Life in Fiji   Wednesday, 01/11/2023

Isn’t it hard to believe that it is already November! The last few days here have been very pleasant: good weather and various distractions, in an atmosphere of incredible friendliness. I’ve found all the peoples of the Pacific to be extremely pleasant, relaxed, helpful and friendly. But the Fijians appear to outdo all – anyone you have any dealings with, even if it’s just to stop them at random and ask where something is, is so pleasant and helpful that it puts you in a permanently good mood. Oh – and the distractions? – most notable among them was watching the Rugby World Cup final at 7am on Sunday morning in the restaurant overlooking the marina. They had arranged a large TV and were serving breakfast. Not that many people, perhaps 20 or so, with at least half that being New Zealanders. The only pity was the game itself, which wasn’t wonderful to watch.

Yesterday I hired a car and toured the north-western part of the island. It had been my intention to go into the National Park and walk up a mountain, but the road there made it impossible. It had turned to rough dirt, which was fine, but suddenly I came upon a ford over a stream. The water wasn’t deep, no problem there, but the road itself leading down into the water was very steep and comprised mainly of large rocks. I got out and inspected it, and the car, at length – and then decided not to chance it. The car, a Toyota Yaris saloon, had fairly low clearance at the front, plus I was worried about coming back. It was far from certain that I would be able to get it out of the water and then up a steep rocky slope. I don’t think that Avis would be amused if I called them and said I’ve got your car stuck the wrong side of a river… So I decided not – and I couldn’t dump the car and then walk to my destination because it was still 9 kilometres away.

So instead I made a tour north. Amazing countryside: so green, mountains and the sea. The main crop in this part of the country is sugar cane – Fiji’s second city, Lautoka, is known as Sugar City (I drove through it: a scruffy trading centre). The sugar cane reminded me of the coast north and south of Durban in South Africa. The difference here is that sugar cane does not overwhelm the landscape. Most fields of it are relatively small: only a couple of acres (0.8 hectares). A large field would be 5-7 acres (2-3 hectares). It seems that much of the sugar grown is a cash crop of peasants, rather than being huge commercial farms as you would find in South Africa, where hill after rolling hill is covered in cane, with very little else in between. Here, less than 20% of the landscape is sugar. Plenty of old trucks overloaded with cane stalks on the roads though.

From up north I headed back towards “home”, stopping at the Sleeping Giant botanical gardens. A wonderful place, full of orchids growing naturally. And a trail up through forest to a lookout point high above, finally giving me the views that I had wanted. From there I stopped at a decent supermarket and did a large shop: supplies for the onward passage to New Zealand. Then rounded off the day by driving down to a beach – actually onto the beach, as other cars did – and walked along the shore until sunset. All-in-all, a wonderful day! It was hot: through the afternoon the car was showing the outside temperature to be 35 degrees. 

Today I’ve sorted out a few things, and made plans to visit the capital, Suva, tomorrow. I shall simply take the bus – the distance by road is only 185 kilometres (115 miles) but Google Maps says it takes 3.5 hours to drive, which means it’s slow going. Much better to be on a bus, which is scheduled to take the same time, and let someone else have the tiring task of regularly coming to a halt and crawling behind trucks on a one-lane road. I don’t expect much of Suva – indeed, it has the reputation of being a dump, as well as unsafe – but it will be interesting to see nevertheless, as will the road there, which winds along the south coast. And I’m not staying in the city centre: instead I’ve booked two nights at a cheap Eco lodge in a National Park forest about 12 kilometres north of the city, from where I can jump on a bus or grab a taxi into town. Therefore I will have something to report on when I next post…