Monday, Feb 17
After 5 days at sea, I have to say I’m very glad to see land once more today. Our last 4 stops are all in Fiji, on three different islands. While excited to be stepping on to land again, it is sad in that it means our fabulous trip to an amazing part of the world is soon coming to an end. We depart from Nadi, Fiji for home in just a few days.
While at sea, aside from the first rainy and grey day, it’s been glorious weather, with pretty consistent temperatures of 30 degrees. We’ve settled into a nice routine on the ship. It’s been a combination of some sun time, lots of shade time, reading and doing crosswords, some chat time, some lecture time, and of course lots of eating time. I’ve found my favourite spot on the ship, on the flying bridge under the boom of the aft sail. The boom provides some shade, but sways as the wind changes sending some of the warm South Pacific sun my way.
Yesterday afternoon, I managed to have the patience to figure out how to take my Go Pro pics off the go pro and get them into my photos app, so I can post them. I haven’t yet been able to get the videos off because of the different formats and file sizes. I’ll have to work on that when I get home.
Yesterday there were a couple of unique experiences. Every evening for dinner, the great dining room crew set up the tables on the pool deck for dinner under the stars with style. There are white table clothes, candles, the usual excellent service and all the food on a separate menu is grilled on the barbecue on deck. There are not many tables, so we allowed to make reservations up there only once during our time on the ship. Last night was our turn. We lucked out with a lovely evening, and although they put the tables under cover in case of rain, we saw lots of stars as it got totally dark.
And after our dinner it was the Staff Talent Show. And my goodness are they talented, and although not all gifted with a good voice or graceful moves, there were a couple of hilarious sketches. Our very first server in the dining room (and the barista in the Yacht Club coffee shop), Russ, was the MC and he brought lots of energy and some good jokes to the role. Our cabin steward, Dedi, was also in the line up although we didn’t immediately recognize him given his get up. He didn’t have a great voice but got lots of great audience participation. The Indonesian crew did some traditional Indonesian dances which were really interesting. All intricate, synchronized movements. The last act was a male synchronized swimming sketch that was hilarious. They had blue tarps around the dance floor, with lounge chair cushions on the floor and they did various formations that we could see above the tarp. It was a fun evening with lots of audience participation.
This morning, our in-house academic, Dr Kess, spoke about various famous people whose lives touched or were touched by the South Pacific. Some are easily identified with this part of the world, such as Herman Melville (who wrote Moby Dick), Robert Lewis Stevenson ( wrote Treasure Island, Kidnapped), Amelia Earhart, and Paul Gauguin who painted boldly coloured portraits of the Polynesians. He is buried in The Marquesas Island of French Polynesia and a cruise line in his name now tours these waters. Others who you might not associate with the South Pacific such as Jack London (Goldrush author of Call of the Wild and White Fang), Lt John F Kennedy (Captain of the PT-109 that went down in the South Pacific), Margaret Mead, Marlon Brando (whose family owns a hotel on an atoll in French Polynesia) and James Michener (who includes the books of Hawaii, and South Pacific among his approximately 50 works) all have an association with the area as well.
We will arrive at the Fijian island of Taveuni, (one of the 110 inhabited islands of the total 332 islands of Fiji) sometime around 2 pm this afternoon. We have filled out the paperwork and will meet with Fijian officials in our ship’s dining room just after we drop anchor. After that is complete, the ship will be cleared for disembarkation on Taveuni and we’ll also be pre-cleared to exit Fiji when we leave for LA.
The population of Fiji is 915,300 with 12,000 of them on the 3rd largest island of Taveuni. Taveuni’s economy is primarily based on agriculture with it’s fertile volcanic soil, and historically the crops have been cotton, sugar, copra, pineapple, bananas. Currently, Copra is the most important one and they are shifting to taro, cava, vanilla and coffee. Tourism is the secondary industry, with small independent hotels sprinkles around the island. One unique thing to Taveuni is the national flower, Tagimaucia, is found almost exclusively here. Unfortunately we won’t see it, because it’s not in bloom right now. Another rare thing on Taveuni is that there is a a spot where you can straddle the International Date Line as it passes through the island. Most of the imaginary line passes through open waters, not land because as you might expect it could be rather confusing.
Our word for the day is Bula, which in Fijian means Hello, or “wishing you life”.
We won’t likely get off the ship today as the landing site for the tenders is remote. We will however, get off tomorrow morning for a trip to the Bouma Falls National Park to hike to at least one waterfall.
Tonight dinner for all guests will be a Barbecue on the pool deck, and we’re promised lobster tails among other treats, and then line dancing lessons afterward. We’ll see about that. I’m off now to find a lounge in the shade to have a nap. Gotta love vacations.
Lois' Adventures 