Wednesday – December 5, 2018
Bula! Bula! That’s “Hello” in Fijian.
The Amsterdam anchored off the village of Nadi on the island of Viti Levu, in the Republic of the Fiji Islands. The ship’s tender took us to the dock of the marina at Port Denarau. The Fijian Dollar was worth only half of our American Dollars, so shopping was a good buy for us.
Denarau Island was a former mangrove swamp on the west side of Viti Levu, which is the largest island of 330 islands in the Fiji archipelago. Denarau Island has become Fiji’s five-star tourism enclave with seven international resorts, residential villas, and a championship golf course. A tourist haven.
With 82 degree temperatures and 85% humidity, it sure didn’t feel like Christmas! The “tree” in my photo below was made of plastic Fiji water bottles. (Yes, some Fijian men wear wrap-around skirts. Much cooler than pants!)
Unfortunately, we didn’t go off the island because transportation was limited. We did a little shopping at the famous Jack’s of Fiji and had lunch overlooking the bay. We watched a couple of men fishing with nets from shore.
Huge clouds were gathering on the mountain across the harbor. I could smell the rain.
As the clouds moved across the bay, we decided to return to the ship.
The cloud formations over the water were fascinating and I couldn’t stop myself from taking dramatic photos:
We got back to the ship just in time to watch a huge downpour of tropical rain.