Around The World In 80 Waves

I am itching to go and surf some of the world class waves breaking on the outlying islands that are close by, but my efforts to sort out a surf trip are falling foul of the Sonaisali staff adopting ‘Fiji Time’.

There has been an equivalent phrase for the apathetic approach to anything in almost every country I have visited in the tropics. It must be something to do with being far too hot to be rushing anything.

I MUST get out to the waves though and am not really in the mood for it today. I spend about four hours chasing my tail being denied at every turn only to end up back with the first person I spoke to who said they do in fact arrange surf trips for guests, even though that is the exact opposite of what they told me at the start of my quest. #$%&!!!!

All of which means a whole day was wasted getting hot under the collar when I should have been enjoying myself on the beach or at the pool bar.

I eventually roll up at the pool bar more than a tad wound up. Tiana serving me there, says she has just the drink for me to take the edge off. A Long Island Iced Tea mixes equal measures of vodka, gin, tequila, rum, and triple sec with one and a half measures of sour mix and a splash of cola. The drink has the same amber hue as iced tea, and my first one disappears before I have realised it.

“Of course I will have another” is my answer for far too long at the bar whilst I am getting to know all the other families and couples staying here. I had a fantastic evening but only realise I have had too many when I nearly fall off my stool at the bar on my way to the toilet. I also appear to have lost to ability to speak without slurring badly. Later investigation of my hotel bill show I had imbibed at least six of these bad boys, which explains a lot!

Apart from learning that my name would be Roverte in Fijian it is no surprise that I didn’t manage to get much done during this evening.

For the rest of my time in Fiji I am staying at Sonaisali. It is a private resort on the island of Naisali a few hundred metres off the western coast of Viti Levu.

Two thirds of the island is Mangrove swamp and the rest is utilised by this exclusive holiday destination.

Thanks to the Surf Travel Company back in Australia I have a fantastic room waiting for me there.

Apart from choosing which of the double beds in my room I will sleep in each night, I am particularly impressed with having my own bath. I haven’t been able to have a long soak in about ten months, and that it is sufficiently big that I can wallow in it for ages without causing a Tsunami like moment in the room downstairs is an added bonus.

I am on a deal in which all my meals are included. Most are enjoyed in the restaurant looking out over the pool.

The food is fantastic and there is always so much to eat. As if the three huge meals per day were not enough, I can also enjoy afternoon tea every day should I so desire.

My bar tab is my own problem though and this picture of me taken one evening by the pool bar, enjoying the fantastic sunsets that occur on this western facing coast was taken before it caught up on me.

More on that to follow.

In addition to extorting more money from me for wanting to take advantage of the slow internet access that is only available in the lobby, the gift shop in the resort also sells these dolls.

They are based on the locals, who put on shows every night in the resort dressed in similar traditional outfits.

Should they be offensive or not? I can’t decide. Fiji is so laid back I don’t think they would think it at all patronising, but I don’t think carrying one on a bus in Peckham would be wise.

It is time for me to travel back across to the western side of Viti Levu. My journey is broken up by a stop at a shop selling Fijian crafts items. However I cant resist buying a couple of traditional war clubs as souvenirs of my time in the islands.

The one on the right is called a neck breaker and the one on the left is a skull smasher. Both would be used to kill and then break up conquered foes before sticking them in the cooking pot. Either may come in handy for my next run in with a telecoms or airline company.

All trips out to sea from Waidroka start with a tentative cruise out through this shallow channel in the reef in front of the resort. The space around the boat at low tide is staggeringly small.

Today I am heading out to the break known as Pipe, but discover that I missed some entertainment on the boat that had gone out to Frigates when I was chilling out on shore the day before, because the waters around Fiji are home to a great number of sea snakes. A Banded Sea Krait which you see here is amphibious but likes to find a cosy spot to curl up and digest their food. 

Amusingly a favourite hideaway for them here is the life jacket locker on the boat, and one of the aussies got the fright of his life when retrieving the jackets to pad the boards for the journey out to sea, because he was met by two of them not pleased to see him.

These snakes are very docile and have small mouths, making it very difficult to bite the largeness that is a human being. However even a small amount of their venom contains neurotoxins & myotoxins that cause paralysis and muscle tissue breakdown that will drop a man dead in 6-12 hours, so they are no laughing matter. Despite this I am a little disappointed to have missed the mania which entailed some people trying to catch them by their tails and throw them overboard whilst everybody else scattered around the boat and attempted to climb up on the roof!

I am joined for the short boat ride out to Pipe by a group of Hawaiians who have arrived at the resort. Everybody checks under their seat before sitting down for the journey out to the local reef.

They are a good crowd and I have lots of fun chatting to them about their favourite breaks back home, many of which I have surfed earlier on this trip.

We have a few delays getting out to the reef, and the wind is really on the shoulder high waves rolling around it. This puts me off diving over the side with everybody else to get in amongst the swell.

I can’t really explain why, but I just wasn’t in the mood for a surf today. Despite that I still enjoyed being out on the water for a few hours watching some of the guys snag a few brief barrels and charge down the line. 

Saturday night is Lovo Night at Waidroka. It starts with a traditional Sevusevu ceremony, where protocol dictates you sit cross legged facing the chief and the large wooden bowl called the Tanoa in which the Kava is prepared.

Kava is a mild analgesic, diuretic and stress reliever, the consumption of which makes your tongue tingly, your body lethargic and your head fuzzy! It is made from the root of a plant in the pepper family. It is part of the way of life in Fiji in much the same way a cup of tea would be back in the UK and always involved in any island diplomacy.

Traditionally it is prepared by young virgins chewing the root into a pulpy mass and then spitting it into the Tanoa. However things have moved on a bit and you now buy it in powdered form from the supermarket! The powder is placed in a cloth and then dipped in the Tanoa’s water where it is massaged and squeezed until the beverage is ready, much like a tea bag.

When you are presented with the Bilo (a coconut shell cup) it is expected that you clap once with cupped hands, say “Bula” (which is a word with many meaning in Fijian e.g. hello, cheers and have a good day?) as a statement of gratitude and then quaff the whole lot down in one go like a very large tequila shot. It genuinely tastes like spiced soil, but it is incredibly impolite to behave in any way other than you have just enjoyed the nectar of the gods! Once finished you hand the Bilo back you clap three times in the same way saying “Bula” once more, shortly before your lips go numb.

It would seem that this goes on until all the Kava is consumed or everybody passes out, but after a bucket full of it I make my excuses and wander, a tad uneasily, over to see what is going on at the Lovo Pit.

The Fijian staff have built a fire around coral rock so that the pumice stones will retain all the heat once the fire is removed. The pyromaniac in me wants to get involved but I first have to shore up all the windows to my bungalow which happens to be next to the pit, and results in it smelling like November 5th in there for the rest of my stay.

Once the fire is removed all the food that is going to go into this form of earth oven is wrapped in banana and palm leaves.

These parcels are placed on top of the hot stones in the pit and everything is then buried in soil. The food is left to bake there for an hour.

A Bilo or two of Kava later I staggered into the main area where all the food was presented as a glorious banquet.

As usual I had eyes bigger than my stomach but couldn’t resist all the pork, chicken, fish and baked vegetables. I did revert back to the local beers to enjoy with my meal for a number of hours though.

Safe to say I slept well this night!

After a day on the water at Frigates Passage I decided that I needed a day off everything and I couldn’t be in a better place to relax than Waidroka Bay Resort, where I am staying.

Almost everybody else went out to sea today and I feel like I have the Garden of Eden to enjoy by myself.

Unusually for here it absolutely chucks down with rain for three hours in the morning, but the air afterwards is beautifully cool and I can take a stroll around the grounds in the sunshine.

There are so many funky plants and trees, which all seem to have flowers even more exquisite than the one previously viewed.

This is my place set in amongst the trees. It is lovely to have my own space for a little while and being able to unpack everything and spread out even just for a few days is a joy I so rarely get to savour on the road.

After a great lunch and a chat with one of the other guests I even have time for a pleasant afternoon nap. It is such a relaxing day.

It isn’t long before everybody else is returning back to dry land from their various adventures during the day.

As becomes my custom here the evening is spent talking with the other guests, enjoying the great food served to us all around a large dining table, and washing it all down with a bottle or five of the local Fijian beer.

I post this some what late but hope that Adam passed on this message for me on your big day.

Dear Allan and Lucy

I am really sorry I can’t be there to enjoy your special day with you both, but as you know I am currently chasing waves on the other side of the world at the moment. I write this from Fiji and hope some of the sun shining here joins you for your wedding day.

It really seems like yesterday that Allan came home to my flat in East Dulwich after a night at the Phoenix and Firkin in Denmark Hill station and couldn’t wait to tell me about the girl he had met that evening. However that was twelve years ago and so much has moved on since that time. It isn’t even called the Phoenix any more!

Really wishing you both a fantastic day and all the happiness in the world for the rest of your lives together with your beautiful family. I will look forward to catching up with you all when I get back.

Much love.

Rob

By the time I arrived at Waidroka Bay I was running on auto-pilot so I was delighted to be told that a boat was heading out to the famous break called Frigates in the morning because it avoided any decision making on my part. It is named after a gap in the coral reef that was big enough to get the old warships through, called Frigates Passage. 

The waves peel beautifully off the edge of the reef, however it is not accurate to say they break off the island of Viti Levu because it is a surf spot that is 16 miles out to sea and requires an hour boat trip just to get there!

I was joined on the boat by a group of surfers from Australia and a couple of divers because it is also a great spot for checking out the marine life.

Upon arrival at the passage we were delighted to be met by head high waves which were almost mechanical in their perfection and not a breath of wind. This wave was for Peter Kraus, and it might well have been the perfect wave he was always looking for. Just a shame it was a left Pete!

With him in mind I decided I had to try and charge the waves today, without holding back. There were only six guys in the water so my efforts were soon rewarded and I was quickly into a few beautiful rides.

I was once more wearing the boots and helmet to give me some protection from the reef because this was a very serious wave. Everyone had been warning me that the sun here in Fiji was particularly powerful too, so I also added enough zinc sunscreen to have galvanised a frigate!

There was no wind to start the session but it picked up steadily through our time out on the ocean, which made conditions increasingly challenging. You can see me here dropping into another monster, and also the other surfer ducking through the clear water on the left of the shot.

After a few hours I was tired and went back to the boat for lunch, only to be told by the divers on our boat about how many sharks and other marine life they had seen swimming around underneath us. Great!

However it was the wind rather than the angry fish that was the reason for me not getting back in the water here. The morning had been a perfect session and I wanted to treasure that for my friend, preferring to watch the other surfers and enjoy a bit of fishing. By the time I had got back to dry land I had been on board for almost eight hours and can freely admit to almost walking off the side of the jetty due to still being on my sea legs!

I have a ridiculously early flight from Sydney to Nadi in Fiji and of course get the usual surcharges for daring to travel with a surfboard. However I should say that with Fiji Airways it was at least done with a sympathetic tone and a smile.

I manage a two hour kip on the four hour flight too, but end up being the very last person off the plane due to waiting for the lady sat next to me and her elderly mother, who wasn’t at all mobile, to be able to get up and slowly make their way into the terminal without holding up the other passengers.

I didn’t mind too much because I have learnt that travelling anywhere on this trip, is a non event of a day, so there is no point rushing it.

That was until I saw there were only a handful of immigration desks open and I had to wait in line for over an hour, which was tad tedious.

Fiji is no further from Australia than New Zealand, and with it’s close ties to both I had high hopes of my phone working for a change when I get off a plane. Par for the course on this trip though, I don’t get a working signal when I switch my phone on upon arrival.

The trip around the island of Viti Levu to get to the Waidroka Bay resort  on the southern coast where I am staying for the next few days takes hours. As a consequence my driver suggests we stop along the way to get a bite to eat and a drink at his friend’s restaurant

Raju’s is run by Rakesh Singh who you see here posing in front of his bar, which is adorned with pictures of his sporting family. He used to be a professional boxer although I couldn’t understand if he had actually retired or not despite being in his forties. Like everybody I meet in Fiji he was incredibly friendly, and if anything in his case it was too much so. He couldn’t have known anything about it but after recent events I wasn’t really in the mood to hear every gory detail about how he had found his father after he had killed himself in the first five minutes of our conversation. 

It made me incredibly uncomfortable and that he wanted all my contact details in the UK and to know how long I would be away was a bit weird too, so I passed on the address of my old flat and just said two weeks!

The food was great though and the beer was cheap so I left on good terms after me meal. Once back on the road I arrive at the resort, after a few hours looking out the window at the local countryside and sugar canes crops .

It is time for me to head for another of the world’s rugby loving nations. Thankfully it will be one of the warmest. Fiji have been enthusiastic about the game since they played British soldiers in the nineteenth century, and today every village there has a team.

The British were also responsible for bring many Indians here to work in the sugar plantations, and there is a huge Indo-Fijian population and culture, reflected in the spicy curries enjoyed by all. However the clash of cultures has not always been an easy marriage, and because Indo-Fijians are still not entitled to the civil liberties of indigenous Fijians more than a hundred years later has largely been responsible for the four military coups which have taken place on the Island in the last twenty years.

I am going to be in the islands for just over a week, and am looking forward to enjoying another tropical paradise.

Fiji has starred in a number of films, but that it’s islands were used as the location to shoot Cast Away (the Tom Hanks version, as opposed to the Oliver Reed one) and The Blue Lagoon should give you some indication of what I am hoping to see here.

There is also a history of cannibalism on the islands, with vanquished foes regularly being eaten previously. So much so that when the mutiny on the bounty took place Captain Bligh sailed straight through the gap between Vanua Levu and Viti Levu after having been set adrift, in fear of being consumed by the locals. The channel has been named Bligh’s Strait as a consequence.

The waves are the real reason I am visiting this nation, and it is another stop on the ASP world tour, with the Volcom Pro taking place annually at Cloudbreak.

There is a huge coral reef that largely surrounds the archipelago, which results in some epic surf. All of which is breaking in warm and beautifully clear water. I can hardly wait!