Welcome to day two in Lautoka, Fiji! Today, as originally planned we are taking a bus tour called “Leisurely Nadi”. It was my intention to take something lower paced to get to see some of the area, as tomorrow is an excursion I am really looking forward to, however it is going to be a challenging one for me. What an awesome tour we were in for!
First of all, it is Sunday, where Fiji is generally closed. Due to that, we had an EXCELLENT tour guide named Coolio or as he preferred to be called “Mr. Cool”. There also was a driver and a 2nd guide on board at the back of the bus. All three of them were excellent ambassadors for Fiji. To start with we drove out of the port and past the sugar cane factory which we also saw yesterday, however today Mr. Cool talked more about the sugar history on Fiji and industry in general and how it has massively changed over the years. Sort of reminded me of the changes that Maui went through too.
There used to be about 34 sugar mills in Fiji as sugar was the primary export. Now there are only 3 left, one of which is next to the port in Lautoka. Originally the Fijians used the leaves from the canes to thatch their roofs after harvesting the canes for crushing into sugar. Now the fields, like we found in Maui, are set a fire (not environmentally friendly) to burn them down and then the canes are left and harvested to take to the mills. There are a variety of reasons why there was a decline in the mills since the mid 1800’s – economy, weather, changing in soil acidity for growing (climate change) – however the 3 existing mills are able to still supply sugar economically to primarily Europe. One thing that is no longer used are the sugar rail lines which are narrow gauge rail lines that were used to transport the sugar to the various mills – they still exist however the trains no longer run the lines – heavy laden trucks (which I am surprised do not dump their loads) bring the canes to the mills instead.
Here are some pictures of the Lautoka sugar mill as we passed by:
Now we continued to drive into Nadi where we eventually would make a stop to shop. Along the way, I took the following photos which I describe in the pictures:
Next we passed by the Nadi airport, which really took me by surprise! I am aware of this airport for various reasons – back in the 80’s and 90’s it was often used as a “transfer point” or “refueling point” when people traveled from North America to Australia or New Zealand. I always figured it was a BIG airport as I was aware that 747’s landed here on the transpacific flights of that time period. Well, the airport is NOT that large! I know that any airport can be called “International” if they have a customs facility and have flights from a neighbouring country, however only certain long range planes could get to Nadi at that time! I just figured I would see a terminal like Honolulu, open air, yes, however it was about 1/4 of the size!
Here are my pictures of the Nadi airport and area – we actually drove past it to get to the city of Nadi and then on our way back drove around the airport instead of taking the Queens Highway back, in order to get to our next stop. I have combined all the pictures into one set for convenience purposes. Also, Mr. Cool works at the airport which made it more fun for me! He lives in the airport housing compound and is in charge of any emergency operations if a flight needs to make an emergency landing.
Now we have patronized the selected store to shop at and I am pleased as Andrew has finally bought something – a T-shirt – we are on our way to a local marina for some “lunch” and a demonstration, which ended up being a new take on a coconut shucking! On the way, we were hit with a huge downpour, however that is just how the cookie crumbles in Fiji – to be green it has to rain said Mr. Cool! He also told us that we were lucky we were on the “dry” side of the island – Suva, where we were heading tomorrow is the “wet” side! Here are my pictures of the trip to the marina, greeting at the marina, and the man undressing the coconut, its face and cracking it open!
Now it was time to get back to the ship! This was one of the most interesting tour guides we have had so far – Mr. Cool sure made the day go by fast with his laid back and funny humour! Here are some pictures from the dock and from our balcony as we departed Lautoka on our way to Suva, which is the capital city – on the other side of Viti Levu!
We are expecting a SLOW and smooth cruise around to the other side of the island to check out Suva tomorrow! Come join us on our adventure called the “Jewel of Fiji”!