Matangi Island, Fiji

Welcome to Paul and Debbie's travel blog. You're invited to join us as we travel to Matangi Island, Fiji to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Matangi is a 240 acre privately-owned island situated in Fiji’s Northern group of islands in the South Pacific. We'll be leaving on November 20th for a 2-week trip that includes 11 days on the Island. So come along with us. We'll be posting photos, videos and other things of interest along the way.

See the itinerary of this trip, and details about each destination.

More to follow as we get underway...

It was 26 degrees in Saint Charles on Saturday morning – perfect weather for heading to a warmer climate. Our whole family was off to Chicago Midway Airport together, but we were going our separate ways. Amber, David and Nathan were heading to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Austin, and Paul and Debbie were heading to Los Angeles to catch the flight to Fiji. One of the ways we love our children is by protecting our marriage relationship. So when people ask, "Are you taking your children with you on your trip?", we say, "No, we love them too much to do that." Not to worry -- they'll be having a blast in Texas.

Our ride to the airport came at 9:15am.

Ok, this looks a little opulent, but it’s actually less expensive than parking for 2 weeks at the Midway Airport. This was a surprise to Amber, David and Nathan, and they enjoyed living like rock stars for a couple hours.

The kids have traveled by themselves a couple times before. This time their trip to Austin included a connecting flight in Houston. Amber had her terminal map and was well-prepared. After their flight left, we had 3 hours before our 5-hour flight to LA. Amber called just before we boarded our flight to let us know that they would make their connection without any problem. All of the domestic flights on Southwest (no checked bag fees!) were on time and uneventful. The kids were tucked in bed in Austin before our flight left LA at 11:30pm Central time. It was 14 hours after we left the house...and we were just getting started.

Air Pacific flight 811 was scheduled to be an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles to Nadi on Fiji’s main island. We were looking forward to flying on a 747. It's a tad bigger than our 6-seat plane.

For fun, we overlayed a picture of our plane in the foreground of this picture. 747 vs. A36? I think the 747 wins.

The flight left right on time and there was a beautiful full moon as we climbed out over the Pacific. Dinner was served about 90 minutes into the flight. (That would be 1:00am Chicago time!) 11 hours is a long time to sit on an airplane, but we were glad to be on our way. The first 2 hours went pretty quickly, as did the last 2 hours, but in between were 7 hours of restless napping. Other than the last 10 minutes, there was light turbulence pretty much the whole way. Sitting in row 63 near the back of the plane (in “steerage”), the tail swished left and right like a fish. This is common in a small, V-tail Bonanza, but I was surprised how much the 747 did it.

It was still dark as we made our approach into Nadi. The full moon had followed us the whole way and was reflecting on the water offshore. It was a beautiful, smooth approach, and then came the landing – probably the hardest landing we’ve ever experienced. I was looking out the window as we crossed the end of the runway. Our descent rate was still pretty high, and I muttered, “Flare, flare” and then WHAM! It smacked down with the descent rate completely un-checked. We felt that landing gear bottom out as 450 people let out a gasp. We almost went back up again but the spoilers held it on the ground. It definitely made a carrier landing look soft. Everything seemed to hold together and we taxied to the gate. There’s an old aviation adage that “Any landing you walk away from is a good one.” Ok.

It was a quick trip through immigration and customs. A band was up early to greet the flight with traditional Fijian music. We headed to the domestic terminal for our next leg which was a 90-minute flight from Nadi to Matei on the island of Taveuni aboard a DeHavilland Twin Otter. It was originally scheduled to leave at 6:45am, but we found it was changed to 10:30am. This gave us time to catch some breakfast, change into shorts and freshen up.

The contrast between the 747 and Twin Otter was remarkable, not only in size but in accomodations.

We’re used to flying in our small plane, but there was much less legroom on the Otter. It had a kerosene smell and was showing its age. Still, this was “real flying”, and it was beautiful as we climbed over the mountains of Fiji and flew in and out of the clouds. The islands below were covered in dense jungle, and the coral reefs had an incredible turquoise color – like something out of a travel brochure.

We flew through several rain showers as we descended into Taveuni. The pilot made a perfect approach and landing (let’s get him on the 747!) The runway was carved out of the jungle on the edge of the island, and it was raining as we pulled up to the “terminal”.

A few minutes after we received our bags, a van met us at the airport for a 30-minute ride to a beach where we would meet a boat from Matangi Island. As we pulled away, it wasn’t hard to see why Taveuni is called "the garden island”. It's covered in dense, colorful, tropical foliage. There are no paved roads, but this added to the charm. The road wound through portions of jungle and an occasional small village.

We crossed streams where local villagers were swimming and doing laundry.

At one point, a group of young school children were walking with their teachers along the road. As the van approached, they all moved to the edge of the road and stood in a line facing the road. This was clearly a procedure that they had learned well.

Riding with us on the van was Isoa (Fijian for Esau). He had also flown from Nadi and was traveling to Matangi to photograph a wedding the following day. We enjoyed his company and local perspective.

Soon we turned down a small side road which led to a beach where a boat was approaching in perfect timing. No boat docks here, just a black-sand beach that the boat would back up to. It was still raining so they wanted us wait in the van while they loaded our bags. When everything was ready, we walked across the beach, took off our sandals and waded out to the boat. Several staff members were onboard to greet us and accompany us on the 20-minute ride to Matangi Island.

As we headed out, it was still raining but we could see the island of Qamea (pronounced Ga-may-uh) in the distance. Matangi sits a few miles off its shore. As we travelled along Qamea, and we could see beautiful, hidden beaches surrounded by jungle that rose up to cover volcanic peaks. It was still raining and the higher peaks were poking into the clouds. Then, about 32 hours after leaving home, we began to see the outline of Matangi Island ahead through the rain.