We visited two out of the four planned remaining stops on our South Pacific itinerary. The stop to Vanuatu was cancelled due to difficult sea conditions. The ship did visit Lifou, New Caledonia; we had planned a beach day, but it was raining all morning, so we decided not to go to shore because it wasn’t beach weather and there was little else to look around at during this stop, a small island.
The ports we visited were a mix of cities and a beach day, all with something to enjoy.
Apia, Samoa
Samoa was a new country for us. The Lapita were the first humans to inhabit Samoa, approximately 3500 years ago. It was also a German and then a New Zealand colony, but is now again independent, returning to its pre-colonization name of Samoa from Western Samoa in 1997.
Apia is the largest city and capital, with a population of approximately 35,000.
We took a walk along the waterfront to a nice park that included a boardwalk overlooking a mangrove estuary. We then had a delicious lunch at Nourish Café, both choosing a poke bowl with more of the wonderful fresh tuna that has been abundant throughout our travels in Polynesia. We also had coconuts and some local beverages to round out our meal.
After lunch we returned to the ship.
Contrasting Views of Fiji
Next, we had two stops in Fiji, in Melanesia, a region of the South Pacific with closer ties to the Aboriginal people of Australia than the Polynesians that range from Hawaii to New Zealand.
Our first stop was the capital city of Suva. This was our second visit to the city, with the first being documented in this blog entry. Suva is a city of approximately 100,000 people and is the largest city in the South Pacific. It is at times referenced as the “New York of the Pacific” due to being a multi-cultural society similar to New York City.
We try to visit green areas when we can on shore, so we started our day walking along the waterfront through several parks, with the final one being slightly inland, the Thurston Gardens, somewhere we had been on our last visit. One reason we visited was to see the large “flying foxes,” large bats that are quite active and “chatty” during the day.
For something different, we ate in an authentic Chinese restaurant for lunch, Fong Lee. As some of my readers know, we frequent Chinatowns and seek out authentic Chinese restaurants worldwide, something we started doing frequently when we lived in the Seattle area in the 90s and early 2000s. Suva doesn’t have a Chinatown, but the restaurant didn’t disappoint. It was the best one we have been to since we were in Paris last summer.
After lunch we returned to the ship via the market, which was fairly chaotic on a Saturday.
Our second stop in Fiji was Dravuni Island. It is a small island with a village of under 200 people. We did a short walk through the forest, then hung out at the beach for the rest of the morning. We took turns swimming in the beautiful warm water and walking the beach. There was one man selling coconuts, so of course we had one. It was Sunday, so we heard that they were not supposed to sell anything that day (maybe true, maybe not). When not on Sunday, there may have been a few more coconut sellers, maybe a few snacks, maybe a few crafts to buy, maybe people offering massages, and maybe not. We were privileged to be able to visit this small island paradise.
Lovely