Bula! Family & Friends,
Our final Fiji dispatch commences after breakfasting on the Tui Tai, moored at Savusavu Harbor on Vanua Levu. We met Morita, the owner of Tui Tai and milled around the downtown district of Savusavu, all 6 blocks of it, killing time until our flight. The hustling and bustling we experienced deemed this a thriving port and multi-cultural melting pot…something out of a steamy south seas Joseph Conrad novel! When the time came, we took a taxi to the small airport. Our driver shared his rise to owning a fleet of 5 taxis and 2 pickup trucks. We were flying back to our original jumping off point upon arrival in Fiji, Nadi, on the largest island, Viti Levu, to take a 50 minute hop to Vunisea, the smallest island thus far, with the landing strip a few yards from the beach. We had to wait 20 minutes for our luggage to arrive on a second plane. Papageno Eco Resort on the NW portion of the island was our final destination, which we would reach by motor launch. Our boatmen, Zachariah and Taito met us on the beach, hoisted our luggage on their shoulders and led us as we waded out to board our 20 foot craft. When asked on the length of time to reach Papageno, we were told 10 minutes. Hah! Again, “Fiji” time… turned out it was 40 minutes in the sun, skirting the huge expanse of white sand beaches on our right, skimming over the calm waters over the reefs, darting between coral structures standing out as dark shapes below the aquamarine waters.
Approaching the resort, we were welcomed by a dozen members of Papageno’s staff, who had been awaiting our arrival and started singing to us as we disembarked and waded ashore. We were led to our beachfront bure which was quite expansive compared to all our previous habitations. We had a front porch with a round table and 2 chairs where Karl, the Papageno manager, cut the tops off 2 coconuts, inserted straws and rum for our “welcome” drinks. Settling in, we relaxed off our veranda in a double hammock and chaise lounges. After a late lunch at the resort’s headquarters (HQ), we frolicked on our beach, swimming and, watching flying fish skimming inches above the waves, 20-30 feet away from us. Before dinner we walked the beach, going crazy over all the beautiful shells, leaving them in place, however. Returning to our bure, we discovered a problem with the hot water and went up to HQ, coming across some of Papageno’s men readying for a 6 PM Kavu ceremony, asking that we attend. Good thing we showed up, since it was to formally welcome Maggie and me, while bidding farewell to Oliver and Judith, honeymooners from Germany, having stayed here for 10 days. In their real life, he runs a company of 10 employees making brake parts for Volkswagen and other car companies, she, a student of economics and sports. Dinner was served an hour later, consisting of Barracuda, Chop Suey and a salad from this property’s garden, cultivated by staff, honoring their pledge to be as self-sufficient as possible. We turned in early, needing the 9 hours of sleep that partially made up for the preceding stormy night at sea.
We awoke to the songs of a variety of birds and a strange bright orb in the sky we had not seen much of the last 9 days! After coffee, fresh fruit, eggs and meeting newcomers, Dave & Rosemary from Sydney, Australia, we went with Zachariah to feed the Kadavu Shining parrot (found only on this island), followed by touring their extensive garden of taro, cassava, basil, tomatoes, onions, and watermelons. There were quite a buzz of mosquitos in this area, as well as a large pig sty with black and white pigs and some very small piglets. The largest pigs were females, as the males had been slaughtered for dining purposes. Maggie and I lolled about in our double hammock whilst our room was being cleaned and then it was off at 10 AM for a boat ride with Rosemary and Dave, Eppe our captain, up the coast to the Methodist church in the village of Naivakarauniniu. Since the tide was out, we were forced to slog in on the flats past 3 pigs (1 a piglet) rooting in the muddy sands for crabs. Reaching the church, we donned our sulus, removed our sun glasses, and entered the church, sitting near the back on the left side, same side as the children and elderly women...a perfect fit for us!!
One of the church elders was positioned 6-8 rows back from the front with a 7-8 foot long, 1 inch diameter pole. Its purpose was soon revealed when we witnessed him gently touching certain misbehaving children with the pole, trying to keep them in line, stopping their talking, nudging their heads pointing straight ahead! We saw Joseph, who works the yard at Papageno and is an elder of the church, entering with a fellow elder, both attired in sulus, wearing ties and dark pin-striped coats, sitting where the adult choir members sat along with other elders and on the right side. Joseph acknowledged us, shaking our hands before sitting down. Another of Papageno’s staff was prominent in this service, Kelepi, whom we had met the night before at our Kava ceremony, where we were told his name meant “father of the donkey” which all present roared at…must have been an inside joke! Turned out Kelepi is an elder in the next village east of us and was the guest speaker today, giving a powerful 20 minute sermon to this congregation of 60-70 villagers, using his fingers and arms along with great vocal inflections. It was later interpreted for us that the subject was “soul” and parental/elder responsibilities for raising the children. The 4 of us were introduced to the congregation later in the service, thanking us for our attendance and show of respect. We actually participated in the singing of several hymns even though written in Fijian! The choir’s voices were magical, females and males contrasting and harmonizing amazingly, sending chills down our spines and tears to our eyes. Upon leaving the church, several of the elders stopped at our pew and shook each of our hands. We thanked the young minister, Joseph, and Kelepi for a wonderful morning.
Before we returned to Papageno, we were led through the village by Johnnie, who took us into his home, meeting his wife and 3 children. We took pictures of the whole family, the children being amazed at seeing themselves immediately afterward, on our camera! We promised to send copies to them when we returned home, which we did, including a frame. Johnnie turned us over to Sammie, to guide us, on land, back to the resort, a 30 minute walk over a rock-strewn trail, passing a mangrove inland waterway that was only mud at this low tide moment. At high tide, it would be navigable by kayak. Along the way, we were treated to bird songs and butterflies and a villager’s personal garden. During the course of the walk we learned that Sammie’s father is the ‘acting’ chief of Naivakarauniniu. After lunch Zachariah took us in the Nunu Mai, powered by twin 85 horsepower outboards, down the coast (west) toward Long Beach for some excellent snorkeling. Once in the water, we saw the usual suspects of coral and fish, some soft coral that Maggie named Leper’s Fingers, plus Crown of Thorn starfish who are very destructive to reefs (“reef eaters”). Later, we returned to HQ for tea, then struck out to the shoreline and around the point, westward, to view the upcoming sunset. Due to the high tide, we had to take a circuitous route over the hill, past pig sties, across a swampy stream, blazing our own trail down past a huge termite nest, eventually paralleling the coastline, coming out onto Shell Beach, walking to a second point where we viewed our targeted sunset! Spectacular colors and rays through the stream of puffy clouds.
Our return was tricky since it was dusk, Maggie getting distracted by all the beautiful shells. Finally we found our way, espying the swampy stream and got back for dinner on time, Parrotfish and Red Snapper, with cassava, spinach greens, tomato soup and a banana-in-coconut cream dessert. We would wake up in the morning to our 30th anniversary, October 3, pouring some of the champagne given to us when we arrived, toasting the day and the sunrise at water’s edge, followed by feeding the Kadavu Shining Parrots, one landing on Maggie’s hand to partake of the awaiting peanut. New arrivals were sung to as we had experienced a couple of days earlier. Throughout this day, I secretly met with Karl several times regarding the logistics for the surprise ceremony at dusk which Maggie knew nothing about. I had been using excuses for these meetings, e.g., our water shortage, hot water issues, etc. At one point, Maggie noticed the torches along the beach being rounded up by some of the staff and questioned it. I played dumb and suggested she ask Karl if she was so curious. We proceeded to have back-to-back massages with Lavenia, Eppe’s wife. The ruse was it was a “freebie” for all the hot water problems. Back at our bure, I told Maggie we had to dress up a bit for the Kavu ceremony welcoming the newest guests. From our un-shuttered window, I could see that the semi-circle of torches were now lit and attendees were in position. The cue was the ringing of Papageno’s gong, alerting me to Sammie’s imminent arrival at our door, bearing necklaces of Fijian flowers for both of us. The jig was up! So, in front of Joseph, with Karl next to him as was Sammie, and surrounded by a half dozen of Papageno guests (the New Zealanders-Daniel and his parents; the Aussies, Dave & Rosemary), Joseph recited a rendition of Maggie’s and my original wedding vows, whilst we held hands, kissing when Joseph was finished, this act being repeated many times due to the dead batteries in our camera and the need to do ‘reenactments’. Maggie and I dined on our veranda, meeting up with everybody at 8 PM for the Kava ritual.
The following day, we woke up wondering if the 20 hour difference between Seattle and Fiji meant we might have celebrated our anniversary on the wrong day! Didn’t matter, so we stopped trying to do the math. At breakfast, we learned from Isaac that a picnic/snorkeling/fishing day was planned for Long Beach. We left after 10 AM in 2 boats, one with guests, and another with all the paraphernalia, e.g., tables, coolers, food. Arriving at our destination, we set up on the beach, in the shade of a coconut tree and then got dropped off at the reef (4 of us and Karl) for a couple of hours, seeing more coral colors and types than we had seen so far. The reef was close to shore and we swam back, coming across 3 Picasso Triggerfish, Juvenile Yellow Boxfish (bright yellow fish with black polka dots). Lunch on the beach consisted of cassava, beer, barracuda prepared with a spicy coating, small sweet bananas, large slices of papaya and coconut milk in the shell and coconut meat. Maggie and I sat with some of the locals, like Keep, who were bantering in Fijian, poking fun at each other with their ‘insider’ names, e.g., Mr. Donkey, Big Monkey, and Little Monkey. Post-lunch, Isaac took us out a mile or so to another reef, which probably was the highlight of all our snorkeling in Fiji. Wrasse, Yellow-tailed Fusilier, Surgeonfish (with Nike-like black swooshes), Moorish Idols, and tons of Parrotfish. Deep purple coral abounded which we had not seen before. We witnessed Isaac diving 20 feet down, swimming through a coral tunnel, popping out 10 feet later. Isaac is a 25 you. Maori who coaches the local boys’ rugby team. This day was a “10”! We headed back after 6 hours and caught our breath in the bore, recuperating from a very active day. We dined on Trevally Jack fish that Karl had caught a few days ago, which was excellent, as was the ensuing conversation ranging from politics, to religion, sex…quite scintillating.
Our last day at Papageno began when Daniel and his parents returned from a 6 AM fishing trip, excited about catching a 5 pound rock fish. Mid-morning, we and the Aussies got into 2 double kayaks and paddled a half mile to the small island east of us, through a channel with the island was on our left, the mangroves on our right, putting in at the first beach, then snorkeling for a couple of hours, finally seeing some good stuff after a lot of dead coral for the 1st half hour. We eventually came across some magnificent reef “cliffs” where coral grew like trees, angling toward the open waters. We saw some coral new to us, e.g., orange and spongy with pinpoint white spots, undulating with a side to side wavy motion. Maggie espied a black and white banded eel/sea snake and a reef shark. Flying fish were everywhere on our kayaking return trip to Papageno. Onshore we played ping pong in Papageno’s Recreation Center with locals along with Daniel and the Aussies, sweating profusely, before resting up in our chaise lounges before our last Lovo meal. We wore our sulus, dancing, drinking Kava, and singing songs like “Please Release Me” (Engelbert Humperdinck) and “Bad Moon Rising” (Creedence Clearwater Revival), with Zachariah on his guitar!!!Pretty funny and friendly, the room full of laughter.
We were saddened upon leaving Fiji to return to our work lives, but did get in some early morning snorkeling with Moray eel spotting, groups of Picasso fish and multi-colored coral gardens waving good bye to us. As we were whisked away to the small airport to catch our plane to Nadi and on home, there were many tears and hugs to Mr. Stan and Miss Maggie, almost 20 staff in attendance on our departure, singing us a ‘good-bye’ song.
This tale ends here, having been written from our journal, penned 15 years ago, having celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a different ilk of adventure and our 45th in our home state of Washington, under Covid Pandemic rules.
Ni sa bula vinaka, Stan & Maggie