Hitchhiking in Fiji: Natadola Beach
9th to 12th of August, 2025.
When we are in the car, I realized that I’ve forgotten my cup at Kristine’s house. Damn! I cannot leave that cup behind. It’s way more than just a wonderful and very practical cup, it was given to me at Aamir’s house, by one of his assistants. Luckily, Kristine is working tonight and getting off tomorrow morning. So my plan is to hang out around Vuda Marina today, sleep at the airport tonight, and I will meet her tomorrow morning to get my cup back.
I have this meeting with the couple with whom I supposedly will go sailing to Vanuatu. They say the departure date is on the 15th, but I must check in with the marina on the 14th. I decide to go to two places: a beautiful and quiet beach not far from here called Natadola; and to hike a mountain for a beautiful view at Koroyanitu National Park.
At the airport, I’m attacked by bed bugs. It’s the very first time I have bed bugs on me and it’s in an airport? That sucks! Of course, it takes me sometime to realize that, my b-e-d. Laugh. At first, I thought they were mosquito bites or fleas. Stupid, right? Yeah, I know! I ask for leftovers in a restaurant and the lady who helps me is lovely and very caring. She gives me food and a free coffee. How amazing! I do a bunch of things online, including sending a lot of messages to boats in Vanuatu, looking for a ride for after that.
At night, the airport gets so quiet and empty, that for a moment I’m afraid they will close down and quick me out. But the reason is simply that they don’t have night flights. That’s so Fiji. Well, and perhaps because of the bed bugs too.
Only when I’m on a video call with a good friend of mine from Brazil, it’s that I realize that my problem are the bed bugs. My elbow gets huge, like scarily huge, and soon after I find one of them outside my sleeping bag. Oh, what a terrible feeling. What do I do? At least nothing else happens through the night. You see, if it wasn’t for the bed bugs, Nadi Airport would actually be the best airport to sleep ever!
When I meet Kristine in the morning, she tells me that she forgot to bring my cup. Not a big deal for me, I just wish we didn’t have to drive all the way up to her house to get it, because then I know she will have to drive me back down again. Anyway, we have breakfast in a restaurant which is only for the airport employees, and it’s awesome! I have fried rice, she and her colleague have grilled chicken with chips, and we all drink something. Afterwards, Kristine gives me a wonderful treat: mocha cheesecake. Unbelievable! I’m like whaaaaat? It’s so good!
When we get to her house, we also pick up Junia, who is going to watch some friends to swim somewhere, So it’s not only for me that we drive down again. Yay!
I start walking towards Natadola beach when a pick up stops and an Indian man tells me he can take me there. Bob is going to Suva, but the exit to Natadola Beach is on the way, and that’s where he drops me off. He’s a very nice man and he seems much surprised about my travels. He works in a resort in Nadi.
As I’m walking (again), a family stops and offer to take me to the beach. On the way, they actually invite me to come and stay with them in their village, saying that tomorrow they can take me to the beach. But as I’m planning to camp at the beach anyway, I kindly refuse.
Natadola Beach is very beautiful! It’s a long beach of white sand, turquoise and pristine waters. There’s not much going on apart from two resorts by the end of the beach, where there’s a little channel and a small island. One of the resorts, Intercontinental, is massive. I stay by this resort because it’s where I can find some shade, under coconut trees.
Most of guests stay right in front of the resort, but really, the best place to swim is where I am actually, a bit to the right of the resort, because the sea ground here is flat and free of corals, The waves break near the beach, so after you pass this point, you have a wonderful, natural sea water swimming pool. But I would know that only next day, because today I’m not going into the water.
Middle afternoon I walk to this massive resort to ask for some leftovers and water. And that’s when everything changes.
Intercontinental is so big that it scares me a little. Seriously. The restaurant is fancy but I have to ask. The manager with whom I talk, K. is responsible for the food safety of the restaurant, therefore, she says she cannot give me the leftovers but she invites me for a coffee and to have the same lunch as the staff had. That’s all good for me. Coffee is delicious but unfortunately the lunch is lamb stew, which I finish with my rice, but it makes me realize that I really don’t like lamb. K. then starts a mission on trying to help me with a place to stay. She doesn’t want me camping on the beach on a Friday night, because she says that there will be a lot of drunk people there tonight. For different reasons, she cannot have me on her house, but one of the other managers offer to have me in her house. That’s when Almita gets in the picture.
I get to Almita’s house by boat. I could’ve walked, but as some of the fisherman were going back home, they give me a lift, all of that with the help of K. On the boat, I meet Sivo, Almita’s neighbour, and he helps me to get to her house. On the way, I can see clearly some beautiful fishes under water, and evn though short, it’s a lovely boat trip.
The village is super cute, and there are quite a few houses here and there. Almita’s house is on the top of a hill, and you can even see the beach from here. It’s also surrounded by nice short grass, and its spacious.
Almita is a very calm and quiet woman. She has two young daughters, Rosie (8) and Susana (5), both in school. Almita is the manager for the breakfast at Intercontinental, and she overheard me talking with K earlier, and that’s why she offered to help me. How sweet! Her husband, Ben, has a fishing boat, and he takes tourists out for fishing trip, but he’s also a pastor. They have a niece of Almita, a young girl of 20, helping her with the kids while she’s at work.
I’m welcomed in this family as a new member of it. Almita is so sweet and she treats me so well and kindly all the time, always trying to make me feel comfortable. It’s so nice and easy going here, that I feel so glad to be again with another lovely family. The girls are sweet and super smart. Susana surprises me a lot for knowing the alphabet even backwards! And she truly knows it as in, every time I point one letter, she tells me which letter is it. We always have some delicious meals like chicken curry, daal with fried eggs on it, and porridge for breakfast. I love it!
Next morning, I go to Natadola Beach to do some swimming and walking around. In front of the resort there’s some local ladies offering massages to every foreigner that passes by. I get a bit disappointed in the afternoon when I try to use the toilet in the resort and a lady working there tells me I cannot. She’s a bit rude. Well, I explore the island across the resort during low tide, and then I enter the resort from the other side and use the toilet anyway.
We go to church on Sunday evening, and everybody there is also super welcoming. I meet some other super smart boys, all young but with a great English. After the service, we have milk tea with some delicious pies and chapati.
Almita gives me something I really need: a pair of open shoes. I’ve just left my sandals behind because they were far way gone. I’ve had them since Thailand, about two years ago. She says they have way too many, and actually have to give away some. She gives me some crocs (which I’ve never had before), of a baby green colour.
They would like for me to stay longer, but as I tell her about my plans of visiting Koroyanitu National Park, and the schedule for the boat, they understand that I have to leave.
The day before I leave, we go to the beach behind the golf course (closer than Natadola, a bit less awesome, but still nice), so the girls can play and swim after coming back from school. It’s a piece of paradise there, super quiet and with nobody else apart from us, and a cute tiny little water snake.
On my last morning, after a delicious porridge, we also have some amazing custard pies. Yummy! I cannot give Almita a goodbye hug because she leaves early in the morning to go to work. I come to school with the girls, and give them a goodbye hug. All the other kids are starring at us. Almita and Ben arranged us a taxi, so after dropping of the kids at school, the taxi driver dropped me of in the main highway. Ben tried to give me some extra cash for the taxi to bring me all the way to Latoka, but I kindly refuse. No need! I’m sure that hitchhiking will work out just as well.
10 Years Around the World 