It is 1pm on Thursday and after a VERY busy morning I am settled at the airport in Matei (northern tip of Taveuni). I’ll get picked up in an hour or two when the tiny plane from the international airport on main Island arrives and the surf resort collects me and anyone on the flight. Then it is a 30 minute drive and 30 minute boat ride.
As I suspected, there is good LTE service here for my phone. Not sure about Surfing Island but I actually got best signal previously on the dive boat. The cellular towers are on top of Des Voeux peak that I hiked today and anywhere with line of sight has good signals.
It was 11 days ago that I arrived at the airport with the medical mission group! I am the only one here now except some workmen doing repairs to one of the few rooms in the “terminal”.
My alarm woke me at 4:30 am today which was a little harsh as I had stayed up until 10pm last night blogging and packing. At 5:30 I went to breakfast and set my suitcases outside my Bure. By 6 I was picked up by huge new Toyota pick-up for my tour and drive to airport.
Jeez, 10 minutes of writing and I am ready for a nap…. Despite my being in the shade and a slight breeze it is HOT. The workmen seem to have left as there is no more hammering. The “restaurant” is still closed but if it opens for next flight arrival I NEED a Diet Coke, otherwise will fill my dwindling water bottle from sink.
It was a 30 or 40 minute drive from Paradise Resort back north to the Waievou area where I had stayed last week. It is a dirt road and one lane bridges but a comfortable ride in the Toyota with A/C.
The sun rises and sets quickly at Equator, sunny already. Beautiful windy trip up and down hills. Road is “just” wide enough for 2 vehicles but on the cliff side turns the car further from the edge snugs up to the brush to make space.
When we hit a paved road I knew we were almost back near the Aroha Resort. I had run this area but the driver gave me some details. The Church is 180 years old. The Cinema closed decades ago, she said before she was old enough to remember. The Meridian Hardware store is 85 years old (“first shop in world to open every day”).
A few people showed up. I was asked if I was for “departure” and said “Senga” , no. I guess they are the staff for the terminal.
Maybe I am getting sleepy because of my music selection…. Just heard “California”, I’ll be heading to CA on Saturday but only an 8 hour layover before heading East. Switching to more upbeat music.
Just after the Church property that also had schools, sports fields , etc. we turned inland up a steep dirt road. The neighborhood uphill from the church was poor as were all villages here but many yards had nice landscaping and even a few cars, I saw electricity lines but only a few houses were connected.
It was only a short, slow and bumpy ride to reach the Park Entrance (unstaffed that early, 7am, we paid fee on way out). But it was another 30 minutes drive up a very steep, narrow, dirt trail to the trailhead.
The park is Huge, it is 1/3 of the Island.
2pm came quick and driver collected me. Now it is 2:30, waiting for boat to surf resort island. Not sure if 4 bars 3G is enough to load photos but will do a test one and if works can continue writing.
Argh, that took 6 minutes to load so will just do some writing without photos until boat arrives. Driver called a second time but everything is on “Fiji time” here and I am happy to Chillax by sea with gentle breeze and wavelets lapping at shore …
It is “now” 24 hours later. The boat showed up as Soon as I typed the last sentence. I have figured out that I get 2 bars of LTE in the beach but only 3 bars 3G on my porch (20 steps away) and only 2G in my Bure. I noticed today that the Bure and other structures have metal roofs which is probably the reason. So, having had a busy morning and a nice lunch and then reading my kindle for a while I guess I have a good spot with LTE to finish up this entry …..
After a VERY bumpy drive up narrow dirt roads we reached a gate and the driver stopped and said “u will hike with guide from here”.
My guides name was Sunny and he had been leading hikes for a few years now after being a taxi driver for the tour company for a long time. When I saw him throw his sneakers in the back of the pickup and put on high rubber boots I asked if I should take off my socks. He said that was a good idea as trail was a “little” muddy. I was sooo glad i had worn my waterproof trail, swim sneakers.
My ankles got muddy but after the hike we stopped at a hut where a small stream in back had a pool to wash our shoes and legs.
The description of the hike just mentioned going to the top of the peak, 4000 ft elevation, where the telecoms towers were. I imagined we would drive to the top, walk around and enjoy the views (we left at 6am because later in the morning the peak always gets enveloped by clouds). Both times we went out on Dive Boat it was blue skies and bright sun but the mountain was shrouded in clouds
I was glad I had a water bottle in my back pocket but it turned out that Sunny also had a liter in his backpack for me. After about 15 minutes we stopped for a breather for a few minutes and then were off again. The trail was steep, muddy, logs to climb over or squeeze under, slippery rocks, etc. I started to try to quantify how hard a hike this was at about 30 minutes at second break. If my hardest day at Kiliminjaro or the Winter ascent of Mt Washington was a “Dave 10” this was a good 8. Definitely harder than the Scottsdale or Adirondacks hikes I have done. When we reached the nice lake in 45 minutes Sunny said I had made great time…. “It often takes people an hour or hour and quarter to get here” 🙂
on way down that he pointed out to me.
While we drank some water and rested I asked Sunny if people ever gave up after 30 minutes and he said “yeah, all the time” 😉
Unlike Africa or South America though one could just sit on a log and wait for group to reach Lake and collect u on way back. There are NO poisonous snakes on Fiji (some Boa Constrictors in fields but they mostly eat rodents and rarely a chicken). No deadly centipedes or poison plants or bad insects either.
It was not really much easier on way back as hike was up-down-up-down but at least I knew how far I had to go …. 😉
When we got back to the car at 9 our driver Naz said “did u go to the lake?” She wasn’t expecting us back until 10 🙂
Since we had some extra time she said we should stop at a waterfall, when we parked I was happy to note that Sunny left on his flip flops and did not take his backpack. He assured me it was a short hike (it was only 10 minutes round trip but gorgeous).
Naz drove us north to Matei along PAVED road. She had a headscarf and I asked if she was Muslim and she said yes. Her great-great grandparents came with the others from “India” , her family actually was from Lahore that is now In Pakistan after the split at Independence (which Gandhi opposed). The small temple I saw south of the school by Paradise resort she told me was a Mosque. It was built 80 years ago.
As we got to Matei I noticed there were a lot of nice small resorts clustered there. I got dropped off at a cute beachfront restaurant associated with one of them. Had an iced coffee and then lunch while read kindle and enjoyed the view …..
After lunch I was off to the airport… rest of day will have to be separate post….
