More Cruising days

We traveled from one part of Taveuni to another and it seemed that Taveuni is definitely more prosperous. I want to go back to see the waterfall on the east side of the island that flows directly into the ocean, there are no roads on that side of the island but you can go by boat. On the Sunday morning there was the opportunity to visit the RC Church, it had beautiful stained glass windows. I decided to photograph these three sisters, and they held their hands out for money, I gave some to the oldest thinking they would share but each one wanted some, I had one more note to hand out and the smallest missed out, she pulled a sad face so I ended up crocheting her a flower to put on her dress. That seemed to make her happy.

















It was only a short bus ride to the international date line, this is the real line but for convenience the line moves to the water east of Taveuni to stop any arguments about whether its yesterday or today. We drove past a shop that is the first to open in the world each day, talk about cashing in.

















There are beautifully coloured parrots on Taveuni, we had seen some examples at the nature park near Sigatoka, This trip I never saw any close up, but I did hear a bird call when we were at the dateline and the guide said it was a parrot. Look for that black spot at the top of one of the trees. That is as close a look as I got this time, but next visit I will plan to go to the area where they are.












We said goodbye to Taveuni and while we had lunch on the upper deck we cruised across the straight to Vana Levu again. This beach is owned by an American, that is his holiday home, but he wasn't here, and there are extra cottages for his friends who may want to come to visit. Fortunately the Cruise owner is a friend of his and we could use his beach. We had a swim after everyone had a snorkel, it was only a 100 metres across the narrow strip of land at the back of the house to the other side of the headland. There were beautiful shells on the beach.
















The days of our cruise are numbered, only two nights to go. It is amazing how they navigate through the channels to miss the reefs at low and high tide. No wonder the boat stays anchored at night. Cruising along the coast of Vana Levu it was interesting to see the rain, not that interesting as it generally rains most days somewhere, but it does make for good photo shots.

Vana Levu and Taveuni

It was a short cruise across Bligh Water (Captain Bligh and the mutiny fame) to Savusavu on Vana Levu, and time to get off the boat for a walk through the town, I had hurt my foot on the first day of the cruise and it was still hurting so I passed on a walking tour for 2 hours and just hobbled along the road to the town. I didn't go to the JB Hunter pearl shop as pearls are not really my thing and they are overpriced as well. Had a great coffee at a place that had a recommendation from Brooke Shields on the wall. It was fascinating to see these Lions (there are two facing each other) near the entrance to the market, If you look to the left of the photo there is a green pyramid on the table and that is Duruka (Fijian asparagus), I bought some to take back to the boat hoping to supplement my vegetarian fare and also some bananas, when I went to get back on the boat I was told 'we have a policy and do not cook things people bring on board', but someone whispered in my ear to ask quietly of the chef and that produced several days of interesting Duruka recipes,














The Savusavu area has been an old volcano and its a still active enough to have steam rising from the sand at several points along the bay. Look to the right of the third plant from the bottom and you will see the steam. With my sore foot I didn't want to venture down onto the dark sand, so will have to explore more next time.




















Next morning we pulled up anchor and cruised toward Taveuni, it was cloudy in the morning and had rained, Taveuni is called the 'garden island' and not wonder if its tropical and wet all the time. The weather cleared for us to go by bus to the Bouma Waterfall. Its certainly beautiful and there are two more waterfalls further up the mountain, two of our group walked to see them. The crew and others were jumping from the ledge into the water, and just to prove Aussies are not squibs, a senior lady in our group did a perfect dive in.


















The roads in Taveuni reminded me of my early days driving at Taylor's Arm, pot holes and mud, I didn't have to pass another bus like this driver, I had timber trucks to contend with when learning to drive. Its convenient for photos that the bus had no windows.













Taveuni exports a lot of produce and this is dalo, the root is a bit boring to eat but the leaves make a great soup, Lucky at the Suva house there are plants growing nearby and even Alex gave the soup a 'thumbs up', I'm determined to find some in Brisbane and today, its a few weeks later, I may have found a supplier at the West End market.

Cruising to Ovalau

It was only a short cruise down the east side of Ovalau until we arrived at Levuka, Wiki gives a good description of the island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovalau_%28Fiji%29, the mountains are amazing and as usual I hardly had time for breakfast. Love this prehistoric foot print on the rock















the early settlers lacked imagination if they thought they could build a future city at Levuka, the mountain prevents any building except along the narrow shore line. They are attempting to brighten up the old buildings and I did enjoy looking at the historical museum which also had a great collection of shells.
















Levuka is quiet town, there is a fish factory which gives employment to the locals, no doubt that encourages the birds when the effulent is just pumped into the sea.
















Four of us took an optional tour to have morning tea with a descendant of the last cannibal on the island. The Maoris were cannibals as well and I wonder if they needed more protein as these places would have only relied on fish as their protein source. The white settlers would have bought pigs, chicken and other protein sources with them. We had a Maori fisherman and his wife on the cruise, and they liked my theory. Ovalau is one of the islands my missionary forebear William Moore (1st cousin 5x removed)was living during his stay on the islands from 1850-1869. The lady said the names of all the ministers are on a board in the church but I didn't get time to look. On the way back from our visit we pulled up to get some fresh coconuts and the man scaled the palm for us, couldn't get much fresher than that.











I took a taxi ride to the cemetery, had to walk up about 80 steps to the top of the hill, the view was amazing. I wondered how they managed to dig the graves with so much rock. There were some other people also there, and I was staggered when one of the young girls said 'do you live in Suva' she had seen me there. My taxi waited for me to come back as the cemetery is a couple of miles from the centre of town, we then went looking for the Methodist church, there are two, the first one I went to was only built in 1869 so i knew that wasn't where William had preached, but this church is the first. It is quite tiny and just near the mission steps which lead further up the hill. I didn't do that walk to check out the view.












We had the day in Levuka and I really enjoyed it, but realised for $100 FJ and three hours driving a group of us could have had a taxi ride right around the island. with the $AU so good that would have been a bargain, but that will be a next time, there is a large vehicle ferry which goes to the island and hopefully I can talk Chris and Alex into a visit and we can drive ourselves.
Where to next, we cruised back to our night stop between Naigani and Ovalau and had a fun party after dinner with a 3 team challenge, I got the frozen parcel and had to put on a frozen t shirt, lucky the water in the pool was warm enough to allow the t-shirt to unwrap.

Cruise - 2nd day

Enoying cruising, don't think I would like one of those super cruise ships, but life on board Captain Cook is pretty good, especially when the sun is shining and there are islands to see




Our first stop was at a small island owned by a Japanese pearl farmer, unfortunately he didn't have any pearls to sell just now or I might have been tempted. I did walk around the island, it takes about 20 minutes and spied this sea creature, enjoying the sunshine as well




After lunch on board we sailed on to Nana-nui-ra, last time I was there on the other side of the island it was so windy it was hard to stand upright. We landed on the other side and it was sunny and easy to walk up a path to the top of the hill, on one side was our ship postcard perfect and on the other side what looked like fish traps in the circles of rocks that were sitting near the shore






It was back on board after a swim and we cruised further to our night stop between Naigani and Ovalau. We were on Naigani a couple of months ago, Oskar and I were up early and could see a cruise ship out on the horizon, it was deja vu for me, only this time it was me looking back to Naigani. The sunrise wasn't great but from my viewpoint on the boat this is the place the sun first strikes on Ovalau








I wonder how many Fiji islands I have now seen. I haven't been counting but at the end of this cruise there will only be Kadavu and Beqa on my bucket list.

Cruising again

After a few days in Suva it was time to leave again, Jan and Dave were going back to Bris but I was ready for my new adventure. We had a stopover at the Intercontinental at Natadola, a beautiful place. We went for a walk around the island at low tide and Carlo spotted a sea snake on the rocks just near where I was standing. Good spotting Carlo, not that it was interested in me, it was poking its head into all the little holes looking for food. We went to Nadi for a night before Jan and Dave got the plane and I got the bus to the cruise ship. There are so many taxis in Fiji but this one made our journey more interesting










I didn't get time to get a good coffee at Port Denarau, before we had to board which meant a 7 day fast, but sometimes that just happens and when you can't get good coffee there is always something to look forward to. We transferred out to our cruise ship and then were away for a short cruise with lots of islands in view to this small island, owned by Captain Cook cruises. It took ten minutes to walk around the island and then have a swim before we went back to ship and continued on to Lautoka harbour where we stopped the night.









Next morning I was up in time to see the sunrise, and the reflection on the other side of the horizon. We were cruising along the west coast of Viti Levu, and it was interesting to see this part of the island from the water rather than from the road.













I continue to be amazed at the mountain formations on all the island and the colour of the water, it is possible to see the road winding along the coast as we cruised by and this 'top hat' little island which I captured in close up


























It was hard sitting at the table for breakfast when I wanted to be outside taking photos, but we were heading to our first stop and I knew I couldn't survive until lunch time if I didn't have pineapple, guava, papaya, yoghurt, mushrooms, eggs, okra, tomato, toast muffin and mediocre coffee. (Not all on the one plate!)