Scuba Tuba. River Giver.

We had adventures at sea (scuba) and on river (village visit and tubing). I’m still trying to rhyme. Game is so weak. I continue to be amazed at how much time we have spent around water on this trip because it was never a conscious intent. Sure, we wanted to surf and I suppose the spirit of Chasing Summer draws you to water … but I’m a mountain person at heart. But I wasn’t drawn to go on a mountains-of-the-world tour. More on that later, in another post, because I want to write some Trip Notes to capture the why and what of this journey. So much of it lives in our heads. What got put in writing was important-boring stuff like to do lists … if Google Sheets counts as “writing”?

Did I say Fijiiiiiiiiiiii … ?

Look who got scuba certified!!! Proud of these two. I joined them for fun dives on the last afternoon. Sea life is so amazing. Saw another sea turtle!!

On our way back from diving, we boated past this tiny island below. Patch of sand and a few trees. I have done a lot of map gazing on this journey around the world. I have seen these sand islands on satellite images!! It was fun to see one in person.

This is how the island shows up on Google Maps!!

Like a lot of places we visited, we didn’t do a ton of research about Fiji. When we can get away with it we do the bear minimum planning and show up. For Fiji, Justin basically just booked an Airbnb and rented a car. Actually I should clarify it’s a Toyota Hiace van because if you follow Justin on instagram you will know that detail matters. Anyhow, I’ve buried the headline: I had no idea this stretch of coast would be so undeveloped, so Fijian and so, almost, wild. I just thought Fiji was probably like … any other super developed tropical beach destination. No doubt that exists here too, no doubt there are fantabulous resorts here, but not on the stretch of coast that is home to us this week. We also chose Fiji because it has direct flights from NZ and to North America. Our final and longest flight will be direct from Fiji to Vancouver on Friday.

This is another island that was near our dive spots. It has a tiny village and a school on the other side. Also fun to inspect on Google Maps. Yanuca Island.

Our big tourist activity was going river tubing on the Navua River. It took a minute to acclimatize to a large group of humans being tourists together. They were bussed in from all over the island!! Luckily we got over it, and got over ourselves too, because I thought it was a super cool day. We separated into small groups off the bat to get into wooden sausage boats with motors to take us up river. In fact, our family was on a boat with about four Fijians, no other tourists. The boat is so long that the fourth Fijian does not appear in the photo below, he was the one driving!! The scenery was stunning. Nothing but river and wild jungle vegetation and the occasional waterfall. While passing a particularly massive waterfall one of the guys shared that Ananconda 2 was filmed here. This is especially funny because there are no snakes on Fiji. They were pretending it was Borneo.

We traveled up river for about an hour. Stopped at a very small village. A lot of the simple Fijian homes remind me of Africa. Lots of corrugated metal is used in construction. Simple rooms and open spaces. It’s been a long time since we’ve been somewhere where a lot of people don’t have much. But it certainly has much less vibe of poverty and despair than Africa and more of a vibe of joy. Fijians genuinely seem very happy. Like bubbling happy. I had to do an errand in Nadi when we landed and I asking my taxi driver whether the most recent US election had impacted Fiji. It was a short taxi ride, I had to dive in headfirst. Anyhow, the answer was basically not at all. His point was Fijians are happy and stress-free and it hadn’t impacted business or travel in obvious ways. It really is that island vibe of “don’t worry, be happy”.

We ate lunch by the river on makeshift benches made from bamboo and tables from doors. Our table still had a handle on it :) It was a full-on Fijian lunch spread … lots of cooking had happened while we visited the village … fish stew, boiled fiddlesticks, roasted pumpkin and more. From there we popped in our tubes and floated down the river for an hour, tackling several rapids along the way. I’ve done a couple of week-long guided river trips with the kids in Utah. We absolutely love them. Floating the Navua brought back happy river memories.

Justin is rocking a 5 o’clock shadow silver fox style right now. Very handsome. You can’t see this new look in this photo but you can see his dashing smile.

As we floated past the Anaconda 2 waterfall all of a sudden the Fijians among us burst out into the most beautiful song. I’m sure the river canyon acoustics helped put it on steroids!! It was sick!! So rad. Melt your heart. And then another song, and another. Don’t worry, be happy. Fiji is such a delight. Like the sweet treat at the end of our journey that I had hoped and imagined.