Sapphire Princess South Pacific Cruise Day 18 - Suva, Fiji, and river tubing - the halfway point
We time-traveled again last night, crossing the International Date Line from east to west again. We went to bed Saturday night and woke up Monday morning. It will be confusing for a few more days until we cross the IDL again and then start working our way back to the U.S.A.
A couple updates...
Last night, the Captain came on the speaker and let us know that things are not looking good, health-wise. There is a significant percentage of the passengers and crew who are experiencing gastrointestinal issues. Generally speaking, when that happens on a ship, it means norovirus. We don't know if that is the case, but the ship is on a level 3 status, meaning that illness is rampant and they are at their highest mitigation status, doing extra sanitation. Woo-hoo, that's exciting. (If you're not reading sarcasm there, you haven't been reading this blog long enough).
This morning, we arrived in Suva, Fiji. It is a working port, so the views aren't stellar.
We booked a tour today through Viator with a very clever name: Suva Shore Excursion. The tour operator was River Tubing Fiji. They offered a day tour with a village visit, longboat tours, a waterfall visit, and river tubing. It was a great day.
It started a little rough. We got off the ship as soon as possible, as requested. We checked in and boarded the van. Then...we sat for more than a half hour. They needed to get everyone, even the slowpokes loaded before we departed.
We got going and our driver immediately bumped a truck at a stoplight. The truck was labeled "Biosecurity", so we had that going for us. A cramped 45 minutes later, we arrived at the tour office to begin the tour.
We boarded longboats for a ride up the Nuvua River. We would be gaining elevation and traveling upstream making for a fun ride.
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| Grabbing our innertubes for the tubing portion later in the afternoon |
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| Heading to the boats |
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| Heading out |
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| There were small and large waterfalls all along the ride |
Our first stop was a Fijian village, Sabata Village. It is home to about 30 Fijians in nine homes. It has been here since 2004.
The village is quite remote. The children leave for boarding school on Sunday afternoon - it is an hour's walk - and return home on Friday evening after the week of studies.
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| The homes are modest but thanks to income from tourism, many of the homes have solar panels and a few have satellite dishes so they can watch rugby |
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| Drying leaves to make mats |
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| That green building up high is the church |
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| Trimming leaves and removing thorns before drying for mat weaving |
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| Inside the church |
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| View down from the church |
Next up was a stop at a waterfall. We took a five-minute walk from the boats to the waterfall. It was beautiful and offered a chance for a dip and a climb for the adventurous.
Back to the boats for a trip back down the river for lunch.
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| Lunch was good but the view was better |
After lunch, it was time to tube! We hopped in our tubes, formed trains, and headed down the river. We went through a series of three mild rapids. It was a lot of fun.
Before the final rapids, the guides gathered everyone together and sang a couple of Fijian gospel songs. It was beautiful.
Once through, we ended the tubing and rode the boats back to our starting point. After a change of clothes, we were bussed back to the ship. Our guides, Bale (pronounced Bal-A) and Ben were excellent. I would certainly recommend this tour to any Suva visitors.
We went to the Explorers Bar for a drink and decided that neither of us was in the mood for a big dinner. We ordered a club sandwich and fries on the Princess app and had it delivered to us in the bar. It worked perfectly. We even added a slice of delicious chocolate cake. It was better than the desserts in the steakhouse last night.
Tonight's show was a cultural performance from local Fijian dancers. Arlona attended and I returned to the room to start this missive. She reported that it was a high-energy show with local dances and songs and she enjoyed it.
I was fighting off sleep as I wrote this. It was a long and fun day in Fiji. This marked our 63rd UN member country, and 85th country/territory overall. Tomorrow, we sail a few miles south to the Dravuni Islands, still in Fiji. It will be a tender port with no dock available. It is supposed to be one of the last unspoiled places on the planet. We will figure out the plan for tomorrow...tomorrow.
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