Momi Bay

Momi Bay sits at the western hinge of Viti Levu, past the mangrove channels that lead out to Robinson Crusoe Island, and it’s a strange, appealing mix of two things that have nothing to do with each other: military history and wind sport. The Momi Guns Battery, two six-inch naval guns installed by New Zealand forces in 1941 to defend the strategic channel between Viti Levu and the Mamanucas from a Japanese invasion that never arrived, still sit on the headland exactly where they were positioned, aimed out over water that today is full of kitesurfers instead of warships.

We climbed up to the gun emplacements on a weekday afternoon and had the site to ourselves apart from a groundskeeper trimming the grass around the concrete bunkers. The guns themselves are corroded but intact, and the view from the headland explains immediately why the site was chosen — you can see clean across the reef passage toward Malolo and the inner Mamanucas, the exact sightline the gunners would have used. There’s a small plaque with the history but no gift shop, no entrance fee collector, nothing packaged about it, which somehow made standing there more affecting than a curated museum would have.

Down at sea level, Momi Bay is known among a smaller crowd for consistent trade winds that make it one of the better kitesurfing spots in Fiji, with a shallow, wide bay that’s forgiving for beginners and a couple of small operations renting gear and giving lessons. I’m not a kitesurfer, but I sat on the beach for an hour watching a handful of riders work the wind while Lia waded out into water barely knee-deep for what felt like two hundred meters before it got interesting, the tide out far enough to expose a huge flat of sand.

When to go: June through September brings the strongest and most reliable trade winds for kitesurfing. The gun battery is worth visiting any time of year, though the headland walk is more pleasant in the cooler morning hours.