Tourism
The Beach That Could Be Fiji's Waikiki
Visit Now- The World's About To Arrive
The two-kilometer white powder arc of Natadola Beach, on the southwest coast of Fiji's main island, always scores rave reviews. The beach is normally quiet but for the hiss of small waves breaking on the shore and during the sugarcane harvest the rattle several times daily of a passing sugar train.
By road Natadola is about 45 kilometers Suvawards from Nadi International Airport. Then it is nine kilometers towards the coast, along a rough gravel lane that cuts past small white mosques, canegrowers' homesteads, through a village and over a couple of narrow-planked bridges cum railway crossings. "Fiji's finest" is Natadola Beach's usual rating. "The best in the South Pacific" is another. "Another Waikiki" is one old assessment of its potential.
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In the 1970s an American firm of master tourism plan designers declared that Natadola should be reserved to become the core of the country's tourism industry. It would be a hedonistically designed tourism town of 20,000 people, with labor lines for housemaids, waiters and barmen built out of sight in the hinterland.
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The land behind the beach is a mixture of freehold and leasehold farmed by sugarcane growers. During weekdays the beach is usually practically deserted. Backpackers sometimes camp by the beach. There's also other accommodation, rather more luxurious, for people who want to boast they knew the joys of peace and solitude at Natadola before big-time developers moved in.
The Natadola Beach Resort aptly describes itself as being an "intimate exotic resort" designed as an "idyllic luxury haven" for no more than 22 guests. It has a low Santa Fe, Mediterranean architectural blend with natural sandstone and archways, an interior courtyard garden shaded with thick foliage and a 20-meter long fresh water pool surrounded by trees. The 10 suites with indoor gardens and private courtyards are for single or double occupancy.
It's the sort of place one wants to be alone in, with a friend. Dining is as formal or casual as you like; fruit and local seafood, pasta, whatever, in your rooms, in the courtyard, in the dining room with its small bar, or out on the beach by candlelight
But if you want to experience Natadola as it has been for centuries, then be quick about it. In March Fiji's government is due to begin work on a highway to the beach. With water and power supplies this will be its contribution to what will undoubtedly become the South Pacific's premier resort development — that is if architects and engineers do justice to the site.
Gerard Saliot, a French developer who has worked on the scheme since the mid-1990s, told Pacific Magazine that Fiji's current political troubles were no deterrent. Natadola was something he couldn't pass by and the effort put into the planning of it was too great to sacrifice, he said. Saliot represents D.B.Group Asia Pacific, of Paris and Hong Kong. It plans to invest F$560 million (US$252 million) in building resorts for management by Four Seas, Club Med and other operators. Condominiums, an 18-hole golf course and a marina are also planned.
The Natadola Beach Company, involving CIG Enterprises of Paris and Asia Pacific International of Hong Kong, has acquired 327 hectares at the beach. Development over the next 10 years will begin with a 300-room 4 or 5-star hotel and the golf course. Shangri-la Hotels, the Singapore owners of The Fijian resort hotel at Cuvu, 20 kilometers further along the coast, owns much of Natadola's western freehold and the back shore area west of the beach. It says it will develop its property suitably at the right time.
