Hello from Nadi, Fiji – Part 5

Hello from Nadi, Fiji – Part 5

Blog posted:  Sunday morning  May 5, 2013  Fiji time (Fifth travelogue of this trip).

I will try to continue to catch up on the details/events of this trip.

When we visit remote island destinations (Hawaii, Bermuda, Fiji, etc.) I am always amazed at the logistics of providing basic necessities for the population.  For example, none of those areas have petroleum resources – oil products must be shipped in.  There is also the issue of energy to produce electricity.  In the case of the main island of Fiji, about half the electrical power comes from Monasavu hydro electric dam.  The rest uses diesel fuel.  I was a bit surprised that fuel was said to be $2.35 Fiji dollars per liter which work out to about $4.90 per gallon.  I suspect the government has a very low tax on the fuel and may even subsidize part of the cost.

In a previous post I talked about the Kava ritual at the village we visited.  As I looked through our Fiji book, I found that it is called the Yaqona Ceremony (info here).  If you looked closely at the pictures I posted, you might have seen that we had white baby power on our cheeks and fresh leis that were presented by our hosts.  The baby powder apparently represents the innocence of children (did not completely understand the explanation).

Thursday we had signed up to be volunteers at the local hospital.  Pat did not feel good that morning, so we had to say at the resort.  The group that went was huge and they did a great deal of work on the hospital (exterior painting, gardening), etc).

I did my dives on Friday.  I am frustrated with the logistics/results of the dive.  The boat was very small, and we had 8 people on board (two extra people for a demonstration dive - suspect the boat was overloaded).  The ride from the resort to the dive area (map) was about 40 minutes.  After our first dive, we had to remove our BCDs and tread water for several minutes while they installed new tanks on the BCDs (no room for them to work in the boat with us on board).  Then, entering the boat was extremely difficult, as it was rocking and the steps were very  small rungs on either side of a center support (easy for your feet to slip off).  There was nothing to grab onto to get into the boat.

The first dive went pretty well.  We saw a lot of fish and a rather large sea turtle.  The water was not as clear as I expected, and the coral was a bit less than what the books describe.  The second dive was a disaster for me.  As soon as I got in the water, I knew I had an air leak (I could hear it).  I flagged the dive master and he said there was no problem.  I watched in frustration as my air gauge dropped like a rock.  About 20 minutes into a planned 40 minute dive, I was almost out of air.  The dive master hooked me up to his buddy breathing apparatus and we continued on, but it was very clumsy to be tethered to the dive master.  We ended up surfacing about 12 minutes early.  The dive master was adamant that I had done something to use all my air quickly.  That caused the other divers to be uptight that they, too, had to surface early – likely blaming me.  It did not help that the other three divers were macho men who had a lot of experience and were very stuck on themselves.  I tend to use slightly  more air than really proficient divers, but no where near what I used on that dive.  So, what should have been a great experience turned into big disappointment.

Friday night was an amazing dinner prepared for the Stampin' Up! attendees.   It was held on the lawn and had great entertainment including very talented fire dancers, and a great children's choir.  The food was great, and the deserts even better.  We sat at a table with folks that were very congenial.  We enjoyed great conversations and the weather could not have been better.

The actual event ended Saturday with many people departing in the late afternoon.  We, along with several others are staying an extra three days and will depart Tuesday.  I believe that they said that there were about 200 demonstrators that made this trip and about 450 people total with spouses/friends and SU staff.

That is all for now.