Fiji Queens Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Nadi

   Nadi is the town most visitors see first, because the international airport sits right beside it, and it tends to be judged a little unfairly as a gateway rather than a place. But it has real character, with a large Indo-Fijian community whose ancestors came as indentured labourers to work the sugar cane in the nineteenth century, and the main street smells of curry, incense and diesel. The Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple, a brightly painted Hindu temple with an enormous carved gopuram tower, is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and is open to visitors who take off their shoes and dress modestly.

   Read the complete Nadi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Nadi is where the day begins. Next is Sigatoka.

2. 2. Sigatoka

   Sigatoka is the town where the Queens Road crosses the river of the same name, on the southern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's main island. The river valley behind it is known as the Salad Bowl of Fiji, a fertile strip of farmland where vegetables, taro and other crops are grown and trucked to the markets and resorts along the coast. On any given day, the town's market is full of piled-up pineapples, cassava, chilli and bundles of kava root, and it is a good place to watch ordinary Fijian life in motion.

   Read the complete Sigatoka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sigatoka comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Coral Coast.

3. 3. Coral Coast

   The Coral Coast is the name given to the stretch of southern Viti Levu between Sigatoka and Pacific Harbour, and the name is earned. A fringing reef runs along most of the shoreline, a few hundred metres out, and at low tide you can see the pale shapes of coral heads through shallow, clear water. Behind it, dark green hills rise toward the interior, covered in forest and sugar cane and cut by short streams that rush down to the sea. This is the leeward side of the island, so it gets less rain than the east, and the weather is usually kinder.

   Read the complete Coral Coast write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Coral Coast. Next is Pacific Harbour.

4. 4. Pacific Harbour

   Pacific Harbour is a planned resort development, laid out in the 1970s on a swampy stretch of the southern coast, with canals, golf fairways and neat lots, and it has since settled into being Fiji's self-styled adventure capital. The name is a little grander than the place, but the setting is real. A broad lagoon sits offshore, sheltered by the reef, and beyond it the island of Beqa rises in a green hump. It is a good-looking, quiet, slightly theatrical spot, and it makes an easy overnight between Suva and the Coral Coast.

   Read the complete Pacific Harbour write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Pacific Harbour, late in the day. Next is Suva.

5. 5. Suva

   Suva is the capital of Fiji, and the wettest big town you are likely to ride into. It sits on a hilly peninsula between Laucala Bay and a harbour, with rain-clouds banking up on the mountains behind, and it receives something like three metres of rain a year, so the vegetation is thick and the air smells of warm earth. Suva became the capital in 1882, when the colonial government moved here from Levuka, and the centre still has a scattering of wooden colonial buildings, a grand government house and a long seafront with a view out to the reef. About seventy-seven thousand people live in the city, and the metropolitan area is much larger.

   Read the complete Near Suva write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Suva. That is the ride.