I’ve traveled to a a lot of places in the world and now: Taveuni in Fiji is one of my favorite destinations. It’s heaven on earth. When I research  for a holiday it normally takes me a couple of weeks: going on  the internet, finding chat lines, falling down internet-worm-holes, contacting my global crew of friends for tips…  and this time the info I kept getting was:  ”Go to Fiji and if you go, make sure you get off the main island. Go to an outa island and  see the real Fiji.” Taveuni, the garden Island kept flashing up again as the place to go.

So, I rented a cute house with a pool (that didn’t cost a fortune) Villa Sekoula, but you can find other accommodation here.

Here are some pictures from my holiday.

Bulla, our helper in the house will take you into town to buy food which she will then cook. This fresh fish was about $5. We found eating in restaurants in Fiji really expensive for a family of four, so Bulla cooked at home for us (  cooking included with the house rental).

Below was a market stall in town to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Everybody grows their own vegetables in Taveuni; it looked like people popped into town to sell their extras.

There was so much to do in Taveuni  apart from sitting on a beach. There were so many magical waterfalls to visit and – no one was there! Below is a couple of pictures. The bottom picture is a natural rock-slide that falls into another waterfall filled with other happy little fish. (Make sure you get a guide that will show you how to navigate the slides and jump into the pools.) Cino helped us out and  he was a good taxi driver too. TEL: 9846899.

Things to do:

1. Bouma Falls: Spend a morning here. Unless you’re geriatric – walk up to all three waterfalls. Take snacks and water as by the time you get to the third waterfall,  you’ll need to munch on something to replenish your energy  to get back down. Maria ( who works in the office where you buy a ticket to see the waterfalls) can prepare you a great lunch positioned by a river for your return. Here is her number : 78507113/78204709  (Maria  has 8 boys and doesn’t earn a lot of money so if you have any spare second hand boys clothes, takes them with you and give them to her as a gift: she will be even happier to see you.)

2. Wairiki Mission: If you are on Taveuni on a Sunday – this is a must! I’m not religious but sitting crossed legged on the church floor listening to everyone  singing stunning a cappella hymns,  was a truly a religious moment. Near here is the International dateline marker. A dateline cuts right through Fiji. To make life easier though – they have put Fiji, all on one time. If you go, it is the only place in the world where you can place one foot in yesterday and one in today.

3. Lavena Coastal walk: You walk through a local village, along a stunning coast line and arrive at another magical waterfall. You have to  swim up a shallow river to get to it. Take a guide, they will show you how to jump into the waterfall and maneuver your way onto another, natural, stone water-slide. Take a snack, get your guide to bring a fresh coconut to share. Another thing you can do from here is take a boat or canoe  up the coast to view more waterfalls.

There are heaps of other things to do too and I wished we had spent two weeks there instead of 8 days. You can go horse riding, diving and pick a sacred flower: The Tagimoucia. They grows in only two places on the planet, Taveuni and a mountain top in Nepal. If you are taking small kids to Taveuni check out this website: Fiji magic. They have great stories about Fiji, personally I would print them out and use them as bed time tales.

Below pictures of:Wairiki Mission & the inside of Villa Sekoula and the view from the villa’s lounge.

Villa Sekoula is in Matei (north of the island). It’s a great village, super chilled. It has good snorkeling just off the coast and on the 2nd and 3rd Islands nearby. Our house came with kayaks so we would kayak and snorkel around the islands at leisure. If your looking for huge white sandy beaches, this isn’t the beach area for you. I met a tourist who raved about the Mananuca Islands as they had those kind of beaches.

And what made this place extra special? The people!  Below is a policeman! Also pictures of: houses in the local village and Seppo who cleaned our pool at the house and  then turned up on the last night to make us a Lovo ( special meal cooked in the ground). His friends then arrived and we drank kava sitting on a straw mat on the floor,  whilst they all sung and played music till midnight.

Map of Taveuni

Now, let’s see, where did I leave off? Oh yes…

Day 3 – Lavena Coastal Walk
The following misty morning began early with Sukh arriving to bring us to Lavena. If you look at the map I’ve provided above, Lavena is on the Eastern side of the island and we were departing from the Western side, near Somosomo. There is a paved road up to Matei on the Northernmost tip of the island, but after that, the road on the Eastern side was all dirt. Along the way, we stopped at Peckham’s Pearl Farm and were absolutely enchanted by the beautiful jewelry for sale.  Spoiler alert: I caved and bought a mother of pearl necklace and we three musketeers bought matching friendship bracelets of mother of pearl.

On the way to Lavena, the weather wasn’t looking too cooperative with dark clouds looming and rain from the previous day. We stopped at a number of neat locations on our way there including a shallow concrete bridge (for lack of a better word) that looked more like a sidewalk that happen to run over a fast running river. Sukh commented casually about how the bridge frequently floods and sometimes it takes more than five hours before it is safe for vehicles to cross. Luckily, it was safe enough to cross and we arrived in Lavena around noon where we were treated to delicious bite sized pancakes and tea before we headed off on our kayak tour of the Lavena Reserve.

Sukh the Tour-Guide-Taxi-Driver Extraordinaire

Lots of farmland in Fiji--Although not what we traditionally think of

On-The-Way-To-Lavena So-Called Bridge

The coastal walk that most people take is usually two hours both ways but we took kayaks to the falls and walked the rest of the way back. The waves were pretty choppy and, yes, for those loyal readers, I got sick. Ha ha ha. And I laughed at the thought of taking Sea-Legs before a self-powered boat ride–never again! I made it a respectable distance but did end up hopping into the motorboat at our tour guide’s insistence. (“You look green!”)

The falls were absolutely breathtaking and the cold, fresh water felt fantastic, renewing. I absolutely love swimming in freshwater pools–the cool, crisp water is cleansing for the body and the soul. (Or maybe that’s just what it feels like after easing out of seasickness–ha ha ha, OK no more.) Again, due to the rain, the falls were huge and the rocks around them very wet. When we got to the second falls, we had to sim against the big currents generated by the falls to the base. The tour guides wouldn’t let us climb the walls but they climbed for us and demonstrated, with their incredible Fijian-mountain-climbing-skills, two gutsy waterfall jumps for us.

In the First Pool

Struggling Through the Second Pool!

During the hike back, the rain started up again. The tour guides showed us a few unique flowers along the way and we crossed a neat bridge as a part of the trail. Part of the walk was along the beach and we picked up some lovely shells on the way. By the time we got back to the visitor center the light rain had turned to a steady downpour and we were thoroughly soaked. After a wonderful, delicious, delectable (I can still taste it now) home cooked (village-cooked) meal, we sat in the common room with the other guests and some boys from the village to play some card games and a Fijian game that I couldn’t quite figure out. (The pieces looked like Scrabble or Mah-Jong or Dominoes but I couldn’t figure out the rules.) I settled for an evening of Locker (the card game) and fell asleep early.

Lavena Bridge

Actually in the evening I had to call Sukh to arrange for a pick up (he didn’t want to drive past the rocky road and we didn’t want to pay the extra money to have him make the trek) but to get service in Lavena, I had to follow one of the village boys around in the dark (and rainy) night to find the one spot in the village with service. Fascinating! Though mostly inconvenient, at the time, especially since the service was still dodgy.

Good morning and Good bye, Lavena!

Day 4 – Aqua-Trek at Garden Island Resort
We caught the city bus at 5:30 AM and bid a fond farewell to Lavena Village. We were treated to a beautiful bus-side sunrise and met Sukh in Matei (see map again). He took us to Garden Island for diving and we headed out at 8:00 AM for a two tank dive. For the first time in my (short) diving career, I experienced zero seasickness. That’s right. The key, I’ve found, is that I hadn’t been taking strong enough doses. I spaced out 1.5 doses of Sea Legs over 3 hours before the dive and had the most glorious day out at sea.

In between dives, we docked by a beach and I had the best time snorkeling and jumping off the boat. Instead of huddling on the bench trying to sleep off seasickness in between dives as I normally do, I was sitting with the crew in the back, hanging off the side of the boat, dipping my feet into the ocean–full of energy and probably a little annoyingly overenthusiastic, too (haha). The quality of the coral and diversity and density of fish life was probably comparable to the Yasawas but the fact that I was physically comfortable, confident, and not-sick underwater made the Taveuni dives the best I’ve ever done thus far. Huzzah! The two sites we went to were: Jack’s Spot (Fish Factory) and The Small White Wall (Annie’s Bommies). Since Garden Island didn’t have their own stamp for our divebooks, we had our Divemaster stamp his thumb for us.

Unfortunately, Mary got really sick during (and probably before) the dives. We suspect her questionable tasting breakfast of egg and butter and tomato sandwich from next door was probably the culprit. In any case, Don, the dive operator at Aqua-trek was kind enough not only to offer us a (local) student discount on the dives (hooray, USP students!) but also discounted rooms at Garden Island Resort. We were planning on just winging it and hopping on a city bus or finding a taxi to take us to Beverly’s Campgrounds but Don really felt for Mary who was in awful pain and concerned about our safety as well. To give you an idea of what a day/night at Garden Island Resort feels like, it’s better described in pictures than more words:

Garden Island Resort Pool

Sunset at Garden Island Resort

Close your eyes, hold those images in your head and imagine a faint smell of blueberries and frangipani and you’ll have a good idea of what Garden Island Resort is like. The rooms smelled liked blueberries and all the soaps and shampoos were coconut products from Pure Fiji. The views from the rooms were unbeatable and the staff weren’t just Pacific-Islander friendly–they were caring, professional and interesting to talk to, too. Also, they had amazing showers and the downstairs rooms had jacuzzis in their front porches. (Luxury, much!?) They also have free DVDs for rent at the front desk so we spent a lovely, relaxed evening accompanying Mary as she slowly recuperated by watching movies then promptly falling asleep. Our last night in Taveuni was spent serendipitously at the lovely Garden Island Resort.

The next morning we hailed a taxi for a last stop at Peckham’s Pearls. (We caved and bought those friendship bracelets I told you about earlier.) We grabbed some supplies for the long ride home, waited around for the boat to arrived, waited around for the boat to reach Suva, snagged a taxi, and almost 24 hours later, crawled dirty, sweaty, and sleepily into our Waquvuka flats after an action-packed Study Break in Taveuni, the Garden Island of Fiji.

Friendship Mother-of-Pearl Bracelets

Considering I was taking three classes (to my normal load of four to five) and was afforded an entire week before finals to “study,” naturally I took the time to travel.  As I recall, our trip (Sarah, Mary and I) to Taveuni, the Garden Island of Fiji, was perfect.  Allow me to recap.

Day 1 and 1/2 – Aboard the MV Sofi

Aboard the MV Sofi

For $60 some odd FJD, we secured ourselves a cabin on an old Greek cargo ship from an unknown era to Taveuni.  The trip there took 22 hours total, including a stop in Savu savu (link to map).  Upon arriving there, we met up with some friends who left later than us and arrived earlier then us.  They had a cab waiting for us by the time we got there and we left for Bibi’s Hideaway, an amazing backpacker’s resort.  We ordered a home cooked meal from the Indian family next door and fell asleep by candlelight after the generator was turned off at 10PM.  Long, long day.

Day 2 – Sunday Mass and Rock Water Slides

View from the church

We woke up early Sunday morning to attend mass at Taveuni’s Catholic Church complete with its own set of stunning stained glass artwork.  The sermon was in English but many of the readings were in Fijian.  Nonetheless, the experience was really awesome.  I found out that in a Fijian church, there’s no need for a church choir when you have a congregation…

Our taxi driver for the day, Sukh, picked us up afterwards and took us to see the main tourist spots on the West coast: the rock water slides, the international date line, and Tramonto restaurant.  (Fiji Travel Hint: Hiring a taxi driver for a day sounds more glamorous than it really is.  Taveuni isn’t a large island but its reputation as the Garden Island generates a lot of tourist interest.  Taxi drivers frequently offer their services for the day for a flat rate.)

We were pretty unsure about the rock water slides at first considering it rained before we arrived in Taveuni and rain clouds continued to linger in the sky for the duration of our trip.  The rain (off and on) made the rock slide currents pretty big but eventually we braved the mossy rock climb and had a blast.  After that, Sukh took us to the famous Tramonto Restaurant where we devoured two delicious pizzas and drank in its dazzling view:

In Part II: Lavena Coastal Walk, Garden Island Resort (and Aqua Trek Diving)