Fiji

Welcome to Suva

On Suva we risked another group excursion, this time organised by a fellow passenger so a lot cheaper than similar ones arranged by the cruise.

It was a decent half day although again we were the youngest by around 20 years. We drove round Suva (the capital of Fiji) looking at the sights. We then went to a traditional village for a show but after a few minutes it was realised the bus had taken us to the wrong village. We all got up and were driven to another. The dancing and food were fine, although the fire dancer was much better at the first one!

After that another drive, some of the questions the Americans asked the guide were perplexing, do you have Amazon? Do you have Walmart? Can we use USD in the shops?

We saw lots of local buses and despite Suva having quite a bit of rain, all these buses have no side windows!

The penultimate stop was at a waterfall, where the top pool was empty of people and meant for the majority of our time there I was able to have it to myself for a swim. Karen didn’t brave the refreshing water. It was a walk through the jungle to get to the falls and I’m not sure the type of path is geared up for the majority of the ships passengers as several didn’t make it to the waterfall and turned round.

Our final stop was at a big shop, I'm not sure if this was planned or due to the earlier interest in Amazon and other US stores, but seemed a strange stop so walked back to the boat and left the tour bus early.

We enjoyed Fiji and the part of the island we saw was definitely lush and vibrant. We are glad we came but wouldn’t come back (to this part anyhow). However the best side of the island was the other side to where we docked so we didn't see the sandy beaches and perhaps the most scenic areas.

Embracing the Boat Life

The 2 days after Fiji are sea days so back to the pattern of ship life. Although the first was our first bad weather day as we hit the edge of a cyclone. The waves were over 2 metres high and we could definitely feel them. The captain had the swimming pools emptied, apparently to improve the balance of the boat and also to stop the water escaping due to the waves. A slippery boat with the average age being over 60 could been lethal, a lot have worse balance than me.

On the subject of ages something came round showing the percentage in age age group. The 56 and over make up over 90% of the cruise. This split delighted Karen as meant she is in the youngest 10% but only just!

Tea Time with a View

One evening meal we were sat next to a couple from Worcester. They were really nice and we had a good conversation, all very safe although touched on politics agreeing leaving Europe was a bad idea. His wife was a refugee from Estonia and fled during WW2. Then really from nowhere the chap got on to birth rates and specifically Anglo Saxon birth rates and his concerns over what that meant to the make up of England going forwards! He didn't put it quite that politely. We put it down to his age and luckily we had finished our meal so headed off.