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Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop

a travel blog by chrischarly


After 6 months in the Western world, it is time to put back on our backpacks, pack away the rain coats and hit the Pacific!
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Returning to gorgeous Fiji!

Suva, Fiji


Woke up, packed, showered and checked out before spending the morning yet again chatting to fellow travellers and sorting a few things on a horribly slow internet connection. Then Peter came and picked us up along with a few others and drove us to the airport to go on a small plane to Suva, Fiji’s capitol.

We opted to go to Suva instead of Nadi as it is closer to get on a Ferry to Ovalau where we visited before and where Neil also can’t wait to go and also because it is nice to check out somewhere we haven’t really visited before.

Once in Suva we shared a taxi to a hotel with Curly and Vo (some travellers we met also staying at Toni’s and on the same flight with us) which was a Best Western. To be honest it sucked as it was expensive, had a pool that was under maintenance thus empty, faulty air-con that we only realised too late and a fan that sounded like a helicopter landing, but as it was only one night it didn’t matter I suppose. Then down into the city for a couple of drinks followed by an Indian.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 7, 2012 from Suva, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Just the 3 of us

Suva, Fiji


We moved hotels to the South Seas that was half the price of the Best Western, if a bit basic, but still a really nice building and the staff were super-friendly. We then went for a walk around Suva and I tried and failed to buy some new tops as all of mine are falling apart due to being stretched so much from hand washing. We had a very tasty lunch at the Pavilion by the sports ground, which was full of locals and not another tourist in sight serving local curries for cheap. Then after lunch we had a good look around the Suva museum before walking into town again and finding some internet. Then, just like the old times, the 3 of us went to the cinema to watch ‘Pirates’ in 3D which was entertaining, before having a couple of drinks and grabbing a pizza before heading back.


permalink written by  chrischarly on May 8, 2012 from Suva, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Back to Bobo's!

Rukuruku, Fiji


We awoke reasonably early this morning so we could check out of our nice hotel and head downtown to do some internet work, booking flights etc. before getting tickets and heading back over to Ovalau. We took the nice bus and Ferry as before and as we were going straight to Bobo’s, got off at the wharf rather than travelling to Levuka on the bus. We were expecting Alvin to meet us, but when we walked off the Ferry all we could see was Bobo and his huge smile and waving arms. We exchanged hugs and boarded Alvin’s truck for the ride back to the farm. Neil was very happy with the ride as the views are amazing and he took several pics. We decided that we should take the rough track and River crossing to the farm, if only for Neil to experience arriving as we did on our first visit. Luckily no-one fell over this time, although it did take Chris and I a lot longer than Bobo and Neil. When we arrived Karin and the dogs/cats were all waiting and we had some lovely refreshing mandarin juice. After a while of swapping stories of our travels we went up to the House, to get settled in before our Kava welcoming ceremony and dinner. As ever Bobo was the perfect host and storyteller and Karin the amazing cook. Neil was very pleased with our choice, and we were pleased to be in our pacific “home”.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 9, 2012 from Rukuruku, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Waterslides

Rukuruku, Fiji


We had a nice chill day at Bobo’s today. I wasn’t feeling too great today having come down with another cold and feeling dizzy, so decided to relax for the day before our hike to Levoni tomorrow.

Chris and Neil went on the farm tour again as Neil didn’t go before and Chris liked it so much.

They then went for a small hike up to a waterslide and a few swims before they came and got me for one last swim in the River.

It was then time to just have a nice early night after a few hours chatting in the evening with Karin and Bobo to store up any extra energy for tomorrow as it will definitely be needed!

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 10, 2012 from Rukuruku, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Levoni Hike

Levoni, Fiji


After a stormy night we knew our trip to Levoni was going to be slippery but we hadn’t expected it to be quite as tough as it was. To set the scene, we were hiking from Bobo’s, on the coast, to the centre of the island before finally arriving in Levoni, a village which sits inside a crater of an old dormant volcano. Bobo led the way and after making this trip several hundred times before, had no issue with the mud, that was until he stepped to the side of the track to help Charly pass a slippery section and disappeared into the vegetation, only held by Charly until Neil could assist. We went up first into the plantations and it was pretty slippery but doable, then we left the track and the rest was Bobo hacking through the forest on what he told us was his secret track. It did resemble a sort of track I suppose. We climbed, descended, slipped, fell over, got knackered, fell some more, crossed the river/s more times that I can remember, taking breaks in the cool water, and then 5 hours later we were there. Not bad for a 3-4 hour trek that Bobo used to be able to do in 1 hour, in his youth. Charly and I were totally knackered, Neil not so, but he is a tad fitter, or at least disguising his tiredness very well. We met Epi, the Levoni host for a fabulous and well needed lunch and to learn the amazing story of Levoni and how it fits in with Fiji. I won’t recall the whole story, but it was really interesting and if you want to know the full story you just need to come to Levoni and meet Epi. If it’s been raining take the road, not the hike across the mountain! Epi took us for a quick tour of the village, where there is a stone marker showing the absolute centre of Fiji. After this we took Alvin’s truck back to Bobo’s for some rest and relaxation and more of Karin’s lovely food – this time my favourite freshwater prawns that we saw swimming around in the streams on the walk today. Early night was very much welcome.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 11, 2012 from Levoni, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Local buses and rugby games

Levuka, Fiji


We awoke early today to get some brekkie before heading off with Bobo, to Levuka, to show Neil around and watch the local rugby. We took the local bus/truck which was packed! After 1 hour of bumpy roads, and with numb arses, we made it to Levuka. We went down to the cessation stones, where Fiji was originally signed over to UK in 1874, and then back to Fiji in 1971. We then went for a look around the museum and town, which was nice with a guide like Bobo telling us lots of information Chris and I missed on our first visit here. We went to have a look around the Royal Hotel, before we popped in to Mary’s to say hi again to Leila.

Then we headed for some lunch and a beer before making our way to the rugby ground. We caught the second half of a local game and then the full Ovalau vs. Northland that unfortunately Ovalau lost. We went back on the truck, which was even more packed than before and Neil, Chris and Bobo had to stand, whilst I was kindly given a seat by a local guy which I was extremely grateful for as I was so sore from yesterday and I there was no way I could’ve reached the bars at the top of the truck to hold on to. In the evening Karin made us a lovely curry dinner and we had some Kava with Bobo for the last time as once again we have to leave tomorrow.


permalink written by  chrischarly on May 12, 2012 from Levuka, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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To another remote island in Fiji

Lellevia, Fiji


We left Bobo’s once again, and we will really miss Bobo and Karin. They are great hosts and we really fell in love with the place. We walked down to the village with Bobo just as the boat from Lellevia was just coming in to meet us. On the way we caught a few squalls and it was like icy spikes hitting your face. When we arrived on Lellevia the sun was out and it looked really nice as there are no mountains on the Island so the rain doesn’t hang around for long. We knew they would be doing some construction, but they were offloading a large ship of materials, so it could be worse than expected. As soon as our bags were off the boat we had lovely coconuts that had been kept in the freezer so just like slush puppies before going to our room, which was ok, if a bit tired. That’s why they are building new ones I suppose. The conch horn sounded signalling lunch and we headed down for some Chicken curry. After digesting we all went for a snorkel that was better than expected with a wide array of hard and soft corals and many fish. It is protected here and it shows, it was some of the best snorkelling we had seen for a while. After snorkelling Chris and Neil enjoyed a couple of happy hour beers before showering and dinner. We chatted to some of the other guests while having a few more beers before retiring to our bure for a good night’s sleep.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 13, 2012 from Lellevia, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Stupid friggin' chainsaws

Lellevia, Fiji


Before booking to stay here on Lellevia Island we had been warned that they were doing “a little bit of construction work”. But nothing was mentioned about being awoken at 8am by a chainsaw being started right outside our room and continuing all day until after the sun had set. We were not happy. It was so loud there was just no escape from the noise as we were on such a small Island with at least 20 workers rushing to get some more bures up in time for the high season, next month. Neil wasn’t feeling great today as I had kindly passed on my cold and stomach cramps over to him so he was especially irritated when all he wanted to do was rest and catch up on some sleep. Chris and I sat on the beach for most of the morning as far away from the building work as we could get. Then, after lunch, Neil was back up and we went for a walk to the Cannibal Pol, which is still there from years ago when the locals would come over to the Island to cook up some yummy humans for the chief. After having a quick look at the pot and not wanting to hang around for too long in case we fell in, Chris and I went for a snorkel while Neil relaxed and recovered on the beach. In the evening after our dinner we drank some Kava with the workers and watched the replay of the rugby sevens which were on last night, but the reason why we couldn’t watch them live was because they couldn’t pick up the signal on the Island, so a DVD recording was brought over instead. It was nice to have something to do in the evening and to hang out with the friendly workers and watch them so happily watch Fiji’s victory especially over England.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 14, 2012 from Lellevia, Fiji
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Onwards to Samoa!

Nananu-I-Ra, Fiji


After waking up and having breakfast we packed up and left Lellevia on a tiny little boat to the mainland. It was supposed to take just 40 minutes but instead took 1.5 hours, luckily Neil had his sun-cream close to hand or we would’ve all baked in the sun as the boat wasn’t undercover. The reason why it took so long was because the boat kept cutting out and they had to keep pulling it apart and repairing it. But eventually we made it and caught a taxi to Suva to get on a very small and cramped bus to Nadi airport with a couple of hours to spare to take our flight to Samoa. The flight wasn’t long, under 2 hours and it was nowhere near full so we all got to spread out, but they sure like their air-con so it was freezing so I snuggled under the 3 blankets on the seats next to me. When we landed, the accommodation we booked, Livingston apartments was there waiting for us and drove us from the airport and into Apia driving the long way through the city taking in some night sights along the way. By the time we had unloaded our bags and gotten into bed it was gone 1am so we were all really tired so soon got into bed excited about being in a new country and going to explore tomorrow.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 15, 2012 from Nananu-I-Ra, Fiji
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A traditional fiafia show

Apia, Samoa


After our late night last night we all had a bit of a lie-in this morning and once we had all arisen, ate some papaya for breakfast and did some hand washing as all our clothes were filthy and no washing machine were available. So I washed, Chris rinsed and Neil rung out and hung up; a good conveyer belt system we thought!

But it did take ages and by the time we had finished it was boiling hot outside as it was now midday. But we still had a nice walk around Apia which is in fact a really nice capitol city kept immaculately clean with nicely manicured gardens all along the road side. We stopped off at a posh Chinese restaurant which served tasty, yet expensive food served by some miserable staff, surprising for such a friendly country.

After lunch we all wandered about a bit more and Neil and I brought a new top each in between going in and out of various hire car companies trying to get the best rate, car and price with the lowest insurance excess which we finally found when we walked into Avis. They were very efficient and said we could have the car straight away if we wanted so as it was already 4:30pm just managed to book some ferry tickets for the following day in time and thought we may just as well get straight out and enjoy the nice beaches on Savaii. So happy with our new car we drove back stopping for a quick drink along the way at the Yacht Club to watch some rowers practising for the 50 years independence in a couple of weeks’ time before going back to Livingstone Apartments for a quick change and out to Aggie Grey’s for dinner, in a very old hotel which served a delicious buffet dinner accompanied by a fiafia show, which is a traditional Samoan dancing and fire show, expensive but worth it.


We all really enjoyed ourselves, ate too much food and drank a couple too many cocktails.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 16, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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