June 29, 2013
We had beautiful calm weather for our next group outing with Jack. We were headed to the island of Taveuni about 5 miles away from Viani Bay. The island is large, but the population is small and with its lush vegetation has been nicknamed the Garden Island. It’s famous for its waterfalls and a natural rock waterslide. Cruisers staying in Viani Bay also like to visit the town of Somosomo and stock up on fresh produce.
Since this is a big island and everything is far apart, and the anchorage near Somosomo has iffy protection, managing to do all these things is difficult. This is where Jack comes in. He makes the itinerary, hires a van and a driver for the group, ferries everyone to shore by dinghy, then stays by the boat all day to watch over it.
Today, Pat and John from The Rose had volunteered their boat for the outing. Since they’d already seen the waterfalls, they generously offered to accompany the group to Somosomo, then hire their own cab and take everyone’s groceries back to their boat.
After getting anchored and ferried to the beach, about 12 of us settled into the van for the ride to Somosomo. Rich and I sat up front with the driver. The first discussion of the day ensued when the driver wanted to know which we wanted to do, the falls or the waterslide as there wasn’t time for both. He gave in when everyone wanted to do both, but then later asked again what we most wanted to do, probably knowing there wouldn’t be enough time for both.
Meanwhile, I had what had become a secret plan. It wasn’t really a secret in that we were supposed to stop for coffee and a quick breakfast at a little eatery owned by a friend of Jack’s, but I noticed the group seemed to have forgotten all about this and was anxious to get to the market. I was anxious to get that coffee and breakfast! My plan: jump out of the van as soon as we stopped, and by the time people realized what was happening, I’d have already ordered coffee and food. My problem: Rich was sitting between me and the door and had no idea what was going on. My solution: try to shove Rich out of the van as soon as we pulled up. My theory: spouses should trust each other, and if one suddenly tries to shove the other out of a vehicle, maybe the one being shoved should trust there’s a good reason and voluntarily jump out just to be helpful. Rich unfortunately doesn’t subscribe to this notion and asks things like, “What are you doing? Why are you pushing me?”
Meanwhile the van came to a complete stop in front of the little eatery, and the group, distracted by chatting, began to become aware we’d stopped and starting asking why. I thought about crawling over Rich and taking a dive out the open window, but when the diver innocently answered that this was the breakfast stop, it was too late. Nooooo, everyone said, we want to go to the market first, then we could come back! I knew we wouldn’t be back; we’d have to backtrack to get here. My Shades-of Grey Inner Goddess glared at Rich: it was almost as if he didn’t care about breakfast pastry as much as I did.
We continued on to Somosomo, where the group got out and headed to the various produce stands. After half an hour our so, we started to reconvene. Once again there were discussions about the falls vs the waterslide vs both. One person had gone AWOL, apparently deciding to visit shops in town. Discussions ensued about whether we should wait and how long and who should go look for her. Rich, already not looking forward to hours riding in the overloaded van and worried about its ability to last the trip, was now growing weary of all the discussions and worries and the psychic weight of glaring inner goddesses with no coffee or pastries. He asked me if we could please do the falls another time and instead stay with Pat and John, who planned to go to the waterslide after taking groceries to their boat. I reluctantly said yes, knowing that Rich’s claustrophobic feeling would only get worse as the day went on, and hoping we could make it back for the falls another day.
And so with that, the AWOL person showed up, the van headed on without us, and Rich and I went with Pat and John to cart groceries to the boat. We made a detour on the way, driving past the anchored boat to the very small town of Wairiki to buy their good bread and visit their little market, the Meridian Store, “the first shop to open in the world.” (They lost that claim to fame when Samoa and Tonga opted to leap the dateline. Samoa is now the first place to see the dawn of a new day.)
The town did have a nice little curry place where we bought stuffed rotis and baras, little fried vegetable and dough balls with a savory sweet sauce. This lunch gave us the strength to cart many, many, many bags of groceries to The Rose. After carrying, ferrying, and loading in the hot sun, a lot of work even with Jack helping, Pat rewarded us with a cold beer. Now we’d go visit the Waitavala Waterslide. Things were looking up. –Cyndi
