Fiji

Letter No. 238

Dear all,

We had a lovely Christmas at my sister Lisa’s house and two days later we set off on our annual holiday, this year to Fiji. We caught an Uber to the airport. It was the first time I had used Uber but after only one trip I am a convert - it was so efficient and half the price of a regular taxi. The flight to Nadi in Fiji was about three and a half hours. We picked up a hire car at the airport and drive to Lautoka, Fiji's second largest city (actually a small town), which was a forty-minute drive. By the time we arrived it was about 5pm due to the time difference, so we went straight to the pool to watch the sun go down.

The next morning I went for a run along the harbour front and into the town. It was only 6:30am but the town was bustling with people and buses, dogs and chickens all going somewhere. After a quick breakfast we set off to drive to Navala Village. This is number four on the top ten things to see in Fiji. It is a traditional village high in the mountains. All of the houses are constructed in the traditional way with timber and high thatched roofs. The road was apparently a very rough dirt road. It was only 76km but we asked a few people how long it would take to get there and estimates varied from two hours to several days! We had to stop and ask people for directions about six times as there were no apparent signs to Navala. The road was fairly rugged with a few hairy single lane rickety timber bridges and many potholes but we eventually made it. For one of the top sights in Fiji you need to be pretty persistent to actually get there.

We arrived at the village and the first person we saw asked us to wait and seconds later came back in full traditional costume. She then took us to see the Village Chief who took our entry fee and told us a bit about traditional village life. He didn't really have a tourist patter so we just asked him lots of questions. It was quite interesting. His concept of numbers and time was a little vague. We were told there were 900 houses in the village (I guessed 100 after a quick walk and count) and also there were 900 people in the village. As we walked around the village we acquired a group of children about four to seven years old who held our hands in a big line and showed us around. It was quite beautiful and remote, up in the hills and set against a backdrop of rugged mountains. There was no electricity or running water. We went to see the main village features – the school, the church, the graveyard and the river. They asked if we wanted to stay for lunch and were delighted when we said yes. We had a huge feast of traditional Fijian dishes sitting cross legged in the floor. It was very hot and humid and it was good to sit inside and cool down.

In the afternoon we went to the Lautoka market. It was a typical Pacific Islander market of fruit, meat and fish, as well as a small craft market with lots of interesting woven and carved objects. We bought a Fiji rugby T-shirt for Matthew before going back to the hotel for a swim. That night we walked into town for dinner. There were only two restaurants recommended in the guide book and one was closed, so we went to the Chinese restaurant. We were a little alarmed that they had a plaque proudly proclaiming that they had "90% compliance with Fiji food health standards". We decided this must be a good thing if they were advertising it on their front desk and anywhere else would only have a lower compliance, so we were undeterred and had a lovely Chinese meal.

The next day we got up early and left Lautoka and drove past Nadi and on around the island. We stopped en route at the Momi Guns. Again for a fairly prominent tourist attraction they were poorly signposted and we drove a long way in the wrong direction on another bone-rattling dirt road. The Momi guns are two impressive 6-inch guns installed in 1941 by the New Zealand defence force to protect Fiji from invasion by the Japanese. The guns are at a perfect lookout spot with an amazing 200-degree view over the ocean. During the Second World War the guns were only fired once which was a mistake. The New Zealand troops stationed there fired at a ship which had failed to signal properly and turned out to be a New Zealand navy ship. Luckily they missed, otherwise there could have been an international incident. Fiji was not invaded during the war and most Fijians will proudly tell you that this was due to the fact that the Japanese thought they were all cannibals.

We drove on a bit further and stopped at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes. These are a series of wind-blown sand dunes stretching down to the ocean. They are 5km wide, 1km long and up to 60m high. We did a lovely hour-long walk through the dunes and adjacent mahogany forest. It was very hot though and we had to sit and rest for quite a while afterwards to cool down. After lunch in Sigatoka town we drove on to Namatakula Village where we had pre-booked a Homestay. Again it proved very difficult to find. We drove to where we thought it was but discovered that everyone in the village was getting ready for a wedding. We asked for directions and got sent down a very rough road. We were too concerned about getting bogged and turned around, drove back to a nearby resort and asked for directions. Luckily they knew the place and phoned ahead. We eventually found the place, less than 50m from where we had previously stopped. No signs whatsoever and our hosts had "forgotten" we were coming!

The Homestay was in a traditional house in a small village on the beach. A group of children showed us around. The traditional Fijian wedding celebrations were in full swing by this time with singing and dancing and flowers and firecrackers. They showed us the roast pig, which was wrapped in vine leaves and had been cooked in a pit in the ground. It was being wheeled over in a wheelbarrow to form the centrepiece of the wedding feast. Matt, Jess and I went swimming in a freshwater creek and played tag with the local kids on the beach. We went back and had showers and a lovely traditional Fijian fish curry and vegetables with some of the family. It was a rather sprawling house and there seemed to be about 25 people living there with assorted dogs, pigs, chickens and horses.

Afterwards we went back to see how the wedding was going. At the community hall the village chief invited us to have some Kava with the men of the village. The men seemed to all be in one hall drinking and singing and playing guitars, while the women in the adjacent house were singing and dancing to great merriment. We were all made to feel very welcome. It was quite fun. Kava was not to everyone's taste though. It is a narcotic but we only had one glass so it had no effect on anyone. We stayed and listened to the singing for quite a while before going back to our house. Our room was very hot so we opened all the windows, dropped the mosquito nets and tried to sleep. The singing and laughing and dogs scrapping went on until well after midnight and then the roosters started to crow around 5am so we didn't get much sleep. After an early and quick breakfast we were on the road again. 

We drove back to Nadi to return the hire car and get a transfer to Denerau port to catch the catamaran to Malololailai Island which is in the Mamanuca island group. We dropped the car back at 9:00am and thought we had plenty of time for the 45-minute transfer to the port. Half an hour after our transfer time the driver had still not turned up. When I pointed out this to the transfer desk they seemed unfazed despite the fact we would only have 10 minutes between arriving at the port and the boat departure. I pointed at my watch a lot and then said I was going to get a cab so they started to take it a little more seriously. The driver showed up at 9:40 but fortunately the 45-minute transfer only took 15 minutes so we had plenty of time in the end. Fijians seem to have a poor sense of time and urgency!

The MaloloCat took us to Malololailai Island, where we were staying at the very elegant Musket Cove Island Resort. We were greeted with welcome coconuts and Fijian necklaces on arrival. All the staff came out to the deck and burst into song. It was all very welcoming, the weather was perfect and our garden villa felt very luxurious after our village homestay. We had lunch at the verandah café overlooking the marina and then spent the afternoon around the pool trying cocktails at the pool bar.

It was actually New Year's Eve so we looked around for dinner options after our swim. The resort had a beachside Gala Buffet Dinner at an extortionate price but we decided to forego that, especially as Jessie is vegetarian and wouldn’t be able to eat most of it, so we had a low-key dinner one of the smaller restaurants watching the sunset. Jessica had made a note of all our New Year’s resolutions from last year and we had a big laugh during the evening at how many we had failed at. She then recorded our new resolutions for next year. There were quite a few repeats! We walked back along the beach where the Gala dinner was finishing and asked if we could order a dessert from the buffet dessert table but they told us to just help ourselves as they had heaps left over. Bargain! After a yummy dessert feast we went to the island bar for the New Year Party. It is a tiny island connected to the resort by a small floating pontoon. There is a lovely covered bar where they had set up a DJ and dance floor, with pretty lights and lovely comfy seats to watch the ocean. We all went and sat at the bar and took turns dancing with Jessica who is a dancing machine! There are three resorts around the cove and they all had fireworks at midnight which was great. Our resort had fireworks as well but for some reason they went off at 10:30pm. It was a great night though and we were back at our villa by 12:30pm.

We spent the next couple of days taking advantage of the free snorkelling trips, kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding. There are lots of little canals around the resort and we went around them all with the kayaks through the resort and the marina. One evening we walked over to a restaurant at one of the nearby resorts for dinner. It was a beautiful walk along the palm-tree dotted beach to get there and we had our first drink watching the sun go down. We had a fantastic dinner and walked back to our resort for a few rounds of cards before bed. The next afternoon we took a boat to a floating pontoon called Cloud 9. It is a party boat on two levels which looks like something out of the movie Waterworld. It was pretty cool. There is a wood-fired pizza oven and a bar, and we spent a few hours there swimming, jumping off the top deck, eating pizza and sitting at the bar. It was great fun. Just as we were getting back onto the boat a storm came up and the heavens opened with a torrential afternoon thunderstorm. Luckily we had the only few seats under cover so we just got slightly damp while some people got completely drenched. The rain was so heavy that it was a complete white out and the boat captain had to use Sat Nav to find our way back! We made it home safely and had dinner in our resort that night.

It rained heavily all night but was sunny and clear when we woke up. We had an early catamaran ride back to the main island and then stopped in Denerau Port for some shopping. It is a resort town very close to Nadi airport and you could be sitting in Brisbane! The shops were quite good though. We all got new rashies in a Fiji chain shop called CloudBreak which was half the price of Ripcurl next door. After a quick coffee in the Hard Rock Café we headed to the airport for our flight to Tavenui Island. It was a 19-seater prop flight and it flew at only 10,000 feet so we had a great view of the tropical islands as we flew over them on the 90-minute flight.

Tavenui is the “garden island” of Fiji and is known to be hot and steamy. The airport was about the size of a small bus stop and the pilot had to refuel the plane himself while we were waiting for our bags to be unloaded. There was no baggage carousel; we just picked up our bags from the trolley and walked out to meet our transfer. We were staying in some nearby villas which were on a hilltop with beautiful ocean views. It felt very remote and unspoiled and tropical, with lush thick greenery and massively overgrown vegetation. It could have been the film location for Jurassic Park; in fact Matt said he expected to see a tyrannosaurus emerging from the forest at any moment. There was a humming backpacker vibe at the restaurant so we chatted to other guests a lot and the kids stayed up playing cards with a group of British backpackers while we went to bed.

Our first day was marked by heavy rain. We had planned to go to the Tavoro Falls in the Bouma National Park but we decided to go despite the rain. It was a one-hour drive along the beautiful coastline through small villages. The rain increased in intensity as we drove. We changed into our swimming clothes for the short walk to the falls. At 26m it is the highest waterfall in Fiji, but due to lots of recent rain and the storms it was spectacular. The locals said they had never seen it so full. It was quite exciting and the spray was terrific. Matt, Jessie and I went swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall and Katie got equally wet just standing watching due to the rain and spray! The current was so strong we had no hope of swimming over to the falling water. We walked on for another 15 minutes up to the lookout for great views of the coast and up the mountains, then back down for another swim. This time Matt and I climbed the cliff behind the waterfall and dived into the pool behind the main stream of water coming in. There was a fierce current and it was quite terrifying. I decided not to do that again.

Our next few days were spent snorkelling and diving at the Rainbow Reef.  Matthew and I scuba dived while Katie and Jessica went snorkelling. The dive operators were really great. They had an instructor who took Jessie and Katie snorkelling and named all the fish they saw. Jessica loved it! Matt had completed his Padi Open Water diving course in December and these were his first proper open water dives. We did four dives in total. He was a little nervous at first. He had not gone deeper than 5m before and his ears were hurting a bit and he had trouble descending at first, but soon got the hang of it. Our deepest dive was 26m and we saw fairly big reef shark and several huge manta rays.  It was awesome!

We also did a day trip to the International Dateline and hopped back and forth between today and yesterday. We went on to the Waitavala Waterslide which is a natural water passage carved into the rocks of a stream. It was really great. We had been warned to take old shorts to slide down the rocks as they often got ripped. I was glad I did as at the end of the morning, the seat had totally worn out of all our pants! Again this is one of the top tourist attractions on Tavenui but is almost impossible to find without a guide. You have to drive up an unsigned dirt road, stop at a random coconut half way up the mountain, walk along a rough unsigned bush track for 20 minutes before getting to the stream. The water was beautiful though and the rock slide was awesome!

On our final day we did another boat trip for some more snorkelling trip and lunch on the beach which was a great way to finish our holiday. Then it was back on the tiny plane back to Nadi and then a rather long wait for our flight back to Brisbane. When we got home we realised that the power to the fridge had been off for quite some time and we had to throw out the full contents of the fridge and freezer! Not a nice way to come back from holiday. Katie spent several hours on hands and knees cleaning the entire fridge before we switched it back on. The household insurance paid out $500 without any questions but I am sure there was much more than that which was thrown away.

Thanks all for this month. Love Molly, Derek, Katie, Matthew and Jessica.