»I
t’s one in the morning when I
awake with a start onboard a
small ship in Fiji’s outlying
Yasawa Islands and realise my
16-year-old is not in his bed.
I dart out of our shared cabin and
start visually combing the abandoned
decks for him, increasingly believing
he’s fallen overboard in a kava-
induced daze.
When I reach the top level of the Fiji
Princess, my panic stops short and I
am greeted with its antithesis – pure
calm. There, lying on mattresses under
the stars, is a group comprising some
of the ship’s crew and my son Joseph.
I’m later told that when the weather is
fine they regularly pull their beds onto
the deck to sleep in the open air. It is
only night one in paradise but Joseph
is already well acclimatised.
It’s no secret that Kiwis love the
tropical resorts at Denarau, not far
from Fiji’s international airport –
we flock there for family holidays,weddings and honeymoons. The
Yasawa Islands, however, are much
less frequented – and therein lies
their appeal. It’s difficult to
describe the magic of this
stunning part of the Pacific.
There’s the freedom of
isolation, the turquoise water
and white sand, wow-inducing
coral reefs and the world-famous
friendliness of the Fijian people.
But there is something more in the
deep-seated tranquillity here that
rapidly soothes the nerves and is just
the ticket for a relaxing mother/son
adventure. This is the place to visit to
be in nature, chill out and leave city
stresses well behind.
It’s worth noting that the only
argument Joseph and I had on our
eight-day Fiji holiday was on the final
night, back in Denarau, when he
didn’t want to wear shoes to the
restaurant for dinner. He’d lost his
jandals en route and the thought of[Travel]
Nicola Russelltakes her teenage son on a Fiji island
holiday and discovers there is plenty of activity – or inactivity- in this tropical paradise to keep them both blissfully content.
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into serenity