smaller than the Sydney shopping centre we were making the booking in.



It's fine for a couple of days though. They serenade you with song and music as you arrive and depart, and they provide good food, nice accommodation, and an excellent combination of relaxing or adventurous activities. They ought to really, as we seem to have been paying about $A400 a day.

You can swim in the swimming pool or go snorkelling, paddleboarding, diving or whatever on the coral reef that surrounds the place. (Unfortunately the 'whatever' included noisy jet skiing.)  Or you can lie in hammocks or deck chairs.

We dined in the general restaurant, but there were super-luxury exclusive dining options available for the likes of honeymoon couples. They even had a special wedding chapel on the island.

One of the nearby islands I think you can see on the horizon is Monuriki, the one where Tom Hanks got Cast Away on.

Lots of photo opportunities for scenic sunsets.

The island next door is Beachcomber Island. It has a resort on it too, and Beachcomber's even smaller than Treasure.

Fiji cyclones? What Fiji cyclones?

We booked our Fiji holiday a few weeks after Cyclone Winston tore through the place. That was reported to have been the country's strongest tropical cyclone ever. They were rebuilding, we read, and they were very keen that tourists keep coming, to keep the economy moving.

Most of the damage from Winston was in outer regions, such as the Yasawa Islands in the north west. Our travel agent found us places to stay that were operating OK, near Nadi,and on Elevuka (aka Treasure Island), which is south of, but within sight of, the Yasawas.

Then a few days before our trip, another cyclone came along. Zena threatened to wreck it all for us, but at the last minute it got downgraded into 'just' a massive rainfall event. Nadi was flooded, roads, resorts and the airport were briefly closed, but reopened again just in time.

So what were the visible effects of all this? Not all that much, for us. The Nadi market was a bit of a lonely place though, with a notable shortage of fresh goods for sale.



On the other hand, the markets in Suva (Fiji's biggest town), and Lautoka (2nd biggest), seemed pretty busy still, and were very colourful, lively places to visit.

The Treasure Island Resort was thriving, except that there was damage to some of the accommodation cabins, with much rebuilding going on.





On the subject of colourful markets, I particularly like the picture of Pudding and Pie, my new friends in Lautoka market.

Anyway, Fiji's clearly open for business. I'm sure there's large scale devastation though in those outer regions - tens of thousands homeless in fact - and I'll be making an appropriate donation through one of the reputable charities shortly.