Taveuni Island . . .
. . . a short plane-hop east-southeast from
Vanua Levu. It's shortly after 0600, the sun is
just a few degrees above the horizon and a
hundred feet from the veranda lies a glassy calm
bay that's studded with pretty little islets.
Miles further from the shore, across the Somosomo
Straight, we look at the islands of Vanua Levu,
Rambi, and the Yamba Group . . . very
picturesque. Down the hill from me Tyler's wading
through the shallows, stalking fish with a
throwing spear that Leipani made for him. He just
ran up to tell us that he's already gotten two: a
mullet and a rabbitfish. They're too puny to mess
with cleaning and cooking, but he's having great
fun hunting them so we'll use them for bait when
we go after bigger game this afternoon.
Marau Vale (house we're renting) is a
beautiful piece of property located at the very
northern tip of Taveuni. The golden sand beach
begins at the edge of the lawn down from the
lanai. Interesting sandstone formations make
great Tide Pools when
the water is low and Ty spends much time
exploring them. We shuffle our feet when wading
for fear of stingrays.
We can all sense that we are gradually
slipping into coconut time, which is the pace at
which everyone lives in this climate. You get up
with the sun, and go to bed pretty much when it
sets (unless a party's going on). It means that
you do whatever the weather, the tide, and the
time of day dictate; without getting very excited
or concerned if plans don't work out. Tyler's
schoolwork is the bugaboo for us. There's no way,
nor any sense, in trying to stick to a strict
regimen when so much new and interesting is going
on around us. For now we're fitting it in too
sporadically, but so it goes.
September 07
Freddy the housekeeper met us at the airport,
then took us to Maru Vale where we'll be staying
for the next two weeks. There we met Emma, Freddy's wife, and
a person as dear and gracious as mortals are
allowed to get.
Unpacked a bit, relaxed a bit, went exploring.
Around sunset we wandered a half-mile or so
down the beach and found a little restaurant
called Tovutovu. Dan had 'Ika' (fish-of-the-day,
cost $5 for whole dinner); Ty and Kaaren splurged
and had lobster.
September 08
Slow day hanging around Marau Vale. Walked
down to the market in the morning. Met some of
the local ex-pats along the way: Ronna (owns
'Coconut Grove') when she rode by on her Moped,
Fred and Erm (live part-time in Grants Pass,
Hawaii, and Taveuni). Visited Audrey's house on
the way back. She has a single bure she rents out
and bakes deserts for sale, including the most
incredible chocolate cake this side of the
international dateline.
Ronna invited us to
a buffet dinner at Coconut Grove. She's a
fascinating woman. Maybe early 40's, a tall,
charming, pretty, onetime Jewish Princess raised
in New Jersey; wandered the globe through her
youth and finally settled on the very northern
tip of this beautiful island, where she's built a
small resort (3 rooms and restaurant). Her
immediate family consists of Lucy and Gracie, two
well-mannered Dobermans. Loves music, wine, and
conversation. She and Kaaren spend alot of time
together during the next two weeks.
We ate out on the veranda - perhaps 16 people.
We were the only Americans; the rest of the
company were British, New Zealanders, Aussies,
and Germans. Shortly after seven, Ronna set out a
dozen Fijian dishes (plus lasagna) on the railing
of the veranda, and we all dug in. Food was
different curries, taro, taro leaves in coconut
milk, raw fish (waloo?), mutton, and salad. It
was a fine feast.
A group of 8-9 local Fijian lads playing
guitars and ukuleles played and sang gentle
island melodies in the background. Between songs
all (incl. Dan) partook of the kava bowl.
September 10
Hiked into Bouma Falls this morning. A rare
sunny day to start up the steep mountain trail,
K. leading the way through lush Jungle. We started out too
late in the day to see any of the rare birds that
live only in this particular forest . . . saw
some great bugs though, and a walking-stick that
was at least 25 cm in length, by far the biggest
insect that we've ever seen. We missed the side
trail to the lower falls and ended up at Upper
Bouma Falls,
where we stopped for a picnic lunch.
We backtracked to the Lower Falls. We swam and
T and D dove in the pool beneath the falls. The
water was cold, sweet, and clear and felt
delightfully refreshing after our hike through
the humid jungle. Fishes similar in features to
our northwest trouts lived in the pool beneath
the falls . . . conditions very akin to our
rivers, and a great example of convergent
evolution. While we were swimming a rainstorm
broke over us. Even as it rained, occasionally a
shaft of bright sunlight would break through the
clouds and penetrate down through a cleft in the
mountains to this beautiful grotto at the bottom
of the falls.
The rain was warm, and the way the light
played off the raindrops and spray from the falls
created a combination of sensations that was
gorgeous and hypnotic. Later on we read that a
scene from the film 'Return to Blue Lagoon' was
shot at these falls.
Later, at home, in a calm and sultry evening,
Emma prepared and joined us for a dinner of fish
curry, roti, and pulisami out on the Lanai
of Marau Vale. Freddy was off at his evening
kavaclatch.
September 11
Robert Osborne showed up in his boat at 0730
to take us fishing offshore. Ty and Dan met him
the day before when they walked through the
village of Nasalesale while exploring. Robert
fishes for a living, going miles out to sea every
night in his open 18' skiff, using a handline to
catch mackerel, trevally and tuna. He's the
primary supplier of fresh fish to the local
village market.
The weather changed again and it started to
get windy. Current and wind were against each
other so waves quickly got big and choppy. Waves
broke over the boat a couple of times, but the
motor kept running and Robert kept smiling, so we
just re-swallowed our breakfasts and held on. Saw
hundreds of flying fish. Sometimes we chased
feeding birds (albatross, gannets, boobies, and
frigate birds) but it was so rough that we
couldn't move fast enough to get to the schools
of baitfish before they sounded. It was a wild
ride and a memorable experience even if we didn't
get any fish.
Before dinner, Leipani and Freddy fetched us green
coconuts, and Emma brought us a portion of a huge
mangrove crab that wandered into their gill net
the night before. A brute of a crab, with thick
shell, hard like porcelain, and the biggest claws
we've ever seen on a crab. Very tasty meat, like
Dungeness, but sweeter.
September 13
Ty's up early to look for birds.
Especially he wants to
find a kula, a tiny, multi-hued parrot. Freddy
knows where to find them.
Dan and Ty put the outboard on the little
skiff and headed out to the edge of the reef to
try one more time for trevally. Skunked again,
but blue skies and calm seas allowed us to work
our way among narrow passages through and across
the reef, where we looked down on corals and
myriad tropical fish. We saw plenty of baitfish
and there should have been some trevally. Robert
says so few remain on the reef because of
destructive fishing practices still carried out
by the locals. These are:
1. Setting seines close inshore with small
mesh net so that even the juveniles are caught
and killed, leaving no stock to migrate to the
outer reef as they grow.
2. Continued use of poison (even though it's
now outlawed) to collect fish, which kills
everything on the reef, including the coral.
Tomasi came by in
the afternoon and introduced himself. He's a
wonderfully happy guy who knows everybody and
everything on the island. Also he's a gifted
musician. He took great care of us for the rest
of our time on Taveuni.
September 14
It's Sunday, and Sepo drove the all us, plus
Freddy 40 minutes south to Weiyevo to attend
services at a Catholic Mission built over 90 years
ago. We wanted to hear the choir in the church,
but that day it was an open air mass in honor of
the patron saint of this parish, and it had
started an hour before we got there. The Mission
is an anomaly here where everything is built so
flimsily. The church was built to honor a priest
who had helped the Fijians with military strategy
during an onslaught by Tongan islanders (nasty
guys notorious for cooking and eating their
captives with breadfruit - makes you want to
choose your enemies carefully). Anyway, what we
did get to hear was mesmerizing - the voices so
clear and melodic. After the service some local
boys led Dan and Tyler 100 feet up rickety stairs
to the top of the belltower for
a great view of the mission and village.
One the way back from church we hiked up to
the waterslide,
a 100m-long,
smooth, water-worn cascade down which Fijians
have been slipping and sliding for centuries. Too
scary for D. and K., but Ty loved it.
September 17
We caught an over-full 1100 bus into Weiyevo.
It was packed to the gunnels, and we had to stand
up the whole, bumpy way, so didn't get to see
much scenery. When it came time to get off in
front of the bank, Dan followed the example of
the locals, and jumped out the window of the bus.
Had lunch at the Cannibal Cafe ('We love
having you for lunch . . .'), posted mail,
shopped, and shared cabfare back to Matai with
Audrey.
Ty, Dan, and Max the Wonderdog walked down to the
market. Max has as much smarts and way more
personality than most people, but he's sometimes
short on manners, and today we discovered his
greatest failing: a profound dislike for uppity
chickens. It was a warm and muggy afternoon and
we were sitting on the porch of Arjoon's market
talking to some local folks; chickens scratched
at the dust in the street in front of us. One of
the chickens wandered too close, and before
anyone knew what he was about, Max snatched it up
and broke its neck. Bad form, Max! A great hoopla
ensued. Max smiled and pretended like he didn't
know what the fuss was about, but for the white
feathers poking out of his mouth. Were it any
other dog, he'd have been soundly thrashed. But
Max enjoys a special status and respect in town,
and since he kills a chicken only once a year or
so, bail was posted and it was agreed that Freddy
should give him a good talking-to when we got
home. Mrs Arjoon
declared that she was owed either a new
chicken, or else an invitation to our pending
lovo.
September 18
Lovo Day! Get up early to start provisioning
for the big party.
Menu for the Lovo:
taro / casava / pulisami / lamb (steaks and
shanks) / chicken / tuna / other fish
Ronna strongly suggested we avoid serving any
kind of alcohol. Apparently some of those on our
guestlist love to fight when they're in their
cups.
Friends of Leipani are going to provide taro
root and leaves for the pulisami. Tyler and Dan
walked down to Jeanna and Tomasi's house to fetch
English cabbage, tomatoes, and casava. Tomasi
hadn't dug the casava before he left to work, so
Jeanna fetched a gardening fork and had Ty and
Dan dig it up. It was yellow casava and one plant
provided enough of the fat, round tubers for the
whole lovo.
Next Kaaren and Dan headed down to Arjoon's
market (Bhuli Bhai) for groceries and fish. We
ended up buying a whole 'Bigeye' tuna for $20 (Fiji). No
matter what anybody says, Tyler did NOT catch it.
The rest of the groceries came to just over $40.
So we collected everything needed for the
lovo, but for one thing . . . grog. I gave
Freddie $10 to buy some, and he assured me that
would suffice to purchase enough kava to get the
whole village happy.
About noontime Freddie and Leipani started
digging the Lovo Pit.
It looked as if it might
rain so they headed off to the forest to chop
poles for uprights of a tin-roofed structure they
built over the pit. After that they made a great
heap of mango logs and coconut husks, and with a
cup or two of kerosene, got the fire started.
Before it got very hot we piled lava rocks all
over the mango log pile. The blaze grew higher
and higher and the stones got hotter and hotter.
After a bit, Emma and Jane started carrying
down successive loads of food prepared to go into
the fire. Through most of the day they'd been
peeling roots, washing leaves, chopping up the
meat and fish. Then all the food (but for cassava
and taro) was wrapped in individual packages of
banana leaves (Fiji foil). When most of the logs
and husks had turned to coals rocks were piled on
top to heat up - then banana leaves - then the
food - more banana leaves - then buried in sand
and left to cook for a few hours.
When lovo pit was uncovered at 1830, we were
appalled at how much food we had, and wondered
how we'd get rid of it all. Emma just smiled.
First the local ex-pats came, then Arjoon's
family, then most of the band and finally, an
hour or so late, the rest of the Fijians showed
up . . . and showed up . . . and people we'd
never before laid eyes on kept showing up. We
were amazed at our wealth of new friends, and
Ronna just laughed and said this happens whenever
rumor of free food and Kava gets out.
Well after midnight, the food long gone, we
said goodnight, and left the oorts to the night
scavengers. The Fijians moved the party over to
Freddy and Emma's next door and kept making music
until the grog ran out about sunrise.
September 20
Dan went diving with Alex and Tanya of
'Aquaventure'. Dive Sites: 'The Ledge' and 'Blue
Ribbon Eel Reef'. A calm and humid morning and
the sea was oily smooth as we headed out into the
Somosomo Straights. Far ahead we saw some
dolphins leaping so Alex headed towards them for
a closer look. Soon we were surrounded by a mixed
school of dolphins and pilot whales that
stretched across the sea for perhaps a mile and
must have held many hundreds of animals. Some
played in our bow wake and everywhere we looked
others were leaping clear of the water. It was a
marvelous display, and even Alex (who's been out
in these waters daily for years) said he'd never
seen anything like it.
Made two dives: at 'Lenora's Ledge', and 'Blue
Ribbon Eel Reef'. Both dives in about 80 feet of
water. Great visibility, and lots fish and soft
corals. Saw big whitetip sharks, lionfish, huge
bumphead wrasse, bigeye tuna, groupers, and a
seven-foot-long banded sea snake. The second dive
(at Blue Ribbon Eel Reef) was a drift dive and
was made at full flood in an awesome and
frightening current. It took maximum effort to
hang on to the downline as we descended, and Alex
had warned us not to turn our heads sideways to
the current or the pull of the water would rip
our masks off. Current was much less at 80 feet
and we followed Alex's lead by getting neutrally
buoyant, crossing our arms and legs, and just let
the current sweep us along the face of reef
covered with every hue of coral (hard and soft)
and millions fish. At our backs was the deep blue
of the abyss and occasionally big pelagic fishes
would swim by. It was a great dive.
September 21
Left Marau Vale at 0900 to catch flight to
Nadi by way of Savusavu. Off TO Australia. Caught
Qantas flight to Brisbane and then on to Cairns.
North Queensland...........
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