The small community of Pacific Harbour was supposed to be the tourism hub on the Coral Coast, when developers started their project several years ago. There are hotels, a golf club, a marina, a residential area and the Fijian Cultural Centre and Marketplace. But still it all seems rather quiet and there are vacant house blocks everywhere. Therefore marketers thought it would be great to make Pacific Harbour the adventure capital of Fiji. And there are actually some quite interesting activities you can undertake from here. The two islands Bequa and Yanuca, famous as the origins of Fijian Firewalking, can be seen from the shore. The Bequa Lagoon is supposingly one of the world's great diving spots, where shark sightings with up to eight different species are almost guaranteed. There are several golf courses around and the nearby Navua River is one of Fiji's best places to go rafting. The Pearl Resort, located on Pacific Harbour's prime location, is an upmarket design hotel with a nice stretch of beach and easy access to the marina. When we visited Pacific Harbour we had the feeling we were the only people out here. Even the Cultural Center closed early that day.
One day we did River Kayaking in the Namosi Highlands with Discover Fiji Tours, which does pick-ups from the Coral Coast. The small lively community of Navua is the point of origin for several tours the company offers. The tour, which was accompanied by two competent and funny guides, started off with a 1-hour inland drive to the Namosi hinterland. After that a 1.5 hour intermediate track took us along some stunning landscapes, lakes and rainforest. The guides explained flora and fauna whenever anything interesting came up. After a while we had reached a small village on a hillside which almost seemed to be untouched by civilisation. Our tour operator seemed to provide some sort of income to the friendly locals as they had prepared our inflatable kayaks already and served us some bread fruit and sandwiches.
We boarded our kayaks and started the adventure. The scenery was just amazing as we passed gorges, rainforests, waterfalls and wide green fields. There were several rapids along the way which complimented this totally fun experience. A longboat accompanied us the whole time and carried our backpacks as well as water and fruits. Another highlight was the stop at a waterfall, where we could go for a refreshing swim. The guides pointed out several locations on the way that have appeared in the movie Anaconda 2, while we were running down the river for almost three hours. We had a really pleasant day and can only recommend Discover Fiji Tours as a proffessional tour operator.
