Day 64 - Wellington

Welcome to Wellington!

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a silver fern (no more though - I promise!)

We headed straight for a Wellington highlight : the National Museum ("Te Papa Tongarewa"), part Natural History, part National Gallery, part Design Museum  

and with a great viewing terrace on the 6th floor over the harbour

Of course we were knackered before we were much more halfway through so hopefully we'll make it back later in the week. But meanwhile we've a rental car booked and a plan to head up the east coast towards Napier (art deco extraordinaire) via Lake Wairarapa and some lovely scenery

To a little "bach" (holiday home), to sit out and admire the view

cook up some moki acquired for supper at a Wellington fish-shop, and talk to the neighbours

 

Day 62 to 63 - Suva to Nadi airport and onward to Wellington, NZ

So goodbye Fiji and thanks to Sheila for looking after us so well. One last bus trip from Suva back round to Nadi. 

Our last Fiji night was at the Sandalwood, with this view from our balcony

Then the 1325 miles from Nadi to Auckland, to connect to a domestic flight for the remaining 400 miles down to Wellington - accompanied by a Kiwi sunset.  

And a bumpy old landing - welcome to "windy Willington"

Day 59 to 61 - last days in Suva (and some adult-only fun...)

Last couple of days in Suva, before heading back to Nadi and the next steps...eastwards via Auckland to Wellington on Friday.  The weather hasn't been great but we've managed a few more last sights.

The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart,

a newly-opened waterside park (shielded from the sea breeze by mangroves),

and boasting an adult-only play area,

ok, I'm easily pleased ...

and time for watching a last game of rugby on the beach

Day 57 and 58 - weekend away in Levuka, Ovalau Island

20 minutes or so's flight out of Nausori airport near Suva (the advertised flight time is 13 minutes but the pilots entertained themselves with some hard banking 360° turns for a better scenic view!) 

is neighbouring Ovalau Island, on which sits the wee town of Levuka, the first capital of Fiji.  We three shared the 6-seater with a woman delivering the day's papers...

As well as well-preserved shop-fronts, Levuka is awash with Fiji's "firsts" : the site of Fiji's first bank, post office, private members' club, hospital, town hall, municipal government; its public school, opened in 1879, was the first public school in Fiji. It was recently finally awarded UNESCO Heritage status.

It was in Levuka that Chief Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau (who'd ruled as a warlord and eventually united Fiji's warring tribes under his leadership) established a united Fijian kingdom and hence it was the original capital.  

So far, so good - however, the US government held Cakobau responsible for an arson attack against the American Consul back in 1849 and demanded $44,000 compensation.  Unable to pay the debt and fearing a US invasion and annexation, Cakobau chose to cede the islands to the UK (he'd offered in fact to cede in 1854 but only conditional on being able to retain the highest and most precedent title of "Tui Viti" (Paramount Chief - the highest and most precedent title) which the UK had refused.  In 1870, Cakobau had no choice but to sign a deed of cessation to Queen Victoria, and thus Fiji became a colony until independence in 1970. 

We stayed at a fantastic bed and breakfast with magnificent breakfasts and a glorious terrace from which to see this morning's sunrise

before heading back to the teeny-tiny airport (yes, that is the control-tower...)

Day 53 to 56 - completing the island 360° via Lautoka

Tuesday saw a local-bus trip to Pacific Harbour, stopping at all manner of village diversions and detours for collections and drop-offs. More entertaining for observation of our fellow travellers on the local bus (and, when the heavens opened, at the bus-stop back) than the destination but fun nonetheless.

So, by now we'd already travelled anticlockwise from Nadi (8pm on "the clock") round to Suva (at 4pm) when we arrived and bussed it that first morning, and up to Nananu-i-Ra (at 1pm) but that left a third of the northern coastline to see.  Sheila had meetings on Thursday in Fiji's 2nd biggest city, Lautoka (whose name is said to be derived from the Fijian for "spear hit"; in a duel between two chiefs over the settlement, one walloped the other, crying "Lau-toka!" to seal his victory). We bagged a lift with her on Wednesday (clockwise round Viti Levu via Pacific Harbour again and back along the beautiful Coral coast 

past Nadi and into unfamiliar territory).  

After a picnic lunch stop and a break at an Italian-run eco-cafe with a terrace view over the beach for affogata, 

we by-passed Nadi and headed into comfortable Lautoka. 

The city's nickname of "Sugar City" recognises its sugar-cane past; in fact, it was to here that the majority of the Indian workers were brought, so the heritage is very evident (probably THE place to have been for Diwali!) and the look of the inhabitants, cuisine and fashions 

are sometimes rather different from Suva.

While Sheila was gainfully employed, we took a short cruise round the Mamanuca Islands over which we'd flown from Nadi airport on the way to Vanuatu.  

All v v beautiful, so it wasn't altogether surprising to be accompanied by a good few honeymooning couples who were being ferried to their chosen island for two weeks of island paradise ("Castaway Island", "Treasure Island", "Robinson Crusoe Island" - you get the picture).  Our boat dropped us off for some snorkelling on teeny, walk-round-it-in-30-minutes South Seas Island (looking bewitchingly like a cracker covered in pesto...)

Next day, the route back to Suva via Raki-raki completed our circumnavigation of Viti Levu, and has without doubt the most gorgeous, gasp-as-you-come-round-the-bend panoramic vistas of the island.  

Sheila and I finished Friday with a massage each (hers much needed and entirely deserved; mine wholly wanton luxury) before a swift repack for Saturday morning's 8.15am hopper flight to Ovalau Island...

Day 52 - a bank holiday in Suva (and a scalloped follow-up on Vanuatu)

...the bank holiday being for Diwali. After yesterday's noisy festivities, all was quiet and calm today; most of the shops were closed when we ventured into town for some top-up supplies but you'll be relieved to hear that D's chosen provender of cassava cake was open and operational (sadly, the same could not be said for the fruit market).  

What with the rain and humidity too, it's been rather a stay-at-home-and-regroup-and-plan day.  Although it ended very nicely with our own private Diwali celebration (sparklers!) on Sheila's terrace!

PS What with all the catching up after Vanuatu, I forgot to tell you about the interesting sartorial habits of the womenfolk. Generally (though not universally) favoured by the older lady are the capacious but airy and comfortable-looking cotton frocks worn by every other woman, complete with very fetching scalloped hem and mysterious fabric flaps at the waist.  

Day 50 and 51 - farewell to Vanuatu and back to Suva for Diwali

The remainder of our week in Vanuatu flew by, not doing a huge amount to tell the truth, though that's the kind of vibe you catch just from being there.  

When actually awake, we explored a bit more :

walked the sunset promenade with the locals, 

tracked down the post office, 

and parliament building,

ate yet more fried fish, rice and salad, 

and of course continued my research into the South Pacific's finest papaya. 

The National Museum (or "Nasonal Muisium blong Vanuatu" as they call it in Bismala) was well worth a half-morning visit, for the slit drums alone (get those psychedelic eyes - apparently representing the morning star...)

and see also the New Hebrides flag, dating back (though not too far) to 1906 until independence in 1980, when Fiji was jointly ruled as a "Condominium" by GB and France, unsurprisingly leading to all manner of complications - from which side of the road to drive on to what legal system to use to recognise marriage and tax collection...

They're also very proud that UNESCO has recognised Vanuati's unique "sand droing" (drawing) as a  "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity"; broadly, symbols and geometric writing in sand or ash, passed down through the generations.

Reluctantly, we dragged ourselves from Port Vila's beaches, back to Suva just in time for the monumental Diwali celebrations.  On the way home from the airport, we saw lots of homes lit up like Xmas trees and we knew from the coverage before we left that Diwali was going to be a big hoopla but, gosh, didn't the firework sellers do well? I've never seen such a display - from right in front of the apartment block to as far as the eye could see (despite the rain).  And it went on well into the wee hours; just as it looked to be over, another house would kick off again, which seemed then to spur on the neighbours - a serious level of one-upmanship!  40% or so of the Fijian population is of Indian descent, the result of Indians being indentured to work on sugar cane plantations between 1859 and 1916 (thousands were hoodwinked to "travel just beyond Calcutta" and then charged in labour retrospectively for their fare from home to Fiji). After working out their time, and faced with more labour to pay for return passage, many decided to stay on and made their homes here (with such enthusiasm that, not long after independence from Britain in 1970, Fijians of Indian derivation outnumbered indigenous Fijians and succeeded in voting in an "Indo-Fijian" Prime Minister, though that finally led to the 1987 coups...)