We find two beautiful waterfalls on Kadavu Island. One was pretty exhausting to get to and one was pretty darn easy.
There is a very remote, private waterfall rarely seen by tourists located near 2 hours past the Niudua village on the eastern side of Kadavu. Our goal is to find it and enjoy its pristine setting.
We head to Jioma Village from our beautiful, secluded Ucuinaqaralevu anchorage. The village is about 2nm away across a fairly flat lagoon. Next, we take the dinghy down the river lined with beautiful mangroves. About 1-1.5nm down the river we find Jioma village.
We do sevusevu in this village and receive a guide who takes us to Niudua village.
Niudua Village
To get to the next village we cross a rickety bridge and follow the nice concrete path for about 1.5 miles. We do sevusevu with this 2nd village and are assigned 5 guides to take the 9 of us to the waterfall.
We are adventuring with our friends on SeaGlub (Chris), Beleza (Chris and Michelle), and Hudson (Jeunuse, Dale, Willow, and Hazel).
Everyone hiked through lush fields, up and down muddy mountains, over wet, slimy boulders, and across the river many times. It had rained 2 days prior so the track was still pretty muddy. The mud tried desperately to suck our shoes off.
And finally, we boulder for 45 minutes prior to arriving at the falls. It was a careful balance between the mud, the slime, and the river. The slimy rocks wanting nothing more than toppling us over into the cold river.
Everyone was exhausted before we even got to the falls.
We enjoy lots of frolicking in the refreshing waterfall pool. The sun was right over the top of the falls so most of the photos did not turn out so well.
It was a nice swim to the bottom of the falls. Lots of ledges to sit upon as the falls pound your head.
A bunch of frolicking. The Kadavu locals have as much fun as the tourists.
Then it was time to warm up in the sun.
The total hike was not very far.
We hiked about 4.5 miles with a max elevation 495ft.
We had about10,000 steps and were moving for 5 hours moving time, elapsed 8 hrs.
After we were well rested, we headed back.
Village Celebration
To our surprise, the Niudua village had a celebration waiting for us upon our return.
We had a traditional sevusevu with kava and then they brought out juice and huge plates of food.
What a delightful surprise. There was singing, dancing and drinking grog!
And yet another surprise for us.
The village performed a traditional honoring of the guests. They wiped baby powder down our cheeks and flowers in our hair.
Made a bit of a mess, but when in Rome…
Bill and I in the top left photo. Matt, Michelle and Chris (Beleza) top right.
I was completely knockered by the time we got back to the boat. We ate, showered and went to bed!
Easier Hike to a 2nd Kadavu Waterfall
In our new anchorage of Yauravu Bay we discovered a 2nd waterfall. Luckily this was much easier to get to.
We enjoyed a very leisurely dinghy ride through the gorgeous, canopied, mangroves. It took us about 7-8 minutes to get to the end which deposited us at the “main road.” We left our dinghies here and headed off on foot.
The hike is only about 12-15 minutes. The first part is a small, dirt path amongst the tall grass and swaying trees.
The trail ends at the river and then the bouldering begins.
Luckily there is only about 1/8 of a mile of bouldering. However, there are some monstrous boulders to climb.
You are rewarded with a pristine waterfall and a small, shallow pool.
Our blog post runs 8-10 weeks behind actual live events. We did this waterfall hike in early August 2025.
Check out some of the beautiful spots we anchored around Kadavu in our last blog post.
