The unexpected adventures waiting on Fiji’s Coral Coast – Sunday Star Times Travel – 28 Jun 2026

Fiji’s Coral Coast is fam­ous for its resorts, but ven­ture bey­ond the sun loun­ger and you’ll find rail-bike adven­tures, vibrant reefs and world-class spa treat­ments, writes Anna King Shahab.

Run­ning along the south­ern edge of Fiji’s Viti Levu, the Coral Coast bal­ances raw coastal beauty and vil­lages dot­ted about with expans­ive resorts that are tucked away from the main road and sprawl in land­scaped splend­our.

There’s enough on offer to lure you out of your air-con­di­tioned room, but an easy­going pace pre­vails. On a recent visit, I tal­lied exper­i­ences both hands-on and bliss­fully hands-off that together made a short get­away one to remem­ber.

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A bat­tery-powered beach pic­nic

Eco­Trax Fiji lured me away from a rather for­get­table day of poolside piña col­a­das and gave me an exper­i­ence I’ve been telling all my friends about since.

A sec­tion of aban­doned sugar-cane rail tracks along the coast­line forms a trail for vis­it­ors to ride on “velo­ci­pedes”: cus­tom clip-on side-by-side bicycles. These are bat­tery assisted, so you can opt out of ped­alling depend­ing on your wont.

Our lead guide, Brit­ney, was a fab­ulous storyteller and rid­ing up front beside her I learned loads about the his­tory of the place and its people as we made our way through vil­lages – greeted by dozens of wav­ing chil­dren – and forest, before arriv­ing at Vun­abua Beach.

The beach was empty apart from our crew and, fol­low­ing a snorkel that delivered tech­ni­col­our bril­liance just metres off the sand, we lay down on mats, sip­ping from young coconuts and nib­bling on fresh fruit plat­ters. Our tour guides ser­en­aded us with Fijian and Eng­lish songs, and the moment has stayed with me since.

Filling my cre­at­ive cup

I’ve long admired and been fas­cin­ated by glass­blow­ing, partly thanks to count­ing some local glass artists as good friends, but had never had the chance to try it myself until I walked up the trop­ical garden path to Hot Glass Fiji.

At glass­blower Alice Hill’s home stu­dio in Koro­togo, my class star­ted with a 101 with pro­duc­tion man­ager Peter Vibose, then I chose a shape, col­ours and pat­terns for my own piece.

With lots of assist­ance from Vibose, I went through the heat­ing, shap­ing, reheat­ing, shap­ing and grind­ing pro­cess to craft a beau­ti­ful vase in semi-opaque milky white, with a rash of bright orange splotches. It was immense fun and felt thrill­ingly raw to me. The shop is also open to the pub­lic, so if you don’t have time for a class, then pop in for a browse of bowls, vases and jew­ellery.

Crab by the ocean

Tuck­ing inel­eg­antly into a huge plate of mud crab with chilli and gar­lic sauce while sit­ting at a table right beside the beach was a deli­cious indul­gence I couldn’t repeat back home if I tried – we don’t get fresh crab like this in New Zea­l­and and frozen just isn’t the same. The simple com­bin­a­tion of salty air, sea­food and cold beer some­how etched this lunch with extra clar­ity in my memory.

Reach­ing spa serenity

Non-stay­ing guests can book into the spa at Inter­Con­tin­ental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa in Natad­ola and, depend­ing on the sea­son, also buy a day pass to use the pool, beach­front and din­ing facil­it­ies. The price is redeem­able on the lat­ter.

Rather than hust­ling you straight onto the mas­sage table, here you have the chance to pre-con­di­tion, thanks to the Wai Zone.

Fol­low­ing instruc­tion, I altern­ated shower, jac­uzzi, sauna, ice shower, before duck­ing into an infrared sauna for my allot­ted 20 minutes.

Finally, a ses­sion in a freez­ing-cold plunge pool set me up per­fectly for my 60-minute tra­di­tional “vakaviti” mas­sage, which fea­tured a steam­ing poult­ice with rose­mary, lemon basil, Thai basil,

Mex­ican mint, uci (island musk) leaves and tur­meric, to restore bal­ance, along with hands-on pres­sure.

What’s even bet­ter than one mas­sage? Two, in as many days. Stay­ing at Out­rig­ger, I booked into its Bebe Spa, which sits at the top of the hill, boast­ing post­card ocean vis­tas that I soaked up before and after treat­ment. Treat­ment rooms fea­ture open shut­ters and the breeze that drif­ted in har­mon­ised with the firm fore­arm pres­sure from the tra­di­tional bobo mas­sage I received.

Snorkel straight off the sand

One of the obvi­ous attrac­tions of the Coral Coast is its fringing reef within easy reach of the shoreline. You don’t need to book into a ded­ic­ated snor­kelling trip, just launch off from the beach and you’ll see plenty of col­our­ful, sway­ing and dart­ing life. No day felt com­plete until I’d fit­ted in a snorkel; each time feel­ing like I was on an amuse­ment park ride through the set of Find­ing Nemo. It’s a dopam­ine hit of the best kind.

Ded­ic­at­ing an hour to hap­pi­ness

Many resorts in Fiji host Loloma Hour, invit­ing guests to take part in an activ­ity that bene­fits the envir­on­ment. Con­struct­ing a fish house at Shangri-La, to be planted out on the reef, made me feel con­nec­ted to the place and happy know­ing I’d done something small that will mean future gen­er­a­tions can enjoy the reef as much as I did.

Mir­ror­ing the big bula energy

Big smiles and ener­getic “bula” greet­ings cost you noth­ing to receive in Fiji – and receive them you will, wherever you go. It costs noth­ing to recip­roc­ate either and I reckon respond­ing or pre-empt­ing – with a grin and a hearty “bula” or “kia ora” – works like a sparkly thread of hap­pi­ness weav­ing through your Fiji stay.

Written by: Anna King Shahab

June 29, 2026

https://www.thepost.co.nz/travel/361021873/unexpected-adventures-waiting-fijis-coral-coast