It was good to recover and relax after the passage and do a little exploring around.

I walked out along the coast to the end, Passage point, visiting on the way the Flora Tropical gardens. I wandered around the timber walkways amongst many endangered palms, a tranquil and beautiful place.

Mangroves near Passage point

I also took a bus ride to Labasa, this took me along the coast, up into the mountains and the rainforest then down through pine forests and through vast areas of sugar cane.

Bus trip to Labasa

Labasa is a very Indian town with shops full of saris and curry houses. The Indians originally arrived as indentured labourers for the sugar plantations. Now it is reckoned they make up some 40% of Fijis population and their influence is plain to see.

Labasa market

Taro

There is a good market in Labasa, I always delight to wander around markets see all the goods on offer and I bought some kava so that I may make sevusevu when I visit outlying villages.

Kava

Buying Kava

I had a nice curry for lunch then later caught the bus back. This bus ride was great way to see other parts of the island.

Fiji mountains

Another day I took the bus out to the Copra pressing plant where they extract coconut oil from the copra. Unfortunately they weren’t pressing oil that day so I could not see the whole process. Had a long hot walk back.

Coconut plants

Extracting copra

Fiji village

Meanwhile my friends Jan & Richard had arrived from New Zealand in Morpheus. They had had a rough and worrying passage and trouble with their engine so they arrived under tow.

The weather has been unsettled with lots of dark clouds and rain and strong winds so I am waiting for an improvement before heading off anywhere else. Because of all the extensive and largely unmarked reefs in Fiji, navigation is a bit of a challenge and you need good light and visibility so you can see the reefs underwater.

Kava drying on roof

Another walk took me over the hill behind the town and down to the south coast. The tide was out so the sea a long way from the beach over the reef, but I love these wanders looking at the house and villages.