Island hopping in the Yasawas – Part One
Saturday 17 September – A lovely sunny day to welcome Geoff’s son Mike and his family, and his friend Sam and family, who arrived early afternoon. We picked them up from Denarau Port and set off immediately and headed for South Sea Island, about an hour’s sail. It’s a cute little island that caters for day trippers.
It was fun going ashore and we walked around and stayed until the day’s guests were leaving, listened to the Fijian singers and joined in with the last few Bula dances before they all left. The boys had both brought up a big cold pack with lots of beautiful NZ meats and cheeses so we tucked into some tasty NZ sausages on the BBQ for dinner.
Sunday 18 September – up early (well that’s what happens when you have a 2 ½ year old, an 18 month old and a 4 month old on board, and it’s good as you don’t waste the day!).
We sailed to our first stop in the Yasawa Islands, Waya, and anchored off the coast of the Octopus resort where Geoff’s nephew Simon and family are having a week’s holiday. Into the dinghy with all the snorkelling gear, there seemed to be no problem with us walking up the beach and into the resort where we spent the afternoon snorkelling, drinking a few cocktails and having a swim on their beach and in their swimming pool, it was fabulous. Back on board for another BBQ, NZ lamb this time – with the pleasure of the company of Simon & Co, it was a very convivial evening.
Monday 19 September – a lazy day on the boat, the guests got in the dinghy and went back to Octopus Resort to have breakfast with Simon and Hayley and play on a nearby beach with the kids, it was a very easy day, just swimming off the boat. An early dinner, we are taking it in turns to cook, so it’s a treat when you have a night off!
Being British I then retired as I was eager to watch the Queen’s State funeral so tuned into BBC for their excellent coverage. I managed to watch for 2 ½ hours, 12.30am for me, until I kept dropping off and dropping my phone, so had to give in. (Luckily Dan has taped the whole lot on Sky for me, so I can watch it all again at my leisure when I’m back in Auckland).
Tuesday 20 September - we took the dinghy into Mantaray Resort this morning hoping to spot some of its namesakes, but apparently there have been no mantarays for 5 days – so it was a little disappointing, but I guess even more so for the resort’s guests, one of whom we talked to who was settling up his bill and had only been there for 5 days and not seen any. Anyway, it was nice to have a look around and then we headed back to the boat for a lovely snorkel, the coral is amazing, like a whole underwater garden below the surface.
Anchor up off we then sailed further up the east coast of the Yasawas for a couple of hours and are now anchored in Nanuya Levu Island where the film “The Blue Lagoon” was made, along with another cluster of boats. It’s beautiful here, a lovely sandy beach and Geoff and I managed to sneak into the guests only part and enjoy a quiet pina colada on the beach, before joining Sam and Mike and two of the littlies for another pina colada (and why not!) at the more public bar, I hasten to add the kids weren’t drinking the cocktails. Back into the dinghy where Jacqui and Sera had their turn at cooking the dinner and it was ready for us, so perfect timing!
Wednesday 21 September – and we’re off, just a little sail around to Nacula. We’ve had a fantastic morning – we took some of the kava that we bought in the market in Denarau and when we got off the dinghy at the beach, a local called Joe said he would take us to the Village Chief. Off we went through to the centre of the village, it was a lovely walk, lots of locals and little kids out to greet us with hearty “Bulas”.
When we got to the Chief’s house we had unfortunately missed him by 20 minutes, but we had a nice chat to his wife and daughter and left the kava for him. On the way back one lady asked if we would like to see her homemade jewellery - she didn’t have to ask me twice – she had made the most beautiful bracelets out of shells and the inside of coconuts all intricately painted, along with some pretty colourful little mats. I was obviously her best customer today and came away with 5 bracelets and a mat.
Joe then took us to the primary school and luckily it was lunchtime so we visited the classroom, lots of the kids came in to see us, so sweet all of them with their happy faces and really eager to talk to us and show us around their classroom. Geoff played teacher and asked them a few trigonometry questions – they loved it. It was a very special morning, so neat to see and chat to all the locals, especially all the kids in the school.
And if we thought the morning in Nacula was fantastic, our afternoon was even more fabulous. We sailed around to Malakati Bay and anchored off the shore. Mike, Zander (clutching our gift of kava) Geoff and I went into the village to pay our respects to the Chief in his house and perform the sevusevu ceremony. We had such a lovely welcome and were asked if we would like to be shown around.
There is a backstory to this village as Geoff’s partner in the boat, Earl, and his wife Jo, paid for the kindergarten to be built here. Obviously we were keen to see it and we weren’t disappointed with the welcome we got there. A lovely teacher Suzanne invited us in and showed us around. Unfortunately the children had all left for the day, although there were still a few around shouting “Bula” to us.
We told Suzanne the story about Earl & Jo and would you believe, she pointed at the wall and there was a blown up photograph of the boat with “Salanjo 2008” for all to see! It was wonderful. The original teacher Milly had passed away but her sister, daughter and grandaughter came to meet us and it was heartwarming to see their happiness. Suzanne asked if we could return the next day as she wanted the children to sing to us and we said we would be delighted. The ladies also said they would put on a market for us in the Community hall.
Thursday 22 September – all 9 of us were up and out early, eager to go back and visit the kindergarten kids. They were so excited, sitting there in their little gingham shirts and dresses and they sang us a couple of Fijian songs, then once they realised we knew some of their songs it turned into a huge singalong with us all singing “The Wheels on the Bus”, “5 Little Monkeys” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” it was just so much fun, they were so thrilled, dancing around, high-fiving us, they loved playing and kissing Zander, Hazel and little Annabel.
Hazel and Zander were loving it, dancing and waving their hands around with the kids, we took lots of photographs of all of them, they were so irresistible. Then we went over to the Community Hall where about 9 ladies had laid out all their treasures, jewellery, tapa cloths, baskets, shirts – we duly obliged and between us bought a number of items (a purple shell bracelet for me!!). It was so wonderful to be part of their community and see how happy all the villagers are, despite their simple lives. We promised to return and visit when Earl and Jo arrive in a few weeks – imagine the welcome they will get!!
