Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Savusavu Fiji
Fiji---lots of conflicting contrasts, harder to understand than first impressions appear.
We had a week in Savusavu where we unwound from our voyage. Ken took the wind generator down as it had decided to stop spinning—he greased some of the bearings and it appears to be fixed??
We got back into the cruising life style with the yachties had come up with us; all of us are tired and more than happy to hang out and socialize.
Dinners and drinks at the yacht club. A large group of cruisers went to the local Chinese restaurant and at F$18 (C$10) had a 3 course meal. We shared the rest of our mahi mahi with a dozen cruisers on our boat.
Savusavu has a great market with lots of fresh vegs, they had a cyclone come through here a month ago which took a lot of the bananas but there are still oranges, mandarins, pineapples, limes and papayas—back to fresh squeezed limonada—reminiscent of Mexico. We are back in the land of cheap food—5 eggplants or 8 limes for F$1.
The stores are well stocked and the supermarket is full with NZ and Australian products at reasonable prices. People appear to have enough of everything but eat very little meat—it is expensive for them.
We took a trip across the island in the local bus to the bigger town of Labasa, a 2 ½ hour trip. The bus was air-conditioned due to the lack of windows and the hills very steep so the poor bus struggled in first and second gears. The island Vanua Levu is the second biggest island of Fiji and is scarcely populated. It is very rugged and lush due to the heavy rainfall. It is the dry season now but is still very humid and subject to rain. It was a Sunday the day we visited Labasa and so most places were closed. It consists of a main street—mostly Indian population—with lots of stores which all seem to sell most things. There appear to be an abundance of hardware stores and DVD’s at F$3 appear to be in great supply and we will be able to add to our many pirated discs.
We had gone with another cruiser and when we discovered an air-conditioned chicken restaurant happily went in and had chicken for lunch. It appeared to be the only air-conditioned place and as our return bus wasn’t till 4pm we returned for ice cream and cold drinks for afternoon tea. I think if we spent a few days there we would have had chicken and ice cream regularly—hmm not too good for post heart treatment!!!
The return bus trip was long as we needed to pick up and drop off many families who had gone visiting their relations for the weekend so we were happy to finally get back after 3 ½ hours.
Indians appear to run most of the businesses and have the reputation amongst native Fijians as being rich and workaholics. Actually I think they are poor and manage to eke out a decent living by working hard. They own little land and lease from the Fijians who collectively own most of the land. They do coexist together well each holding to their own beliefs. Both Indians and Fijians appear very friendly and happy. You are constantly saying Bula (hello) as you walk down the road—locals will even yell it across the street to you. We are very impressed with the apparent level of education here. As well as their local languages they all speak impeccable English.
Ken got a haircut (see accompanying photos!!!—truly ready for the tropics) and the Indian family invited him to go to their house. He had a great visit where the male friends of the family all arrive at 5pm to share kava—it is a male bonding thing!!!—the kava in Fiji is very mild and we have been warned that the kava in Vanuatu is MUCH stronger.
They gave him Indian food to bring home when he insisted he had to leave—he had no idea what was involved in the original invitation and we had arranged to go out to dinner.
They all appear to be very welcoming and generous..
We had arrived with very little information about cruising Fiji—other than the Lonely Planet and a very small cruising guide which had a few anchorages in it we felt very unprepared to cruise the area.
We got a lot of information for our computer from our friends Dennis and Janet on Shilling (first met in Mexico and we meet again constantly)—they had overlays for our charts showing routes and weigh points from previous yachts’ passages. Fiji is full of uncharted reefs and you need to travel in sunshine and read the sea with a lookout on the bow. Having passages from people who have successfully navigated the reefs is a great comfort. We also got a copy of an out of print cruising guide and one of the fellow sailors who is here for his 5th season gave us a lot of information so we now feel we are ready for Fiji.
After a week in Savusavu we went back to customs and had our cruising permit stamped allowing us to go and cruise for a while. We need to come back as we have a package from Opua to collect but will go up to one of the northern bays for a week
We travelled 50 miles up the coast to Viani Bay for our first visit.
One of the local customs which dates back to earlier times is when you arrive anywhere the land and sea is owned by the local tribe. You need to find the chief and present him with sevusevu (gift). This is traditionally a fresh kava root (we had purchased several from the market before leaving), he will accept this (they were previously cannibalistic so not sure if it was always accepted!!!!!) and then they take responsibility for you and you are welcome to use the sea and land.
We went ashore and were met by a local who after we enquired took us to the school where the head teacher accepted the sevusevu—apparently the chief for this area lives on a nearby island so not sure if we needed to give it or not?? I am sure the teacher will enjoy it anyway!!
We then went to look for Jack who is renowned by cruisers as a local guide. He appeared to be “somewhere else” but his lovely 12 year old grand daughter Tiara took us to their house where Sophie, his wife invited us into their small house and served us lemon grass tea. She introduced us to a number of children all of whom seem to belong to someone else but are looked after by Sophie and Jack. The children brought out a pile of pretty shells they had collected and insisted that we took some.
We were assured that Jack would paddle out to our boat in the morning to take us snorkelling.
Sure enough at 9am Jack arrived and offered to take us out to the reef in Cop Out and we would then snorkel from the dingy with him following us. He would charge F$10 for each of us for each snorkel. He took us through the reef at a point which we never would have had the courage to negotiate but he appears to know every coral head on the reef. We then jumped into the water and snorkelled the famous Rainbow Reef. It is full of beautiful colourful corals, including fan corals which have disappeared in many places. There were lots of colourful fish so I had my first attempt at photographing with our new underwater camera.
The next day he was back early to take us for a dive—it is his major means of supporting his extended family and as we were one of the first boats of the season we were not about to escape him!!! The children came out to visit and the girls loved the sparkly hair things and the boy a squishy spider.
Jack then took us for a dive to the Great White Wall—one of our highlights was a huge moray eel—the photo of him was marred by a fish that got in the way!!—the camera has a delay and I am still trying to see through the viewfinder to see what I am photographing—oh well it can only improve.
Next day Jack was back and we took Cop Out over to Taveuni, a nearby island with a dive shop to refill the tanks. On the way back we dove the purple wall which was very colourful.
By the following day we were both feeling the effects of a cold so opted out but did invite the family over for pizza, popcorn and a movie. They all arrived and happily ate and drank all that was offered and we watched both Finding Nemo and Madagascar. They enjoyed it greatly and departed with some of our fresh vegs and a few cans of food.
Jack and Sophie arrived with 5 children although two were picked up later, it seems that people just leave their children if they want to go somewhere else---seems very strange to us and we were glad that Jack and Sophie are willing to give the children a secure and safe home. We will definitely recommend that our cruising friends come here and support his efforts to raise these lovely children.
We got up early the next morning and motor sailed back to Savusavu, our wind generator has decided not to spin and the NZ Company which had fixed it while we were there emailed us and suggested we send it back and they will repair it at no cost to us.
We will spend a few days in Savusavu—Ken’s hairdresser has offered to teach me how to cook Indian food –and will resupply and move on to our next area of Fiji.
I apologise about the number of underwater photos but am having so much fun doing it that I could not resist putting them in—understand that there are many which did not make the cut!!!!
Till next time-----
We had a week in Savusavu where we unwound from our voyage. Ken took the wind generator down as it had decided to stop spinning—he greased some of the bearings and it appears to be fixed??
We got back into the cruising life style with the yachties had come up with us; all of us are tired and more than happy to hang out and socialize.
Dinners and drinks at the yacht club. A large group of cruisers went to the local Chinese restaurant and at F$18 (C$10) had a 3 course meal. We shared the rest of our mahi mahi with a dozen cruisers on our boat.
Savusavu has a great market with lots of fresh vegs, they had a cyclone come through here a month ago which took a lot of the bananas but there are still oranges, mandarins, pineapples, limes and papayas—back to fresh squeezed limonada—reminiscent of Mexico. We are back in the land of cheap food—5 eggplants or 8 limes for F$1.
The stores are well stocked and the supermarket is full with NZ and Australian products at reasonable prices. People appear to have enough of everything but eat very little meat—it is expensive for them.
We took a trip across the island in the local bus to the bigger town of Labasa, a 2 ½ hour trip. The bus was air-conditioned due to the lack of windows and the hills very steep so the poor bus struggled in first and second gears. The island Vanua Levu is the second biggest island of Fiji and is scarcely populated. It is very rugged and lush due to the heavy rainfall. It is the dry season now but is still very humid and subject to rain. It was a Sunday the day we visited Labasa and so most places were closed. It consists of a main street—mostly Indian population—with lots of stores which all seem to sell most things. There appear to be an abundance of hardware stores and DVD’s at F$3 appear to be in great supply and we will be able to add to our many pirated discs.
We had gone with another cruiser and when we discovered an air-conditioned chicken restaurant happily went in and had chicken for lunch. It appeared to be the only air-conditioned place and as our return bus wasn’t till 4pm we returned for ice cream and cold drinks for afternoon tea. I think if we spent a few days there we would have had chicken and ice cream regularly—hmm not too good for post heart treatment!!!
The return bus trip was long as we needed to pick up and drop off many families who had gone visiting their relations for the weekend so we were happy to finally get back after 3 ½ hours.
Indians appear to run most of the businesses and have the reputation amongst native Fijians as being rich and workaholics. Actually I think they are poor and manage to eke out a decent living by working hard. They own little land and lease from the Fijians who collectively own most of the land. They do coexist together well each holding to their own beliefs. Both Indians and Fijians appear very friendly and happy. You are constantly saying Bula (hello) as you walk down the road—locals will even yell it across the street to you. We are very impressed with the apparent level of education here. As well as their local languages they all speak impeccable English.
Ken got a haircut (see accompanying photos!!!—truly ready for the tropics) and the Indian family invited him to go to their house. He had a great visit where the male friends of the family all arrive at 5pm to share kava—it is a male bonding thing!!!—the kava in Fiji is very mild and we have been warned that the kava in Vanuatu is MUCH stronger.
They gave him Indian food to bring home when he insisted he had to leave—he had no idea what was involved in the original invitation and we had arranged to go out to dinner.
They all appear to be very welcoming and generous..
We had arrived with very little information about cruising Fiji—other than the Lonely Planet and a very small cruising guide which had a few anchorages in it we felt very unprepared to cruise the area.
We got a lot of information for our computer from our friends Dennis and Janet on Shilling (first met in Mexico and we meet again constantly)—they had overlays for our charts showing routes and weigh points from previous yachts’ passages. Fiji is full of uncharted reefs and you need to travel in sunshine and read the sea with a lookout on the bow. Having passages from people who have successfully navigated the reefs is a great comfort. We also got a copy of an out of print cruising guide and one of the fellow sailors who is here for his 5th season gave us a lot of information so we now feel we are ready for Fiji.
After a week in Savusavu we went back to customs and had our cruising permit stamped allowing us to go and cruise for a while. We need to come back as we have a package from Opua to collect but will go up to one of the northern bays for a week
We travelled 50 miles up the coast to Viani Bay for our first visit.
One of the local customs which dates back to earlier times is when you arrive anywhere the land and sea is owned by the local tribe. You need to find the chief and present him with sevusevu (gift). This is traditionally a fresh kava root (we had purchased several from the market before leaving), he will accept this (they were previously cannibalistic so not sure if it was always accepted!!!!!) and then they take responsibility for you and you are welcome to use the sea and land.
We went ashore and were met by a local who after we enquired took us to the school where the head teacher accepted the sevusevu—apparently the chief for this area lives on a nearby island so not sure if we needed to give it or not?? I am sure the teacher will enjoy it anyway!!
We then went to look for Jack who is renowned by cruisers as a local guide. He appeared to be “somewhere else” but his lovely 12 year old grand daughter Tiara took us to their house where Sophie, his wife invited us into their small house and served us lemon grass tea. She introduced us to a number of children all of whom seem to belong to someone else but are looked after by Sophie and Jack. The children brought out a pile of pretty shells they had collected and insisted that we took some.
We were assured that Jack would paddle out to our boat in the morning to take us snorkelling.
Sure enough at 9am Jack arrived and offered to take us out to the reef in Cop Out and we would then snorkel from the dingy with him following us. He would charge F$10 for each of us for each snorkel. He took us through the reef at a point which we never would have had the courage to negotiate but he appears to know every coral head on the reef. We then jumped into the water and snorkelled the famous Rainbow Reef. It is full of beautiful colourful corals, including fan corals which have disappeared in many places. There were lots of colourful fish so I had my first attempt at photographing with our new underwater camera.
The next day he was back early to take us for a dive—it is his major means of supporting his extended family and as we were one of the first boats of the season we were not about to escape him!!! The children came out to visit and the girls loved the sparkly hair things and the boy a squishy spider.
Jack then took us for a dive to the Great White Wall—one of our highlights was a huge moray eel—the photo of him was marred by a fish that got in the way!!—the camera has a delay and I am still trying to see through the viewfinder to see what I am photographing—oh well it can only improve.
Next day Jack was back and we took Cop Out over to Taveuni, a nearby island with a dive shop to refill the tanks. On the way back we dove the purple wall which was very colourful.
By the following day we were both feeling the effects of a cold so opted out but did invite the family over for pizza, popcorn and a movie. They all arrived and happily ate and drank all that was offered and we watched both Finding Nemo and Madagascar. They enjoyed it greatly and departed with some of our fresh vegs and a few cans of food.
Jack and Sophie arrived with 5 children although two were picked up later, it seems that people just leave their children if they want to go somewhere else---seems very strange to us and we were glad that Jack and Sophie are willing to give the children a secure and safe home. We will definitely recommend that our cruising friends come here and support his efforts to raise these lovely children.
We got up early the next morning and motor sailed back to Savusavu, our wind generator has decided not to spin and the NZ Company which had fixed it while we were there emailed us and suggested we send it back and they will repair it at no cost to us.
We will spend a few days in Savusavu—Ken’s hairdresser has offered to teach me how to cook Indian food –and will resupply and move on to our next area of Fiji.
I apologise about the number of underwater photos but am having so much fun doing it that I could not resist putting them in—understand that there are many which did not make the cut!!!!
Till next time-----
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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