Slideshow Fiji 2006

Hello from Matangi Island Resort. We’ve been hanging out here living a bit of a pseudo resort lifestyle for the past several days.

After a couple more dives from Viani Bay (to Fish Factory and Cabbage Patch, aptly named for the enormous lettuce coral that dominates the underwater landscape) and a hike on the mainland guided by Jack’s wife Sophie, we pulled up anchor and headed towards Taveuni.

Taveuni is Fiji’s third largest island, located on the more rainy east side of the island group and therefore much more lush and tropical than other areas we have seen thus far in Fiji. Yesterday we took the Tavoro Waterfall Walk and got a close up view of lush rainforest as we followed well-maintained but muddy trails up a mountain ridge, with three waterfalls serving as mileage markers. Mike and I made it to numbers 1 and 2, but gave up achieving #3 as the path got pretty treacherous and we didn’t want to spend our last days in Fiji in the hospital! We forded two rivers by hopping from boulder to boulder with the fortuitous assistance of a rope stretched across the water to provide a handhold to hikers.  It was especially helpful when I did lose my footing and fell in – holding onto the line I made a very graceful 3-point landing and only got half wet! We did get totally wet by swimming in the pool at the foot of the second waterfall, definitely an invigorating experience as the water was a lot chillier than the ocean we have been swimming in.

The first couple of days here were grey and drizzly so, anchored off the resort, we just read books and played with computers (working on the photo collection). The resort is located on a small private island catering primarily to honeymooners with only eleven bures (Fijian thatched cottages) to let, including a few tree houses.

We also signed up for a commercial dive to an offshore reef – too difficult of a site for us to manage with Raven and the dinghy. The dive boat picked us up right off Raven. It pulled alongside our bumpers and we tossed in our dive gear and clambered aboard, much easier than transporting all our stuff to shore in the dinghy, We made two dives – The Yellow Wall, which of course displays predominately yellow soft corals, and Motualevu Reef, a deep ocean-facing wall which was a good site for spotting deep water pelagic fish. We saw four different grey sharks on this dive – grey sharks being the ‘real thing’ as opposed to the innocuous little white-tip reef sharks we have become used to seeing. The Fijian dive guides clang on their tanks to alert us whenever they spot a shark, not so much as a warning, but really so that we all get to share the excitement of seeing them.

We made it in from the dive early enough for me to enjoy a Fijian massage – my first massage ever (but probably not the last). Diving is a good way to develop an achy back and ribcage from the weight of the tanks and weight belt – and the massage got out a lot of kinks.

We’ve also enjoyed the resort’s waterfront restaurant, arriving in time for cocktails and chatting with the hotel guests, followed by a leisurely dinner which gives Elize a break from Raven’s galley and all of us a change in scenery. The dining menu offers just a couple of choices and the routine is to sign up for dinner earlier in the afternoon, making our menu selections at that time so the kitchen knows what to prepare. After my massage, as we started to push off the dinghy off the beach and head back to Raven, a resort employee chased us down by wading out into the water, menu in hand, to get our dinner selection for that evening!

By the way, there is nothing quite like dressing up for an elegant dinner out – then racing to shore in the dinghy on a high-speed plane, wading through the shallows, towing the dinghy up the beach out of the tide, and rinsing your sandy bare feet off at the entrance to the dining hall!

Today, Tuesday, is our last full day and night on Raven. Tomorrow afternoon we catch a twin Turbo Otter and fly from Taveuni to Nadi, with a stop in Suva. We’re spending the night near Nadi in the Sheraton Royal, and catch a 10 pm flight on Thursday, August 31, which will get us home to Tucson the same day, earlier than we left. Today we have plans to snorkel and maybe another short land excursion, and tonight maybe a photo show on Raven’s flat-screen TV for the evening’s entertainment. Tomorrow morning will mostly be spent packing.

We can probably find internet access at the Sheraton, so I will upload another batch of photos which might make it home slightly ahead of Mike and me.

As soon as we’ve departed, Rod and Elize are headed for Suva to prepare for departure from Fiji and to sort out their visas for Raven’s next destination, which is French Polynesia including Bora Bora, the Tuamotus, and the Marquesas. We’ve modified our original plan to head straight for Mexico and decided it makes much more sense to hang out in French Polynesia for the winter (their summer), moving on to Hawaii next May, British Columbia after that, sailing down the west coast of North America over summer 2007, and doing a full season in Mexico winter 2007-2008. Since our entire itinerary is “backwards” from normal cruising routes and prevailing winds, this is a much more boat-friendly schedule than the 5,000 mile trip from Fiji direct to Ensenada we had first planned.

Slideshow Fiji 2006

We motored 55 miles from Savusavu east through the Koro Sea on the south coast of Vanua Levu and ended up in a peaceful spot called Viani Bay, just across the water from the island of Taveuni but still on Vanua Levu. We are anchored in a protected circular bay in 90 feet of water but just a stone’s throw (or quick swim) to a small island that is the private home of a local family (not a village). The water is protected and calm here and it’s a good spot for kayaking…so we inflated my kayak and off I went exploring for my afternoon’s exercise.

The rest of the crowd took turns skurfing…this time we tried the windsurfer board and, as it is much bigger and more stable, everyone managed to stand up…even Mike. I even gave it a whirl, first time ever, but stayed on my knees which was probably just as much fun for a high-speed tow around the lagoon (note: a couple days later I tried standing and pulled it off – I have now officially joined the skurfing fraternity).

Monday was a sensational day. Along with four other Americans aboard a catamaran sharing our anchorage, we hired a local Fijian man named Jack Fisher who hires himself out to yachts as a local dive guide. He has an in-depth knowledge of the dive spots in the area and will monitor divers from a surface boat.

With Jack aboard we motored Raven outside of the reefs and anchored. From there we took our dinghy and dive gear to two world-famous dive locations – The Purple Wall and The White Wall. Jack stayed aboard our dinghy and towed a second tender belonging to the catamaran, while all seven of us made the dive. There is a current along the walls that carries the divers along and makes it impossible to come up in the same spot as the descent…hence the reason for having Jack and the dinghies follow our bubble trails and be waiting for us in the right spot when we surface.

Both dives were spectacular. We did The Purple Wall first – named for the profusion of lavender, violet and deep purple soft and hard corals that completely covered the vertical cliff (wall) that dropped to more than 40 meters in depth. We spotted two white tip reef sharks right at the start, but the highlight was the profusion of color. The face of the wall looked like a flower garden in full bloom.

Aboard Raven we dried out in the sun for a couple of hours, enjoyed lunch (a nice frittata courtesy of Elize), giving ourselves a chance to rid our systems of nitrogen so we could safely make a second descent, and while we waited we chatted with Jack about the real estate market in Fiji.

Our second dive of the day to The White Wall commenced through a beautiful tunnel descending through the coral. We swam through and emerged on the other side at the beginning of the wall – named (guess!) for the profusion of white coral along its face.

This was a great dive for spotting some more unusual reef residents. We came across a lionfish resting on a rock outcropping, and two octopuses. The first was tucked into a small den in the rock face and held a stone with his tentacles which he used to hide behind and “close the door” of his den. The second octopus we spotted swimming across the fairly deep bottom.

At the end of the second dive we all were aboard the dinghy and had shed our dive gear when another dive boat hailed us with news of a humpback whale nearby. We all jumped into our two dinghies raced across the water and came upon the humpback (a young male?) having a wonderful time playing in the water…breeching, splashing, tail slapping…the whole works. He gave us quite a show before diving deep out of sight.

Back aboard Raven we were treated to the sight of a marlin that leaped out of the water maybe only 30 feet from the catamaran anchored nearby.

That is quite a lot of marine wildlife to see in one day! We were all pretty jazzed at the end of the day…and we’ve signed up to go out with Jack again to some new sites.

To top off a really special day, we had dinner out at the Fijian home on the little island near the anchorage. For $8 FJD (about $4.80 U.S.) the family prepared a full banquet of Indian-influenced Fijian food and served it to the seven of us at their dining room table. We enjoyed roti (an Indian flatbread), white rice, a fish curry, dhal soup, and some kind of pumpkin casserole that was my favorite. We brought our own wine and goblets and enjoyed the evening getting to know the catamaran crew – two former chiropractors from Redding, California, their 16 year old son, and also a guest sharing expenses. They have been all over the place in the past seven years aboard their catamaran named Princess Starlight, and have logged thousands of dives. This is their last year cruising for awhile, as they fell in love with New Zealand and are about to build a house there in the Nelson area (Golden Bay),

Our guide Jack is quite a character. His grandfather was a European with a Samoan wife who sailed into this bay and bought it, the adjoining two bays and the surrounding land. When the grandfather died, Jack’s grandmother and his father decided they wanted to sell off some of their land in order to take up drinking alcohol in their old age! That seems to have precipitated a family tradition of slowly selling off the land as opportunity arises. Some foreigners including Americans have bought large amounts of acreage with beach frontage and built beautiful homes on the shore. It is still very isolated and unspoiled with just an occasional estate along the shore.

Jack’s sister currently has some acreage for sale and I think Rod is seriously tempted to invest. Land prices in Savusavu were fairly startling. It seemed like a sleepy little town with a population of only about 5,000 but has enjoyed visitors like Robert Redford and Alanis Morrisette. Acreage in town sells for $250,000 per acre, US dollars! Only a limited amount of Fijian land is freehold and therefore available to be sold.

More later – mostly we have continued to dive as this locale has so much spectacular underwater scenery. Today (Thursday) we are taking a guided 3-4 hour hike around Viani Bay and adjoining land following along cow paths, with Jack’s wife as our guide. This will probably be our last night here, although Rod & Elize mentioned returning en route to Suva after Mike and I head home to Tucson. Elize wants the Fijian family to give her lessons in making roti!

Slideshow Fiji 2006

Friday was a grey rainy day a little on the cool side. I spent most of the day on a mission to send out the last big email to all of you and upload photos to the Smugmug photo album. I write the emails on my laptop on the boat and transfer the text and photos to a flash drive which I then take into town in search of an internet café with a fast enough connection to handle the photographs. There were three or four “quote-unquote” internet cafés in town but all with only a few computers, maximum of four, and usually half of those inoperative. All were in use and we had to wait in line for our turn. An additional complication was the intermittent town-wide power shortages which seem to be a fact of life in Savusavu, possibly (just a guess) because the town is run by generator and someone has to fill up the diesel tank?

Half the photos were uploaded by lunchtime, at which time a power outage delayed sending the rest for a few hours. So if you happened to check the website and only saw 15-20 photos – check back as I uploaded nearly 40 by the time the day had ended. Don’t expect any more photos until the end of the trip as I don’t think we will see another internet connection until perhaps our last night in the Sheraton Resort in Denarau.

We had curry for lunch at an Indian café, and then Mike and I went on a guided tour of the local black pearl farm. There are two pearl farms in Savusavu, one run by the Fijian government and the other owned by a wealthy American who lives in Fiji. Wild oysters are harvested from nearby and relocated to underwater grids of rope lines where they are monitored. Each is implanted with a seed pearl from Mississippi by technicians flown in from Japan. It was our good fortune that on the day of our visit the technicians were in town for the annual seeding of oysters so we got to watch them at their job. It takes 8-9 years for a pearl technician to learn his craft in Japan!

After the pearl farm tour it was back to the email mission. The power was out again, but we waited it out by ordering cappuccino and lemon-passion fruit pie (South Beach cheat) – a ploy that works as well as reading a magazine in the doctor’s office (dad!) in that the power came on just as the pie was served!

For dinner we made a reservation at the only restaurant in Savusavu that cooks on a gas stove (instead of electric) – sure enough by dinnertime the power was out again but we had a really lovely dinner by candlelight on a veranda hanging out over the harbor – an outstanding Japanese menu beautifully cooked, and bring your own bottle of wine. We passed on the home-grown eel as a main course.

Saturday morning the sun was back out and Elize and I walked down to the busy Saturday market to stock up on fresh produce. The market is lively and colorful, piles and piles of fresh fruit and vegetables, including strange items I’ve never seen before. Also a corner with freezers full of fish, a handicrafts section, and in one corner a few old guys drinking kava out of a plastic bowl at a picnic table in the vicinity of a prominent “No Spitting” sign in several languages! Also, of course, another power outage which unfortunately knocked out the live musical entertainment. We hired a taxi to haul our fruit and veggies back to the boat. Taxis are cheap and a common form of transportation here – it cost us one Fijian dollar and the driver helped load and unload the groceries!

After winding up our affairs in Savusavu, we departed the harbor and moved Raven to the mouth of the inlet where we dropped anchor next to the Cousteau Resort. We went ashore to inquire about dinner reservations (unfortunately they were booked and couldn’t fit us in) and admired the beautiful facilities and perfectly manicured grounds. Hotel beach towels were available for guests by poolside, each rolled up with a hibiscus flower tucked into a fold. Pricing there is between $850 to $1150/night. Dinner would have been $75/head, so we saved ourselves considerable cash and instead enjoyed a scrumptious dinner prepared by Elize and served in Raven’s cockpit.

Sunday morning we woke at five in the morning to depart Savusavu under the stars on the second leg of our trip across to Taveuni…the idea being to reach our destination anchorage and thread through the tricky coral reefs when the light is good for coral-spotting.

Slideshow Fiji 2006

This morning we are holed up in the harbor of the small town of Savusavu (population: 5,000) on a grey showery day. There are internet cafes here so it’s my big chance to upload photos of the trip thus far.

We spent nearly a week at Yadua Island – hiking, beachcombing, snorkeling and diving. Elize found her own chambered nautilus on the same beach where I found mine…they are few and far between and people can spend years searching, but apparently this beach, named Nautilus Beach, is famous for them.

The diving scenery was quite spectacular as well…we found walls of yellow soft corals mixed in with irridescent purple speckled ones and big gorgonian sea fans. We spotted sea turtles as well as the white tipped reef sharks.

Day before yesterday we pulled out of Yadua and motored some 40 miles en route to Savusavu – too far for a one day trip so we anchored overnight in a big bay on the main island of Vanua Levu named Wainunu Bay. The water was glass calm with zero wind that night and we enjoyed a very peaceful evening under the stars on the foredeck, listening to music and sipping wine while fish splashed about in the quiet bay. There wasn’t really a lot of phosphorescence, but still we could look down into the dark water and see individual sparks of light like little underwater stars.

Next day we made an early start, motoring another 25 miles or so to Savusavu. I rode most of the passage astride the boom and must have seen a thousand or more flying fish – and got a sunburned as well!!!.  Again the water was glassy smooth, no wind, and every few boat lengths Raven’s hull would scare up between five and twenty flying fish skittering across the water to get out of our way – for the entire 25 mile trip.

Both days we trolled for fish with great success! We caught a small mackerel, followed by a big fat barracuda with a bulging tummy that revealed his most recent meal…a small trevally. Take a look at the photo of his teeth! And the following day another walou and at the very last, as Rod was coiling in the line to stow it, a fat yellowfin tuna struck the lure and wound up as our lunch in the form of sashimi! Our freezer is packed full of fresh fish!

We have a funny bright pink squid shaped lure, gradually getting the worse for wear, that seems to have a great attraction for the fish. We have a supply of exact copy spares purchased from Bob’s Fish & Bait Shop last season in Nadi – who knows what will happen to our fishing prowess when the last of the lures wears out.

Savusavu is a quiet little town with a great feel to it…very tropical and laid back, a one-street village winding along the waterfront. We had dinner out at the Bula Re Restaurant last night, started by a German woman who arrived here by yacht some eight years ago. We have plans for Indian curry for lunch today. Fiji’s largest black pearl farm is here and offers tours. Mike and I plan to take the tour if it isn’t pouring rain when the time comes. I thought I’d buy myself a nice black pearl necklace as a souvenir, but for $6,000 – $8,000 each (a Fijian dollar is about 60 cents U.S.) I decided to pass.

There is a good market here and we are staying at least through Saturday morning which is the big day at the market and our best chance for restocking fresh produce.

There are a couple of upscale resorts nearby, including the Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, run by the son of Jacques.