Fiji

Waidroka, Fiji

Tuesday 19th to Monday 25th June 2012

'Bula!' is the first word you learn in Fiji and one you will constantly hear and use yourself. It represents everything that is positive and uplifting about the people of these islands and is spoken emphatically, firmly, quite loudly and generally with a broad smile. Good manners are important here and are properly observed. Road rage is not something we witnessed, in spite of pretty bad roads. In the easy way of the tropics, people have time for you and you should also have time for them.

Detail of the Day: Even the money here is friendly. Although they have pictures of our dear old queen on their currency notes, unlike the serious face she presents to the British public on our fivers etc., on Fijian notes she puts on a happy face.

We are on one of two main islands of the 110 that make up Fiji, called Viti Levu. Unlike many other tropical places we have visited, there is no whiff of drains on this island, there is no rubbish lying around, even in the humblest of family compounds and you can drink the water. 

Did we mention how very beautiful it is? Well, it is!

Earlier in the day, we had said a fond farewell to Christine in Auckland and a very kind Quantas employee had ensured we had exit row seats with extra legroom, so the omens were good for our 3 hour journey. We had booked somewhere to stay on the internet down south on the Coral Coast, as it is not heavily commercialised down that way, for the first week of our stay.

The driver from the resort picked us up and then it was a 2.5 hour journey down the coast and occasionally weaving inland through hilly and very green terrain. All along the road you would see individuals walking along with a machete or hoe in their hand, going to or from their communally owned fields, where all manner of fruit and veg is produced and schoolboys playing games of rugby after school for fun (it's a national obsession).

As always, the tropical night fell quickly and we made the last part of our journey in darkness to the Waidroka Hotel, ending in a 4 kilometre stretch down an unmade road in the dark, thinking to ourselves, what is it going to be like? Of course it was fine. Dinner awaited us and a comfortable room to sleep in.

We awoke to see what the morning would bring in a room looking out from a large verandah down a steep hill to the hotel restaurant and garden to the blue sea - all required boxes now ticked - and relax!  So that is what we did for our whole time at Waidroka.

We are both still knackered from our marathon in New Zealand and days drifted by as we sat on the deep hotel verandah, (out of the rain on some days) catching up on emails, writing the blog and arranging next stops, talking to other guests and gazing at the sea and gardens. Occasional strolls would interrupt the routine, but apart from that, not much.  There are only about 30 rooms anyway so there is never a crowd round the pretty little pool, because most of the people here want to go diving or surfing on the incredibly dangerous reef.

During our first couple of days we are courteously visited one after the other by: the dive instructor. Would we like to have a trial dive or a course maybe? By the surfing instructor.  Are we surfers? (Celia nearly spat her Pacific Painkiller Cocktail all over him). By the Manager. Would we like to a day trip to see a traditional village and meet some Fijians?  By the snorkelling instructor. Would you like to book a session? By the owner. Would we like to book a trip in to the local town?

We gave rather British, vague answers along the lines of "We're just going to rest today thanks, maybe tomorrow", or "I don't think I care to today"' thus giving the merest hint that it may be something to consider tomorrow, without actually ever committing. 

It worked like a charm and they soon left us alone to get on with lying on a beautiful yellow couch in the garden under a wooden roofed bar area, to enjoy the birds and flowers.

However, we did fully immerse ourselves in social activities. One night, we had a traditional feast, called a Lovu, where everything is cooked in a hollow in the ground with a bed of hot stones in the base, the food laid on top, wrapped in banana leaves and then all covered with earth and left for a few hours. There was pork, beef, chicken and fish, all cooked with tasty spice pastes. Also rice, sweet potato and cassava. All delicious.

Twice we attended traditional Kava sessions on the front verandah. We were all given a native kilt called a Sulu, a type of sarong, to wrap around us and then sat on matting in a circle while one of the men sat in the centre with a large carved wooden bowl and the other men sat behind him to play guitars and sing

The bowl is filled with water and ground Yaqona root is placed in a piece of cloth and squeezed through the water for a few minutes. A small bowl is then dipped in and offered to a guest. You must clap your cupped hands once, take the bowl with both hands, say 'Bula!' loudly and drink it in one go, hand the bowl back and clap your hands three times. 

The word Bula in this context is not a greeting but an exclamation for the Kava ceremony. The cupped hands for the clapping should give a hollow sound and not a sharp slapping sound that you get from flat hands clapping. Always ask for a 'low tide' cup, until you get to like the taste, and then you can ask for a 'high tide' or full cup! It looks and tastes like muddy water by the way.

And so we come to the ultimate question "What effect does it have?". Well, your tongue and lips immediately go a bit numb and not,long after that you feel a bit stoned. For the record, Celia had one 'high tide' and one 'low tide'. It is not recorded how many bowls John had, let's just say he accepted most bowls he was offered and then joined the musicians to play and sing with them. The quality of the singing got a bit ragged towards the end of the evening as more bowls of kava were consumed.

Detail of the Day: The Sulu is worn casually or as part of a formal outfit. So for instance, a man will have a tailored jacket to be worn with a shirt and tie and then a matching Sulu, instead of trousers. For informal wear the Sulu could be in bright patterns and worn by men or women.

Our meals were taken at long communal tables with the other guests and the instructors and managers. Sometimes the owner, Boris, joined us. He is a German Israeli, now looking to sell this place as the project to create this resort is now complete and he wants to get back to Israel. The managers were charming Canadians called Wade and Wanda, intrepid travellers who have old friends in Dawson City in the Yukon, who we have promised to look up when we get there.

There were a bunch of divers from Seattle, including the very glamorous Alaskan Airways air hostess, Tani, who has a lovely voice and joined John entertaining us in the bar after we all had some Pacific Painkillers (rum based and delicious).

Just have to also include the lunch time interlude, when everyone had gone out to some mad activity, when we were sharing the dining room with one other person who had just arrived. He extended a huge,hand and said "Hi, I'm Chuck'. It was all Celia could do to not say "Of course you are". 

He was tall, dark and handsome, plus he is the brake man for the 4 man US Olympic Bob Sled Team and in the 2 man team as well. We were lunching in the company of an Olympian! John insists that Celia definitely fluttered and flustered and Celia insists that she only slightly fluttered. Anyway, he was charming and interesting and was waiting to meet his Australian girlfriend, and her family, who is also an Olympian skeleton athlete for her country.

There were only 3 children visiting and little Obi had great fun showing everyone the giant shrimp he had caught, including John.

All too soon it was time to leave our idyll and go out into the world again. We had a minibus booked to take us back to the top end of the island where we had the Aquarius Hotel booked for the rest of our stay, nearer to Nadi and the airport, plus you could go out to the tiny islands from there. We gave a lift to Sam from New Hampshire, who had just completed "The best year of my life", at university in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Waidroka to Nadi

Tuesday 26th June to Tuesday 3rd July

It was on this journey that Celia started to feel a bit queasy and at the end of it was definitely feeling rotten. Long story short, she had caught a very nasty bug and was violently ill for 24 hours and 2 more days recovering. Some Australians had arrived at the last hotel and had been ill after their flight and we think that was where it came from. John had to nurse her without touching her and got through a whole jar of hand sanitiser and managed to avoid catching it himself.

The next day John went off alone to explore the beach and what the local hotels and hostelries had to offer. He came back that night having seen fire dancing and knife dancing by men and beautiful Fijiian dancing by young women. Yes, it's for the tourists but it was still really good and you only had to buy a drink to see it. Not a hardship on the beach under the stars

Breakfasting beach-side is one of the pleasures of being here. There are hammocks strung between the trees and lots of birds flying around us and we watch the sea planes take off and land from a nearby water dock, wondering where they are going and wishing we had one of our own.

Just before sunset we went for a walk on the beach and then stood waiting for it and met up with a Hawaiian dance troupe. They are en-route to the Cook Islands for the Festival of Pacific Arts that happens every 4 years in different places. 

The told us they are from Oahu or the Big Island, from the far side where there are less tourists and they always go down to the beach to watch the sunset at home. They were such a lovely bunch of people to watch the moon rise with, as a Frigate bird flew across it's face and the end of the sun's rays tipped it's wings. A magic moment.

There is a back packer hostel across the road and we went over to check out the music and Kava event that seemed to be taking place each evening. There were some young Fijian lads singing traditional songs and playing guitar and ukulele. The tradition of harmony singing is very strong here, and also of a very high standard. Pretty much everyone goes to church and they sing a lot, so the discipline is there. Later on older men arrived with their guitars and the youngsters immediately deferred to them. They started singing and playing recent songs and they were excellent musicians and singers. John even got to sing and play with them.

We caught the bone shaker bus with no windows into Nadi a few times, which was always fun. The town is dusty, bustling, friendly and laid back. 

 We loved wandering it's streets, buying some tourist stuff and cloth, then had fun at the post office, getting it all packed up and sent off. There is excellent Indian food on offer too and bakeries offering all sorts of goodies. The people are so friendly and fun to be around, it's just great.

The market in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) is a riot of colourful produce, all perfectly presented in glistening rows by stall holders inside and by individual women, who have mats outside with vegetables and fruit they have picked and brought in that morning. There is no smell of rotting vegetation, meat or fish, everything is tidy and clean. After markets in South East Asia that we had to run away from because of the smell, this was so very welcome and different.

Yagona Roots make Kava

We had a brilliant time asking lots of questions about the different fruits as we bought them. Then we moved on to the stalls selling the Yaqona root that is used to make Kava. The sellers explained the different grades of root and how you can buy it, either in root form or already ground to a power for instant use. It is a pale creamy brown, stick-like root and it all looked the same to us but not to the purchasers, who chose carefully after considering the various stalls.

Tobacco for chewing

Long, twisted, sticky hanks of local tobacco were on display and we were encouraged to try a bit, as it is for chewing. Even John wouldn't taste it, just smelled it and really wished he hadn't. "It's tobacco Jim, but not as we know it!". Acrid smell and burning sensation was the overall conclusion.

Just as John is fascinated with the sea planes, Celia is fascinated by the Hawaiians and thrilled to find that they are going to perform at the hotel that night. The show they gave was magnificent and graceful, accompanied by perfect chants and songs. 

 Explanations were given before each piece and we were told that we would not see any of these at a 5 star hotel in Waikiki, these were all authentic and not seen or heard many places. As their leader said to us “This is the real deal” and they work hard to maintain traditional culture.

They had made their own head wreaths and leis from grasses they found on the beach and gave them to everyone the next day before they left. We also exchanged details of their school and website so we can keep up with their progress.

On Sunday we managed a brunch at our hotel where a duo were singing and let John get up and do some songs for us, then we moved on to a a slightly seedy beach bar up the road and listened to a very good electric soul and funk band for a couple of hours in the afternoon. 

Then it was sunset cocktails at The Smugglers Hotel bar, then back to our hotel for another drink with some British girls we met, then off for dinner and to watch the fire dancing up the road, rounding off with Kava and a sing-along at the Bamboo back packers. Phew! This was Celia making up for the lost time when she was ill!

South Sea Island

Monday 2nd July 2012

This was a really special day because we took a day trip out from the port on Denarau Island on a catamaran, that took 30 minutes, to the tiny South Sea Island. It is one of the Mamanucas, about 200 yards across and about 500 yards long. A perfect little coral atoll. There is just enough room for beach chairs, hammocks and a small hostel that provided a barbecue lunch.

We were entertained by a singing troupe of Fijians and a very impressive war dance. This was a different style to the type we had seen on Viti Levu and is because each group hail from different areas or islands and are all highly individual.

This island is owned by one tribe and they rent it's use out to the tour company but under strict rules of use, particularly about caring for the coral reef around the island and preserving the natural flora and fauna.

Detail of the Day: 80% of the land is in communal ownership in Fiji and cannot be sold. This was made law by the first Governor of Fiji under British rule. He also ensured that Fijians should not be made to work on any plantations so that their traditional way of life would be safeguarded. Indian indentured labour was brought in to work the plantations and many then stayed on to open shops and businesses but they could only lease or rent land. This has caused tension, and worse, in recent years and presently the constitution is being reshaped ready for elections in 2014. Meanwhile it is a military government . . .

We went swimming and snorkelling in the most crystal blue waters and saw loads of colourful fish and coral and then relaxed under the coconut palms and swayed in the gentle ocean breeze as we observed our fellow treasure islanders at play: we had the drunken Australians having a huge family row, and the Fijian hosts taking all the small children on an adventure to whistle up hermit crabs and spotting birds. We heard one boy saying to his parents “This is the best trip of my life!! - so far”, and that's pretty much how we felt after such a perfect day. It was romantic and wonderful.

Back at busy Denerau Port we passed another small boy with his family who were all dragging and carrying huge amounts of luggage and his father and mother were red in the face with exertion. We overheard him say “I think we might have brought too many bags on this holiday”. Master of the understatement and it made us howl with laughter.

On our last day, as we waited in the hotel for our taxi to the airport, the staff put the TV on and there was the opening ceremony of the Pacific Arts Festival and there were our Hawaiians, singing and dancing! Lovely end to a fantastic visit and somewhere we would love to come back to and island hop around.

 Meanwhile, it's back on the road and a long flight to Los Angeles awaiting us and the anticipation of leaving here on 3rd July, flying overnight and then also arriving on 3rd July – how weird is that?