Week 52 - Fiji

Sunday and Monday were spent making plans for the next two weeks, relaxing, and enjoying the beach.

Monday morning I walked on the beach to a beautiful river.

We're really enjoying how pristine and unspoiled this area is. We are well aware of how hard it is to find an undeveloped coastline. There's very little light pollution so the stars are lovely.

Tuesday we took our first day trip to a nearby waterfall, but to go there we first had to visit the village and bring a gift of kava, a sedative root that's made into a popular drink. Therefore, the first stop was a house where we bought the kava. The family has a kava business and we saw it being prepared in all different stages.

Next, we proceeded to the village with our offering. We bought a few crafts and looked around. It's pretty nice, basic, but there is electricity and water, it's neat and clean and people seem well fed.

Finally, we went to the waterfall. It was a short walk to a very pretty place with a natural pool of cool, fresh, water. S, of course, enjoyed climbing on the rocks and exploring the creek.

That was a fun morning, and we were home in time for lunch and school work. It rained in the afternoon and S was starting a cold, so it was nice to relax and read on the covered porch.

Wednesday morning S wasn't feeling well, but J and C went kayaking. I stayed at the house with S and made some phone calls to set up activities for next week and change our hotel reservation for our arrival in Hawaii which will actually be a day earlier than we thought because of the international date line. Later, S felt better and we walked down too, but J and C were done kayaking by then so I didn't get any pictures. S was happy to play in the sand for a while, then we came back for lunch.

Thursday was an awesome day. We went snorkeling in Natewa Bay, which is the largest bay in the South Pacific. It was amazing. We had a great guide, a retired marine biologist who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on corals. He grew up in Fiji, worked in Australia, then came back here for retirement. He was an interesting guy, a skilled boat captain, and obviously very knowledgeable about the reef. The boat ride itself was lovely.

We went to a little sand bar where S got to stay and play with a caretaker, while J and I snorkeled. C opted to stay in the boat.

J hadn't been able to enjoy snorkeling until today, but he found a way to keep his mask from leaking and got the hang of it so that he was able to take in the scenery. We went to two different reefs and both were by far the best I've ever seen. I'm so glad he got to enjoy them with me. Fiji is one of the few places in the world where you can see soft corals, which we did. We also saw many types of hard corals and fish. The diversity was amazing. On the way back, the captain let the kids ride up on the front of the boat which they enjoyed very much, even though they didn't snorkel. When we got back our driver was waiting for us and took pictures of us disembarking. He's a great driver, he got held up by construction on the way to pick us up in the morning, which was no big deal, but he took it upon himself to call the boat captain and let him know we were running late. Normally, I have to do all the coordination, but here everyone knows everyone so they just talk to each other. I really appreciate that!

We got some more groceries on the way back so now we're set for a while.