Viv the Firewoman and the rest of my holiday

I had only intended to stay in the old capital, Levuka, for three nights; I ended up staying for six. Not only was I impressed with the picturesque little town and amazing landscape, but with how genuinely friendly people were. During my short stay, I was invited home for lunch twice – on Sunday for a barbecue with the family who Jenny used to stay with, and the second time on Wednesday for fish at Karen and Bobo’s place, a good hour’s drive from Levuka. Their house was beautiful, in particular the large veranda which was surrounded by bright flowers and caught the afternoon sun. We spent a lazy day just relaxing in the hammock there and reading magazines – and had a little swim in the river before heading back to town for dinner at Kim’s restaurant. I had the fried fish with lemon butter sauce, and I must say I was very impressed! There is no shortage of good food in Levuka!

I haven’t had the chance to dive since completing my PADI Open water Certification back in April, and was beginning to worry that I would forget everything that I learned! I booked to do a dive with Ovalua Watersports on the Tuesday morning. I explained that I was a beginner, and the staff was very supportive – they didn’t even laugh when I put my wet-suit on back-to-front. (In my defense, I had never worn a wet-suit before.) Glad I wore it though, as it was pretty cold underwater. On the dive I saw plenty of interesting coral – called leather coral. Y favourite one was lilac covered with little pink bits coming off it. When I stroked it, it felt soft like a kitten. Not what I had expected at all.

When I first arrived, I was very jealous of Jenny’s shower. She has heated water! The first time I had a shower at Jenny’s it took me at least twice as long as normal, because I just stood there for about ten minutes enjoying the warm water. On my final morning, I was snoozing in bed when Jenny went to have her shower. A few minutes later I heard screaming from outside the room, “Oh my god!! Oh my god!! Help help! Fire!”. Still half asleep, I wandered out of the room to see what the problem was. Jenny was running around with only a towel on trying to find the head teacher – the water heater was on fire, and the flames were licking up the walls of the bathroom. Wondering what to do, I went outside, and -hey presto- there was a boy with a fire hose, filling buckets. I told him that there was a fire in the school. He looked confused. I told him again that there was fire and that we needed the water. He still looked confused. I grabbed the hose off him and went back to the bathroom with it, and managed to spray enough water in the general direction of the fire that it went out. To be fair, the fire was not very big, but I still like to think that I was the hero of the hour!

After this, I packed up my things and waved goodbye to Levuka. A boat picked me up from the wharf, headed to Caqalai Island (for those unfamiliar with Fijian spelling, that’s pronounced ‘Thang-a-lie’.) Caqalai is very small – you can easily walk around it in 15 minutes. The resort there is very cute and rustic; there are big clam shells all over the place and the snorkeling from the shore was very impressive. I went here because it had been highly recommended to me by other Gap volunteers, nearly all of whom have been here! I wasn’t disappointed – it has a very special, friendly atmosphere. Most of the guests were couples though, and since I went there by myself, I wonder if it might have been even better had I been with some friends.

After two nights in Levuka, it was back to Suva. I wandered around for a while window shopping, had a bite to eat, and then headed to the Fiji museum for some culture. The most interesting thing that I learned there was about how the Fijians used to tattoo young women when they came of age. Apparently, they would tattoo them ‘so that it looked like they were wearing tight black shorts’, and also they would tattoo around the mouth. Once this had been done, the young woman would wear a grass skirt for the first time, and was considered ready for marriage. After this I wandered back to central Suva. I had considered spending the last night of my holiday in Suva, but I missed my Fijian family, so I caught a minibus back to Lautoka instead!