Nakoroboya Village in the interior of Fiji.

More of our Adventurious Fijian Holiday.

Nakoroboya Village.

Jonathan asked us to get ready to visit his village, which meant putting on a Sulu wraparound skirt for both Erle and I, ours were borrowed from Josephine and the younger sister Theresa. It was explained that the village was at the base of the mountain we were on, and we could take a shortcut road, straight down and ‘not a very good track’! Or the long way ‘a much better road’ which was 75 km long, it didn’t take Erle more than a second to say we would go the long way! We had to go back half the way we had driven the night before over the same dreadful tracks but in day light it was easier, then we came back in a big circle from around the other side of the mountain and down into the deep valley.
Now we had thought the roads before were bad… haha …. These were in a class of there own, the poor van struggled in first gear all the way as Erle fought to keep it on the rocky rutted kind of road, thank goodness he was driving not me! Parts of the road were also under water just to make it even less pleasant, these pools could be any depth! There were wild goats everywhere dashing off the road as we were right in the wild interior of the island where hardly any one ever goes, though we did pass one four wheel drive vehicle on the way. Scenery was spectacular in parts we could see over almost the whole island. From the top of Mt Vistoria.
Finally we came to the village, the last part of the road was by far the steepest, as we slithered down, Erle really wondered whether it would be possible to climb back out, especially if it rained again, Jonathan said there were enough strong men in the village to push us out if need be!

Pretty waterfall in the distance.
In the distance I could see a beautiful waterfall tumbling down the mountainside but we had no time to visit it, the Headman of the village came and shook our hands in welcome, then almost the entire population lined up to shake our hands and kiss them! They also bowed to us – like we were Royalty! Part of the line of neat village houses. and the Church.
Name of the village is Nakoroboya; it contains about 30 corrugated iron, and wooden houses and several bura’s of different sizes made of reeds in the traditional way. The whole layout of the village is neat and orderly everything is very tidy, there is a Catholic Church in the centre of the village and the school is just over a rushing mountain stream to one side, the gardens well tended and the people appeared to be healthy and well besides happy and content.

One of the village horses with a homemade leather saddle.
There are no roads in the village, as no one owns a vehicle, however every man owns a horse to travel on, that’s why, the roads are so bad. We had to take off our shoes and paddle across a small stream past the village Catholic Church, then a quite fast flowing river to get to the village school we had come to visit. Village men had to assist us over these rivers or we would have been swimming! Poor Jonathan all loaded up as we walk passed the Catholic Church.
Jonathan carried all our gifts for us plus a lot more that he was also giving the children; he was weighed down like a packhorse!
The male teacher greeted us and ordered the children to assembly for us to inspect. All the boisterous eager kids were in front keen to show-off, just like kids worldwide, but I looked beyond them to the big eyed shy ones, and went all around picking them out to chat to, later the teacher said how did I managed to speak to all the shyest children in the school, but as a wee kid I was one of the shy ones so I easily recognized the shyness and longing to be noticed in their eyes. Teacher also said we were the first white people to visit the school beside of a missionary man. He was over whelmed with all the books pens pencils and musical instruments we had brought from New Zealand especially for his school children. There are actually 3 teachers for the 72 children of all ages, but two of the teachers had to attend a funeral that day, one of them was the music teacher who would get a great surprise when she returned and found she now had several flutes and other things to make a little band.
It was Fiji National Children’s Day apparently, we had no idea of this, and the teacher said God must have brought us especially on that day with so many gifts for the children. Jonathan brought along soft drinks and little buns for each child. Venarca (Thank you in Fijian) was said many, many times; it hadn’t cost us much but brought such joy to them all. We signed the visitor’s book looked at one of the three classrooms with its little wooden desks like there were when I first started school as a wee girl so long ago. The whole school was made of plaited bamboo with an iron roof; it was all designed and partly built by Jonathan nearly 2 years ago. A more solid concrete block building has been started to make a permanent school in time. I could have spent much more time here but we were worried about the threat of rain and the need to be out of the mountain roads by darkness.
We were then hurried back across the river, to the Headman’s large home to be initiated into the village! One of the smaller bures with the owner outside.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Normally women would not be allowed at the special ceremony, but Jonathan said I was special and would also be initiated into the village. When we entered the big house, without our shoes, it was to find that all the men of the village assembled sitting cross legged on the coconut matting, there were two soft pillows at the head of them for us to relax on – Jonathan also had to sit cross legged on the floor beside us. I was a trifle nervous about the ceremony not knowing what to expect – blood letting, a challenge like the Maoris do, singing or dancing, or what?
Very simple really it was just a much longer Kava ceremony; lots of prayers all in Fijian with our names mentioned frequently, many of the men spoke including Jonathan. As I sat there my mind drifted, several thoughts came to me; firstly, I became aware that ‘all things do work together for good’ we were definitely meant to have arrived in the village today and not yesterday as would have happened had Jonathan met us at the airport, I was becoming impressed by Jonathan’s Mana – the prestige and esteem he was held in by all these men, I worried about the fact that while I was enjoying myself, poor Erle was not, he was driving to the very edge of his ability for hours each day with more to come, would I end up being the proud owner of the van if Erle had a momentary lapse of concentration, as I heard the first rain drops on the roof, would we even be able to drive out of the village, also the fact that I had not taken a single photo of the village School we had come so far to visit! My first cup of Kava about to be handed to me. Note the rope pointing to me.
Finally it was Kava drinking time, Erle first, me second, Jonathan third, followed by every one of the men, had a half coconut shell full before it was time to have another round. I took the time to whisper to Jonathan my lack of photos and he said he would go all the way back across the river for me to get me a good photo, and he did.

Nakoroboya School with the Teacher and all the pupils

When the next round of Kava drinking was over and the headman had made another batch of Kava for further rounds, the speeches told us that we could now say Nakoroboya was our village, we were full members, anything we wished to do, we could, we could return and be welcome any time in the future. Now it was Erle’s turn to make a speech, he had been warned a speech would be called for so fortunately some thought had gone into what he was going to say, so Erle made a great speech that brought forth a noisy round of venarca’s, hand claps and cheers.
To test the ‘we could do anything words’ I said I would like to go inside the biggest bure in the village! A young girl was called in to take me, she took me in through the special door for ladies and we sat on the floor with a bunch of toddlers who joined us, and told me how this biggest bure (reed covered roof house, rather like a small hall, with vast tree trunks as beams to hold it all up, some of which were carved a little) had been built and what some of the parts meant, sorry I forget all these things as I was playing with the sweet wee kids.
I also mentioned the pigs the village owned and almost got taken to visit them too! Erle stayed and enjoyed the company of all the men.
The men of the village intended to present us with a bucket full of prawns to take back for our evening meal but the river was too flooded and dirty for them to catch any so we were presented with a big bag of large easy peel mandarins oranges, much better for us really as they lasted us for the whole time of our trip and we were very grateful for them often.
After a nice cup of tea without milk, because none of their cows or goats was in-milk, and thick slices of delicious native bread, we knew we just must leave as the rain was now really falling hard. After much hand shaking and hugs and kind words we made our goodbyes.
It took two of the strong men pushing and all the power of the van to inch our way up the steepest part of the road out, but after that Erle managed the drive back to Jonathan’s home without incident, where Mama was waiting to cook the prawns for dinner!
She rose to the challenge of what to have for dinner without prawns, we had cooked breadfruit, cassava, taro and taro leaves the she had rolled up with tiny pieces of fish inside and then cooked in coconut milk, these were so nice I could have eaten the whole pot full! Also there was an interesting noodle dish with small chunks of chicken in, masses of great ethnic food, which we had special coffee after and some strawberry cream biscuits that I had brought from home in case we couldn’t eat the food, the children especially enjoyed these sweet treats (don’t think biscuits figure much in their diet).
When Jonathan and his brothers suggested we could all go back to the village tomorrow to watch a football match, Erle took all of half a second to decide that regretfully we must return tomorrow, the very thought of driving back again was too much. Not the drive so much but the possibility of damaging the van and having to buy the thing, Erle recons our use of this van must of taken ten years of its life!

````````````````````````````````````````````

Our Adventurious Fijian Holiday.

More of Our Adventurious Fijian Holiday

From Nadi to Namuka Bay Lagoon Resort Hotel.


Next morning we were up early packed our bags, ate a wonderful fruit breakfast from the pawpaw and bananas Jonathan had given us the mandarins the village had given us, plus a pineapple we had picked up along the way, then we found out there was a free breakfast in the hotels tariff, so we had toast and jam as well! Caught a taxi to the bus terminal then we were soon on a Sunbeam bus heading for Cuvu sharing seats with others as the bus was packed with two to most seats, but who cares it was a $3.00 bus trip! For an hour we travelled. The bus stopped on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and said this is where you get out; Cuvu is that village in the distance, way down a long lane.
Waiting at the turnoff to Cuvu Village

It was fortunate that another person also got out of the bus, a well dressed man who wore clothes similar to Jonathan, so we knew he was high born Fijian, turned to us and asked ‘why were we going to his village?’ When we told him we had booked and paid for accommodation and food, at the Resort.
And had been told to hire a taxi to take us from Cuvu, he got very angry and said that it was all wrong the Information Centre should have arranged our transport to this distant bay, they were just hooligans and rogues and had left us in an awkward predicament, with heavy luggage, a long way from the village and its transport, that we would have to drag along the deep mud of the lane. He told us to wait there and he would go arrange a taxi for us and he would come with us to make sure all was ok and there was accommodation awaiting us, also to make sure it was what we were expecting! Ominous!
In due time he did return, not with a taxi, he said they all refused to go to this place as the roads are bad! But he did have transport for us, a Carrier, the vehicles that the locals all use, a small truck with a canvas cover over the deck with lots of seats. It was actually quite comfortable for me as I sat in front with the driver, who’s first question to me was ‘ how come you know our village Priest?’ WOW a Priest came to our aid; God was working in His mysterious ways yet again!
Rescued by God!
The roads were of slightly lesser degree of badness than the roads Erle had to drive over, or maybe we are just getting used to them! We pulling to an open paddock by a nice sandy beach, after a 10 km drive, there was a long horned cow tied to a tree, 3 small thatched bures and a larger one plus a wooden house further along the beach, and a sign stating proudly welcome to Namuka Bay Resort Hotel!

The sign at the gate.

The long horned Cow there to meet us.

The Priest got out and said this is it; will it be ok for you? A trifle doubtfully we said we thought it would be. The staff ran out to greet us, accepted our voucher and showed us to our private bure. Our very own private Bureand hammock behind the tree.

The priest came with us and checked it out, he then said it was not easy to get out from this isolated place, so he personally would arrange for the Carrier to come and pick us up on the day we were booked to checkout, not only that he would come along too in case of ‘problems’ How kind he was, and thank goodness he was!
A delightful young French couple that were staying in the private bure next to us quickly came up from the beach and greeted us. They were as glad to see us, as we were them.
We were out having a good look around very quickly, more and more we liked what we saw.

Large pink sand convolulas flowers were everywhere on the beach
The lovely white sandy beach fringed with coconut palms and bright tropical flowers, the warm shallow waters of the lagoon full of brightly coloured little fish and masses of coral of all kinds. Beautiful Red Ginger flowers.

There were hammocks in several places for our use and a kayak, an open dining room table on the beach that we looked forward to eating from. Plenty of lawn to throw a Frisbee upon and to lie around on soaking up the sun.
The private bure was smallish but it had a double bed that was comfortable and a private bathroom with a cold only shower, so yes, there was running water and a toilet indoors, but no there was no electric power! The doorway entrance was very low, you had to duck down to get, I think I managed to bump my head on the thatching every time! Inside the bure, mosquito net over bed.
First things first, we asked for boiling water and mugs so we could have some special coffee on that beach table, we shared it with the French couple and while doing so, the Carrier arrived back at the hotel with yet another couple of guests, for the last private bure, this time a very young Welsh couple who also joined us for special coffee in the sun. There is also a dormitory with 10 extra beds in a big bure but no one arrived to stay in there.

The big Bure domatory building,with the Hotels kitchen at the far end.

We were all quickly into our swimsuits and out paddling around in the crystal clear waters of the lagoon and working on our Fijian suntan.
Lunch arrived fairly soon and what a wonderful meal it was; some sort of fish chowder made with coconut cream and vegies with rice and also bananas and more coffee and juices. We all 6 of us sat down at the table together and after we had eaten our full, we sat there for a good hour happily exchanging wonderful travellers tales from around the world; we sort of instantly made friends, we were like the Mum and Dad of them all.
`

````````````````````````````````````````````````
Natural beauty of the area.

The area around Namuka Bay is absolutely unspoilt, its just as nature intended it to be, wandering along the beach made me think of Robinson Crusoe, there were no houses in sight and not many ships out at sea. We just felt ourselves unwinding and relaxing, soaking in the peace and tranquillity. Wafting in the soft sea breezes while swaying in a hammock with a good book was really doing it for us!
Afternoon saw a visit from the Indian man Ari who owns the sort of hotel and has illusions of grandeur in large measures! He spoke to all 6 of us telling us that although there had been no generator for some time because the old one had broken down, tonight he would have a new one installed - so there would be lights! He then drew Erle and I away from the others and suggested quite strongly that it would be a great idea for us to extend our stay for a few more days; the French couple had already done so, he told us! And it was true they had extended one extra day, I would have been quite keen to do so to but for the fact that we had a pre-booked Carrier coming for us on the Wednesday morning, so regretfully, I told him, sadly we could not do that.
Then he flew into a hissy fit; ‘What do you think you were doing bringing a Priest on to my property, I’m a good Moslem man I won’t have priests here, anyway you can’t trust them, surely you don’t expect he will return for you haha. He’s not your friend, unlike Ari who was everybody’s friend’ and, a lot more nonsense, in the same vein. We mostly let it all flow past us, as we were so relaxed, just saying mildly, ‘ we were sure he would return for us.’ The fantastic sunset reflecting in the waters of the lagoon.
Fortunately we did have power for the evening, so we all ate our evening meal under the stars but with some lights, once again we all sat around chatting for hours. The subject of how everyone was going to get out of this isolated bay came up, there is no phone box we didn’t have a phone, in fact the only one that did was Ari! Slowly we came to realise getting back to civilization might be difficult. The young ones had packs and decided they could walk if they had to, but we didn’t have that option with our suitcases, if the Priest didn’t come through and arrive on Wednesday we would be forced to extend our stay! We worked out a strategy; providing our Carrier arrived with or without the Priest we would arrange for the same man to return the following day for the other 2 couples! Then all stopped worrying and enjoyed ourselves again. Wearing a sulu and my swin suit, outside our bure

Following morning we decided to take a nice walk to see the Limestone caves that was a 15 minute walk away, we had to walk in quite long grasses loaded with seed heads of the very prickly type that stuck all over our clothes and our shoes unpleasantly, but the cave was rather interesting with stalagmites and stalactites made by the constant dripping of water loaded with lime over the years, plus it was cool in there. The limestone cave entrance.
We were able to pick wild banana and pawpaw as we walked along the track, bit of a bonus. Truly this was not much short of Paradise.
Erle is in there under the banana tree, picking some fruit.
Returned to our bure and opened my suitcase to find that there are some problems in this paradise beside the owner, my case was alive with ants, a whole colony had moved in and settled right down among my clothes! Managed to remove them by strongly spraying the insect spray left with us for just that purpose I rather think.
We just laughed off such tiny problems and went out and jumped into the big salty swimming pool just outside our door.
That evening we all hit the booze, well we did have a couple of drinks together, this didn’t please Ari the Moslem much and he came and had another good go at us, in fact he got quite rude, he didn’t like the way we had all teamed up so quickly, told all of us we couldn’t trust each other – but ofcause you know just who we were supposed to be able to trust! If we had thought of staying longer in this wonderful place we weren’t interested any longer. I think that we would have had big trouble getting a carrier in to collect us if we didn’t have a booking.

Enjoying a wonderful outdoor breakfast, with my special coffee.

Morning came and we were up packing everything again and preparing for the arrival of the Priest after breakfast. Ari stopped by again and said what did we think the Priest could do for us that he couldn’t? I said to Erle that I wouldn’t put it past him to go out along the track and send the Carrier back to town without us, in which case we could be at Namuka Bay for some time. The staffs at the hotel were all lovely they waited on us hand and foot, served us big hearty meals, morning and afternoon tea snacks, if we wanted them, and were always cheerful. It was great value really at $100 a night for accommodation and food. Just the owner and the ants were the flies in the ointment.
We waited on tender hooks wondering if we could really trust the Priest to come for us, the other guests waited with us.
`````````````````````````````````````````