Our first family holiday… in Fiji!

We’re back in Fiji once again, the only difference is that there’s three of us this time!

For our first family holiday we wanted to travel to somewhere warm but not too far away as we weren’t sure how Xander would handle the flight. So we selected Fiji as we’ve been there before and knew what to see and where to go to make the most of a short stay.

The day of travel arrived and we managed to get a ride to the airport by Suz’s dad which was greatly appreciated as we had to be at the airport by 4:30am for checkin (not a fan of early morning flights). We were very organised as always with luggage, tickets, passports etc… what we did forget however was Xanders Nappy bag, which we realised as we were checking in. However, Suz managed to call her dad who was on his way back to our place to return the car, she explained the situation and he brought the bag back to us which we really appreciated!

Besides from that little hickup, we didn’t forget anything else and managed to make our way through immigration, security and onto the plane. Now we would find out how Xander would handle the flight…

Well, we didn’t need to worry about him, he was a little Champion! He had a short nap shorty after takeoff and when he woke up he sat quietly with us playing with whatever we could find to keep him occupied 😉

After landing and stepping out from the airplane into the open air of Fiji we were greeted by 30C weather which if you’re coming from a cold Sydney winter morning, feels absolutely wonderful! As we had everything pre-booked on arrival, we located our bus (which we had to ourselves) and travelled the short 30min it takes to get to the boat harbour.

Once on the ferry, Xander was allowed to crawl around for a little while as we were sitting in the so called “Captains Lounge” and there was no risk of him falling overboard… and he took the opportunity by crawling everywhere and even being so charming that the stewardess lifted him up and gave him the grand tour of the ferry.

We eventually arrived at our final destination, Mana Island, and were shown to our island bure which was great, but which had an interconnecting room. Not sure if the resort management had thought that through…. sure it’s nice for a family to be able to have two rooms and still be in the same bure, but if there are two different families occupying the bures there may be a risk of noise – especially from a 1 year old. On that first night for example, since we had been up since 4am that morning and Xander had missed his sleeps he was a little ‘cranky’ that night which normally would be ok, but we still felt a bid bad for the neighbours.

Besides from that little hick-up, our little boy was great the rest of the time. We spent a lot of time in one of the two pools available to us which he loved. We also tried to introduce him to the ocean, but he was a bit sceptical to this as he wasn’t quite sure of the waves hitting him =)

The island itself was great, it was not too large but still large enough to have two different beaches opposite each other… this meant if the wind was causing a few waves on the northern side, we just had to walk the 3-5min across the island to the beach on the southern side, perfect! And as you can see from the photos, the both beaches were stunning!!

During our days at the island, Xander’s first birthday arrived which we celebrated with birthday songs and a few small presents in the morning for him (the large ones were left behind in Sydney).

During our time at the island we also tried out their Creche child care service as we had five free hours per day available to us. The first time we tried it out, Xander was only in there for two hours and we weren’t sure how he was going to handle it. However, he was happy to be there and the Fijian ladies minding him loved having him there so we ended up using a few hours per day during the rest of our stay at the island. This was great and made sure that Suz and I both got some relax time as well. I spent my time diving while Suz was happy to lounge by the pool or get treatments at the day spa… each to their own I guess 😉

The diving and snorkelling around the island was perfect with clear warm waters filled with all types of oceanic life. I saw turtles, small reef sharks, stingrays plus many many other types of fish species. In other words…. I loved it!

We also made a side trip to the local village on the island and visited the school there as we had a few school supplies we had taken with us from Sydney to donate. We handed the bag of supplies over to one of their teachers who was greatful for it as they always need more than they have. We only wished we could have brought over more that we did…

Eventually our time on the island was coming to an end and it was time to head back home to Sydney. This time the ferry was quite full so Xander couldn’t crawl around on his own which of course continued at the airport and then plane ride home. He was still not complaining but Suz and I had our hands full trying to keep him occupied in any way we could =)

We eventually made it home, all of us tired but happy after a great family vacation…. can’t wait for the next one!