I have a group of friends interested in going to Nananu-I-Ra Island in Fiji staying at Nananu Island Lodge.

After reading the comment on Safari Lodge I was wondering if anyone else had been to that Island and what the kite surfing would be like there - is it safe and which is the best side of the island to stay on?

Thanks

DON"T GO whatever you do. The beach is very tidal - at hight tide there's sweet fa room to rig (you have to rig in the bushes) & barely enough room to launch your kite (you have to stand way out in the water and get someone to hold your kite on 500mm wide strip of sand, then let it go while you try and get it up in the air without colliding with the coconut trees). Then you have to get around the headland - cause there's a hill the size of North Head blocking the wind. Then navigate your way over rocks and coral, body drag out through the dodgy bits, then you're away & half-way down the beach. Having said that, when all the conditions are right, there is some great kiting to be had - but you MIGHT get 1 day out of 10 if you're lucky. The accommodation is shit. It took 45minutes to get a burger - for $10 too, consisting of a hard piece of stale sheese and a half-cooked meat pattie with a few burnt onions. Lights out at 10:00 when teh generators are turned off. It's like f..n HiDeHi camp for hippies. Go to planatation island if you go anywhere. This is not only my opinion - I talked to a few other kiters there and they though the same.

Hey frightened, you sound very bitter .

At high tide there is sweet f-all beach on any island including Plantation, which can be dodgy with over hanging coconut trees too, but no real drama if you know what your doing.
At low tide with a coral reef like Plantation or any reef island it can be a right bastard getting out to the deep too.
When or what time of year were you there? - was it the windy season? I've heard it gets more wind then Plantation Island??
Have you got the skills to cope with this spot ( Nananu-I-Ra Island ) or is it a crap place because your crap and learning??
Im thinking of going there prior to Plantation, I dont give a rats ass about the $10 burgers or accomadation what i need to know is the wind/water good to GO?

Take no offence to the - are you crap thing or you could, what ever.
Would like a un-biass constuctive answer though, from you or anyone that has been or knows anything, CHEERS :twisted: :shock: :twisted:

Hey Fear, no I'm definitely not a crap kiter but yes I am a little sour on Fiji. I've been there twice (in the windy season - July / August) and have decided never to go again. One of the shops here used to run tours, but they stopped this year - surely that's telling you something? You could strike it lucky and have a ball, but as I said I talked to a few other kiters and they all agreed with me. One guy spent 6 weeks travelling around (Sean from AK who was looking to start up an operation over there) - he said Plantation Island could be really good (ask Big Nose or Derek), as can be Namotu, etc. Sean said he found some magic kiting spots way out in the Ysawas and another sweet spot just off the south end of the main island (somewhere Natandola Beach) - where the wind funnels just like at Rakiraki. A mate stayed at Hideaway - but the reef is right on the shore and there were barbed wire fences on the beach, so he had a complete mare and also will never go back. Also, the trades in Fiji come in cycles, so in 10 days the wind builds over 5 or 7 days, then dies out - so you could strike it lucky and have 5 days good kiting, or you could miss-time it and get nothing. At Nananu-I-Ra, there is a really nice spot just (about 200m x 200m square!) around the head between the islands where, if the wind is in the right direction and the tide is right, it can be "quite" good. Otherwise it's just soupy chop that hammers your knees (neither surf nor flat water). But believe me, it's a full days travel to get there (so you leave Nadi in the morning and get out kiting the next day) and for one teeny weeny spot it's sure as hell not worth it. Stick with Plantation or go kite that island Tom Hanks got stuck on - that was in the slingshot video. As for skills to kite there, you don't need a lot besides a spare pair of knees when your old ones get worn out from being jack hammered.

Seriously, go Port Douglas in Oz or even better, Noumea. Much nicer and you'll probably spend less money, too. And anyway, I don't know about you, but if I spring for a holiday, I'd choose a NICE place to kite. Sure, you can launch off rocks, but there's plenty of places elsewhere where you don't have to. I've kited WA (Lano, Gton, Coronation in 40 knots), been to Maui a couple of times. scored at Mui Ne beach in Vietnam - they're all kiting HEAVEN compared to Fiji. Now there's some niiiiiice spots.

DAM!! you should be a car salesmen cause your putting me off the Nananui Ra Island trip, very convincing.
Thanks for the reply and info, muchly appreciatted.
I've seen the Slingshot DVD and it does look like a good spot- do you or anyone know what that Island is called or where it is???

Went to the island last year in July. Found that it was not kiter friendly. Is windsurfing friendly. Will return to it again one year but not to kite. Windsurfing holiday. Also recommend Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas, Australia for kiting in a New Zealand winter. Have only been there in July. Good Kiting!

Sky rider if you are reading this I would like to know where to go in Noumea to kite. What is the best time of the year to go and what is the likely strength of the winds.

Hey westwinds, why is it not kiter friendly? more of what frightened said?

And a big YO to "Warren Francis"
I see you have listed recentlly. ( or are you another impostor )
Can you give us some more details to whether Nananu-I-Ra Island would be a good place for a Kite holiday?
I've seen your name pop up in a few forums latelly :wink:

And whats this about you kicking out the Slingshot boys - give us the low down??? :roll:

Hey Fear, I reckon you should go to Nananu-i-ra. In fact, I reckon you should book your entire holiday there - it's such an awesome spot, the other guys are just razzing ya and trying to keep it a secret. Why else would such a nice guy like WF set up a windsurf & kite school there? You'll have a really great time, and can come back and spread the good word... you might even get to be really good mates with Warren, too! You sound like you would get on well together....

Hi to all, As u all know i recently did my first trip to safari island with the KBMag. I think that everyone has one impression about them that is totally incorrect. There was not only slingshot there but there was liquid force, naish, airush and north riders there.
I found the slingy riders to be respectful to everyone and everything. I think that there is definately a stigma overthere heads that seems to be stuck with them because of the previous actions of a few.
I certinaly would not recommend safari island to anyone, well thats a whole other issue as we all know.
Aslo we certinly where not kicked out of warrens resort, get the correct story first. We left his crap hole of own own accord, after all our money and wallets was stolen out of our room and we where handed a bill for stuff that was ment to be for free eg.(tranfers, soft drink...) By all means if you want to go there and have a crap holiday that will cost you your hard earned dollars then go there, but please stay at morrisons the resort next to warren's, these guys where unreal.
There are many things that i could mention about promises from warren that never came thru, no suprise! But i am over it.
JUST DON'T GO THERE AND I'II BE HAPPY.
Regards, Paul Jackson
[/quote]

:shock:

Safari lodge looks too expensive anyway,

What about the rest of the island though - was it any good?

hi, to be perectly honest with you. No, the place is terrible to kite everywhere on the island. We did not find one good kiting spot.
Cheers Paul Jackson

Jeez you are two weird guys, mmil002 & Fear. You seem to really want to go there, no matter what anyone says. You can walk round Nananu-i-ra an 2 hours and there's pretty much only 1 kiteable / windsurfable spot and believe me, it's cr**p.

The funniest thing is, you can leave all your kite & sail gear out for weeks, but your crusty old jandals will be gone over night! They have no understanding of what a kite or board might be worth - certainly more than my old footware....

I Guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves!

I've just booked 2 weeks at Nananu Island Lodge end of June / start of July with a couple of mates! Anyone else headed that way around then?

One word. SUFFER.

Theres wind, theres warm water and Fiji gold. ( aviod Safari )
sounds fine!

you would have thought so, but I bet that the wind is offshore & blowing over a hill, the water is sure warm, don't drink to much Fiji gold that you wake up with a local - although drinking beer is all you'll probably be doing anyway. make sure you take lots of board games like scrabble and girlie mags to while away the time....

To a Fijian living/working on the island the jandals would be much more valuable and a lot more useful than a kite that they probably would struggle to sell without their boss catching them.

It's not like they can just pop round to the local cash-converters for a quick buck...

I was just talking to a building contractor over there who just lost all his labourers to a site across the road - for a 50c per hour raise! he was paying them $3.80.... how could they ever afford a kite on that? No wonder they just run around beating eachother up with machetes. There's nothing else to do for fun...

If you could put up a post about it when you get back that would be great. Wea re booked into the same place but going a few months later which would be enough to change our minds.

Have Fun.

8)

Been there loved it, at the end of the day its still better than a NZ winter!

Will put a post up when we get back and let you all know how we get on. Fiji Baby - here we come!

Frightened... you mentioned Noumea and Port Douglas.... can you access any good kiting in Noumea from any of the club med sites? and at Port Douglas.... apart from the normal big nasties... is July ok for kiting without worrying about stingers etc?

Best ask Ian with the dog & the flash Landcruiser (he's an older guy that hangs round Taka / Shoal / Meola and wears all the gears) - he's been to Porth Dougls and highly rates it. He's just been to the Whitsundays, too. As for Noumea - Club med has closed down, but 3 guys (see the recent Noumea threads on this site) have just spent two weeks there and can give you all the lowdown. They had TOO much kiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They been to Fiji, too, and think it sucks...

See we went to Cairns, ie Port Douglas, last year year for the comp thingy that they have. In the two week I was there we got 3 1/2 days kiting. Only one of they on little (14's or less) the rest on big kites. I was supposed to be windy season, the locals said it was unusual blah blah blah. Even if it had been windy every day though, I doubt I would have rated the place, really nasty chop, no waves with no chance of ever getting them and brown water. Not somewhere I'd really bother going back to. Port is the same with slightly cleaner water. Not a very cheap place to send two weeks not kiting either.

Chris

Stinger season is only from November till April. Anything outside of that is fine. Salties are still around though so beware where you kite. Don't want to end up as croc food. Stay away from places like the hitchenbrook channel.

There are some great spots down from Cairns all the way down to Airlie beach. Plenty of places with sand bars breaking them up and giving you glass in 25 knots. I only tried a couple around Townsville but all were pretty good. Cungolla, Bushland beach, Alva Beach. Airlie Beach itself is not great but if you get out to the whitsunday islands there is some good spots to be found.

You can also pick up accommodation at around $100 for a 4 sleeper/night so around $25 a head if you look around a bit. Winter is predominantly lighter winds so you can expect to use your 14 or 16 a lot but there is still good kiting to be had.

Just back from 2 weeks at Nananu Island Lodge check out the post:

www.kiteforum.co.nz/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1277

Sounds like you had a good time. From the sounds of things you are the only one from reading other peoples reports. My guess is that it's all timing. Then again i won't be getting my ass over there in a hurry, not when we have day after day of cranking wind here in AK. I ain't going nowhere. Winter rocks :twisted:

My mate Grant went there 3 weeks ago, no wind for the entire 6 days he was on the island, great kayaking though...