There’s nothing more relaxing than a day at Beqa Island. Located across the bay from Fiji’s main island Viti Levu, this tranquil oasis has about 3,000 inhabitants spread across nine villages… yes, nine. The native people here are known for their fire-walking skills, however, that wasn’t on our list of things to do on this day. If you’ve seen my earlier post, than you’ll know we arrived to Beqa Island by way of a European Hydrofoil called the Sea Venture owned by Sea Fiji Reefs. Since there was no dock on this part of the island, we dropped anchor off shore and were ferried to the shoreline via a much smaller boat called the Lawaki Delight.

We walked the beaches, lunched and snorkeled ourselves silly for the better part of the day. I only wish I’d had an underwater camera for the blue starfish and the other colorful fish I saw below the surface. There were little or no waves which made the snorkeling very easy. And the waters were very shallow for at least 100 feet from the shoreline, therefore, a newbie snorkeler like myself found it very easy to enjoy the water.

Our hostess Natalie Marletta, seen above, arranged this unforgettable day. Apparently it’s quite rare to be able to access this private island, but as Recio likes to say, Natalie is the First Lady of Fiji and can make things happen!  And boy did she. She gave us a day that we’ll remember for a lifetime. I so look forward to her next visit to LA so that Recio and I can return the favor. We don’t have a private island for her, but we’ve got the Polo Lounge and the Bel-Air Hotel, so we’ll see what she fancies when she arrives.

When it came time to leave the island, the Lawaki Delight had beached itself due to low tide, so an even smaller boat back took us back  to our hydrofoil. I absolutely love the shot I got of this little metal rowboat coming ashore to fetch us. It captures the serene beauty of this truly magical place. Thank you again Natalie.

Queens Road starts at Nadi where the airport is located, and circles the entire island. Rumor has it that it’s a 12 hour drive to completely circle the island, however, our destination was the Pearl Resort in Pacific Harbor, which only took about 2 – 2 1/2 hours. The drive is a bit daunting after an 11 hour flight from Los Angeles, but the views are certainly worthy of your time.

It’s slow going at times as you carefully crawl through the many villages along the way. Homes are frequently painted bright colors, reminding me of the Fijian currency.  Some have doors, some don’t. There are rarely sidewalks, and dogs, horses, cows pigs and even roosters shuffle along the roads edge despite the traffic. On several occasions my various drivers happened to be from one of the local villages, and they were very proud to point out where they lived. It’s hard to comprehend a living environment where families have lived for generations, never having left the island. Life doesn’t appear to be easy for many of the villagers, but they take tremendous pride in what they have. They often smiled and waved at our car as we passed through their towns. This gave me a renewed perspective on my life in L.A. where any drive down La Cienega or 3rd street makes you feel Mario Andretti navigating the pitfalls of drivers asleep at the wheel.

The thing that really strikes me when I look back at the photos from my  journey to Fiji, is how wide open the sky is. I guess that’s the beauty of being on such a small island. The night stars were often overwhelming in their beauty and I wish I’d taken more time to study them. Over the coming weeks I’ll write several more design diary entries from my 5 days in paradise. And with a bit of luck, I’ll be returning to Fiji to ring in the New Year. We’ll see what the travels gods have in store. That said, I feel fortunate to have made this journey, it was life changing in so many ways.