Sydney :: Australia
Yasawa what?
Places: Nadi, Waya, Tavewa & Nanuya Balavu.
Coolest thing I did: Sank kava with the boys at night.
Coolest thing I didn´t know: Fiji fits Freddie Mercury’s criteria for a real country as it has both a beer and an airline.
While visiting all the people back in Sydney has been good for me, I decided I needed a holiday away from my holiday. So I went to Fiji. As you do.
I flew into the “city” of Nadi but resolved to spend very little time in it. As this was one of the least planned trips I’ve ever taken I decided pretty much overnight to get on the Yasawa Flyer (the big yellow boat as they call it) and take a trip through the Yasawa chain of islands, which stretch out off the west coast of Viti Levu, the main island. I’d read quickly that this was more in the back packer style of travel, as opposed to the much closer Mamanuca chain. The Mamanuca chain has some of the world’s best reef breaks for surfing and some of the countries’ best dive spots, but I didn’t like the idea of being trapped on these resort islands with a crowd only interested in booze and sunburn. I could have gone to Bali. Or Dublin.
The Yasawa Flyer is a top idea. Not only does it wind its way to pretty much every non-luxury resort in the whole chain of islands, but it also is the only thing in the Yasawas that maintains anything resembling punctuality. When you are on an island and the only way you are aware of time is by the sounding of the drum/horn/conch shell for meals then this is the kind of thing that stops entire days passing by without you noticing. It’s also a very good way to get a look at the islands as you pass so you can see if it’s the kind of thing you were after.
My first stay was at a tiny resort called Sunset, which had one of the more enviable locations I stayed in. It is situated right on the beach between Waya Island and it’s baby sister Waya Lailai. The beach includes a strip of sand that allows walking between the two islands at low tide but completely disappears during high tide. There is a village over the water on Waya Lailai and one over the hills on Waya, meaning there seems to be constant traffic of Fijians wandering through the resort with little distinction between who works there and who is being friendly. It’s quite a good atmosphere.
I spent lots of time there laying in a hammock and watching it all go by. This is a valid past time in most of Fiji and very rewarding. You get an idea of what people do all day. The lack of organisation (and all day electricity) seemed to annoy some of those passing through but it was exactly what I was looking for. After the mad week of boozing it up in Sydney it was nice to have some quieter nights and lazier days.
My two big activities were hiking up the mountain and snorkelling. Waya has the only real mountain in the Yasawas so when they told me that one of the blokes from the village would take us up to the top I jumped at the chance. I was the only one so me and my mate Artu went around to the far village in his dingy, picked up his machete and proceeded to hike the hour and a half to the summit. Along the way you see all the hill side agriculture that provides most of the food for these people (and us resort stayers) and build up quite a sweat. I guess walking up a hill in the tropics is bound to leave you looking like you swam up the mountain. The view from the top is nothing short of spectacular, with a clear view all the way to Viti Levu and the far end of the Yasawas. You can even see the outer edge of the reef and the waves breaking over the famous surf spots like Cloudbreak and Restaurants.
On the way back down Artu climbed up some trees and got us coconuts, which he then proceeded to tap and poke holes in so we could drink the juice with bamboo straws. I expected something like the coconut milk you buy in cans, but it turns out the juice is clear and rather sweet. While we were sitting under a tree having a rest one of his mates stopped by from digging up yams and they sat there having a bit of a yarn. This seems to be how work is done in Fiji, constantly punctuated by the need to have a bit of a yap about things. It’s not too much different from us I guess.
As it was a quiet night that night the younger blokes from the village had me down to the beach where they were drinking kava. Kava is kind of like a crushed root that is scrubbed through a sock into water and comes up with something that looks and tastes like muddy water. It’s drinkable if you don’t think too much about it. It’s also supposed to be mildly narcotic but the only effect I felt on the first night was a bit of a calmness and some difficulty sleeping.
When you go to the hotels or resorts you’ll probably get roped into one of these formal kava ceremonies where everyone has their place and there’s heaps of clapping and what not. These blokes just drink it because it’s the only thing the chief will allow them to drink. Booze is strictly forbidden in the villages, which also may explain why many of the problems with drink that have burdened other indigenous cultures have not manifested in the villages of Fiji. As people do, however, if the boys can have kava, then that’s what they’ll have. There must be some need to all gather around and have something to do while they whinge about their women and the chief. I guess some things transcend all national boundaries. I started to see it something like the coca leaves in the Andes, it’s proven itself to not be a problem for such a long time than to ban it now would be pointless.
The snorkelling in all the three islands I stayed in Fiji was some of the best I’ve ever done, and thankfully it got progressively better each island I tried it on. The water is like glass and the thing that struck me the most is the sheer variety of fish that will come out to play. Every bit of land, including the reefs is owned by someone and most of the villages have not sold the fishing rights to anyone, which is a good as declaring it a national park. One of the Dutch guys on Waya went night snorkelling with the locals at night and they allowed him to pick up lobsters right off the reef and cook them. There’s no real danger of over fishing when so few people are doing it. It also means they can make a living without needing to resort to government hand outs and the like. I’ve always been a bit sceptical about land rights at home, but having seen how well it appears to work in Fiji I think I’m coming around.
The second island I stayed on was Tavewa, which is one of the last places there are resorts in the Yasawas, even though it’s only about half way along the chain. The resort was set on a point covered in palm trees and the reef came right up to the shoreline meaning you could take your fins and mask right out of the bure (hut thing) where you were staying and in 10 metres or so you were right on the reef.
Tavewa is right over a very narrow channel from the Blue Lagoon of the movie fame and for the same view as I got you could bay $1500USD a night at the ultra posh resorts over the water. Of course, there you would have had flushing toilets and constant electricity, but you’re in Fiji, why would you want all that? The food was a notch above the stuff on the last island, and with the combination of protein and carbs so prevalent I found myself with no end of energy. I climbed up the hills in the interior of the island before lunch and then went snorkelling or swimming at the beach in the afternoon. Pretty blissful stuff.
The strangest thing, however, was the streams of pumice in the water. Apparently there had been an underwater volcano erupt the week before somewhere between Fiji and the Solomons, part of the same activity that caused the recent earthquake in Hawaii. This had dumped tons of pumice (which floats) into the water and the beaches were covered with it every morning in Tavewa. At first it’s a bit of a novelty, but then you see the workers at the resort having to rake it all up every morning and you think they probably don’t see it that way. It’s also a bit annoying when it keeps knocking into you while you’re snorkelling, but it also has caused these very warm currents, meaning you can feel extreme changes in temperature as you swim along and even see shimmering in the water at the inflection points.
Sleeping was a bit hard during the night for a combination of reasons. The local blokes were working behind the resort, clearing some land most days and at night I’d be only my way back to the bure and they’d invite me to more kava in the bush where they were working. I found that after a few days on the stuff it does start to numb the lips and tongue as advertised but also sleeping gets harder and harder. Add to that the geckos chirp loudly most nights and the sun is up before 5am and it makes sleeping in hard. Still, with no end of hammocks to make up for it during the hot hours of the mid day then it’s not that big a problem.
My last stop was on Nanuya Balavu, which is home to the Manta Ray Island resort, thus called because the channel between Nanuya Balavu and neighbouring Drawaqa island is the most likely spot in the Yasawas you’re going to see the rays swimming. It’s a good system really. You hire your snorkelling gear for the whole time you’re there and when someone spots them in the water you hear a drum beating and everyone goes in for a look. The snorkelling off the beach there was the best I saw anywhere regardless of the rays, but they made it even more special. The giant coral bommies give way to a sandy channel and even though I only saw one (and only at a distance) it was amazing.
Manta Ray is one of the newer breeds of backpacker joints. It seems that over the last 5 years the market has grown up a bit and be it in Munich or Fiji, posher kinds of backpacker accommodation is springing up to meet the demand. With it’s eco toilets, smaller dorms, new bar and restaurant and on site dive shop it’s obviously able to cater for those who want a bit of comfort with their adventure. I’m glad I didn’t stay in these kinds of places all the time, as the Fijians become more like resort staff, but it was a nice change right at the end.
It did appear to attract the gap year poms who I’d expected to see a bit more of along the way. Fiji is the first really foreign destination on the round-the-world-starting-America ticket and man, do you get some freshies. It did my ego a lot of good to tell of the travels of my 20s and I think I even gave some good advice on what to do when they all got to Sydney. Of course, they will all most likely stay in Kings Cross, go to Bondi and end up in Scruffy Murphies anyway, but it’s nice to think one or two of them will try something different.
The ride back to Nadi happened to coincide with the only day of poor weather on the trip, meaning the catamaran was getting up on one foil in some of the open water. There were lots of pale looking white people and lots of nonchalant looking Fijians. I even saw one woman carry two cups of uncovered tea without spilling a drop.
All in all, Fiji was well worth taking the week out for. I saw such a small part of the country, I reckon you could go for a month without doing too badly. I may try that sometime in the future.