Fiji: South Pacific Eco-Lodge Service Base

Meet your group at your home airport. Fly together as a group to Fiji. Total travel time will depend on your departure location and flight schedule. Be sure to get some rest so you arrive ready for adventure!

Flight Details: Rustic Pathways will be happy to book your flight as an add-on service.

If your travel to Fiji crosses the international dateline, you’ll likely lose this day to travel. Not to worry – you’ll get it back on your return!

Arrive into Nadi Airport (NAN) and meet your Program Leaders who will be with you for the duration of the program. Head to the Eco-Lodge in rural Momi Bay. Get freshened up after your overnight flight, then join your Program Leaders and our local team for an orientation discussion about the week ahead, expectations for your adventure, and an introduction to the local culture. Spend the rest of your day at Natadola Beach, for a chance to swim, snorkel, and relax. 

Dressed in your new sulu (traditional Fijian sarong or skirt), spend the evening in a sevusevu ceremony, the traditional way to welcome a guest in Fiji. Begin learning the intricacies of cultural practices in Fiji. Wearing your new sulu, get to know the local staff over a bowl of kava.

During your time in Fiji, you’ll be staying at our South Pacific Eco-Lodge Base. This base was purpose-built for Rustic Pathways student service groups. Students will stay in small houses that sleep eight to ten on bunk-beds, separated by gender. Each house has an attached bathroom with solar powered hot water showers, sinks, and flushing toilets. The campus also offers a pool, and both indoor and outdoor social space.  Breakfast and dinner will be on site, family or buffet style, prepared by our chef. Lunch will either be at the Eco-Lodge, delivered to your day’s activity location, or packed with you.

Overnight: Eco-Lodge Base House, Momi Bay

After breakfast at the Ecolodge, head to Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park. Enjoy a two hour hike through the enormous dunes, with plenty of opportunity to jump and slide in the mountains of sand. Learn about the history of this area, and help rangers with reforestation work. 

Have lunch back at the base, and some time to shower and relax. In the afternoon, meet with a local women’s crafting group. Learn about traditional clay work, and make your own clay creation, which will be ready for you to carry home at the end of the week. 

After dinner this evening, relax with your local program leaders and learn about Fiji’s culture.

Overnight: Rustic Pathways Base, Momi Bay 

Head to a nearby village where you will learn how to make salusalu, an intricate traditional flower garland similar to Hawaii’s leis. 

After lunch in the village, spend time playing with the local students. Teach then your favorite camp games, or let them show you how to play rugby!

Return to the base for dinner, and in the evening, learn how to make traditional Fijian coconut oil.

Overnight: Rustic Pathways Base, Momi Bay 

Today is all about learning from (and helping out) the Eco-lodge’s neighboring communities. 

In the morning, meet with one of our neighbors to learn about his Pineapple farm, then roll up your sleeves and help out. Depending on the season, this may include harvesting, planting, weeding, watering, or turning over fields. During your time at the farm, you’ll have an opportunity to hear how and why pineapple came to be grown in Fiji, and the process of harvesting crops and selling them to market. 

Spend your afternoon learning to cook Indian and Indo-Fijian dishes commonly enjoyed along the coast of Viti Levu Island. Your teacher, Shalini, will welcome you into her home and teach you the colonial history of Fiji, and the resulting Indian community she is a part of, all while teaching you to make some of the best food around. When you’re done cooking, pack the food up and bring it in to Nadi town, where you will deliver meals to a shelter for vulnerable women and children. Rustic Pathways programs in Fiji have been supporting this shelter for many years, and today’s activities are always a highlight of the trip. 

Tonight, get to see meke, a traditional form of Fijian storytelling through song and dance.

Overnight: Rustic Pathways Base, Momi Bay 

This morning, be introduced to one of Rustic’s primary infrastructure service projects in the area. Conceived in partnership with the leaders of Bavu Village, you will partner with local builders to support the UN Sustainable Development Goal to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. In our partnership with Bavu Village, we are helping the community to construct toilets at each of the houses in the village. This project has been ongoing for several years. During your morning in Bavu Village, you may excavate, lay blocks, mix cement, or do other skill-appropriate carpentry tasks.

After lunch, head to a nearby hot springs. Lather yourselves in nutrient rich mud as the Fijians have been doing for generations, then rinse off, and relax in a series of peaceful, natural hot pools as you take in views of the surrounding mountains.

Wrap your day back at the ecolodge with dinner, a bonfire, and fijian cultural storytelling. 

Should any of the listed activities not be available during your program, alternate options include learning how to harvest, husk, and prepare pure Fijian coconut oil; and a marine service initiative to protect Fiji’s shore from erosion and restore coral reefs. 

Overnight: Rustic Pathways Base, Momi Bay 

Depart Momi Bay and head out on an island-hopping excursion to explore the beautiful islands off the coast of Viti Levu. Swim and snorkel these warm South Pacific waters, and see Cloudbreak, the world famous surf spot. Relax on the white sand beaches and grab an ice cream or a cold drink at one of the picturesque resorts.

End today at Momi Guns, a lookout point in Momi Bay, where you can watch the sun set behind Fiji’s turquoise waters. At the end of each program, students reflect on their experiences and the issues they engaged with, and talk about how to apply this new understanding to their own worlds. During or after their closing discussion, groups participate in Rustic Ties, a unique and powerful activity that allows students to capture the memories and learning moments of their program to process and share with their communities back home.

Overnight: Eco-Lodge Base House, Momi Bay

Pending your flight schedule, you’ll have time this morning to visit with some of the young children that live in a neighboring village.  Play games, teach songs, lead an arts activity, or play sports with these excited and energetic youngsters. There will be lots of laughter and excited chatter heard around the village this morning.

Return to the base for lunch and time to pack and relax, then head into Nadi town to do a bit of souvenir shopping. After dinner, your program leaders will take you to the airport and help you get checked in for your flight home.  

Thank you for joining us in Fiji, we hope to see you again soon!

Flight Details: Rustic Pathways is happy to book your flights as an add-on service.