A Fond Farewell in Fiji
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2005
1
23
24
Trip End
Aug 02, 2005
Nadi,
Fiji
Thursday, June 30, 2005
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Taveuni Island
After 3,721 km (2,312 miles) we said goodbye to Romney (our little campervan) and New Zealand to head to Fiji for one night in Nadi before flying on Taveuni.
Taveuni Island is the "Garden Island" of Fiji and on Thursday we settled into our bure (a Fijian cottage) at Coconut Grove Beach Cottages in Matei at the northern end of Taveuni. It has three bure and is run by an energetic American named Ronna. She has two dogs - Gracie, older and very well-mannered, and Kirby, 14 months and more than a handful. The staff was wonderful as were the meals
01 Bure at Coconut Grove
. We chose to purchase the meal plan so we ate lunch and dinner there each day. By the end of the week we had tried most of the tasty options, including lobster and filet mignon. The dinner menu changed nightly so there was some variety. Our first night we went to a "lovo" (food is steamed in a pit in the ground covered by palm leaves) at the home of one of the staff in her nearby village. The kids entertained us with a "meke" (traditional Fijian dancing) and other songs. It was a fundraiser for the local school. Another night we even had dinner on the beach under a thatched canopy. The beach was nice (when Kirby wasn't throwing wet, sandy coconuts around and chasing flies) and the views were incredible. Amy enjoyed a massage on the beach one afternoon. The island, particularly the southern half, receives a lot of the moisture in Fiji and supports a lush rainforest. We chose it, though, because of the fantastic diving on the Rainbow Reef (so called because of all the colorful soft coral) in the Somosomo Straits (between Taveuni and Vanua Levu). Fiji is called the "Soft Coral Capital of the World" and it lived up to its name. We completed two dives each morning for five days and our last day we relaxed. The dive company we chose, Aquaventure, was small and personal. A full boat was only six people so it was very chilled out. The divemaster would choose the dive sites each day based on the currents
02 Traditional Lovo
. We mostly did drift dives which was new but easy enough for us. Our very first dive was the Great White Wall. It is the most renowned dive site in Fiji and only divable when the currents are flowing just right. It was an amazing sight to look down at a wall that plunged over 650 ft. and was covered in brilliant white soft coral trees. It was like looking at a mountain covered in snow covered trees. We also dove the Purple Wall which was smaller in scale but much the same with deep purple coral trees. We also saw lots of fish and marine life including two hawk's bill turtles, an octopus, blue ribbon eels (looks like a bright blue and yellow dragon head), and of course white-tipped reef sharks (harmless). The coral in Fiji lived up to its reputation and we enjoyed each of our 10 dives (about 6 hours underwater).On Wednesday, our last full day, Amy went on the Lavena Coastal Walkway with another couple while Alex relaxed at the beach (and nursed his 'Delhi Belly'). The guided walk towards the southern end of the island therefore it was a bit rainy for part of the time. It followed the beach and ended at a beautiful waterfall where we swam and had a picnic lunch. The guide and some others took their turns on the waterslide as well.
On Thursday, our flight left in the afternoon so we spent a leisurely morning on Taveuni before heading back to Nadi and then on to the Yasawa Islands for the last week of our trip
03 Children entertaining us with a "meke"
. Our landing back in Nadi was a little interesting as our puddle-jumper got a flat tire upon landing on the left side and the brakes were sparking heavily on the right side. We literally hobbled back to the terminal! We would highly recommend Taveuni to anyone considering a visit to Fiji.June 24 - 30
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Nanuya Lai Lai, Yasawa Islands
Before catching the Yasawa Flyer catamaran out to the islands we overnighted in Nadi after our flight from Taveuni. Thankfully we checked our email after dinner at our hotel because we were met with a surprise email. . .
"Good Morning, I am the Manager of Blue Star Backpacker. We had some serious problem yesterday afternoon with our staff on the island! I'm really sorry, I know that this communication arrives late, but everything happened yesterday! Please reply me because I can't take your reservation, at the moment we don't have most of the staff, they all left without notice! Fijian way to work
04 Our village hosts for the lovo
! ~ June 21st"At 8pm with this new piece of information we went straight to the travel agent in the hotel to see if she could sort something out for us in time to catch the boat the next morning. After phoning (by radio phone) at least six places, she could only find space for us at the Sunrise Lagoon Resort. It was on the same island as Blue Star but still operating so we took it to avoid delaying our plans and having to stay in boring Nadi any longer.
We got the Yasawa Flyer high speed catamaran the next morning and made our way up to Nanuya Lai Lai island for Sunrise. On our approach by boat our initial thoughts were that it was basic and rustic but ok. However within the first 30 minutes of setting foot on the island we were very disappointed with what we found at our "all-inclusive resort". It was like a very badly maintained summer camp but with a Fijian twist - thatched huts and disinterested staff. Lunch was very small and consisted of some sort of shepherd's pie-like square of ramen noodles and canned meat and topped with flaked mashed potatoes along with a wilted salad. The meat looked like dog food. Additionally we were on the windward side of the island so there were extremely strong winds buffeting the beach and "resort" all the time
05 Sunrise
. This is fine to keep away mosquitos but not so nice when you want to lay on the beach and relax.When we first got our room with en suite bathroom we stupidly thought that it would be too noisy at night being right beside the dining area/lounge so we asked for another bure thinking that the shared facilities would be ok. This was the worst thing we could have done. We got the last bure on the property which unlike the others didn't have electricity and wasn't close to the bathrooms which were disgusting. We spent a restless night itching mosquitos and kicking ourselves for leaving the other room that was wooden, not thatch, and had its own bathroom. [Later some other people were in the bure next door and found that a roving chicken had laid eggs in the corner of the room!]
In the morning we devised a plan of action. Plan A was to hike to the other side of the island to the resort that we had heard from others was really nice to see if they had rooms available that we could reserve after wresting our cash back from Sunrise. It's high season in Fiji so of course they didn't have any available rooms. However they were sooo kind and said that we could use their beach if we wanted. The resort is Nanuya Island Resort and is on the Blue Lagoon (as in the movie by the same title)
06 Trying the local brew -- "kava"
. It was amazingly beautiful and very nice. We then resorted to Plan B. We went back to Sunrise and asked to have our private bure back so that we could be more comfortable and take showers without having 50 other people use the same bathroom. We would eat the meagre breakfast at Sunrise then hike across the island to Nanuya to relax on their beach in the morning and afternoon, eat lunch there, and walk back via the beach at low tide to Sunrise around 4pm for dinner and sleeping. We adjusted our expectations and cultivated a positive attitude about the situation.
Overall, the week turned out very nicely. We thoroughly enjoyed our beach time at Nanuya and basked in the sun and tropical paradise of the Blue Lagoon. The water was blue and crystal clear. We even went snorkeling one morning on the Lagoon's reef and saw lots of fish. Alex stayed in their hammocks most of the week while Amy laid on the sand tanning. It was what we had wanted - a week of doing nothing but sitting on the beach reading and sleeping. Our last night on the island and last night of this unforgettable trip we took a water taxi over to Nanuya for dinner to celebrate by ourselves instead of with 50 backpackers.
The boat ride over was a bit harrowing on the Sunrise side with rough seas because of the wind and our "driver" who had come over without a flashlight, but once we hit the other side of the island it was tranquil
07 View from Coconut Grove Restaurant
. We indulged in champagne, dinner and dessert at Nanuya and our taxi (this time with a flashlight) took us back for our last night at Sunrise. It was yummy and the perfect end to our trip! The next day we boarded the Yasawa Flyer happy to be leaving Sunrise and made the journey back to Nadi to catch our flight back to the States. It left Fiji Thursday at 11pm and we arrived in San Francisco at 9:15pm the same day - crazy! We had essentially had two Thursdays by the time we finished our flights because we crossed the Date Line.
A few tips on choosing accommodation in Fiji:
1. "Resort" means many things to many people - there isn't a standard
2. Don't stay on an unprotected, windward side of an island
3. Make sure you get recommendations from reliable people who understand your tastes
We would highly recommend Nanuya Island Resort to anyone. The staff were friendly and the meals delicious. It's more expensive than the other Yasawa Islands' backpacker resorts but worth it. In the end, our budget wouldn't have supported a stay at Nanuya because of the price that wasn't inclusive of meals, but we were lucky to be able to enjoy this little piece of paradise as much as we could.
Berkeley welcomed us back stateside and we spent a couple of crazy days looking for apartments.
08 Beachside contemplation
We found a great one with lots of character and a lovely backyard close to campus and are looking forward to moving in August 2nd. Before this we will be in Maine visiting family and friends and back in DC for a couple of days before making our last journey cross-country over the last two weeks of July. We are headed across on the northern route and are excited to see parts of our own country that we haven't seen before. We will then settle down for a while in the Bay area and enjoy a couple of years in Berkeley. It will be a blast! We always love visitors and still have a pull-out couch for family and friends. We expect to get a dog sometime in the fall so we will let you know about the new addition to our family as soon as we can. We will be sending along our new contact details but in the meantime, we hope you enjoyed following us on our trip. We have incredible memories to last a lifetime and loved sharing our experiences with you. We look forward to seeing many of you soon and getting back in touch personally. If anyone wants recommendations or advice we are always available. Keep safe and enjoy life! We will probably send another update from the road, so stay tuned...
A few pointers to anyone considering taking a trip like ours:
1) Do it
09 Check out our plane's flat tire!
. We never regretted it. We would constantly turn to each other and say, "This trip was a good idea." or "This is sooo much better than work".2) A couple of handy things we brought along:
*Small bike chain -- to chain our backpacks to hotel beds, etc.
*Stuff sacks -- we packed our clothes in little stuff sacks that were little larger than footballs. This made for easy packing.
*First aid kit -- we felt a little anal packing as many medications and supplies as we did, but we used the first aid kit a lot!
*Sleep sacks -- our friends Susan and Ben bought us silk sleep sacks that we used when sleeping on particularly unappealing beds. It kept the grime and mosquitos out. We used them a lot!
*As few clothes as possible -- we had four shirts, two pants, and two sets of shorts each, though we could have done with less. Our backpacks were one or two sizes bigger than a school backpack. Since they were only about 12-15 pounds each, we could run to catch buses and lug them around for long periods if needed.
3) Record your experiences as you go, whether online or in a journal. This helped us relive the funniest parts of our trip that we might not have remembered otherwise...and we could share our trip with you!
