We are home!

No more posts for holiday. Home at last, safe and sound. Thanks for all comments.

Last day at Fiji Palms

Today we just took it easy. Took a lot of photos of the whole group after breakfast, had an hour and half massage with Ros next door at The Pearl resort, very good and relaxing, the rooms were only lit by candlelight and soft, relaxing music playing. I had to be woken up to be told it was over!

After lunch we watched another DVD, Casino Royale, however it was a pirate version, so the sound was dreadful and the picture little better. After that it was a soak in the spa whilst reading. Tonight is Sabbath so we shall rest before getting up early in the morning for the bus trip back to Nadi.

Lovo Night

Thursdays are Lovo Nights at Fiji Palms, considered the best lovo in Fiji. As you remember from my previous post, a lovo is an underground oven, cooking the food over hot rocks covered in leaves and dirt. Well I managed to capture the whole process.

Heating the rocks

Preparation starts in the morning building a fire and piling it high with rocks to heat up.

This is left to simmer all day until the rocks are sitting on a bed of glowing coals.

Red hot rocks

Once the rocks are hot enough, palm stems are laid over the rocks to protect the food from scorching. The food to be cooked is wrapped in aluminium foil, then wrapped again in leaves.

Adding food to lovo

Once the food is stacked on top of the palm stems, it is covered first with a layer of ordinary leaves, followed by a layer of palm leaves.

Covering food with leaves

Finally, a layer of wet hessian is put on top of the leaves, then the whole lovo is covered in dirt.

Hessian layer has been added

Once the lovo has been covered in dirt, it is left for around two hours to allow the food to cook completely.

Lovo being covered in dirt

After the two hours have passed, the layers of dirt, hessian and leaves are carefully removed, because they are still very hot! The food is left wrapped in the leaves and foil to keep them hot until it is time to eat.

Removing food from lovo

The whole process takes about six hours. I think it is easier to just press a button on  a stove or a microwave, but this is tradition and must be experienced.

The whole group

The whole reunion group got dressed up in their reunion t-shirts and sulus for the traditional group photo before the lovo was served. Somehow Ros and I ended up in the front row.

The feast!

The table was laid beautifully with a large range of food available, mostly Fijian, such as tapioca, roro, dalo and more typical western foods such as whole fish, chicken and pork, plus a large range of salads and vegetables. Everything in the meal was obtained from Fiji locally except for the mayonaise in the coleslaw which came from U.S.A.

Fijian band

While we ate, we were entertained by a Fijian band, whose repertoire was exceptional, including traditional Fijian songs, but also Australian and New Zealand songs which everyone sang along to. We loved Down Under, whereas the Kiwis got misty-eyed when they sang a stirring rendition of Pokarekare Ana. The organisers then got all the Australians up to sing Advance Australia Fair and Waltzing Matilda, followed by the Kiwis to sing their National Anthem.

Nurses Line Dancing

Then it was time for each group to entertain the rest, and our group put on a line dancing display, and a few of us got up and regailed the rest with jokes, stories and songs, including your scribe who brought the house down with his story of an unfortunate encounter with a cat one night.

Yvonne the organiser and plaque

At the end of the night we unveiled the plaque that was to be nailed to the wall of the dining area, along with the many, many others to commemorate our visit to Fiji Palms. Yvonne Moala, who organised the whole trip, is pictured left holding the plaque. After that it was time for bed, and we slept very well after all this.

River Trip

 In the longboat

Today we visited a traditional Fijian village. We were bussed to the nearest town, Navua, where we were piled into Fijian longboats and driven up the Navua river to the village, about 15 minutes duration. When we arrived we were welcomed by the blowing of the conch shell and the rhythmic drumming on the Fijian drums, before being shepherded into a large hut with incredible drawing and paintings on the roof.

Welcoming drums

Kava ceremony

Here we witnessed a traditional Fijian welcome for visitors, including the kava ceremony. Kava comes from a pepper plant which is harvested after at least five years (the longer the stronger is the kava), the roots are washed in the river and left to dry for several weeks, then pounded into a fine powder. This powder is then mixed with water and filtered through muslim into a carved kava dish. There is much ceremonial toing and froing here between the chief's spokesman and the visitors' spokesman, all in Fijian so we could not understand a word of it. Then kava was served in a coconut half to one gentleman who had been selected a representative of the visitors. You have to clap once before receiving it, say "Bula!" before drinking it, then down it in one gulp and clap three times afterwards. Those who drank it said it tasted like muddy water, and it looked like it too. It is somewhat narcotic and makes the lips and tongue numb. Enough consumption of it will eventually numb the entire body.

Kindergarten children

After the kava and welcoming ceremony we were given a tour of the village, including songs sung to us by the kindergarten students and a demonstration of craft making using the local plants which are pounded down to make a sort of parchment, similar to papyrus. These are decorated with paints made from clay and lamp black and stencils made out of old x-ray films, of all things. Previously leaves had been used for stencils but they could only be used once, whereas the films lasted for years.

Then it was onto the coconut hut where coconuts are processed. The Fijians use every bit of the coconut, including the outer husk that a Fijian lad expertly removed in about 20 seconds with the aid of a sharp stake embedded in the ground. Brown coconuts, those that fall from the tree are used only in cooking for the coconut milk. Green coconuts, which must be obtained by climbing the coconut palm are used for food, rope, bowls, jewellry and garden fertilizer.

Removing husk from coconut

By now it was lunch time, so we were escorted to the lovo, or underground oven area. Hot rocks heated in a fire are placed in a deep pit then covered with large leaves. The food to be cooked, now wrapped in alfoil but traditionally wrapped in leaves, are placed on top of the covered rocks then covered with hessian and finally a layer of dirt and left for about an hour. Result - perfectly cooked food as we can attest to because we then ate it! After lunch, the women of the village rolled out various wares and handcrafts in the big hut for sale. We bought quite a bit for people back home.

It was now time to leave the village, so it was back into the longboats again and we motored up river to a waterfall for an afternoon swim. On the way we saw an unusual sight, I'll let the picture describe it as it is better than words.

Not something you see everyday

Once we arrived at the waterfall site, we had to trek a little inland, over a recently constructed concrete path. Visitors previous to 2008 had to wade up the river to get to the waterfall. The waterfall was about 35 metres high and plunged into a pool at its base, which apart from the very rocky bottom that was hard on our bare feet, was perfect for swimming. The more adventurous of us, including your erstwhile scribe, ventured under the waterfall to feel its incredible force. You couldn't stay there for very long, believe me.

Arriving at the waterfall

After swimming for around an hour, it was time for the trek back down the river, by longboat for the timid, or by bamboo raft for the braver lot. I took the more risky route down and clambered aboard this rickety looking bamboo raft and we shot the rapids as we floated down the river. After only two sets of rapids, however, we were transferred back to the longboats again, as continuing on the rafts would see us returning back to base around midnight or so and I for one, did not relish a dark night on the river!

Under the waterfall

Finally we arrived back at the bus for our return back to the Fiji Palms. Six of us piled into the spa for a relaxing soak, ordered some LLB's and became the attraction of some of the other members of the group who thought we made a good photographic subject.  When we felt waterlogged enough, we climbed out, watched  "Fried Green Tomatoes" on the DVD then retired to bed.

Yours truly on the raft

Me and my harem

Lazy Monday

Today we did very little. I arose early and went down for an early swim with two other of our group, and left Ros sleeping in bed. We did feed the "Fiji Palms piranhas", throwing bread in to the waters edge and watching them turn the water into frenzy as the fish scrambled for the bread.

Fiji Palms Piranhas

After that we watched a couple of DVDs as about half the group took a bus to Suva for a tour. As we had already been there we did not go with them.

Also I forgot to mention that you can click on any of the pictures for a bigger view, and click once more on them to enlarge them even further.

We walked over to the Indian Fast Food place across the road from the resort for lunch and had our usual communal breakfast and dinner gatherings. Tomorrow it's up the river on a longboat to a Fijian village for lunch. Ciao!

At Fiji Palms Resort

Slept in till 8.30 am (what else should you do on a holiday?) and almost missed breakfast. Today was our first full day at Fiji Palms, so we did some swimming in the pool, (freezing, got straight out), sat in the spa (lovely and warm), walked along the beach, watched some Fijians playing volleball,

Beach volleyball

walked down the highway to the local shops and bought Ros a hat, did some washing, reading, sleeping, more reading, watched some videos, one of which was Sophie's Choice starring Merryl Streep. I had seen the first half of this movie years ago, so I was eager to see the end, only to find it spoken in Polish and German with no subtitles, so I still don't know what happened!

The resort is festooned with coconut palms and we are warned about not standing under them lest we be conked on the head by a falling coconut. Most of them have a "coconet", a conical device directly under the coconuts which catches any falling coconuts, with a bucket that can be lowered by rope to "harvest" them. Quite ingenious.

We have booked a tour up the local river by boat to a Fijian village on Tuesday, and on Thursday we will be attending a genuine Fijian Lovo, food cooked in an earth oven.

Coconet

Also met up with a Fijian called John who knew Ros's dad.

Fine example of Fiji engineering

That's it really, I have nothing to do and all day to do it in!

John the Fijian

 Ni sa moce! (goodbye in Fijian)

Pool

Communal breakfast

Off To Pacific Harbour

Today we were up at 8 am for breakfast before checkout at 10 am where we all gathered for the bus trip to Pacific Harbour at 10.30 am.

Ros with classmates in reception

It was nice to be driven around again and let someone else worry about the crazy Fijian drivers for a change. Our coach was large and comfortable, and we only filled half the seats. We then retraced most of our trip from yesterday along the Queens Road to Pacific Harbour, which took around 4 hours. Along the way we again got to witness vehicles overtaking the bus on double-white lines and we saw some near misses. Yvonne Moala, the reunion organiser, says the fatality rate on the roads is quite high and no wonder!

Our resort room

Arrived at our resort, Fiji Palms, at around 2.30 pm and were quickly shown to our rooms, which are fully self-contained, with cooking and washing facilities, and a spa and swimming pool a stones throw away and the beach in easy walking distance. The units have air-conditioning, a DVD player and TV, and internet - but not free. However for the very good price of FJ$40 for 7 days and 1.5GB download, it's not to be sneezed at, so I will be able to update this blog every day. We also have several resident cats, which we are warned not to feed.

Resident Cat

We had lunch under a huge undercover outdoor bar/dining area, with a variety of delicious vegetarian foods, plus the tropical fruit, such as pineapple, paw-paw and passionfruit, are delicious and juicy, much better than what we get back home in Perth. Then it was time for a siesta to recover from the bus trip, before meeting with the whole group to close our Sabbath day, with one of our group, Susanna, regailing us with stories of several students she has helped through the Second Chance program in the north of New Zealand.

After a light tea of soup and garlic bread, it was time to relax and contemplate what activities we will under take while we spend our week here at Fiji Palms. Might go rent a DVD and watch it tonight...

From Suva to Nadi

Suva Colonial War Memorial Hospital

Today we rose early to meet with Josef again at 9.30 as he is going to guide us to some of Ros’s old haunts. First visit was to the hospital where she was born, the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, which is still much the same as was 60 years ago, although there are many new additions. When Ros was born the European section was full, so she was born in the Indian section.

Ros's birthplace

 After much taking of pictures we progressed onto Tamavua, the Central Pacific Union Mission (now the Trans Pacific Union) where Ros’s Dad used to work. The staff kindly let us out the back which revealed a magnificent view across the harbour and surrounding hills. Again much picture taking happened.

Trans Pacific Union HQ

Then it was onto Suvavou where Ros used to live when her parents worked in Suva. Ros met some staff who still remembered her father when he worked there, so much talking was done there, while Josef and I waited patiently on. I admire Josef for his patience and willingness to guide us around Suva. Nothing seemed to be too much trouble for him. Leaving Suvavou we drove past Government House with the mandatory Fijian soldier standing out front. Like the guards at Buckingham Palace, they do not move a muscle while guarding the entrance.

It's too hot for windows!

By then it was lunch time so Josef managed to wangle us into the Suva Bowling Club nearby where we bought lunch for Josef for his time and trouble with us. The meal for all three of us only came to FJ$35 and there was more than we could all eat. Very good value and tasty too.

We dropped Josef back at his car and hit the road for Nadi, along the Queen’s Road that runs along the southern edge of the island, a distance of only 181 km, but the trip would take us over 3 hours. Back home in Perth we could do that distance in an hour and a half!

Ros's childhood home

The road is better than the single lane gravel road I remembered from 27 years ago, but only just. It was sealed but potholes that had been patched many times littered the road for most of its distance. It winds and turns a lot, with many hills and only few passing lanes, with villages every few kilometres with those terrible speed humps. The Fijian drivers care not for double-white lines, often passing us and the car ahead on crests of hills and blind bends, and always getting away with it. How, I do not know! And forget about finding petrol stations with toilets. The only one we found on the trip was barred from top to bottom, and even the entry was a little square foyer all barred around with a tiny little Indian women peeking out through the grill who informed us there were no toilet facilities. We finally found a Fijian restaurant that had toilet facilities, not a moment too soon.

Finally we staggered into Nadi, where we attempted to find a swimming costume for Ros, but no such thing existed in Nadi that we could find, so we gave up and proceeded on to the airport to drop off the hire car, after filling up the car with another FJ$50 worth of fuel, in Suva it cost us over FJ$100 to fill the tank. One Aussie dollar is buying $1.76 Fijian. We were a little worried because both ends of the front bumper had popped out from their clips, and we expected to have to pay for damage, but the car rental firm was really busy, so they did a quick odometer read and inspection, never noticed the bumper and gave us back our $1000 bond.

Government House guard

Downtown Nadi

Next stop was the Novotel Hotel where we presumed we were booked into, only to discover on arriving that we had no such booking. Perplexed, because we had checked before we left on Tuesday that we had a room booked for Friday, I got onto the internet and read the email from the reunion organiser and found out that she had omitted to tell us which hotel she had booked for us. Fortunately in her last reply she had included her mobile phone number, so we rang her to discover that we should be at the TokaToka hotel, so we paid the very patient taxi driver to take us over there. Ros had great fun greeting all her old nursing school mates, we got our room and had dinner together at 8pm and whiled away the evening reminiscing about old times.

In Suva

Josef and Jacinta

We slept in today, tired out from the lack of sleep last night and the drive from Fulton to Suva. Finally got down to breakfast at 10 am, only to find it was not included in the price of the room. It cost more per night here than at the Novotel Nadi and that included breakfast! Oh, well, it was still OK. After breakfast we drove into Suva and met Jacinta and her fiancé Josef. They are a lovely couple and very helpful. Jacinta had to go back to work after half an hour, but Josef had the day off and volunteered to show us the best shops to buy some bathers and other clothes. I also managed to find a replacement for my broken noise-cancelling headset. Josef spent a couple of hours helping us out before departing but not before we agreed to meet at 4.30 to watch the movie Salt.

For the rest of the afternoon we tracked down the final student that our church had helped through Fulton College, Ranjani. We found her school after much circling through Suva’s confusing streets. They would be a lot less confusing if they put up more street signs! Once at the school we found out she had left for the day, but managed to get her number from one of the other staff. We called her and got directions to her place, and after another false start going the wrong way, finally found her house and spent some time catching up with her. She was, like all the rest of the students, extremely appreciative of the help our church had given her, saying she would not be in her current position without our help.

Ranjani and Ros

After leaving Ranjani’s place, we motored back to Suva to meet Jacinta and Josef, only to discover the movie Salt had been cancelled. We had to make another choice, and finally decided on Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts. Since it didn’t start till 6pm and it was only 4.30pm, we decided to eat first and Josef led us to a very nice food hall on the third floor of a local mall. We would have never found it by ourselves. The Chinese food was excellent and we enjoyed Jacinta and Josef’s company until it was time to see the film. The film was also very good, and Ros, who had read the book, said it was pretty faithful to it. Julia Roberts sparkled as always. After that it was home to our hotel and bed.

View from Tanoa hotel

At Fulton College

Fulton College

RatuSemi

Alas the travel bug hit me whilst at Fulton, I had a terrible night with fever, headache, vomiting and muscle aches. I had to stay in bed until almost midday, while Ros went off to explore her old haunts and take millions of pictures. I arose from my sickbed at midday and eventually felt well enough to drive again. After farewelling Semi Ratu (a student Ros’s parents had sponsored through Fulton)  and Nelly (the college registrar who had offered us accommodation) we hit the road to Suva. On the way we found the school where another of our church assisted students now teaches. Achana is a petite Indian lady who was only too happy to show us her classroom and explain how it all worked. The students appear eager and intelligent. Fiji has just abolished exams for all its students, which means that all students will now graduate to the next year, regardless of progress.

Achana

Surprisingly Achana informed us that the principal wanted to meet us after we talked with her, and so we met him in his office. He was pleased to find out that our church had helped Achana getting through her courses at Fulton College. He had also visited Perth in 2005 and mentioned that if he couldn’t live in Fiji, WA was his next choice.

After a bite to eat across the road from the school, we continued onto Suva, arriving at our hotel, The Tanoa Plaza, around 4pm. I updated our blog then we both had to have a nap to recover from the lack of sleep the night before. Around sunset we ventured out into the streets of Suva to get some food and look around. The place was populated with various nightclubs, which contrasted vividly with the simple life of the village Fijian. Ros contacted another student that our church helped through her studies and we will meet with her tomorrow.

Fulton Administration Building

Around Fiji

Slept like the dead last night, worn out from travelling all day. We had a sumptuous breakfast at the Novotel next morning before picking up our hire car from Nadi Airport and hitting the road for Fulton College, via Kings Road across the top of Vita Levu, the main island of Fiji. Weather was fine and sunny, 29o C and moderately humid. The air con in our Mazda 6 handles it well.

Our hire car at Ba Hospital

Ros spent six years of her childhood at Fulton College, a Seventh-Day Adventist theological institution about 30 km north of Suva, which is why we are returning there. Her parents worked and taught there during her stay, and Ros has many fond memories of Fulton.

Fiji’s main export is sugar, judging from all the sugar cane fields we saw. It is cut down by hand still, by men wielding wicked-looking machetes, and stacked on tiny railway cars (see picture) which are shunted by equally tiny rail engines down an extremely narrow gauge track to Lautoka, the main port on the western side of the island, where it is processed and exported. It is also loaded onto trucks, resulting in an extremely wide load – guess what we got stuck behind just after leaving Nadi? Fijian driving instruction is – well let’s say “open to interpretation” and road laws are extremely flexible – so drivers like to do strange things, like overtake me and the wide load on a double white line on a bend. Indicator use is practically non-existent but the drivers are courteous and will give way readily.

Sugar cane train

Cow on roadside

Fijian towns are garish and noisy, visually. Lots of bright colours and over-the-top advertising. All along the way you see people walking by the roadside, animals (mostly cows, goats and horses) tethered to crop the verge, and the occasional smoke-belching bus and taxi. Automotive maintenance seems to be somewhat limited here, too.

We reached the little town of Ba, Ros’s brother’s birthplace (Robert). We saw a sign saying Mission Hospital this way, but after several runs up and down the road without finding it, we resorted to asking a young Fijian woman walking along the road how to find it. She was, as it turned out, actually on her way there herself for a check-up. We gave her a lift and she guided us to it (see photos).

Ba Mission Hospital

Do 60 if you dare!

Next it was time to find Nadarivatu, the place where Ros’s parents had stayed when they first came to Fiji. We found the turn-off and headed inland, but the road quickly deteriorated into a rocky, bumpy, pot-holed, gravel nightmare. We endured 3 km of bone-shaking journey at 20km/hour, a rate that would take us an hour to get there, and an hour back! Remembering the hire car lady saying this car was not allowed off the sealed roads, we finally turned back to save the car and our aching muscles. We laughed when we passed a small town, as the speed limit sign said 60 km/hr, but we dared not go above 20 km/hr! (see photo)

Back on the main road which is a little better than the Nadarivatu road because, although the road is sealed, it has many, many pothole repairs, is narrow and winding and the maximum speed limit is 80km/hour. Not that we could comfortably reach that speed except on a few exceptional parts of the Kings Road. And then there are the speed humps. Not the tame ones we have in Australia, but vicious, gearbox removing humps that you dare not go over any faster than 20km/hour. Every town bar a few have several of these speed-humps, making the 50 km/hour speed limit unreachable as you had to keep slowing down for the speed humps!

Housing is very basic

We saw an incredible range of housing, from basic tin huts with windows made of tin and propped open to let light and air inside. Others can be almost palatial, but most are what we would describe as very humble abodes. Our houses would be mansions to these people, but they are happy with their lot and consider themselves extremely blessed just to have  a roof over their heads.

Road works were everywhere

Taking our lives in our hands

We stopped at Golden Point Lodge, a little backpacker's place on the northern coast, enjoyed a tropical fruit punch and chatted to the owners, who were very friendly. It was then on into the interior of Fiji to head down to Fulton College, where we discovered the roads were not what we expected! For about 50 km we traversed gravel roads being torn up by huge machinery, keeping our speed down to the low 30s and 20s. Some of the bridges we had to cross were a little daunting, to say the least (see picture).

Finally we reached Fulton College and tracked down Nelly who we were to stay with, but it turned out one of the Transit cabins were available, due to a late cancellation.

We had tea with all the students in their cafeteria then retired for bed, as we were very tired from the stress of driving all day.