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It’s Tuesday, December 17th, and today is an early start! With a 6:15 am departure, that means I have to be at the airport by 3:15 am or so; Fiji – which is my next destination – is classed as an International Departure, so the typical international travel rules apply. I’ll also be departing from Kingsford Smith, otherwise known as Sydney Airport Terminal 1

Fiji is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. A group of some 330 small islands, it lies some 3200 km or so northeast of Sydney and has an average flight time of 3 hours and 45 minutes from Kingsford Smith.

Departure Shenanigans

At 3:15 am, Terminal 1 is pretty deserted! However, as the various check-in desks start to open, the airport terminal soon begins to fill up. Interestingly, whilst there are numerous check-in desks opening up, border security for departure doesn’t open until 4:00 am. That means there ends up being quite a bit of queuing at the start of the day; and it’s a little confusing, too, as it’s not really that clear where queuing is supposed to begin! 🤔

Eventually, having been herded and corralled, we all made it through security in a relatively short time. One could argue that Kingsford Smith needs a better policy for check-in time vs when security opens and even a better strategy for letting folks know where they need to be to start the security queue. However, in the end, it’s all a relatively painless affair, so I guess that it doesn’t really matter that much either way 😎

Off Once Again

Wandering through departure when nothing is open is quite the experience, but it doesn’t take too long to get to the departure gate in preparation for taking to the skies once more.

As the Sydney sun began to creep over the horizon, we all boarded the Boeing 737 Max 8 and it was time to take to the air once again. Well, eventually: there was some kerfuffle with luggage that had been left in the departure lounge, which set us back around 30 minutes or so, but nothing that wasn’t resolved. In fact, if I recall rightly, this was the first delay I’ve actually experienced on my Antipodean Adventure, so all things considered, I was doing pretty well 😁

With a full plane, we were pretty tightly packed, however, being once again assigned an exit row seat, I did get the benefit of some extra legroom 🎉 Breakfast was provided as an in-flight freebie, however, with Fiji Airways, I’m not sure if one can consider that as a bonus or not 🤷🏻‍♂️ It’s not that the service is bad per se, it just sort of reminds me of British Airways in the ’80’s – at least from a catering perspective 😳 Still, as I’d missed breakfast due to my early start, it was a welcome option.

Breakfast over, I got settled into running some more of my lines – don’t forget, “Notes from a Small Island”, starring yours truly, opens at the end of April 2025 at the Ilminster Warehouse Theatre – and perhaps catching forty winks here and there, too 😎

Finally, it was time to land, and we made our descent through the clouds as we headed into Nadi International – Fiji’s largest Airport, which is located close to Denarau Island. I’m not actually staying on Denarau Island – well, not for the majority of my stay, at any rate; more about that in a future post – rather, I’ll be transferring over to Matamanoa, and I’ll tell you all about my stay there in a separate post 😎

Bula!

“Bula” is, in essence, the traditional Fijian greeting for “hello” or “welcome”, and you’ll hear it repeatedly when you visit Fiji 😎 It was certainly the first word I got to hear upon disembarking.

Having had my passport and the usual customs card examined by immigration and having collected my luggage – with the number of flights I’ve taken on this Antipodean Adventure Vacation, I am surprised that nothing has been lost so far; there’s the journey back to the UK of course, so I guess there’s still time 🤣 – it was time to find myself a taxi to take me to Port Denarau.

The first thing that struck me about Fiji is just how beautiful it is! It’s hotter here than it is in Sydney and yet feels much less humid! Travelling through the Fijian countryside – which is surprisingly lush – we soon arrived at the port. As I said, I’m going to be staying on Matamanoa Island (the subject of a future post), which is about an hour’s boat ride from Denarau port.

Arrival Shenanigans

Shenanigans weren’t all confined to departure. There was a bit of a challenge with the boat transfer, but it was finally resolved without too much hassle; something of my own fault, really, I forgot with whom the transfer service was booked – it was a company I’d found, and although I booked via TRAVELBAG the provided wasn’t listed on my itinerary 😞

With a little time to spare before departure, I headed to Lulu on the wharf for lunch. There I met the lovely Sunny, who did a first-rate job of serving me lunch…especially considering it was only her second week on the job 😁

When it came time to pay, having Fijian Dollars also saved me from having to pay the 3.5% charge they wanted to levy for using a foreign card. So it’s definitely worth having some local currency as cash! 😎

Transfer to Matamanoa

That last part was the transfer to Matamanoa. As I’ve mentioned previously, Matamanoa Island is where I’ll be staying for the next few days and will be the subject of a future post 😁 For now, here are a few shots of my journey via the water taxi; note it’s been a while since I’ve been on a small boat transfer and I’d honestly forgotten how much fun it can be 🎉