Port Denarau

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Wed 1 Aug 2012 08:22
The mooring buoys here are all in very shallow water, we had no more than a few inches under the keel at low tide, and too close together. Get two dissimilar boats that swing in different ways next to one another and they're likely to clash. When we arrived we were told that two of the boats had been up most of the night fending each other off. So it's not the place to leave the boat unattended for any length of time. We did spend an afternoon in Nadi (15 minute drive away) re-provisioning without a problem, but as we were hoping to spend a couple of days out all day, we decided we should move into the marina. It only has one pontoon, but it's quite a pontoon - full of quite big yachts and even bigger superyachts. We managed to get a berth in with the yachts, but after one night had to move in with the superyachts (it was the only space available). We looked absolutely tiny next to them.
 
Nearly half the population of Fiji is of Indian decent, as a result of us Brits bringing Indian workers over here to work on the sugar cane plantations. Most of the shops and businesses are now owned by Indians and Nadi appeared to be much more of an Indian city than a Fijian one. Our first full day out was by taxi to Lautoka to submit our Australian visa applications. There are heavy fines if arriving in Australia without a visa, so we wanted to get the process underway to allow time to sort out any problems. It takes several hours to complete the application form and get all the supporting information required, and once submitted we have to wait a week or so to find out if our application has been successful. So we're still waiting with fingers crossed that it's all going to go through okay. (Wonder if the Aussies have the same problem when coming to the UK?) The second day out was aboard the Yasawa Flyer, but that, as they say, is another story!      
 
The waterfront at Port Denarau - restaurants of every variety.
 
Just a nice picture of the boat with a lovely blue sky. The buoy is attached on the port cleat
rather than over one of the bow as one of bow rollers, which never turned properly, was wearing
thin and to our surprise we were able to get a new one made here. So it was being changed over
when this was taken. The new roller is slightly smaller and turns much better.
 
 
A good place to come for milkshakes and smoothies!
 
As said, very touristy! A lot of the restaurants and bars had live music most nights and being
moored just in front, we didn't even have to come ashore to listen to it (although we did get
a bit of a mix by the time it all got to us).
 
Gulliver's Travels  or what?! Big cleats or Liz's tiny feet, as we move in with the big guys.
 
Huge cleats and nice long pontoons made getting in and out of the marina easy.
 
Superyacht Aurora B! Above and below, some of our closest neighbours.
 
 
 
 
This one's 'Dr No'
 
Gosh - we've shrunk! (Must be all that rain in New Zealand.)