Fiji!

Okay, another place I haven’t been to in 45 years, and a first time for Tara. I know I stayed somewhere close to where we are now which is Korotogo on the Coral Coast near to Sigatoka, but I couldn’t tell you exactly. Some things have definitely changed in the time since like cell phones with pretty good coverage which everybody seems to have, the local buses which have no windows and are a bit rough (same) now accept a tap-to-pay card for the fare, although it was apparently just recently introduced to stop drivers taking home too much of the cash fares for themselves. The small towns we passed through on the hour long taxi ride from Nadi to our small ’boutique’ resort looked a lot like some places in Africa to Tara, and have not changed to my observation over time. The weather is the same, 30C and 90% humidity pretty much day and night, with blazing sun straight overhead punctuated with massive afternoon showers, and then more sunshine. We have a 300m wide lagoon with crystal clear water and coral reef right in front of us with waves crashing onto the reef edge beyond that. At low tide you would have no trouble stepping around the rocks and coral to walk out to the reef’s edge, while at high tide we skitter out in kayaks a meter above the rocks and see what fish we can see by jumping off with a mask and snorkel into the bathtub temperature water. Yea, it’s a bit of paradise in the south pacific.

Along this small road are a few small resorts and one bigger one. Most appear to be low on guests as it is the low season for Aussie and Kiwi folks in their late summer. Yet we have a nice variety of open restaurants within walking distance along this quiet road they call sunset strip (because you can see the …). As you walk along, every single Fijian you meet says ‘Bula’ in friendly greeting, and you say Bula back. At dusk the megabats(!) start flying around, pacific flying foxes, which are large, hawk sized, and swoop from high up to roost in the trees close by. Remarkable and kind of freaky looking considering our bats are tiny.

Mainly we just relaxed, kayaked, and swam in the pool but we did go on one ‘excursion’ out to the small island of Likuri for a day. This included bus pickup from our resort, a boat ride down a river and then out to our tropical island getaway just a km or so offshore. While there we had a musical Fijian welcome and the Kava drinking ceremony with the chiefs to start. Yes, my lips got numb, I remember that from 45 years ago. Other activities included a Lovo (cooking underground with hot rocks) lunch, traditional dancing, basket weaving lesson, and a nature walk identifying trees and plants in the traditional Fijian pharmacopeia. Strangely there was a group of young Danes, maybe a dozen, staying on the island in the dorm accommodation. Party time for them no doubt, a long way from home.

We also went into Sigatoka town for essential supplies one day which was a unique Fijian experience. We got a lift in with the man who looks after the pool here in another example of Fijian friendliness. Sigatoka is a crowded chaotic town (that African vibe) but we managed to get fresh produce from the local open market with many people selling the same items (papayas, bananas, miniature pineapples, avocados, okra and a root vegetable) and a few other items from the grocery store which was difficult as the available food wasn’t familiar to us. We didn’t see anything worth lingering around town for so found the bus stop and waited along with many other locals and tried to determine which crowded bus to get on. During our wait we were offered taxi rides by some drivers in the long line of cabs looking for business, I guess we didn’t blend in, but we decided to complete our experience with a local ride on an open air bus. There are few bus stops, people just signal when they want to get on/off and the driver stops, often every 100-200 meters, client centred for sure. We had made the decision within the first few hours of arriving not to ride our bike in Fiji. The roads are just too chaotic and busy with traffic of all kinds going too fast, people walking and hitchhiking, livestock grazing roadside and importantly, no other bikes.

When it was time to leave Fiji we left bright and early in our prearranged taxi with the same driver that picked us up. I appreciated that his car seemed to be mechanically sound and did have seat belts, not all of them were in as good shape. The drive was a little more hectic than when we arrived as we did hit the morning rush hour. Our driver was doing a lot of passing and driving too fast alongside the livestock and people by the road. I decided to not look forward anymore, just out the side at the interesting things we passed by, as it was too unnerving. I was seriously worried we might die on a Fijian highway… Thankfully we made it safely to the airport and boarded our plane bound for Honolulu with a brief fueling stop in Samoa, then crossing back over the dateline and having two Friday March 13ths.

The last hour or so of the flight and the landing at Honolulu was quite rough due to a major storm in the Hawaiian Islands. We both felt that the threshold for turning on the ‘fasten seatbelts’ sign on Fiji Airways was much higher than we were used to. Travel is always an eye opener and makes you appreciate where you live. We arrived in the evening and then spent the night and the next day in Honolulu waiting for our flight to Calgary. The storm endured through the night and into the next day with high winds and lots of rain, we seem to be experiencing a lot of this, and it knocked out the power for much of the following day and everything was closed. Thus our plan to enjoy Honolulu for a day was dashed. We read our books in the hotel lobby for awhile then headed back to the airport to wait for our 10:30pm flight (left at midnight) which luckily wasn’t affected too much by the storm and we had a fairly smooth flight home with a tailwind. We arrived home to a wintery day but still always appreciate coming home again.

Tags: bikepacking, NZcycling, tandemcycling