Pursuit

We had a great time cruising throughout the Mamanuca and Yasawa island groups. Kirstin really enjoyed herself, although the weather was hit and miss at times, but she still got a great tan. It was sunny for the most part, but windy. The trade winds tend to pick up during the southern hemisphere's winter, so it is windy quite a bit of the time.

We ended up visiting Soso village on Naviti Island, where our Fijian friend Jona Ratu is from. We were greeted on the beach upon our arrival and heard that Jona was in the village. We were told that he was there because his mother had died on that Friday. We were sad to hear the news, but it was nice to see Jona again, especially in his village. His mother was the chief's sister, so it was a large gathering in the village. We weren't sure if it was bad timing on our part, but the village was celebrating the life of Jona's mother and it was not seen as a sad event. It is considered a passing of the soul to God and that is not a bad thing. They were very happy to have us. After having the sevusevu ceremony with the chief and receiving his blessings, we were shown around the village and then introduced to Jona's family afterwards. It was a lot of fun and Kirstin, being a schoolteacher, really enjoyed the tour of the school. Jona's family made the traditional lovo feast for us the next evening. Lovo is special Fijian feast usually prepared only at celebrations such as weddings, but we were fortunate, Jona's family had been expecting us, and were eager to share their village and also their traditions with us. Lovo is an amazing way to cook a lot of food for a group of people. First, a hole is dug. Depending on how much you are cooking for, a typical size is about 2 by 2 metres. Firewood is placed in the hole and a fire is lit. Medium sized rocks are then piled on top of the fire. When the rocks start glowing hot, the firewood has collapsed and the rocks have sunk into the hole (needs a bit of gentle persuasion from a shovel), it is time to make a "grill" on which the wrapped meats, chicken, fish and root vegetables rest. This is made of layered banana leaf stems. We brought a chicken for the lovo and I caught a big parrotfish while underway to the village to share. They were then wrapped in palms, as well as the traditional root vegetables taro, cassava and kumela (local sweet potato) and placed on the rocks. I can't believe they weaved the basket housings for the chicken and fish so intricately! A blanket of banana leaves is then laid on top. And yet more banana leaves ... can't have too many banana leaves! Then finally palms. After an hour or two, everything is ready. The taste was amazing, as the smoky flavour is absorbed throughout all the food from the lovo process. While the feast was cooking we had a nice kava ceremony. I brought some kava and took part in the pounding of the kava too. The kava root is placed in a large steel pot and two men take turns pounding the root into powder. The bars are heavy and everyone takes their turn. It is a time of camaraderie and they had quite a laugh at me taking my turn. Many of the village men showed up to share in the kava ceremony. It was an amazing experience to be sitting around the kava bowl, in a bure with twenty Fijians, sharing rounds of kava. There are customs associated with the drinking of kava also. After receiving the coconut shell full of kava (full is called full tide, half is low tide; overflowing is jokingly called typhoon), the one drinking says, "bula everyone", then drinks the kava in one go, afterwards everyone gives a deep kind of clap and the next bowl is filled for the next person. Bula, like the Hawaiian aloha, is a word in the i-Taukei language that now includes a variety of meanings, each of which depend on the given situation. The word (pronounced boolah), literally means "life" and is most commonly used as a greeting, meaning "hello!" Using bula in this way is to express wishes for one's good health; the full saying is "Ni sa bula vinaka," (pronounced as nee-sahm-boolah-veenaka) which equates to 'wishing you happiness and good health." They shared many prayers with us, and also for us, during the ceremony. It was all very touching. We had brought some gifts for Jona's family and were pleasantly surprised when they also brought out many gifts, which they wanted to give us; traditional tapas, corals and weavings. They have so little but wanted to share with us regardless. Finally, with bellies full of food and heads filled with kava, we called it a night. We were walked back to the beach, where we said our goodbyes, and headed back to Pursuit under a star filled sky. It was a perfect night.

There are so many beautiful beaches along the way, but we had heard of a lagoon in particular, where there was a sunken Spitfire airplane from WWII. We thought it would be fun to snorkel it, so we anchored in a nearby bay and hiked through the bush and fields to the lagoon to try and find it. When we arrived at the lagoon, an old lady, who had lived there all her life, greeted us. We asked for permission to snorkel the wreck and she was happy to tell us the story of the airplane. She told us that she still remembered when it crashed. She was five years old when it happened. Apparently, three US air force pilots were patrolling the area against the Japanese. They were fooling around, flying low, making sharp turns and just plain having fun, when one of the planes clipped a palm tree. It broke a blade on its propeller and went down in the lagoon. The pilot was ok and swam ashore with his radio. He radioed the base and said his plane went down. They picked him up two days later. The old lady said that he just spent the time sun tanning and hanging out in the village drinking tea, which she made for him. The sea had eroded most of the plane over time, but we could still make it all out. It had become a reef for the fish and corals. It was in 3 metres of water only, so it was easy to see and snorkel. Afterwards, when we came back to the beach, the old lady and her husband were raking the sand and relaxing. They asked if we found it ok and told us some more stories. We had a really nice conversation with them before finally hiking back to the other bay. The things you see along the way. Ni sa bula vinaka everyone.