Around Fiji Islands

Learning to sail has been added to our list of skills we’d like to learn. It is so peaceful on the open water with sails in full wind, which we got to experience when we finally found the company which actually did it. We knew we wanted to go to one or more of the offshore islands, but most of the tour boat companies had large boats which carried lots of people. Granted, they offered free beer and wine, but that actually made us suspect of their real agenda, and we figured they’d probably just motor around in the bay and maybe hit an island for a short while. But we knew we wanted a small group, and, luckily, we stumbled onto a company that offered just that. They said that they took 10 maximum, but when we got there, only 5 of us had booked. Perfect! We found out that our catamaran “Wanaka” was owned by Graham Woodruff who was on the NZ team that had won the America’s Cup three times. He was back home, but his boat was captained by Drew plus 2 deckhands. We had a great sailing around the outer reef and to a sandbar off Malolo Lailai Island that was surrounded by a reef.
We got on our snorkeling gear and slipped into some sunproof bodysuits and hopped in. The water was beautiful, warm and clear, and we immediately were surrounded by multicolored tropical fish—thousands of them. They certainly weren’t afraid of us, and at one point, I turned my head and right in front of my mask, less than 2 inches away passed a little school of bright blue fish about 5 inches long. Other fish were pink, green, blue and yellow parrot fish, some black and white stripes (some fish with lengthwise stripes and others with widthwise stripes), bright yellow with a black spot, puffer fish, angelfish, clownfish, and many others I can’t specifically remember. They were everywhere!
Then we pulled up the anchor and motored into Musket Cove where we had lunch. Sails up again as we plied for home back across that gorgeous water. We both stretched out on the front hammocks about 3 feet above the water and watched the sky as we skimmed along. The day was definitely too short!
So, it’s another walk on the beach, another dip in the pool, and we’re off to Sydney and onto Wodonga to meet our friends from our Turkey trip last year and eventually Birmigui on the south coast of Australia. How grateful we are for being able to see so much!

First stop--Fiji

Arriving anywhere at 5 am is difficult and much more so after having flown to Los Angeles, waited in the airport for 4 hours to board Air Pacific, and then flown for another 10 hours. So, we were very glad to get to Fiji, our first destination. We took a taxi to our resort, threw our bags down and took a short nap. We wanted to get our schedule in sync with the local time, so we vowed not to go to bed until at least 8:00 pm. We walked around Denarau Island (the area slightly offshore of the town of Nadi that houses several resorts) and looked at some of the other resorts, ate dinner at the Sofitel Resort, watched their native dancing and then walked back along the beach to our home away from home. It was still very warm at 9 pm, so we decided to take a swim and kept ourselves awake until 10.

On Wed we took the public bus to town where we visited the fruit and vegetable market and participated in a kava ceremony. Kava is a root which is considered sacred and seems to require a ceremony when it’s consumed (although we witnessed many Fijian men drinking it leisurely). Village chiefs oversee the kava ceremony when entertaining visitors, although ours was a small affair with just a few people. It was interesting and allowed me to pose quite a few questions. Lunch at the Curry House finished us and the heat sent us packing for the pool.

It’s very warm here at this time of year. We thought we’d take the public bus to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant where Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame housed thousands of orchids. Instead, we hired a taxi to take us there along with showing us where the first inhabitants of Fiji came ashore and where they settled, and taking us to the Hindu temple in town where we walked around with a guide who explained the paintings. The site included several very colorful buildings with offerings to many gods. The guide claimed that he had met us many years ago in California, but we are pretty sure that was part of his spiel. We played along, however, and parted with the expectation that we’d meet again sooner than we did this time. On to the garden which was filled with beautiful orchids, surrounded by natural forested jungle. We hiked through the edge of it, stopping now and then to admire the different and exotic palms. After perusing many brochures for snorkeling trips and not finding what we wanted, we decided to go to the port and see what was there. We found a trip for Saturday that was on a smaller boat that went to a nice island and offered snorkeling gear and lunch. So, we booked that one and got a 20% discount to boot. Then, after dinner and a long walk, admiring the flame trees, it was back to the pool to cool off. It’s amazingly hot!

Return to Oz

It was a tough decision to make.  So many countries, so little time, but we decided to return to Australia, this time exploring the southeastern coast.  We loved the east coast when we visited there three years ago and always hoped to get back to this wonderful country in the future.  So, when we contemplated our next adventure, we considered Argentina, South Africa, and Australia.  Since Australia involved such a long plane ride, we thought maybe we'd better start thinking about doing some of the longer trips while we can.  

So, we are busy doing some reading and talking with people in the know.  Anyone who has been to Australia and is willing to share some ideas with us, please respond to this blog or email us at tgdegrow@aol.com.  We always love input.

And, again, thank you to those who actually read our blogs and especially those who follow us at blogspot.com.  We love getting your comments.  It's the best of both worlds: getting to see some of the world and staying in close touch with those we care about at the same time.