The bureaucracy in Fiji is quite over the top and the WARC organization – uncharacteristically -  didn’t prepare the fleet well for a very important aspect of it:  the biosecurity rules.  There was nothing about these rules in the WARC handbook.  One of the boats in the fleet, Fruition, had left Tonga a week or so before the fleet and sailed to Savusavu, a bigger town, to check in.  They underwent a 2 hour process with customs and immigration and had all fruit, vegetables and meat products on their boat confiscated by biosecurity!  Hearing that caused quite a bit of angst among the fleet as many had filled their freezers with meats and purchased a lot of vegetables and fruit in preparation for the long weeks in Fiji away from civilization.  An additional problem was that the fleet, unlike Fruition, would be arriving on Vanua Balavu, a very small island where we were told we could not count on purchasing ANY provisions!  Visions of hungry crews ransacking the local stores on Vanua Balavu for anything edible were circulating!  

Approaching Lomaloma on Vanua Balavu with Nicole as outlook on the bow.  The charts in Fiji are notoriously unreliable and eyeball navigation is key

 

Well, at the skippers meeting we got a little bit more clarity (“it’s all up to the individual officer”) and some additional information was given, but too little, too late.  On Kincsem, Nicole found the actual text of the biosecurity rules online and spent a lot of time and energy trying to fit our provisions into the many exceptions:  All frozen ground beef was cooked and re-frozen, the tails of frozen shrimp were removed and even garlic was de-skinned!  And some spam in cans was thrown overboard – no big loss there! 

 

When we got to Lomaloma on Vanua Balavu, our check-in point, the reality thankfully was a lot different from the experience that Fruition had:  Although some 10 official boarded Kincsem, they were extremely polite (but one of them didn’t take off his dirty shoes) and the whole process took all of 15 minutes, customs, immigration and biosecurity together.  The biosecurity guy said:  if you have any meat in your freezer, don’t bring it ashore.  We said ok and that was it:  nothing was confiscated! So what was excellent news, was also bad news as all of Nicole’s efforts were wasted! 

This is the Fiji biosecurity team arriving at another WARC boat ….

 

 

The WARC fleet at anchor, waiting for their cruising permits

 

It took 2 full days at anchor in Lomaloma before we we received our cruising permit even though we were the fourth boat to arrive at the anchorage.  The officials issued all permits for the fleet in one batch after inspecting the last and slowest boat.  Without that permit, you cannot go ashore and explore.  Very frustrating!  That first shore trip, however, was definitely a turning point for us in our feeling about Fiji:   the bureaucracy is one thing, but the Fijian people are quite another – they are just fantastic.  After dinghying ashore in Lomaloma we happened to come across the Annual Women’s Competition where women from some 27 villages were competing in things like balancing an egg on a spoon in your mouth while running, sack hopping, eating bread dangling from a line with just their mouths and converting a coconut into coconut flakes.  A fabulous time was had by all!  After the competition we walked in the direction of the school to take a look and a local approached us and invited us for coffee to his house! 

 

 

Bread on a string contest

 

Getting ready for the coconut shredding contest.  Videos of the contest and the anchorage (from the drone) are found in the Videos section of the website.  

 

 

 

This nice man invited us to his house for coffee – two big spoons of sugar, two big spoons of powdered milk and a sliver of instant coffee – looked a bit like I imagine cava must look! 

 

 

Fijians are very religious and churches are usually the best looking buildings in local towns – next to the community centers.  Here is the church in Lomaloma, easily the biggest building in town

 

Our first anchorage after Lomaloma was Susui, just 5 miles away.  We were the only boat in the beautiful anchorage and went ashore quickly to do “sevusevu.”  In Fiji, all anchorages are owned by the villages ashore and you have to ask permission of the village chief to anchor in them and you have to bring him cava root as a token of your respect.  The Chief will then do a short ceremony – called sevusevu - to get us permission from the gods to have us stay in the anchorage.  The cava root is turned into a brown powder which is then mixed with water and produces a slightly anesthetic effect.  More importantly, the cava drink tastes like dish water and we wanted to avoid at all cost being invited to share cava with the locals who are all very social and want to share their favorite beverage!  As cava is typically drunk in the evenings, our strategy was to arrive at villages in the morning when the chief hopefully is less inclined to invite us to share in the cava drink.  Sure enough, the strategy worked beautifully in Susui:  after five minutes of mambo zambo in Fijian – interspersed with the words “sevusevu” – we were declared members of the village for a year and free to anchor, take pictures and whatever else we wanted. 

 

 

Ready to see the Chief in Susui – knees have to be covered. 

 

 

The chief is the bald grey beard; to his right is a guy he called his son.  A neighbor pointed out to us that the son had the eyes of someone who had indulged excessively on cava the night before …

 

 

The Chief’s house

 

 

 

At the school in Susui.  Fourteen students, 3 teachers and one principal.

 

 

 

Excursion to the Hidden Bay from Susui

 

 

 

Snorkeling on the reef off Susui

Spirited sailing inside the reef on the East Side of Vanua Balavu island

 

 

 

Quick stop at MBavatu harbor.  An American has purchased the entire bay and runs a big farm.   We had a great hike but found out that the Alltrails app has its limitations ….

 

Next stop:  the beautiful Bay of Islands.  Videos of the views above and below the waterline are available in the video section on this website.  We again had to do sevusevu – in the village of Delaconi - but we delayed that procedure until the morning of our third day – again, the strategy worked and we didn’t have to drink cava.  The chief in Delaconi was not there but his sidekick was shrewd enough to not only claim the cava but also a cash donation for the road project! 

 

 

 

 

Bay of Islands – above and below the surface

 

When in the Bay of Island, we met Sugar Shack, a well known catamaran whose owners share a lot of information online about the places they visit.  They recommended we go to Namata Bay on the island of Qamea and what a great recommendation it was!  The Bay is inhabited by the Mitchell family which are known to be very friendly to cruisers.  There is also a house of an Australian family who live there part time and who came out to welcome us right after the anchor went down.  We had a great time visiting with both families and inviting some of them onboard for drinks.   

 

 

 Kincsem at anchor as seen from our Australian friends’ home

At the Mitchell’s home

Namata Bay

 

The next “must see” on the way West in the Fiji islands is the Rainbow Reef.  It lies between the islands of Tavenui and Vanua Levu.  Most boats in the WARC fleet decided to spend time at the luxurious Paradise Resort Tavenuni where you can do dive and snorkel tours to Rainbow Reef.   When we heard that one of the WARC boats, a relatively light catamaran, went missing with the mooring attached and that anchoring would be very difficult, we decided instead to see the reef from Viani Bay where there is a small dive resort.  But first, we decided to go to the small town of Somosomo to pick up provisions.  The handbook said Somosomo was a traditional Fijian town which was “delightful.”

 

 

 

 

 

 Downtown Somosomo

Community center Somosomo

 

There were definitely no tourists in Somosomo - other than Team Kincsem.  There is not even a pier where a ferry or tourist boat could dock – we anchored just off the reef which goes all the way to shore.  To go shopping, we needed to get ashore with the dinghy – easier said then done.  The reef goes all the way to the shore and at low tide, there is a wide shelf of reef at least 60 meters out from the shore.  In those situations, we anchor the dinghy offshore to an anchor buoy and have an endless line running through a block on the buoy with which we can pull the dinghy in and out to the buoy.  In Somosomo, we had to lengthen our shore lines substantially to fasten them to a bush ashore.   Hard work for a little shopping trip!  As luck would have it, we had made contact with AJ, a taxi driver recommended to us by Sia Mitchell (Namata Bay) and he helped us coming ashore at a private house where the conditions were the least difficult!

 

We wanted to shop for some fresh vegetables and fruits as well as luncheon meats and cheese but success was limited.  There were some onions, some potatos and even some carrots to be had and some apples.  But everything else was more difficult.  Alas -I found a head of lettuce in one of the stands on the main street – which is the only paved street.   This is lettuce I saw in any store since Papeete!  Luncheon meats – no way, unless you want to get some of the many varieties of spam in cans.  Cheese – there was something resembling camembert but it was like it came out of a can as well.  There were some hard cheeses but they taste a bit industrial.  Well, when in paradise, don’t complain about the few little annoyances!

 

 

 

The dinghy was quite the local attraction

 

The next day AJ took us on a little tour of Taveuni which was quite interesting.  AJ is a guy in his twenties with a mohawk who has a Toyota pickup with 4 seats and AC – about as luxurious a vehicle as we saw in Taveuni.  First stop:  the Lavena Coastal Walk on the North east side of Tavenuni.  First surprise:  The 35 Fiji $ per person entrance fee were not included in the price we had negotiated with AJ ……. But the trail was very well maintained so we assumed it was the locals who lived along the trail who maintained it and received our entry fee.  Wrong – it’s a corporation who collects the fees and puts the locals to work for a song!  Second surprise:  after 1 ½ hours we got to the highly advertised waterfall but not really.   We would have had to swim for 100 meters to really see it but we did not have swimming gear.  Second stop was another waterfall – this one, however, most impressive.  Again, the entire attraction, consisting of three waterfalls, is owned by the same corporation which owns the Coastal Walk.  At this point, it wasn’t a surprise that we had to pay to see the waterfall – but Udo negotiated a 50% discount!   Last stop was the Date Line – a small monument on the 180^th meridian.  The idea is that you can have one foot on one date and the other foot on that date plus one.  Trouble is that Fiji has changed that date line so it’s East of all the islands and all of Fiji is on the same date all the time.   It was fun nonetheless!

 

 

 

The elusive Wainibau waterfall on the Lavena Coastal Walk

 

 

 

Lavena Coastal Walk

 

 

The first of three Tavoro waterfalls

 

 

At the Date Line

 

We learned quite a lot about Fiji and Taveuni from AJ.  He grew up on the island of Tavenuni and had only been off once in his life, for a one week trip to Suva.  He got so disturbed by the many people and cars and general noise level in Suva that he cut his trip short and went back home to Taveuni after only two days.  He opined that Fijian women have a “great life”.  “They eat a lot, then rest, then eat some more and generally do nothing all day.”  He didn’t like their voluminous bodies and wanted to find a slim, white woman to get married.  Well, we wished him good luck but refrained from suggesting that he get rid of his mohawk and wife beater T shirt to improve his chances …..