September 14, 2018
It’s been a long while since I’ve written a blog post. The reason: it’s been an intensive cruising season in Fiji, and between the research, the cruising, and writing in my journal I haven’t had time to work on my blog entries. Things should slow down soon, but meanwhile, here’s a quick, real-time update from Fiji (Sept. 2018).
Our intent this season was to make this a “Farewell Fiji” cruise. The years are passing and it’s time to think about heading further west. Over the past few seasons we’ve pretty much covered Fiji, but there were a few things we’d missed along the way. I wanted to go back and see those places; so I mapped out a plan which would take us from one end of Fiji to the other. So far it’s been going very well–in fact it’s turned out to be a surprisingly wonderful season.
The biggest suprise has been the sheer beauty of the places we’ve visited. This season has brought us some of the most stunning scenery we’ve seen in Fiji, which is saying a lot because this is a beautiful country in general. This season has also been a reminder of how warm and friendly the Fijian people are. We’ve been visiting other countries the past few seasons and the newness and beauty of those places had overshadowed our memories of Fiji. Now that we’re back, we see that Fiji can hold its own in comparison with any other place we’ve been, and we have more appreciation for it than ever. (Below are a few photos I feel represent this season so far–you can click to enlarge and scroll through them.)
Meanwhile, we’re glad Fiji seems to be thriving. They had a devastating cyclone in 2016 (Cyclone Winston), but the vegetation seems as lush as ever, reefs are recovering and business appears to be good.
There’s an especially interesting development with the arrival of the Grace Road Kitchen group. Their Christian church in Korea believes that Fiji is the center of the world and all that will be left after the end of things. So, they have come here on a mission to make Fiji a true paradise on earth in preparation for this future.
We wouldn’t have thought Fiji needed much help in the paradise department, but between the rice (and produce) farming, their good works including sharing Asian agricultural techniques with Fijian farmers, and their outstanding eateries (located in Fiji’s cities), Grace Road Kitchen has added an extra-special element to Fiji. We would advise anyone traveling here to treat themselves to a meal at a Grace Road Kitchen and breakfast or dessert at a Snowy House, two of the restaurants they own.
So far this season we’ve visited Vanua Levu, Taveuni, Matangi, Suva, Kadavu, and Beqa and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. Currently we’re in a place called Pacific Harbour and have been surpirsed to fall in love with this place, too. This season has had many surprises, but the biggest one just happened. We’ve always said we’ll never do a shark dive of any kind. So what happened? We did the biggest, baddest shark dive of them all: the shark feeding in Beqa which has some of the most dangerous sharks in the world. And . . . we loved it. Another wonder in a season of wonders. Here’s a link to our post that includes a video of the dive.
Naturally we’ve been asking ourselves: “Why the heck are we saying good-bye to Fiji?” Well, never say never with us, but we’ll probably stick with that plan or we won’t be able to pull ourselves away from this part of the world. Still, traveling through Fiji has been so special this season. Fiji is always beautiful; this season it has been paradise.–Cyndi
