13 – 21 August

With strong easterlies forecast we headed into a good anchorage in mangroves in an inlet near Daku Village on the north coast of Kadavu. Once the boat was secured, Nigel and Jonathan took a dinghy trip along the coast to the Papageno Resort.

At the resort they found a bar (of course) and met the dive instructor with whom they negotiated to do some diving when it was his day off from the resort – we really do not want to pay resort prices for diving.

As the strong easterlies continued diving seemed less likely the next day. The dive instructor lived in Daku Village where we needed to go for sevusevu. After a short dinghy ride to the nearby beach and a much longer walk along a well made track we found the village. Everybody seemed to be involved in some church related meeting but the ratu and a couple of others were happy to take time out to arrange sevusevu. The village chief organised for us to purchase some fresh fruit and vegetables. So fresh that we had to wait for someone to go to the plantation area to pick them. We then had an interesting village tour and arranged to be back at 4pm to collect our shopping. Apparently our dive instructor was working on his plantation so we didn’t get to see him.



Ever hopeful we moved Taihoa from the safety of the mangroves to see if we could anchor in front of the resort. After spending half an hour negotiating the reef to get there we decided it was too windy after all and returned to our safe haven just in time for Sue and Nigel to take a dinghy ride back to Daku to collect the shopping. Where did that day go?

A change of scenery and a (jovial) brush with the law

With no sign of the easterlies abating we gave up on diving and opted for an early start the next day to move further west to the main town of Vunisea.

It was still quite windy but we were confident of our good, sandy anchorage and happily went ashore in the dinghy. We had been told that we were expected to report to the local police station with our documents, so our first mission was to find the place.

Vunisea is long sprawling township, mostly along the sea front but with a few buildings and houses further inland and higher up. Obviously the police station chose to be the highest. All good exercise.

The extremely friendly police officers seemed slightly unsure about what needed to be done with us but eventually a lady who appeared to be the senior officer got them organised to take copies of our arrival papers, cruising permit and passports. Sue spotted a map of the island on the wall which gave the official names and locations of all the villages in the region. They were happy for her to take a photo – and later it proved very useful.


We decided to make the most of being ‘in town’ and treat ourselves to a cafe lunch. One came recommended by the parents of teenagers so we assumed that we were guaranteed good sized portions. Pizza in particular had been suggested so that’s what we went for.

Unfortunately it could not be done. We had arrived at 12:55 and the town’s electric supply went off from 1 until 4 every day. The chicken dishes served with chips or rice were ok as they could all be cooked on the gas ring. So chicken it was. As predicted the portion sizes were generous. We needed a late afternoon snorkel on the reef to burn off a few calories.

An elusive waterfall

Persistent easterlies kept us harbour bound and led us to decide on a local waterfall walk as described on the Fiji Pocket Guide website. By now we should have learned to distrust anything this site publishes. But no, off we went for a twenty minute walk.

The guide was very clear about the village that we needed to visit on the edge of town to get permission from the chief and seek clear directions.

We duly found the village and the chief. He was a lovely gentleman and was most apologetic for his village not having a waterfall available for us to walk to. He did know where there was one, who owned it and where we would find him. So we went in search of Wesley, the owner of a particularly fine waterfall suitable for walking to.

Wesley was at the school fete that we knew was taking place at the primary school in town. We had been warned that this might be the case and had been given directions for alternative houses to go knocking on. They were all relatives and would be able to give us permission.

At the next house we met a lovely young lady with several young children, one of whom came running after us with Nigel’s hat which he had left at her doorstep. She told us exactly where we would find the falls and pointed out on Google Maps the exact point at which we should take a track from the road to get to them. We couldn’t miss it as it was right next to a homestead and only about 30 minutes walk.

Pretty much on track to be “mad dogs and Englishmen” we made it to the homestead in almost exactly half an hour. With no sign of a waterfall we called at the homestead where another lovely women explained that there was no waterfall anywhere near but that there was a very nice one about an hour’s walk along the road that we were on.

Two kilometres later a friendly local in a ute slowed down as he passed us and offered us a lift. Five minutes later he dropped us at the falls.

It was a beautiful spot for lunch, which we had fortunately had the sense to bring with us then we had a two hour walk back to the boat. Thank you Fiji Pocket Guide for an interesting day.

Boarded by police

Back on Taihoa we were visited by the same police officers that we had met in the police station. They were most apologetic but it seemed that they had been given instructions to visit all the boats anchored in the bay and check papers. All very friendly and we even got photographs.

Off to the rugby

A relative early start and a pleasant sail took us to Denham Island and Nabukelevu ira Village.

We went ashore to do sevusevu and found ourselves in the middle of what seemed like an important rugby fixture.

It turned out to be just a local fixture but all the teams from the visiting club, from the most junior to the senior men’s, all come at once and make a big day of it.
Sevusevu took place in the upstairs room of the local school overlooking the rugby pitch with what seemed like most of the committee members of the local rugby club. Sevusevu was accepted but obviously the committee were keen on a donation to the rugby club. Nigel and Jonathan agreed to return with a donation.

They returned after lunch, gave a donation to the club that was all duly recorded in an official-looking book and then got totally engrossed in the rugby. In reality, they were more engrossed in the antics of the crowd. There was such wonderful, colourful, vocal support from the sidelines that the game was almost irrelevant. They even met our friendly local policewomen who was there for crowd control. They got some very strange looks from the locals when the police officer greeted them by name.

Later in the day we all had a fabulous snorkel in coral and rock formations riddled with caves and crevasses. We made plans to dive the next day.

A change in plans

Remaining flexible seems to be key on this trip. Our dive plans were scrapped when Sue and Claire hatched a plan to sail along the south coast of Kadavu to dive the Naigara Passage and then head north of Ono to swim with manta rays.

We were now on a fairly tight schedule as we had a visitor coming from New Zealand and we needed to get to Denerau to pick her up.

We had no choice but to accept a very long motor sail into the wind, through the Naigara Passage and finally into a very sheltered anchorage next to a village we thought might also be named Naigara.

Serendipity

Jonathan thought he recognised our location as the possible home of the one person they had yet to track down. There was some confusion over the name of the village that we were anchored next to but Sue’s map, photographed from the wall in the police station, named it Matasawalevu and that was the name Jonathan had written down – or at least a somewhat garbled phonetic version of it.

Late in the afternoon we made it into the village for sevusevu (and kava) and Jonathan showed the pictures from all those years ago. Once again many of the faces were recognised but there was one person in particular that Claire and Jonathan were keen to find.

Vasemaca (Vasi) had been a particular friend during their time on Ono. She had accompanied them to Suva when they left and a few years later had visited them in Wareham along with her 9 year old son and Swedish husband.

When Jonathan showed her photo and asked if anyone knew where she was the answer was ‘yes, she is here’. Here, it turned out, did not mean in the village, but on a nearby island. Access was through a narrow channel cut into the mangroves. We were running to a schedule and could not afford to spend an extra day there so despite the sun racing towards sunset we wanted to get to Vasi that day if she was there.

We made a quick stop at Taihoa to switch on the anchor light and collect a torch before combing the mangrove shoreline for the ‘hidden’ passage. Finally we found our way in and after several minutes of threading our way through a tunnel in the mangroves emerged in a sheltered bay to find the tiny homestead that was home to Vasi and her son, Poni (Ponipate Bulitoka’ivale).

Vasi had obviously heard the outboard engine and had come to the water edge to see who was arriving. She gave us a friendly greeting but clearly had not recognised Claire and Jonathan. Then Jonathan said “Do you remember staying with us in Wareham?” and the penny dropped. She suddenly made all the connections and promptly ran off screaming (to find her son it turned out).

It was a very emotional reunion. Poni was working some distance away and took a few minutes to respond to his mother’s screams. Vasi eventually calmed herself down enough to engage in conversation but it took a while before she seemed able to believe that she really did have visitors from Wareham.

Sadly we couldn’t stay long. In the fading light we found the entrance to the mangrove tunnel and navigated our way back through it by torchlight.

The following morning we had a, not entirely unexpected, visitor. Vasi paddled her kayak through the mangrove tunnel to say farewell and bring us gifts. Shells for Claire (not sure how they will get back to the UK since we are not allowed to bring them into New Zealand) and a variety of fruits and vegetables for all of us.

When diving is a little too exciting

Claire and Jonathan had dived the Naigara Passage 35 years ago and were keen to repeat the experience. Their recollections and all we could find on-line suggested that this would be an exciting drift dive. We got a little more than we had bargained for.

Fortunately, Vasi had warned us that the current direction was a little counterintuitive. When the tide is coming in, the water flows out through the passage. So we did at least predict the direction of water flow correctly. Sue and Nigel went first and were swept through the passage in next to no time. Nigel thought that it was great fun, Sue was not so impressed but as a consolation really enjoyed the shallow coral garden that opened up once we had escaped from the clutches of the tidal stream.

By the time Claire and Jonathan took their turn the current had picked up even more. Two minutes was more than long enough to realise that this was not a sensible thing to be doing. By the time Jonathan had climbed back into the dinghy we were all pretty much through the pass and so Claire simply swam the short distance to the coral garden and enjoyed the tranquil, clear water.

Clearly diving the passage requires a little more local knowledge and awareness of tide times.

In search of manta rays

We had little time to dwell on the morning’s diving, we had to get to our next anchorage, a two hour motor in light winds. The passage between Buliya Island and Vurolevu Island, north of Ono, was well known as a manta ray viewing spot and we were all keen to swim with these gentle giants.

We had one slight interruption while Sue reeled in what we thought was a monster fish. It turned out to be a coral trout that had managed to get a second hook through its pectoral fin and consequently was turning manic cartwheels as it fought its way through the water. We let it go in case it had ciguatera.

Sevusevu needed to be conducted at Buliya and so we opted to spend the night anchored off the village. Sevusevu was interesting with the ratu, Joe and his wife. They had both worked in New Zealand and Australia and were back in the village temporarily while they waited for their house in Perth to sell before returning permanently.

The next morning we moved over to Vurolevu and chatted to a neighbouring yacht to discover that we had missed high tide, which is considered prime viewing time on the cleaning station. We wasted no time in getting into wet suits and taking a short dinghy ride to the coral bommies that are the mantas’ preferred cleaning stations.

We knew we were in the right place when we were joined by swarms of tourists in a huge launch. We were not sure if they were from the nearby exclusive resort or a cruise ship the size of a small island which was also in the area. We had anchored our dinghy and swum to the bommies so as not to disturb the mantas (this is the expected behaviour so that the mantas are not unduly disturbed). The launch simply motored right up to the bommies (and nearly on top of us) so that the passengers could leap directly onto the spot.

We did get a very brief view of a solitary dark coloured manta which quickly moved away. We managed to get a few photos and a little bit of video footage but it was not quite the encounter that we had hoped for. The behaviour of the passengers and crew of the launch seemed to have scared them off.

The tourists also seemed disappointed and readily climbed back onto the launch (which had again come right over the bommies) and left soon afterwards. Sue and Nigel headed back to the dinghy while Claire and Jonathan decided to do one more circuit. Persistence pays. Within minutes Jonathan shouted that our manta was back and we all enjoyed a much more extensive – and exclusive – viewing.

Overnight to Denarau

We left Vurolevu at 15:45 and, after a brief spell of motoring around the edge of Ono Island, were able to hoist the spinnaker for a perfect sail into the sunset (at the outset) and then by moonlight as the night progressed.

The moon was so bright that Sue was able to spot a number of stress tears in the sail. Another repair job. We hope to get it sorted in Denarau.

We anchored off Port Denarau at 13:30 but once the marina told us that they had space available we came onto a mooring ball a day early hoping for a slightly faster turnaround.