7th September...Pacific Dawn W826 Pt3

[MargnGrah]

This is just a short review of what we did at each port.

 

We arrived at Suva late (3.30pm) and as we had a tour booked for the morning, it was changed to the afternoon at 4.00pm. This was a sightseeing tour which went for 3 hours and so we decided to cancel the tour, and just walked around Suva and did a little souvenir shopping with Rhonda and Allan…….Suva had not changed and was still overall a dirty town. (Although there were some nice new and clean arcades). After about an hour and a half we happily went back to the Dawn.

 

At Savusavu we caught a tender…..which by the way we were most impressed that each time we used tenders, we were on one within 30 minutes of getting a ticket.( I can remember waiting about hour and half to 2 hours on the Sun just to be called and then all those long lines. ah) Back to Savusavu. We did not have a tour booked here. This is a really tiny little town, and we took short walk up the street crossed the road walked back. Took all of 15mins. Not much here at all and if we went there again we would get in a cab and go for a look around the island. We walked a little further down the road so we could get a good photo of The Dawn. As it was stinking hot and sticky and starting to rain we just wanted to go back to our boat.

 

Port Denarau was a beautiful place. They say it is going to be the Port Douglas of Fiji. We decided to do a shore tour here, and went to South Sea Island. We were picked up by a catamaran from the Dawn and it took about 15 mins to get to our little island of paradise. It is mainly a coral beach and is great for snorkelling. There was also semi-submersible coral viewer, free use of kayaks and canoes. A BBQ lunch was included as was beer, wine and soft drink. They also had a small pool. A small group of Fijians performed a ‘meke’ of song and dance. There were also local handicrafts to purchase. A perfect place…wished we could have stayed there longer. This tour only was only for 4 hours. At the end of this tour we had a choice of being taken back to the boat or then staying on the catamaran and being dropped off at Port Denarau. We decided to go back to the Dawn to shower and change before we hopped on a tender to be taken to shore. At Port Denarau and walked around the shops and did a little shopping and we watched one of the many display of singing and dancing by the locals. This place was very modern and unless you went out of the port area you would not have thought you were in Fiji.

 

The next day we arrived at Dravuni Island. We had been here before and was very disappointed that it had been raining and was quite cool. We really love this island and being overcast it did not show it off at its best . Also we arrived on a Sunday and being a very religious community they did not have their stalls. Normally they sell local handicrafts, necklaces, earrings, tshirts, sarongs etc. It is a shame that they missed out on the sales. On our original itinerary we were to go there on Friday. Pity it changed. Anyway Grahame did a little snorkelling but really didn’t see very much. Only stayed on the island for a few hours then decided to go back to the Dawn.

 

Although the next day was a sea day we cruised past Niuafo’ou (Tin Can Island) where the Tin cans were lowered and the locals came and collected them for postage from this island. This was a fun thing to watch. Originally the locals were going to come to us and collect the cans, but the sea was a bit rough so the three cans attached to a lifebuoy, were lowered to the sea and the captain put the side thrusters on to try and push them over towards the island. The locals must have thought they were close enough to try to retrieve them, as a little tinny was soon seen leaving the island and headed toward the cans . It was great fun watching and the captain gave a few blasts on the horn as they collected them. Now we are wondering how long it will take to receive the mail or of indeed we will ever see the postcard we sent to ourselves.

 

Next day we anchored off Vava’u and had to catch a tender to the wharf. We spent the day with Rhonda and Allan. Once again we were in a tender within half an hour after picking up our numbered ticket…. Vava’u is tiny town. We walked up one side up to the church then down a steep hill to the shops by the water, then back up the hill and walked back down the street to the wharf. There really is not much in the way of shops to buy anything ….at least not souvenirs. One thing we noticed was all the old cars…..now we know where all our old cars go when they cannot be registered here. Send them off to Vava’u. So many were rust buckets and certainly would not be passed here in Aus. At the wharf we found a cabbie who would take us for a tour around the island for $10.00 each. An easy $40.00 I thought. He didn’t give us much commentary but he did take us to a pretty place that would be good for swimming and snorkelling. If we ever go there again I would go straight to there. Only thing is I’m not sure where it was. There were some stalls on the wharf and we purchased a few souvenirs here before we hopped back into a tender and headed back to the boat for a late lunch.

 

The day after, we docked at Nuku’alofa. The waters around this port so many different colours, it just looked magical. We had a shore tour booked and before we board the buses the locals gave us all a fresh flower leis. There was a couple of hundred doing tours and it was amazing how much time and effort that was put into each and every leis. The tour we went on took us to The King’s Palace, Royal tombs, Captain Cooks landing place and the Ha’amonga Triliton. We had a lovely tour guide and as we drove along she was forever pointing out many places of interest. After the tour ended we chose to be dropped off in town, where we did a little window shopping and then walked back to the boat. It was very hot and sticky so we were very happy to be back in air-conditioned comfort.

 

Noumea was our last port of call and we were not all that excited about going there. We have been there a few times before and had not particularly liked it at all. We soon changed our minds. The city has been cleaned up and looked very pretty. I think anyone visiting this port for the first time would have been quite impressed. We had another tour booked here. We went on the City Sights and Aquarium shore tour which was really great! We had seen the city before but had not been to the aquarium. It had been rebuilt about 2 years before and showed all the local coral and fish around New Caledonia. The ¾ hour we spent there was not enough. Could have sat and watched some of the displays a lot longer. After this tour finished we had lunch on the Dawn then had a walk around the city.

 

Our next port was Sydney.:) :)

[Brossy]

Hi Marg

Thankyou for a wonderful review, you did a great job! I really enjoyed reading it and was glad you had a great time.

[Gratz]

great to read this rundown of ports, thanks for doing this review.

We are going to noumea and hoping to go to the aquarium so just wondering, how much time you think would be good in there?

 

I can't decide whether to do the train thing in the morning and aquarium in the avo or vice versa

[MargnGrah]

great to read this rundown of ports, thanks for doing this review.

We are going to noumea and hoping to go to the aquarium so just wondering, how much time you think would be good in there?

 

I can't decide whether to do the train thing in the morning and aquarium in the avo or vice versa

 

Hi Gratz,

 

The aquarium is not very big and you could get through it very quick if you really wanted too, perhaps 1/2 hour. At a couple of the larger displays they have chairs and you can sit and watch the fish swimming about, and it is just lovely. The largest display, has a blue groper with the funniest eyes I have ever seen, a turtle, reef shark and hundreds of colourd fish, and, with the coral and rocks I could have sat there for 1/2hr just watching them swim around...Just beautiful. If was going there again I would give myself a good hour and 1/2. Maybe some would say it would be too long , but we have no kids who would get bored watching fish, and it would be nice to look at all dislpays and not be rushed.

 

If you get to go to the aquarium I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :) :)

[leashyloo69]

Thanks for sharing MargnGrah

[PASSIONATE ABOUT CRUISING]

Marg,

 

I too enjoyed your review ... just wish we had all met!

 

PAC:)

[MargnGrah]

Marg,

 

I too enjoyed your review ... just wish we had all met!

 

PAC:)

 

Yeah , I just commented in Kym thread (about the stars on his video). It would have been great to meet you too.:) :)