Monday, 13 February 2017
At Sea — South Pacific … En Route to Lautoka, Fiji
Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:15p (FJT) … UTC 8:15a (13 February)
Temp: 82.6F (28.1C)
Position: 18.33.26S / 178.03.55E … we are now in the Eastern Hemisphere
If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light.
Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.
~ Cesare Pavese ~
Bula, Bula!
Suva, which receives an average of 3,000 mm (118 inches or 9.8 feet) of rain yearly, was kind to us today. The black clouds that portended rain stayed away, and what light rain there was fell when we were in the vehicle. We even saw a bit of sunshine and patches of blue in the sky.
By some miracle, the downpours portended by these clouds hold off during our tour.
There’s not much of a story to tell today, so this will mostly be in the form of a ‘plog’ … aka photo blog.
For today’s outing, I booked a transfer to the Pearl Resort outside Suva — about a 45-minute drive … there are no good beaches in the city itself. At 9:00a, joined by eight of our fellow-passengers, we ran the gauntlet of tour hawkers on the pier and found Monika from Funky Tourz & Transferz. It was a mostly overcast day, and the ocean was murky when we got to the resort, but the pool was refreshing and the grounds invited the photographer in me to take a stroll.
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Myna Birds … I understand they make a pest of themselves … just like our grackles.
We left the resort around 12:30p. Before returning us to Insignia, Monika took us for a quick tour of Suva City. We stopped for a photo op with the guard at the gate to the Presidential Palace, and also went to the My Suva Picnic Park, a lovely green space built to provide a place for the locals to entertain themselves since there are no beaches in the city.
The Presidential Palace is way back by the trees in the distance.
My Suva Picnic Park … manicured and pristine grounds.
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We were back on the ship by 2:30p and Insignia set sail at 5:00p. Next up is another stop in Fiji … this time on the west side of Viti Levu. This is supposed to be the drier side of the island, but according to Monika it’s been getting more rain this season than the traditionally wet side. We’ve put in a request for a dry day.This sculpture was carved out of a Baka Tree … aka a Polynesian Banyan Tree.
© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.
I'd really love to know how you plan ahead and know what to do in each port of call. Do you spend time in advance of your cruise studying what you and Mui would like to see and book in advance? I am constantly amazed by how organized each of your outings are. Just about every time we hit a port or make a stop on any of our journeys, we spend more time asking each other what we want to do than actually doing! Please share your secrets!!!
ReplyDeleteAshley, I'll elaborate on this in an "at sea" post, but the quick answer is, yes ... lots of advance research. I advance-booked more tours on this voyage because of the heat/humidity we expect to encounter, but normally I just get a sense of what might interest us and keep the plans fluid. That way we don't waste time when we arrive trying to figure out what there is to do.
DeleteThe greens are so diverse and brilliant. I guess rains have a goodxside.
ReplyDeleteI can see why everyone wants to go there:)
ReplyDeleteLove the flower photos; the island looks very tropical (because it is tropical, of course). Bet it's very warm and humid, too. Myna birds in Hawaii and Australia are considered pests, noisy ones at that!
ReplyDeleteWe have had 5 land holidays in Fiji, spent a week at The Pearl and found the pool there the coldest we have encountered, it didn't heat up despite high daytime temperatures. During our stay we were invaded by P & O cruisers who also caused guests to have Shark Dive trips cancelled on the last day of their stay. On one of our trips we did a 7 night cruise out of Lautoka round the Yasawa Islands, only 68 passengers, that was our first cruise. We discovered real cruising two years ago and embark on our 5th in 2 weeks, not as grand as yours. Thank you so much for your blog and wonderful photos.
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