Tourist Civilization - Denarau Island, Fiji
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Wed 5 Aug 2009 10:28
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17:46.351S 177:22.911E
We left Saweni Bay after one night on the morning
of the 28th and again motored (wind from the wrong direction) the ten miles to
Denarau Island. While still a good six miles out, we knew we were
approaching the tourist version of civilization because we could see a parasail
floating above the motorboat below it, lots of other small motorboat traffic and
a wall of hotels and bungalows lining the coast of the island. This was in
stark contrast to the completely undeveloped northern coast
of Viti Levu we had just spent two days motoring past. As we got
closer to Denarau Island, we noticed the marked channel into the marina -
wow, stop for a minute - a marked channel, complete with color coded
buoys. We knew at that point we were in for something special. We
proceeded through the channel and into the marina where we found an amazing
array of super yachts - both motor and sail - all over 100 feet and some
approaching 200. There were also some normal-sized yachts like our own as
well as a fleet of Fijian ferries and small cruise ships. We had
definitely arrived in the land of the tourist, which came with a large
dose of the super rich as well. Don maneuvered us Mediterranean
style (anchor down, stern to) into the dock and we found ourselves
staring directly at the 180 foot long side of La Masquerade, one of
the motor super yachts, which was tied alongside the long jetty across the
channel from our dock. If you Google La Masquerade, you'll see that
it is owned by a Brit who made a pile of money in coal. He now spends
three weeks out of every month on his yacht. Not a bad life,
really. And not so different from ours except that his boat
requires 3-6 million British pounds per year to run and maintain. Our
maintenance budget is a smidgen less than that.
Ahhhhh, the wonders of being tied to a dock
for the first time since leaving New Zealand three months ago. We've found
we really don't miss it until we experience the simple joy of
stepping off the boat and onto land. Just like that. No dinghy -
which means no wet butts, no salt water soakings, no struggle to secure the
dinghy on a sandy beach, no crumbling concrete wharfs to climb up, no
dinghies wedged under docks because the tide came in while you were
busy eating dinner. Just step off the boat, and you are there. I say
all this, but to be honest we are just as happy when we return to the more
private and serene environment surrounding an anchorage.
That's the thing about boating, it's the constant change of scenery that
keeps the addiction going.
Once off the boat at Denarau, we discovered we
really were in a strange sort of tourist civilization. There was a grocery
store filled with western-type junk food and ten different kinds of
cheese. The Hard Rock Cafe was next to five other restaurants and a pizza
place. There were clothing and jewelry stores and a New Zealand ice
cream shop. It was almost like we had never left home. There wasn't
a scrap of the 'real' Fiji to be found anywhere - with one possible exception
- some of the Fijians working here still greeted us with an
enthusiastic 'Bula!' when we walked by. Good thing too, otherwise we might
have thought the real Fiji had been completely banned from its own tourist
destination.
We stayed in Denarau Marina for four nights.
Long enough for us to eat dinner twice at an amazing Indian restaurant with Lady
Kay and Storyteller (yup, Storyteller reappeared in Denarau) and long enough for
Don to do some serious investigation of our engine's malfunctioning cooling
system and our bank of ailing batteries. What he discovered was that the
exhaust elbow on the engine was plugged with carbon (which he tried to clean out
with limited success) and that at least one of our nine batteries is pretty much
done for. We'll know better once the batteries go back to hard use mode
without the benefit of shore power. Don spent most of our four days at
Denarau in the engine room (which is more like an engine hole,
especially in 80 degree temperatures) or staring at battery voltages under the
sea berth in the cabin.
While Don crawled around in the engine hole, I
spent one day in the city of Nadi with Sue, Michael and Jackie, where we toured
the Hindu temple and then moved on to the market, grocery store and
butcher. We were just as excited about the butcher as we were about the
temple (it's not easy to find good meat in the islands).
Picture 1 - This is one of the shrines at the Nadi
Hindu temple. We had to dress appropriately (skirts below the knees for
ladies) and ditch our shoes to enter the temple grounds. We didn't
purchase plates of fruit to offer to the gods like many of the locals did, but
maybe we should have given that we will be sailing to Vanuatu soon.
Picture 2 - On the way back to our tourist haven on
Denarau Island, we stopped to buy flowers from these ladies at their stand on
the side of the road. They were happy to sell us several bunches for only
$5 US each and just as happy to pose for this picture.
One last thing...
Don, Michael and I were in the marina office
inquiring about one thing or another when a guy with a very familiar face walked
in. He looked at us and half a beat later exclaimed, 'I know you!
>From the World ARC!' It was Victor, one of the South African crew members
of fellow rally boat Wizard. He was in Denarau because he was
delivering (sailing) a 30 foot catamaran from Grenada in the Caribbean to
Australia. Once again proof that the boating world is very, very
small.
Anne
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