Tokoriki Photo Galleries
[snorkeling] [scuba]
[the beach] [flowers]
[wedding/renewal ceremony] [the
accommodations] [other activities] [movies]
[the resort and grounds]
Our first visit to Tokoriki (official
site) in Fiji was less than two weeks after the September 11th 2001 World
Trade Center events and all our photographs were scanned by enough
X-rays to be totally destroyed. On our second trip I brought along a digital
camera to be able to record a few memories of the magical and entrancing
location (OK, maybe I got carried away with some of the underwater pictures...)
After our utterly disastrous attempt
t
o visit the Plantation Beach Resort in
Roatan Honduras in 2004, we decided that in order to utterly ensure we had a
magical experience and return to Tokoriki in the Mamanuca Islands off the coast
of Nadi, Fiji. This little island is home to a single resort (at least
for the time being) the Tokoriki Island Resort that can best be described as a
'couples' destination. Most of the guests are couples, young or not, getting
married, celebrating their honeymoon, celebrating a wedding anniversary, or just
getting away from it all to spend time together.
T
here are basically three ways we know of the get to Tokoriki and we have
tried all three:
The first is by boat. They have a modern shuttle boat that
makes the
trip much easier than our first trip which involved a long ferry ride and a
transfer to a tiny outboard for a long tortuous kidney crunching trip to three
of four other islands before finally depositing us at Tokoriki. Now the
boats are almost direct and are much larger and more spacious and comfortable.
The second is by helicopter. This can be terribly convenient if you get
a day room on Ndai Fiji which is almost a pre-requisite when flying in from the
US due to the horribly time of arrivals and departures in the middle of the
night.
The third, and our personal favorite, is via seaplane. The one regret I
have is that we have not yet made the 
trip via the
P
acific Seaplane DQ-GEE old
radial engined
aircraft. I simply love seeing and hearing it set
down and take off inside the reef and the sound of that massive radial engine
spinning up reminds me of all the old movies and magic associated with the South
Pacific...and speaking of movies, we have one of the
plane taking off (turn your sound up!)
Our favorite activity
is to
snorkel and dive. Dive
Tropex are some great people who do a fabulous job ta
king
people diving, teaching and certifying people, resort dives, deep sea fishing as
well as reintroducing the giant clam and protecting the exciting new discovery
of blue coral in Fiji. Having had poor experiences with scuba lessons in
the States, we would really recommend to anyone to go here instead, they
are very friendly, supportive, and make it a real pleasure!
When
it came to snorkeling we tried it all, from the reef, from a boat, from a guided trip. Our
absolute
favorite was to get a set of kayak paddles from the boathouse at the end of the
day, wake up early in the morning (we are naturally early risers) and paddle out
before the break of dawn. As you reached the North tip of the island the
sunrise would become visible and we would turn into the sunrise and watch the
reef come alive below us. After paddling almost around the 
island we would
reach the South Easter tip of the island where an old Tongan fortification once
stood. Here we would done our gear, drop in the water, tie the kayak and
paddles to our
waists and start snorkeling for two or three hours. By the
time we had done the entire southern tip of the island, it was back into the
kayak for a quick surf home, cleanup and off to breakfast!
We were lucky enough to be visiting during the summer time ...
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All photographs by Patrick Wheeler
Canon Powershot S400 Digital Elph
WP-DC800 Waterproof Case
Please contact if you would
like higher resolution copies of any of the photographs