Blogs from Viti Levu, Fiji, Oceania - page 2

During this weekend we managed to get to Pacific Harbour for the weekend and stay there. The cyclone hadn’t hit the place too bad, although one of the resorts had damaged bures. Here we managed to do a dive to see sharks, such as bull, lemon and tawny nurse sharks. It was interesting to get back to Suva which took over 2 hours before we had even left. Bus after bus flew past us as they were all full, resulting in us having to get a the 45 minute ride back on a taxi to Suva. Earlier that week we decided to head to the rainforest outside Suva. There are some nice treks and rope swing to go and swing into a water pool. Since the schools were still closed, a lot of school kids were ... read more

5th May - and onto the other side of the world, New Zealand, for a season of exploration in Fiji. When having a Mid-Life Cruise you may as well misadventure and the Yasawa Islands, Vsnua Levi, Taveuni and the Mamanucca's are just the places for it. I'm joining David aboard S/V Rewa in Whangarei. We met in Balboa, Panama in March of last year before sailing to the South Pacific. I was aboard Dances with Dragons with my friend Wayne Harris, aboard a 58' Camper and Nicholson hailing from Houston. David and I are sailors, divers and world travellers. He's from Maine, I'm from England and neither of us like cold climates, especially those continuous grey skies which loom for months at a time. We are tropic birds who chose to bask in warmth. Arrived in ... read more

Australia; a country which, for two months, had shown us an immense level of impressive beauty, a great deal of fun and a much different way of travelling to the first three months of the trip. I have spoken more than once about expectations and I think perhaps the biggest of all of these is that of "travelling" as a generalised term. Not just your own expectation but the expectations of the people standing outside and looking in; the friends and family conducting everyday life as normal or the ex-colleagues left behind in the jobs that you were once a part of. In all honesty, South East Asia probably conforms in the most idealistic ways, to the mass visions of "travelling"- those images of riding on silhouetted elephants against a backdrop of longtail boats and burnt ... read more

Unfortunately our day started with me wingeing at James to get a move on for our 8am bus - which meant I disobeyed the rules of Fiji time! After scoffing down our breakfast in 5 mins we jumped on the bus to Navua. We had booked ourselves onto the Jewel of Fiji day tour, which would consist of a trip to a Fijian village and some activities in the Nausori highlands. Our first stop was the village; although still very much a traditional village the grass skirts and 'kava ceremony' was definitely put on for the tourists. The traditional Kava ceremony was very interesting and most of us had a try of the Kava (the root of a vegetable mixed with water). To be honest it tasted like badly brewed herbal tea with a helping of ... read more

After a really great sleep we popped our swim stuff on and headed down to the reception to pick up the kayaking gear. Because of the shallow reef you can only kayak at high tide 8-11am to ensure you don't damage any coral. We had a relaxing kayak along the coast, out towards the reef and back to shore again. I was very excited to see that when we'd gotten out of the water the horses had gone for their own little paddle (cue hundreds of photos)! After breakfast we went for our complimentary foot massage at the spa, a nice little touch on Valentines day! We then got the local bus into Sigatoka to visit the Sand Dune National park, unfortunately we'd picked a really bad time of day and the sand was too hot ... read more