FIJI Day 6

Wednesday was the day of the tour to Levuka, the old capital on a large island, at a cost of F$80 each or A$50 thereabouts. It was about an hour's boat trip. This was where Fiji was ceded to the British in 1874. There's a large fish cannery there, a hospital, a museum and quite a lot of shops. Several of the resort staff including Frank (skipper), Mila, Weiss, pronounced Wice, Toka, all Naigani villagers, came for the outing and stocking up, and another, the bloke who sang and played guitar in the restaurant each night whose name escapes, also came as his home was there, high up on a steep hill that he pointed out. We later met his wife and kids on the shopping strip.

Our main purpose besides sightseeing was to stock up on tuna cans and sardines etc for our lunches, and of course wine and beer as much as we could comfortably fit in our bag. Food supplies other than potato crisps and Twisties, Pringles were not available on Naigani, obviously they wanted you to eat in the restaurant. We'd taken the two meal package, breakfast and dinner, leaving lunch to be what we had brought which wasn't much, and or what we could knock off at breakfast like a few slices of toast and fruit (concealed in our floppy hats which were in hand not on head). The 2 meal package was F$65 pp so that was F$130 each day or about A$80. If you add a bottle of wine, F$40, the cost was getting up. Those prices aren't bad when you compare them to any restaurant in Aus, but who eats every day at a restaurant?

We enjoyed the trip and lunch on the balcony of a second floor restaurant. Fish chop suey was my fare at about F$8 while Lib went the chicken chop suey which was quite salty I noticed when I finished it for her. Toka sat at our table. He solemly said grace before eating, and asked us if we were of a particular church to which I replied "Not really, you could say Church of England I suppose."
In answer to my question he said his was "All Nations".

I asked him could I get him a drink as I went the bar and he said "Yes thanks, a soft drink." Later, as if to return my gesture, he carried our heavy bag from the supermarket to the boat. We only saw the museum in the last ten minutes before we were due to leave but in our quick look I was fascinated and could have spent hours there I'm sure.

The only downer for the day was a painfull neck that developed and got worse during the day. At the back of the neck, in the muscles at the side, most irritating to turn the head or look up or down. I thought maybe the snorkelling had irritated, I spent much time self massaging which I think annoyed Lib a bit because it distracted me from whatever she was saying or pointing out. Wives don't like that. I had a few jabbing pains in other parts like feet, knees and elbows, but not alarmingly. The neck was sore for a couple days, but not to stop me doing anything.

Three days later Lib's neck got very sore, same place, and she had quite pronounced swelling, and other pains like I'd had, and she also had a fever. We decided it must have been a virus.

Levuka from the jetty

Main street Levuka