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Travel Notes |
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Fri Mar 1 23:09:25 2002 (nmcfarl) Book: South Pacific Moon Guide Location: "fiji and our food" So we have been cooking for ourselves a bit here. it's cheaper (by some measures(it adds to lodging , but lodgings with cooking are usually more our style around here, people holiday house usually)), but mainly in the little towns the access to restuarants is difficult and most foods is greasy. Plus it's nice to cook your own food. The difficulty comes in shopping, the stores have a weird varity of food. Basically no local fruits ( the locals just pick them from the trees), just vegies, eggs, and bread. Also imported stuff. It makes planning dinners interesting particularly since the cooking facilities vary. Do we have an oven ( usually no), a grater , pot and pans. Rachel is however a genius at this and in spite of the difficulties we have been eating well. And rachel is gathering ideas for a travel cooking shop. Travel knives and graters etc. We have also been collecting important dry goods, (tea and sugar, etc) for future use. Also a travel cookbook using local ingrediants. Fri Mar 1 23:06:25 2002 (rr) Book: South Pacific Moon Guide Location: Fiji After five days of doing not much of anything in savusavu, we arranged to travel by bus and boat to Taveuni, the "garden island". We got on the bus at 8:15 am sharp, and travelled for an hour and a half on a potholed dirt road at as fast a speed as possible. It was a rough ride. We eventually stopped in front of a dock, where we learned that we had gotten on the wrong bus. So we paid again for the bus. The driver said our boat would be along in about half an hour. Meanwhile, another ferry boat pulled up to the dock. We sat on some rocks by the beach. People began pouring out of the tiny boat, way more than I thought could fit in there. The driver walked by us, and told us that the bus we were supposed to be on originally hadn't left savusavu yet. We looked at each other, at the boat, and decided to just pay for everything twice and get there early. I popped a Dramamine, just in case. The boat had a main room with a ceiling about three and a half feet high. Just enough space to sit up on the low wooden benches. We made two stops along the way. Each time they rowed ashore and dropped off people or supplies. I started getting drowsy and tried to sleep. Both of our butts hurt from the benches. The water was pretty calm. We could see the long green arms of Vanua Levu and the long ridge that is Taveuni. We had made reservations to stay at the northern tip of Taveuni, at the Little Dolphin Treehouse. The treehouse was as cool as our Savusavu holiday house. It was a small two-story house, surrounded by avocado, papaya, and banana trees. We again had a view of the ocean and of small islands (these small islands were slightly larger, and had multiple trees.) And it was sunny. THe rest of Fiji was flooding, but it was mostly sunny here. The treehouse had a large stack of National geographics, which Nathan promptly began reading, a hobby that lasted throughout our stay in the treehouse. We made guacamole from a huge avocado, chili-garlic sauce, red vinegar, salt, and garlic. It was surprisingly good, given our choice of ingredients. We ate it off the spoon (no tortilla chips around here.) We also had an oven, and I attempted to make both cornbread and brownies from memory. The brownies turned out better than the cornbread, but both were edible. One day we went to the eastern side of the island and hiked along the coast to a waterfall. The walk was through the coastal rainforest, then headed inland up the river to the falls. Return to the Blue Lagoon was filmed here. The waterfalls and the associated pool was cool and refreshing, as expected. We swam up to the falls and then floated down the current staring up at the greenery. We even pulled out our snorkel gear and swam behind the falls. There were some fish swimming around as well. Yesterday, the day we flew out of Taveuni, we kayaked to the small offshore islands. There were a number of tricky spots where we had to kayak over reef openings, surrounded by breaking waves. The coral looked incredible beneath us. We paddled to the little island that had a small sand beach and ate lunch. We were short on time, so unfortunately we didn't have time to snorkel. Instead we paddled out and took turns going for brief swims. The water was incredibly warm. I felt like I was in a kayaking vacation brochure picture. In taveuni, I wished we could stay for another week or so. I could kayak a few more days, go back to the falls, explore the other three waterfalls, and spend some more time doing nothing. I will definitely be going back in the future. That is the problem with buying tickets in advance. However, I feel confident that New Caledonia (leaving for there later today) will be equally cool. I'm looking forward to the Ile de Pines (Isle of Pines) with its "stunning cocaine-white beaches". Fri Mar 1 22:56:16 2002 (nmcfarl) Book: South Pacific Moon Guide Location: "Nadi (nandi), Fiji" So we are in nadi today, we head out tomorrow. Fiji has been pretty amazing, much fun. When we landed 2 weeks ago, we headed directly to Luatoka, a very nice indian city, and a great contrast to Tonga. It was pleasant, BUSY, and cheap ( during the day). At night it was a bit scary really. Still a very cool contrast to Tonga. We a samosas as a snack ( later in suva we'd have roti and masala tea for beakfast, the indian infulence being very strong here). The next day we headed to Suva the main city here, where we hung for a few days. We saw the motorcade taking the man who plotted a coup 2 years ago to trial. And also a pretty cool museum and bought some books at the University. A few days later we flew to Savusavu on the 2nd biggest island. A pleasant little town in the jungle and on the coast. We rented a holiday house, just out of town and hung. It was much fun , we cooked out own food, kayaked, and watched the rain (and it can rain all day here). I practiced my pen and ink drawing, we both practiced out chess. It was as much fun as you can have int the pouring rain. Mainly 'cause it was the prettiest pouring rain I've every seen. After that we boated to Taveuni, 'the garden island' for the last few days. it was simple buetiful. We got another holiday house, and rachel perfected both brownies (which we where really craving) and french toast. I read back issue of National Geographic, to which I must get a subscription to when I get back. We also sunned, and hung. One day we took a taxi out to and a bus back from Lavena on the east side of the Island. where the locals along with some help from New Zealand (which funds parks everywhere) have created a nature reserve, and have thrown there hats in the ecotourism ring. We took a great 1.5 hour hike out to an amazing set of falls. The hike it self was through some great tropical vegetation, allong both white and black sand beach. There were a couple af amazing veiws and a couple of streams to cross (one with a suspension bridge). But the best thing was the end of the falls. The trail stops .2 of a k from them and you hike and swim up the river to them. You ditch your stuff a bit before the end, cause there are 2 deap pools with cliff walls, one before the falls and the one they fall into. There are actually 2 falls in that pool one high, and one short and fast. very cool. We snorkeled, and floated on our backs down the river looking at the vines and trees above on the top of the cliffs. Then we ate a quick lunch and hicked backl to catch the bus. A really good day. The next day we flew into nadi, but before that we rented a kayak near where we where staying and kayaked out to a little island where we ate lunch and then kayaked back. We stopped to go for an ocean swim, and we watched and navigated some pretty cool coral reefs along the way. Also a great day. Fri Mar 1 22:42:56 2002 (rr) Book: South Pacific Moon Guide Location: Fiji We spent three days or so exploring and lazing around in Suva, the capital of Fiji. Fiji has been the hottest place that we've travelled to yet on this trip. Occasionally we would duck into various stores to have a brief air-conditioned respite from the heat. Everyone was complaining of the heat. The rest of the time it would rain, hard. Mostly we were in a state of do-nothingness. We kept thinking about catching ferries to Taveuni, an island further north. I think that the prospect of a twelve-hour boat ride wasn't enticing to Nathan (I'm fine, I have dramamine.) Eventually Nathan reserved us on a flight from Suva to Savusavu. Savusavu is a small town on the island of Vanua Levu, which is the second largest island in Fiji. It was raining when we landed. This was to become a theme of our stay in Savusavu. Our mission was to stay at the Vatukaluvi Holiday House. The phone numbers for the place didn't work, but we knew that the owner was a geologist with an office at the Copra Shed Marina. We hauled ourselves and our gear to the marina, and eventually determined that the office with rock specimens was probably our man. Our hunch was correct, but unfortunately Geoff's mum's house was already rented out, but he had another house for us. I ran over to the grocery store and picked up provisions while Nathan waited for our taxi. The house was great - wooden floors, ceiling fans, a great view of the ocean and of tiny islands with lone palm trees. There were lots of rainforesty-looking trees and plants surrounding the house as well to add to the tropical feel. It is a good thing that we liked the house so much, because we ended up spending a lot of time in it. It rained almost continuously for the next few days. It felt like Seattle in many ways. We read books, played chess, cooked food. Ate pancakes. Learned that golden syrup is NOT maple syrup. We attempted to make coconut milk from coconuts we broke by dropping rocks on top of them. Nathan read John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead, I read the rest of the Great Railway Bazaar and an Agatha Christie (we read each others books). One morning, it was sunny. We took advantage of this brief interlude and carried the two-person kayak down to the water and paddled out to the small lone-palm tree islands. We circled the islands in our boat. On one island there was a long light-blue snake. We believe it was a sea snake. Very poisonous creatures, but they only like to bite between your fingers and toes (or so I've heard). I've never seen a snake that color before. Shortly after our kayak trip it started raining again. |
nmcfarl.org email us email Rachel email Nathan See the pictures. Palau Pictures Yap Pictures Hawaii Pictures Taiwan Pictures View the original itinerary
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