Fijian Fun in the Sun
The last few days have been great as we’ve experienced two completely different types of activities in Fiji (combined with plenty of beach & pool time, of course!)
On Sat. we did a caving tour. It was about a 2hr drive from Nadi to Sigatoka where we met our guides and picked up some more passengers. Then a 40min drive up into the mountains into the Sigatoka Valley. Once at the villlage we had a Kava ceremony with the village chief asking permission to use the land. Kava is THE national drink of Fiji. It’s non-alcoholic, made of a ground up root, and can be mixed at different strength levels. The men are definitely in charge and all had to file out of the bus first with we women following. We all sat crosslegged on the ground where the chief and our guide underwent the mixing ceremony and then presented our tour appointed chief the kava first. It’s a whole ritual with clapping before, clapping after, and specific phrases to be spoken. Then the bowl was passed to the rest of us.
After the ceremony we had lunch and then headed to the river. We had to take a short long-pole ride across the river. Women & children were washing clothes in the river, men were plowing fields using teams of oxen or horses and it was absolutely gorgeous in the valley. From there about a 30minute walk through huge bamboo fields to the caves. They had been used by locals to hide from their enemies years & years ago and were quite large inside. They were used back in the times when cannibalism was still happening so we also saw the ovens used for that as well.
Once we’d walked back to the river we got on bamboo rafts called bilibili here and took a short float down the river and did some swimming. In all a very interesting day in which we actually got to see how the majority of Fijians live.
Monday we did a water tour leaving Denarau port at around 9am. After about 1hr 15min on a catamaran ride to the island of Mana, we transferred over to a 2 masted schooner and headed for the Mamanuca islands. We stopped at two of them, Yanuys where we had another kava ceremony and had time to shop in the village. This ceremony was pretty lame, really just an excuse to stop at the village for shopping. Then back on the schooner Seaspray for lunch when we headed over to Mitrikui island, where the film Castaway with Tom Hanks was filmed. All of the islands are gorgeous and this one was no exception. It’s uninhabited and we spent our entire alloted time there snorkeling. It was the best snorkeling we’ve done anywhere with a fantastic reef and dozens and dozens of colorful fish and quite a few sea cucumbers. On the way back to the larger island of Mana we put up the sails and were really rocking along. We got back to Denarau around 6pm so missed what has become our tradition of a sundowner along the beach but it was a fantastic day.
Two more days here in Fiji and then we’re off to New Zealand on Thursday morning. Next post from Kiwi land!
Tags: Travel
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Hi, Rhonda and Jim
So glad that you’re having so much fun. We are, too. We spent 5 days at the beach…today is Tuesday night. I”ll work the rest of the week and so will Dad.
We have had a positive response to the sale of the beach house, but so far no actual offers or money changing hands.
Everything is going fine here – and it sounds as though the two of you are having great fun.
I’ll try to call you == I tried today but the message feature failed – or so Skype told me.
Hope that one day we can actually talk; we miss you both very much. Have heard nothing from Warren about your mother, Rhonda. Do you want me to call her?
Love, Mom
I forget to say that we have tried Kava. Monica invited us to dinner and as I walked past her kitchen I thought “Monica has washed the counters and forgotten to throw the dirty water out.” Little did I know that was Kava — and it did taste just like dirty water. Art said that it was highly intoxicating but neither Dad nor I drank enough to get tipsy.
Love, Mom