Savu Savu - Great Fun

The Adventures of the Good Ship Equinox
Cate and Chris Galloway
Fri 1 Jul 2011 14:34
Hi All,

As can be seen from the previous post, we have had a pretty full-on time since we arrived in Fiji. When we arrived last Thursday, we cleared in with Customs (not a quick job, but we managed to jump the queue of seven boats ahead of us by accident).

Friday we moved from where we had rafted up with "Windflower" to the alongside berth, which has been both really awesome and a bit of a pain. Privacy has been a bit of an issue but socially it has been awesome.

Friday night we had a kava ceremony to welcome us all to Fiji, which was really well done and we had an enjoyable night. On Saturday we had an ICA Rally Vs the local kids sailing association dinghy race (a charity event to support youth sailing) followed by a swim at the Hot Springs Resort, which is run by one of the parents. This turned out to be a really fun night, and we shared a rather loud and enjoyable dinner with "Windflower", "Silver Fox", and "Larabeck". The latter are a really nice German American couple, he a design engineer and she a Professor of Music on a sabatical from a university in Wisconsin. Much ribbing of the American/German interface was done, and we had a top evening.

Sunday we hopped in a bus to a resort/coastal park for another youth sailing function, thus time a Lovo which is a Fijian feast cooked on hot stones above ground, but under a huge pile of banana leaves. In the Lovo were a whole pig, several HUGE giant trevally, piles of cassava, taro, breadfruit and chickens. It was a really good feast and the best we have had so far.

Monday/Tuesday were a bit wet, so we progressed school and replaced our broken throttle cable (Should have taken your advice and purchased a spare in Gisborne, Brian - they had the item here, but at twice the price!)

Wednesday we finished off some boat maintenance and began our first serious store ship since New Zealand - we still have heaps of dry and tinned goods, but we are beginning to run low on some other staples. That night the yacht club put on a farewell for us - most enjoyable.

Yesterday we joined "Silver Fox" (SF) and took a short cruise down to Coustaue's resort where we snorkeled "split rock", which is a coral head that has a large crevice in the middle. This attracts a huge number of fish which are used to being hand fed, so if you don't take any food to them, they nibble on you!

Today we avoided the rain in Savu Savu by renting cars with SF and driving over the island to Labasa, which is a sugar cane town much like those in far North Qld. The lonely planet describes the three cuisines there as "indian, Chinese, and Grease..." Lunch was indian. This evening we returned to Savu Savu and had a few Friday drinks at the bar before going out for chinese at a local eatery with the SF's.

Things here are very cheap for us at the moment, with the Aus$ being almost 2-1 to the Fijian. Add to that the fact that the prices are cheap anyway and we have been eating out a lot. The best so far has been chinese on Monday night for seven of us FJD $42 (about $25 Aus). Bula!