Port Denarou and Departures at the Airport

Reclaiming our left baggage was easy enough and then swapping stuff around between our day bags to checked baggage was a little harder as we found that the was only an ordinary shower in the men's and the ladies didn't have one. Which meant that the girls had a bad time of it.
We then wanted a meal as we would not be departing for almost 3 hrs.
All the food outlets are way over priced and mostly do the same things the good thing is there are no queues.
the is a cheaper outlet in the arrival hall but they had stopped serving.
The price of a large pizza which was really a family size was FJ $55 yes that's right!!!

You want to spend as little as time as possible in the airport as possible.

A Walk to Plantation Island Resort

A fairly short walk over about 15 minutes took us back through the heart of  Musket Cove, past the end of the runway to Plantation Island. We first had about 1/2 hr in the kids pool where there was a water slide and we all had some drinks. Aussie Prices. Next to the jetty there is a large inflatable kids only apparently water slide which is quite hard to get on even for an adult.

This provided further amusement for another half an hour. We did check to ensure that you can board the ferry at this point as we had got off at Musket Cove and that all was fine.
as it is not a very peaceful area as there is plenty of every day work going on right on your doorstep such as the various deliveries to and from the island like food and laundry.
The ferry arrives on time and we have a fairly gentle cruise back to Port Denarou.

Malolo Cat Ferry and Snorkelling

The Malolo Cat ferry is just that it is a ferry and not a cruise. The boat appears to be very clean and in good order. There are quite a few rules about about what you can and cant take take to the island and there is no eating or drinking on board but the trip only takes about 40 mins and stops at two places Plantation Island Resort and the Marina at Musket Cove Resort. Almost everyone is greeted with some local singers and music  except us as we said we were just day trippers and were generally ignored thereafter.
We found the local store called Traders which only really catered for anybody that might have forgotten something they didn't bring with then. Mostly very over priced.

We had decided to go snorkeling and found our way to northern end of the main beach to the area where several yachts were anchored out side the marina. This area appeared to have been dredged sometime in the past and for the most part is very shallow and at low tide is exposed.

Arrival at Nadi Airport approx 06:30 Hrs

Arriving at Nadi airport is OK but dont expect anything or everything to be tiptop and as expected.
The Fiji Airport website show the facilities in  an as new condition but many of these photos would quite a few years old.
Mostly we found the amenities to be run down and often smelly and not very clean.
If you are looking for the left baggage room you will find this in the departures hall way down the far end hidden away just down a hallway. The costs are reasonable at FJ$10 for a regular case and less for a carry on.
We had booked in advance a ferry trip via the Malolo Cat to Malolo Lai Lai island. Depending on your arrival time there are effectively two free pick up times in the morning from the airport which take you via several hotels to Port Denarou for 07:30 and 10:30 departure times. Having just missed the early bus we elected to catch a taxi to the ferry as waiting at the airport for a couple of hours seemed not a good idea. Taxi cab fare FJ$30 probably a bit high.
This proved to be the best idea as we were able to get a nice cooked breakfast at Cardos Steakhouse reasonably priced good service etc etc right on the marina front.