We've had a busy, albeit frustrating, few days, with early rises and late nights trying to get through everything we need to do. Our mornings start from the moment we turn on our WiFi and have to start dealing with various landlubber matters, where the simplest of situations seem to turn into a complicated mess that takes hours to unravel and resolve.
Yesterday, however, we had a welcome break when our day started with photographs and videos of the grandchildren who are thoroughly enjoying their summer holidays with their nana and papa in Oregon. Phone calls to our son, Keenan, to catch up on his training exploits, have also added cheer to our days.
Before we knew it, it was time to take the bus into Nadi, collect the car we'd hired for a few days and drive to Lautoka, where we stocked up on fresh meat at Fiji Meats, who then vacuum packed everything and placed it all in their freezer overnight for us. We also took the opportunity to get some of the heavier provisions at one of the supermarkets while we had the car.
Lautoka was a pleasant surprise with its neat, tidy surroundings and beautiful trees lining the streets. On the way home we stopped in at Vuda Marina briefly and then explored the Wailoaloa Bay area and were surprised to find all sorts of bars, restaurants, resorts, shops, etc tucked away in this well hidden area of Fiji between Denarau and Nadi, as well as a number of yachts anchored in the bay.
Today was our day of fun. With a packed picnic lunch, our road trip started with a visit to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. Nestled in its own shady valley of the Sabeto Mountains and the Nausori Highlands, the mountain range is named because of the outline resembling that of a giant sleeping. The garden has 2000 different species of orchids and a large variety of Fiji's interior indigenous tropical plants. Founded in 1977 by the late actor Raymond Burr to house his own orchid collection, it now displays one of the world's largest collection of orchids. Our tour was wrapped up with a refreshing tamarind juice, enjoyed on the large terrace overlooking part of the garden.
From there we took the short trip to enjoy an all natural spa treatment and one of nature's treasures, the Sabeto Mud Pool and Hot Sorings. The main spring is 72C, which is used to fill the other thermal pools after the water has been cooled to approximately 36C via underground piping. Our experience started with our tourguide providing an explanation of the facilities and the process, following which we had to rub mud all over our bodies from buckets provided, including our faces, having changed into our swimsuits beforehand, thankfully. Since the mud contains a very fine sand, your skin gets exfoliated during this rubbing process. Once the mud had dried, we then waded into the mud pool to wash off, leaving our skin smooth and soft. Being shin-deep in the soft mud at the bottom of the mud pool was definitely a very strange feeling, feeling almost like grass rather than mud between our toes. From there we took the plunge into one of the thermal pools and then Elaine enjoyed a massage, while Roy treated himself to one of the other, warmer thermal pools.
While the massage experience didn't compete with the "Fofo" massage Elaine had in Samoa, it was nonetheless, surreal in many ways. Lying on a massage bed in a room with ten other individuals, listening to roosters crowing outside while a Fijian lady rubbed coconut oil all over her body, whispering quietly to the other Fijian ladies in their native language and having Dolly Parton singing 9 to 5 in the background, followed by a broadcast of the local news detailing the shenanigans of a pastor who is on trial for allegedly raping members of his congregation, and it takes a moment to focus on where in the world you actually are.
Both feeling very relaxed and having enj oyed this most unusual outing, we headed back to Lautoka to collect our meat before returning to Port Denarau, where Roy enjoyed a sundowner and Elaine enjoyed a cappuccino and a huge slice of delicious chocolate cake.
