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Waterfalls of Kadavu

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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.

Ovalau and Rukuruku Bay

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Ovalau island is an extinct volcano which has a oval shape. The island has a rugged mountainous interior and a coastal ring around the edges.

We anchor in Rukuruku Bay which is on the north western side of the island.

The hillsides are lush and green reminding us of the Marquesas in French Polynesia. The highest peak is 626 meters above sea level.

Over 8,000 people call Ovalau home.  And of that 8,000 over 25% live in the old capital of Levuka and 10% live in Rukuruku Bay.

There is one road that makes a circumnavigation around the entire island (50km or 30 miles).  This road connects most of the villages which are located along the coast including Fiji’s first capital, Levuka.

Rukuruku Bay

Our first stop on the island of Ovalau is Rukuruku Bay.  We stop in to do sevusevu and are immediately welcomed into the community.  Our host family, Joe and Kara invite us to church the next day.

There are two churches in this small village.  One is Catholic and one is Methodist.  The Catholic church does not have a priest so they do not have services.  So, we attend the Methodist church.

It is a rather large building with amazing acoustics.  They start the service with beating of the Laili (Fijian drum).  The church interior is very simple and only about 25 people are in attendance.  It was a rather long service of over 2 hours but the singing was beautiful.

Walk Around Town

Our host family told us we could walk to the top of the ridge to see beautiful views of the anchorage.  So, we went exploring after church with a few guides.  

The majority part of the walk was on the main dirt road. 

The road is surrounded by beautiful scenery, towering mountains, and lush hillsides.

The kids decided to take us off the main road to a small waterfall. 

Probably not the best timing as we were still in our church clothes, but off we go.

The boys had a blast showing off.  They leapt off trees and cliffs into the clear water below. 

The three photos below show one of the boys doing an impressive flip into the water.

Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual live events.  We were in Ovalau toward the end of July 2025.

We explore the exclusive private island of Wakaya in our last blog post.

Malolo Island Passage

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It was difficult to leave Tomba Ni Ndaku (Vunisei village) on Kadavu, but we had to get back to Malolo island to prepare for the Musket Cove regatta.

We left Tomba Ni Ndaku and headed for an anchorage with a long beautiful beach.  However, when we got there, we found that there was no internet so we moved on.  Normally, we are not a slave to the internet, but this particular day we needed to be connected to communicate with family.

So, we motored a few more miles around the corner to the large town of Drue.  Two of our friends were also anchored here, but by the time we dropped the hook we were tired so we did not leave the boat.  It was a super lush hillside and anchorage.

The next morning, we had another beautiful moon rise with a little bit of fog.

The sail from Kadavu to Malolo is a little over 125nm which is near impossible to do during day light hours unless you have great winds.  Unfortunately for us, we were forecasted to have light winds so we decided to stop at a tiny island half way to Malolo. 

Vatulele Island

This little island is not visited often because the pass can be tricky to enter.  We had no tracks and no information from other cruisers.  All we had to go on was our charts.  The sail to Vatulele island is about 40-45nm.  As we set out for the day, we hoisted both sails and motor-sailed the first several hours.  The wind started to pick up so we turned off the engines and enjoyed a lovely day on the water.

By the time we got to Vatulele we had 17-18kts of wind and 1.5meter seas.   In addition, we some how managed to time the pass entry at low tide which was less than ideal.  The decision was made to skip this island as conditions were not conducive for a safe entry through the pass.

The left chart shows the little island just below Viti Levu.  The right photo shows you the narrow and very shallow pass.

So, we continued 33nm to Natadola Bay as we could make this anchorage just before sunset.  It has a wide pass; we have tracks coming and going, and our friends on SeaGlub were anchored here.

Natadola Bay, Viti Levu

We drop the hook and high tailed it over to SeaGlub where our friend Chris graciously offered to BBQ.  It was a lovely evening with good friends, tasty food, and cold beverages.

The next day, we motored 40nm to Malolo island where we claimed our anchor spot for the Musket Cove Regatta.

The events from this blog occurred in early September 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  We experience the full sevusevu ceremony from pounding of the root to consumption in our last blog post, and neither one of us gagged!