RAbi Is - Taveuni - Qamea Is
09 July 2013
Marg
We've had a few more adventures since our last email. We left Kioa for Rabi Island where we chilled out for two days in a beautiful bay that appeared to have one family living in it. We never interacted with them but I think we both watched each other with interest. We tried snorkeling in the area but found it relatively uninteresting. We upped anchor on Monday morning and headed back to Taveuni where we anchored off a little restaurant called "Tramonto" ( the Fijian kids running it said their grandfather owned it and he had an Italian friend who suggested the name which means sunset in Italian). We rowed ashore at about 5 o'clock and had drinks and then dinner. The cook grated the coconut freshly for our panfried fish with coconut milk. We watched the sunset, as expected, and interacted a little with the locals that came and went.
In the morning Tony rowed in to the local dive shop to get a bit of local intelligence about where we could anchor if we headed north to the tip of Taveuni. He came back thinking we might be able to anchor and then go onshore to explore the waterfalls. We set off as the boat from Naitaba arrived (without cousin Jonathan --too busy with publishing to see us sadly).
We had to motor for the fist part which was pretty lively but we were treated to a spectacular display by about 40 small dolphins who did pirouettes and a lot of synchronised swimming for us. We then put the sails us and had a nice sail across to Qamea Island which promised a safe anchorage. We sailed past a fancy resort with what we thought were big prices ($1000+ a night). We later learned that the resort on the Red Bull Island charges $10,000 a night! We went in to Naivivi Bay which is a hurricane hole. After a beer with our lunch Lisa and I were ready for a nice snooze after lunch. When we woke up Tony had already rowed ashore and made friends with the local kids. When he came back, we set off in the rain to walk the length of the beautiful beach. We got to shore and met some locals who were heading towards the boat stop to catch the boat to the resort where they work the afternoon shift. One was the night security man, two were band boys who play music and one was a housemaid. We sat in the boat stop out of the rain and chatted for 45 minutes with these friendly people. Finally the boat for the resort arrived and disgorged the morning shift and the afternoon shift went onboard. We then met Eric who is a Fijian dive master at the resort. He told us all about the local snorkeling spots and generally what to do. We're expecting another guy, Dan, son of the chief, to show up about 6.30 tomorrow morning with some fresh produce (cassava, taro, pumpkin and who knows what else). Tony made a delicious dinner of steak, friend onions, fresh green beans and noodles. Where will tomorrow take us? Who knows?