We left Pago Pago, American Samoa, about 5:00 PM on Saturday, February 1st
heading west. We would have two full “sea days”, and arrive in Lautoka, Fiji,
at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, February 5th. One might think it was "three full sea days", but we crossed the International Dateline, and February 2nd didn't exist for us! All aboard was at 4:30 PM, so
we would have a full day on the island.
The country of Fiji is a republic consisting of over 800 islands, about
7000 square miles and a population of over 900,000. We would be visiting Viti
Levu, the largest island and the one with the greatest population. Our ship was
docked at a pier in the town of Lautoka on the west coast of Viti Levu.
Although Fiji has been inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of
years, the first known visitor from Europe was Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer,
in 1643. The islands were later visited by James Cook in 1774, and William
Bligh is given major credit for the discovery and recording of the
islands—after the mutiny on the Bounty—when he visited the islands in 1789.
Today the island population consists mainly of native Fijians with a very
high percentage of ethnic Indians. In general, the Indian Fijians have a higher
percentage of business ownership and wealth in comparison to the Native
Fijians—which has led to some considerable unrest. Fortunately we did not see
any evidence of this during the short time we visited.
For our visit to Fiji, we again decided to again “do it on our own” rather
than take a tour organized by our ship. And we also decided to spend the day
with our friends Al and Erica Wehrle as we had done in American Samoa a few
days earlier.
It was very, very hot and humid on the day we visited, and the prospect of
intense touring was not particularly attractive. So we decided to make this a
“low key” day without hard charging to try to see as much as possible. Al and
Erica wanted to see the “Garden of the Sleeping Giant”, so we decided to
negotiate for a taxi (Fiji was one of the many places where bargaining is
expected and necessary) and head out in that direction—which was south of
Lautoka.
Our journey to the gardens wound along a beautiful coastline and we were just
a few miles north of the city of Nadi when we turned inland. On our left, we
passed Sleeping Giant Mountain whose peak appears to show the profile of a
giant sleeping on his back.
The gardens, at the base of Sleeping Giant Mountain, were founded and developed
by the American actor Raymond Burr—of TV’s “Perry Mason” fame—in 1977 to house
his orchids. Inside the gardens are hundreds of different types of orchids,
along with other types of plants, a walking path with a bridge, and a small
lake covered in lily pads. There is even a small, vegetation-enclosed,
“sanctuary” at the top of a rise where Raymond Burr used to sit and meditate. Our
tour of the garden was an interesting walk, but was not sheltered from the
sun—which was bearing down upon us. Al turned back shortly after beginning our
walk to seek some shade and shelter, but Bill, Pat, and Erica continued the
tour around the garden—led by a guide, provided as part of our admission.
After our visit to the garden, we considered having our taxi driver take us
to some other sights: the Laukota Sugar Mill, Vitigo Village in Lautoka, the
market at Nadi, Saweni Beach, Vuda Lookout, Denarau Mall or one of the small
islands surrounding Viti Levu—such as Tivua or Savala. But we didn’t have time
(or energy due to the heat!) to do everything, so we settled on driving back
towards Lautoka and stopping at Viseisei Village along the way.
Viseisei Village is a traditional Fijian Village located where legend says
the “first landing” of the original Fijians occurred. (Fijians claim to be descendants
of the Lutunasobasoba
people.) After a short stop for a photo at a restored traditional house, we asked
our taxi driver to take us to a “nice resort where we could have a beer and
take a swim.” So he took us to the First Landing Beach Resort, and we were
delighted! Pat and Erica immediately went and had full body massages, while
Bill and Al enjoyed a beer and some food on a deck overlooking the beach.
After an hour, the girls joined the boys—who by this time were on their
second or third beer. Bill went for a short walk across a bridge onto a small
island that was part of the resort, followed by a swim in the ocean where he
was joined by Erica. Then we discovered a beautiful swimming pool on the resort
grounds. We all took a swim, and found that several of the ship’s
staff—including our cruise director Gene--were there as well. (In our
experience, if you visit a place where the ship’s staff visits, you are in the
right place—ship’s staff have the inside information on where to go!)
After about an hour of swimming and drinks at the pool, we made our way
back to our taxi and driver (who had been waiting for us!) and returned to the
ship. Al and Erica had had enough for the day, but we decided to take the free
shuttle into Laukota to be dropped off at Jack’s Craft Emporium on Nede Street.
We took a quick look inside the emporium, and then walked down Nede Street to
Naviti Street—which seemed to be the “main drag” through town. On Naviti
Street, we were surprised—and delighted—to see a sign for “MoneyGram”—a
business that will wire money long distance. Our son, Nathan, works for MoneyGram
in Dallas, Texas and in his words “We are everywhere.” Finding MoneyGram on
Easter Island and Fiji seems to prove his words true.
On Naviti Street, Pat found a few sundry items to purchase, but the
shopkeepers would only take Fijian Dollars, so we had to change some money.
Changing money is always a guessing game since if you change too many US$ into
local currency, you will be forced to change the leftover back, and lose in the
exchange. But if too few US$ are exchanged, you run the risk of having to go
back to change more money—which takes time. Suffice it to say that Pat had to
go to the money exchange and wait in line twice within 30 minutes.
After a short time in Lautoka, we caught the shuttle bus back to our
ship—we were hot, tired and sweaty, and wanted to save our strength for the
sail away party!
Our ship departed about 5:00PM—again heading west. We would have just one
full “sea day” before our next port of call on Friday, February 7th—our
8th South Pacific Island—Noumea, New Caledonia.
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