Week 15 July 15th -22nd
Fiji
On Sunday the fifteenth of July we arrived in Vanua Levu, Fiji. It had taken us two days. Fiji is a lot more mountainous than most of the islands we have been to. It isn’t very built up and it is very, very green and lush. For lunch we went to the surf and Turf restaurant. We had a delicious meal and then went back to the boat. We got some Kava root for the Fijian ceremony when we visit some Fijian villages.
The next day we went to stay at a hotel because Mike and Campbell were going to take the boat to the most easterly islands of Fiji, called the Lau group. The hotel we were going to is owned by Jean-Michel Cousteau. Jean-Michel Cousteau is the son of Jack Cousteau who invented scuba diving in the 50’s. Before we went to the hotel Scott left on a plane to the main island of Fiji before flying out to Australia. When we got to the hotel we got shown around and then went for lunch at the restaurant.
After lunch we went for a snorkel with the Bula Club, which is a place where the children can go and make lots of noise (bula means hello in Fijian). We went in a glass bottom boat and saw lots of fish. When we got back we went to the Bula club and kept going down their water slide. Later on Daisy and I went to the Bula Club for supper. It was someone's birthday so we had some birthday cake. After supper everyone from the Bula Club went out and tried to catch some frogs. I caught about six and put them in a bucket. When we got back to the club we drew a big circle and the boys chose one frog, and the girls chose two. We put the frogs in the circle and the boys’ one won, because it got out of the circle first. After the frog race we watched a movie and then went to our rooms and went to sleep.
The next day we went for breakfast and then went to the Bula Club. We played in the pool, played tennis and then had lunch. After lunch we left for the airport. We took a small charter flight to the Lau Group. On the way into land we had a spectacular view of the island.
When we landed we got into a car and were taken to the boat.
On the way we saw a Taro plantation and how beautiful the island was. When we got to where the boat was we had to go through a local village. To get back to the boat a local man called Joeli took us in his boat. When we got to the boat we dropped off our bags and then returned to the village with Mike and Campbell to give the chief some Kava root. When we got to the village we went to the chief’s house. Before we went in we took our shoes of. We gave the chief some Kava but we didn’t get any, instead we got some tea and cake. When we left the chiefs house he went to have a look at the village.
When we got back to the boat we moved anchorages to the bay of islands. We had showers, had supper and then went to bed.
The next day we went water skiing, after that the local man, Joeli, came over in his boat. He showed us an under water cave and then showed us a secret channel into a lagoon. We played in the passage while Mike did some rock climbing, and then we went for a snorkel and a dive in the cave.
The next day after school we moved anchorages. We went stern to a small island in the middle of the lagoon.
The island we tied onto had a colony of fruit bats.
When we were properly tied on we put up the spinnaker pole. We tied a piece of rope with a handle on the end to the spinnaker pole so we could swing off. While we were swinging Mike and Campbell sanded down the toe rail. After it had started to get dark we had supper before going to bed.
The next day we had a swim and a swing while Mike and Campbell put a new coating of varnish on the sanded half of the toe rail. We went for a snorkel. After our snorkel we had supper.
The next day Mike and Campbell went spear fishing with some locals. When they got back we bought four lobsters and two fish which had just been caught. For lunch we had two of the lobsters.
Next day we returned to the bay of islands for another night, did some exploring and some snorkelling and spotted an octopus hiding in the coral.
At 5pm we left the Lau for Savusavu.