day 128 & 129: the nature trial
Naomi here, Wow Suva is a lot, yesterday robin and I did all the going to and from customs, getting our cruising permit from the itauki office, going back to customs again, going to the bio security office to see if they wanted our rubbish, going back to customs again to see if they wanted our rubbish (what would we do with your rubbish? They said ,,, good point, we said), going to the supermarket to buy fun new food! All the spices! Normal flour! Bikkies!! By the time we got back to the yacht club it started raining so we figured we were done with jobs for the day and then! I remembered I had the shower key so we got hot freshwater showers!, first time in, I don’t know how long. Then! We went out for dinner to a very good Indian restaurant and had the most delicious Indian food and by the time we got back to the boat we were so tired…. Today we had a fun day visiting the jungle and buying all the veggies, it was a massive haul and we took a taxi home, I got the taxi driver to stop at the petrol station so I could get ice. It was a very long queue and he got so sick of me politely standing in line while people cut in front of me that he just got out of the taxi, grabbed the ice for me, and told the lady how much I owed. Thank you to the nice taxi driver for helping me buy ice.
Miriam here, Yes indeed, Suva is an onslaught to senses accustomed to the open sea, going from the sounds of the waves and the wind to being woken by loud sirens of a couple different sorts and lulled to sleep by the hum of industry. Yesterday Jamie and I had the laundry errand which entailed wrestling a sail bag full of 30 ish kilos of filthy clothes and linens into a taxi and then to the laundry, where they uncomplainingly dealt with our squalor. The hours of waiting were filled with wandering the market overwhelmed by the bounty, making phone calls to loved ones, and making friends with some lovely Fijians. People are so friendly here and I’ve seen some of the most beautiful smiles ever the last few days. The city centre is bustling, so many people moving around.
And then we backed off the nonstop errand hustle a little to go on a wander in the jungle. Colo-I-Suva Nature Park was so lush and lovely. We saw a Collared Lory (parrot), adopted a spotty tiny gecko for a photo shoot, heard many other birds and saw so many orchids and ginger flowers and incredible ferns of every size and character from towering trees to twining vines to bird’s nest epiphytes. We swam in a deep pool beneath a waterfall in the river that wound through the park. Then it was back to the city for the last of the errands. I love shopping at traditional markets and this one was huge and bustling and filled with so much unique produce, huge gnarled roots, fat plantains, betel fruit and soursop and sea grapes, all the colours and textures a feast for the eyes. The biggest challenge was not overbuying past our limited capacity to keep food fresh. I went on the fruit mission and couldn’t help but also buy a beautiful flower arrangement filled with orchids and ginger flowers… $10 Fijian dollars which is $5 ish usd and now we are fancy and smell delicious. A highlight at the market was the upstairs where the kava dealers hang out with their piles of kava roots and powder, the spicy sweet smell permeating the place and everyone there in a euphoric friendly kava haze. Buying the roots for sevu sevu ceremonies as our offering at arrival to outlying islands entailed sitting for a couple bowls ourselves, saying “Bula” as we received the bowl and clapping after drinking it down. And then it was back to Bluebird with all of our bounty, barely able to carry it all, to pack it away and prepare to set sail in the morning!
Robin here this may be a short entry if I get a bit seasick writing it - we are underway, leaving Suva and all its eerie clumps of rusted ships and wrecks sticking up lopsided on the reef. It was very cool hanging our here a few days, I’ve been eager to set sail since I have so little time aboard Bluebird but I’m glad I got to experience the big industrial Fijian city. Everyone is fantastically friendly, the market is a major highlight, and seemingly no tourists come to Suva except for us and the NZ navy. I am now intimately familiar with the Suva customs office and the Royal Suva Yacht Club. I am also a moderately accomplished rower since the outboard dinghy motor has not taken a shine to me, most notably in the dark of night last night when Miriam and I went to return the shower key and take our final shower, I rowed us a good bit of the way back and was in the process of fully accepting the task ahead of slowly and spookily rowing back in very dark bay full of creepy wrecks and abandoned ships when the outboard sputtered to life what a relief! The nature park was just as Miriam described, very lush and my fans reading will know how much I love to dunk my head In a waterfall, 10/10 plus a great picnic of bhujia, roti, and barfi picked up near the bus station .. other notable moments include trying Kava for the first time it was lucky we went upstairs in the market looking for onions and found that the upstairs is where the onion potato and kava sellers are exclusively. Little cup of kava while they bundled up roots for us in nice spiral ribbon packages, got a numb mouth and a touch of headache, mmm
Jamie here, It was mighty good to intersperse our time in the big city with a nature walk and a river swim! The bus ride over there was 15 minutes and amazing to get a look around the island at all the little suburbs and villages along the way. We found a HUGE millipede on a tree which was bigger than my middle finger. I don’t particularly like creepy crawlies (they’re terribly unpredictable) so it was with my middle finger that I measured up against it. Flip the bird to the milly. It’s been such a cool experience to be in the city in the hustle and bustle, I feel lucky to have the contrasting experience of quiet villages, uninhabited atolls in French Polynesia but also amongst the dirty city avoiding hustlers, thieves and scallywags. Most people are terribly lovely friendly and interested in our story and where we’ve come from. I had a great time talking to the car park guard while Miriam was on the phone. He told me about how Suva has changed in the 40 years he’s lived there. He spent 20 years a lifeguard at the Olympic pool. He said he spent the entire 20 years yelling at people to obey the rules of no running and no bombs and limited noise. Then he said I could try and export the wild goats we shoot in NZ to Fiji because there’s a big market for it, I could make millions and I said well when I make millions I’ll come back and share with you, your idea. Perhaps I have a business partner yet. The last time I had a hot shower was in Tahiti maybe like 2 months ago? Wow first hot shower in 2 months was so so good. And laundry, clean sheets clean t shirt. Amazing. Robin is steering us towards our new destination it feels good to be sailing again. WOD: Hue. Hue - a light essence or sheen assigned to a colour. Used in a senny: ‘‘twas a dark and stormy night in the village. I’d closed my tavern for the night. A good business day. Weary travellers trudging through from the north, stopping by for a pint of ale. But now, wiping down my oak benches I hear the rain smackering on the thatch roof. I’m all alone. I listen to the rain on the roof and enjoy the sound after a long day. Then suddenly, “THUMP THUMP THUMP” ! A loud knock on the door wakes me from my reverie. I glance up, concerned. I raise my voice and shout: “Hue goes there!?”