Fiji Time

Last week Steph and I went on my reward trip for my 10 years of faithful service to F5 Networks.  After endless deliberation over the past 4 years or so, we finally settled on Fiji, after considering Bali, Canary Islands, Thailand, Costa Rica, Turks and Caicos, Tuscany, Turkey, and Burien.  We ultimately wanted to go somewhere warm, culturally rich, and unique to any travel we had done before.

Our extensive research and deliberation led us to a private resort on the island of Vanua Levu, called "Emaho Sekawa".  The resort, which aptly describes itself as "unique in Fiji, unique in the world" caters to one lucky couple or family at a time.  Set on the hillside above a private beach, surrounded by acres of lush tropical rainforest, and proffering breathtaking views in all directions, Emaho Sekawa was the perfect place to unplug from our busy lives for a few days and get to know a unique culture and environment.

Upon our arrival, via the largest and smallest airplanes either of us have ever flown on, we were warmly greeted by our hosts Petra and Lukas, and their excellent staff, comprised of Fijians from the surrounding villages.  Our stay began with a welcome song in Fijian, banana leaf leis, and fresh coconut juice for Steph and champagne for myself.

Double decker 747 from LA to Nadi

Twin Otter from Nadi to Savusavu

The ultra modern Savusavu Airport

Banana leaf lei greeting

Our amenities included a beautiful villa, with open air living and dining areas, an outdoor "day bed" adjacent to a small plunge pool, a beautiful wrap around deck with an outdoor shower, and a self contained master bedroom.  Above the villa was a dining pavilion, in traditional Fijian "bure" style, with a  separate bar, and a large lawn area for dining under the stars.

"Bure" dining pavilion

We quickly settled into a typical cadence to our days.  In the mornings we had a relaxed breakfast, followed by some sort of excursion.  In the afternoons we read and snoozed, with the background music of daily afternoon thunderstorms.  Evenings were spent enjoying dinners at the pavilion, watching the gorgeous sunsets, and learning about the local ways from Inisa, our host in the evenings.

Our first evening we ate outside by the pavilion, and we discovered the perfect conditions for good star gazing:  go to an undeveloped island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a moonless, cloudless night... and have the power go out.  With not a single light on within 50 miles and nary a cloud in the sky, we saw some stars!  Venus was unbelievably bright, and as the night wore on, we watched it dip toward the horizon, and start to change colors, at which point it occurred to us that we were watching  "Venus set".  Unlike sunsets or moonsets, Venus sets very quickly, and we had fun guessing when it was going to suddenly disappear... saying over and over "there it goes!" during the 20 seconds or so that it took to vanish.

Inisa... our friendly source of local information

For our first daytime activity, Lukas took us kayaking on the nearby river into the rainforest.  Steph and I shared the work equally:  I did the paddling, she did the picture taking.  Teamwork!  Our surroundings were incredibly peaceful, as we paddled along the beach to the mouth of the river, up river, and eventually into the little tributaries under the canopy of the rainforest.  The only sounds were the birds and the occasional coconut or fruit falling into the water.  Over the course of about 4 hours, the only other beings we saw were a couple of cows that had wandered down to the river's edge for a drink.  At this point it dawned on us just how incredibly unspoiled this island was.  We were literally the only tourists we saw our entire stay on the island.  The only other westerners we saw were the yachties at the marina in Savusavu.

Structure used for building fires to dry coconuts.  These were ubiquitous throughout the island

After our hard work in the kayak, we had massages in the villa while the heavens opened up and dropped torrential rain for hours on end.  Not a problem, as we were ready to just relax and dine in the villa.  Overnight the clouds rained themselves out, and we awoke to sunny skies, ready for our next excursion... Sand Island.

After months of careful politicking, Lukas was able to persuade the local chief (yes, Fiji is to this day run by a hierarchy of native chiefs who earn their position by birthright... ) to give access to a tiny island known as Sand Island.   His guests are the only people allowed on the island, and as such it is virtually untouched by people, to the extent that we found it inhabited by seabirds, who laid their eggs out in the open, completely unprotected.  They were a nervous wreck when we showed up!

We snorkeled Sand Island for an hour or so, seeing a couple of sea turtles in addition to the usual assortment of tropical fish.  Lukas found a really cool conch, which is apparently pretty rare in Fiji.  After a picnic lunch, we jumped back in the boat and raced the thunderstorms home.

In the afternoon we went into Savusavu, the main "town", which is really just one street of shops and restaurants, a market, the marina, and the surrounding villages.  We noticed that half the population doesn't care to wear shoes.  As we rode back with Petra, we continued a conversation we had been having with Lukas on our kayak ride, learning more about the people of Fiji.  We had been ignorant before our trip that Fiji is a third world country.  The average native of Fiji has very little or no money, but they want for nothing.  Food grows everywhere you look, the weather is mild, people are extremely friendly, and there is no crime.  We heard some amusing stories from Petra and Lukas, as they talked about their own experiences hiring staff.  Lukas talked of a man in his 50s that he hired who had never had a job before, and trying to explain "hours" and "breaktime", concepts that just didn't register to this employee, who he found sleeping a couple of hours into the day.  When Lukas tried to explain that his break wasn't for two more hours, the man shrugged him off, explaining "I'm tired now."

Hot springs, used by villagers to boil their vegetables

"downtown" Savusavu

Sign at entrance of vegetable market; nice to see they are enforcing standards

Lukas says that maybe 1% of islanders have a job.  They have everything they care for:  land, vegetables, coconuts, fruit, fish, simple houses.   They spend their time gathering and cooking food, drying coconut, playing with their kids, and the men spend their evenings sitting in a circle chatting and drinking Kava, a mildly narcotic drink made from the roots of a Kava bush.  It's kind of like coffee, only it puts you to sleep instead of waking you up.

On our third day in Fiji, we walked the beach, and came across an elderly villager and her granddaughter fishing in the bay.   Their fishing gear consisted of a hook and fishing line wound around a plastic coke bottle, with which she was able to catch several small fish.   As we walked by, she called out to us and invited us to her village to see her home.  After showing us her modest two room home, her well, and her chickens, she picked some lemons for us and we said goodbye.

Villager picks a flower for Steph's ear

Her chickens...

Her home

Picking lemons for us!

Steph and I kept finding ourselves returning to discussions on the contrasts of our lifestyles and how does one define poverty.  I am certain that the villagers don't feel impoverished, and they could certainly produce more and attain more wealth if they chose to, given the abundant natural resources on the islands and the fact that 85% of the land is owned by the locals.  We eventually concluded that we prefer our American lifestyle, although it is not hard to appreciate the much simpler lifestyle of the islanders.

That evening at dinner we enjoyed music from local musicians, and I shared many shells of Kava with them.  It was a beautiful evening listening to a mix of Fijian songs and Eric Clapton.

Kava time!  We learned that "low tide" means half a shell of Kava, "high tide" means full shell, please

On our last full day, we went fishing in the bay.  We did not have any plastic coke bottles on hand, so we had to use fishing rods, and we were unable to catch anything.  We suspect the water was too warm, and we probably should have gone outside the bay for the big stuff, but we weren't in the mood for motion sickness on our last day, so we settled for a sea cruise.  All was not lost however!  As we started to make our way back, Steph and I noticed a large plume of spray in the distance, that looked remarkably similar to the spouts from whales we had seen last year in Hawaii.  Lukas assured us that there were no whales in Savusavu bay.  But he was excited to get the lines back in the water after seeing birds circling where Steph and I saw the plume of spray, along with several small fish jumping out of the water.  Those are tell tale signs of bigger game fish below.  So we trolled around for a couple of minutes, until we saw those big fish breach, at which point we quickly got the lines out of the water, as they were, in fact, whales!  So the empty fishing expedition turned into whale watching, followed by a drenched ride back home through a squall.

Major squall... which we got to ride through to get home!

Our last evening we enjoyed green lobsters for dinner and chatting the night away with Inisa, who kept reminding us to bring our kids next time, as she continually referred to Steph as "Mackenzie's mom".

We will miss Fiji greatly, and are so thankful for the experience.  We got much more that we expected from our trip, and have a great appreciation for this very different culture.  We hope to return some day!

Images from Fiji:

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