Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

February 14, 2017

I am writing this on February 15 and we are now 18 hours ahead of Eastern time.  Confusing to say the least!

Our excursion yesterday in Lautoka was a trip on an old wooden sailboat to a private island, Tivua Island.

First, a bit about Lautoka.  This town is on the northwest coast of the island of Vito in Fiji.  It is the second largest city after Suva. This is the area of the sugar cane industry and is the country’s leading sugar export port.  Legend has it that there were two tribes in the town and as a result of an argument one day, a fight broke out between the two chiefs.  One speared the other and screamed out “LAU-TOKA” meaning “spear hit” or “hit to win”. And so, the town acquired its name.

We boarded our sailing vessel right from the wharf where our ship was docked. We had a wonderful friendly crew who greeted us with fresh fruit and mango juice.  They entertained with songs on the way to the island, and one even had a box with what looked like a clothesline attached to a stick.  He made sounds like a bass with it!

They did a kava ceremony on board and this time Norm was the chief and had to drink the kava first.

The island was beautiful.  It is a sand fringed coral island surrounded by 500 acres of coral reefs. We had a choice of lots of activities, including snorkeling, paddle boarding, glass bottom boat, swimming or just relaxing in our own hut.  We chose to snorkel. and while the coral has been pretty damaged by cyclones, the fish were spectacular.  We saw lots of bright blue starfish which are plentiful here and not anything we have seen before.  I did take video and pictures with my new go pro camera but haven’t figured out how to get them on the blog.  We have other snorkeling trips scheduled, so I may do a post of just those pictures when I figure it out! And may have to post from a place with fast Wi-Fi.

Some people arrived by helicopter!

Anyway, we spent almost 2 hours snorkeling and then had a nice lunch with all the beverages you could drink.  Norm had several beers!

I did some beachcombing for shells and unusual coral pieces.  We were happy to see the protection of turtle nests here. We also saw the island where Tom Hanks filmed Castaway but we didn’t spot Wilson!

One of the crew also took us on a nature walk and pointed out all of the trees that have medicinal uses here.  Papaya is used for asthma, Palm root for toothache and they use the leaf of the hibiscus as toilet paper in the rural areas.  Thankfully not here on the island!

On the way back, the crew and Norm demonstrated how to crack open a coconut.

After a really wonderful day, we sailed back to the Insignia and got all cleaned up in time for the Valentines party on the deck.  I had a special drink called Kissed on the Lips which was vodka, peach schnapps and champagne.  Lovely!  Dancing and chatting with friends before dinner, a valentines cake and a spectacular sunset.

February 13, 2017

First of all, happy birthday to my sister Deb.  Even though it is still the 12th where you live, have been thinking of you all day!

They have a very active trivia presence on the ship.  We don’t participate  even though we would sometimes like to. That’s because once the groups get formed, they are VERY serious about it and if you don’t show up, they replace you. They have it twice a day on sea days, and many times we have dinner with people who just don’t enjoy their meal because they are so focused on getting to trivia for the 8:30 time.  We don’t want to be tied down to that! Anyway, Leslie, the cruise director, is really into it and comes up with very hard topics.  This one was reported to us as “over and above”!

“Where are ‘neirs’ found?” No one knew.  Of course the answer was “Suva”.  Everyone has heard of Suva neirs!

This is our first visit to Fiji. We have a new destinations enrichment lecturer on board, Peter Croyle, and he did a talk on Fiji yesterday. It was mostly about the town and some of what you might do here.  Our choice was the Navua River by longboat. And what a day it was!  We were greeted as we left the ship by these lovelies. I didn’t feel at all threatened!

We had two guides, Tony and Freddy – of course not their real names – those are too long for us to remember!  They were very delighted to have us visit Fiji and kept telling us so during the visit. There are 340 islands that make up Fiji, this one, Viti, is the largest and Suva is the capital.  We traveled in their city buses, not air conditioned, and Tony told us it was to see how 75% of the population travels.  Only 25% own cars. 

They were also very happy to have sunshine and so were we!  It rains a lot here – every month.  There is not an official rainy season although November to May gets the most rain – July is the driest month and it still gets 125 mm of rain on average.  So we lucked out – several small showers during the day but mostly sun and clouds.  In the downtown, they have the biggest fruit and vegetable market, the biggest cinema and the biggest bus station in the entire South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.  That was a real surprise to us.

We had a 45 minute drive through the countryside to reach the Navua River and our longboats.  7 people were in each boat and it was a leisurely trip upriver, except for the rapids!  At one point we had to get out of the boat and walk a short distance as we surely would have been tossed in!  Along the way we saw horses, cows and goats, a few varieties of birds and lots of waterfalls. The area is a thick tropical rainforest and you really don’t see much civilization. 

Cannibalism was practiced here until it was outlawed in 1976.  Polygamy is still OK though, men have up to 7 wives, and it is men first in this society.  They say it is to protect the women! 

Our first stop was the Magic Waterfall, the largest on the Navua River.  It is really quite spectacular – and we had a wonderful, refreshing swim here.  

Hilary, here I am with your brother Barry and Helen!

At the village, we did taste the kava – I wouldn’t recommend it though.  It makes your tongue and lips a little numb and supposedly is used as an antidepressant in China and as an ingredient in the US. 

We had a short show and then had lunch prepared by the local women.  It was delicious.  Interestingly, they also offered what they called Subway – sandwiches made on the same kind of rolls.

And what do you drink in Fiji?  Fiji water of course!

This guy was in no hurry to go anywhere!

February 7, 2017

Before leaving Papeete, we had a wonderful Polynesian show on board.  The drummers, singers and dancers were exceptional and our friends saved seats in the front row so my pictures are much better than the last show.  I assume these men and women train since birth to move their hips the way they do.  Amazing.  And there were many costume changes.  One of them was to outfits made entirely of the flowers and greenery of the islands.  Just beautiful.

The flower costumes

There is no public transportation on the island so rental cars, bikes and scooters are the modes of transport

The economy is almost entirely based on tourism here. We did some shopping in the markets and the stores, then we were taken by boat to a private island (known as a motu) for a special Around the World event.

The 12 person boat they took us in to the island. Insignia in the background

Who wouldn’t love to stay here!

Our greeting committee on the island

We were again entertained by fabulous dancers and drummers.  I admired the fresh flower crown one of the servers had on and she took it off and put it on my head for me to keep! We meet such warm and wonderful people.

Here are a few more pictures of the event.  Wonderful way to spend the day and after a morning rain, the rest of the day was just spectacular.

These men in their loin cloths….mmmmm

Tricia and Norm

We did make two purchases and I will post pictures of them tomorrow when we are at sea.

This morning at sea ( I am writing this on February 8) we had a special Around the World breakfast with a huge assortment of bagel sandwiches.  Leslie nd Victor answered questions and mentioned that there will be a breakfast like this every month.  Here is the most unusual bagel.  The chefs outdid themselves.  There was even one with turkey and guacamole!

February 5, 2017

This place is quite unique.  It is a string of coral encircling a turquoise and jade lagoon.  It is quite different from Nuku Hiva which is volcanic.  Here the beaches are white coral beaches.  This is known as one of the worlds  greatest dive destinations. It is the biggest atoll of French Polynesia and the second biggest one in the world.  It could contain the entire island of Tahiti in its center. It is a real natural aquarium with so many fish species. I still have a cough so we decided to wait until tomorrow to do any snorkeling.  

Here is the view when we arrived into the harbor.  It is also a tender port.  On the dock we were greated by dancers. 

We went to Gauguin Pearl farm, the biggest one here.  It employs 50 local workers and has a strong impact on the economy.  There is a school dedicated to the pearl farming techniques and also a research center located here.  Black pearls – the marine cultured pearls produced from the black lip pearl oyster shell – Pinctada margaritifera – are abundant here.  These pearls have a wide range of natural colors from white to dark to gray and are the only cultured pearls in the world with so many different natural colors.

It was fascinating to hear the history and the process of cultivating the pearls.  We saw how long it takes for the oysters to mature.  It takes almost 4 years to even be able to use them for cultivation and then about 2 years to get a pearl.  And not all of the pearls are even useable.  They can seed the same oyster 3 times but after the first time the quality is not the same.

The inside of the shell. There is an appendage of the oyster which covers the implanted “nucleus”

doing an implant

What they look like on the outside

Voila! A pearl!

After the pearl farm we walked to one of the coral beaches and enjoyed finding some beautiful shells and coral to bring home. We also saw some of the crew who were so thankful to be on land!

Marius, our favorite Maitre d

Some adorable local children

With our butler, Vishant

This beach is known for bottlenose dolphins

Photos cannot describe how beautiful it is

The betting pool boards are also up in the front between the screens. Almost 200 spots were sold so we will see if we win anything.  They have popcorn, hot dogs, hamburgers, guacamole, salsa and chips and much more.  A large variety of drinks accompanies the football food.  As you can tell, I am writing this while watching the game.  It is almost the end of the first quarter.

So, in the middle of paradise, we are watching football!  We leave here about 4 PM today on our way to Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, where we will have a snorkeling excursion.  Looking forward to that and to trying out my new GoPro camera underwater.

February 3, 2017

After 5 days at sea, everyone was happy to see land here.  We arrived late in the day as expected and it was a tender port, so that means that they lower usually 3 of the lifeboats and take us in groups to the shore.  It was pretty choppy but we made it in to see the port.

This is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.  We had a very weird 30 minute time change – ahead, before this port.  Some people got very confused!

There wasn’t much going on, but we walked to the small and charming church and also saw the black volcanic beach.  It started to get dark before we left to go back to the ship.  Here are some pictures of this beautiful volcanic island.  Lots of mountains, and most of the places here are only accessible by boat.

the tender port as we were getting ready to go back to the ship

Beautiful carvings in the church courtyard

View of the harbor

After we got back to the ship, there was a wonderful presentation by local dancers and drummers.  We were so lucky to see this, it was because we came late and stayed late. Normally this show is only available to those who are in port overnight.  They were really terrific.  It was hard to get shots without people in the front of the stage so you don’t really get the effect but it gives you an idea. One of the pictures shows me up there dancing, they picked several of us out of the audience!  I couldn’t make the picture any lighter. There are friends on board who apparently have video to share with me.  I doubt I can upload it though, maybe when we are on land!

My dancing debut!

Tomorrow is a sea day before the next French Polynesian port, Rangiroa.