Fun Day in Fiji -- Navua River and Magic Waterfall

We stayed an extra day after the conference to experience part of Fiji. We miss the mountains so our choice was to go inland, up river in a motorized canoe to a waterfall. We boarded the canoe for about a half-hour ride up the Navua River to a small village passing rainforest and farmland along the way.

A Fijian warrior guided us to the village meeting house. We learned about local customs and traditions and participated in a welcome ceremony where we could try kava, a sedative drink- we abstained.

After the kava was passed around, we watched a war dance and then joined in the snake dance, weaving around the meeting house.

Snake Dance

War Dance

We walked across the village to where lunch was being cooked lovo style, food wrapped in banana leaves and cooked underground. Village men removed the food from the ground and took it to the meeting house where we returned for our lunch. It was delicious traditional Fijian foods.

Carrying lunch to meeting hall

    

Uncovering the lovo lunch

          




















We toured the village. The preschool children sang to us. Women demonstrated weaving, mat braiding, and painting tapa cloth.

We made our way to our canoes and continued our journey to the waterfall. We passed by more rainforest, gorges, rapids (we had to get out and walk past one set of rapids), and waterfalls. We saw many native birds, ducks, and heron.

Motor canoeing up Navua River

Heron flying by bamboo trees

Our canoes glided onto shore and we began our "hike" (10 minutes through forest) to the "Magic Waterfall," the tallest falls on the Navua River.

We took a dip in the clear pool beneath the cascading water. It was so refreshing, a bit cold to get into but we quickly adjusted. We swam to the falling water. It was tricky because the current was so strong but we did make it and let the water cascade over our heads. We stayed in the water until time to depart, about an hour.

Sister Thomson waving in yellow life jacket

Part way back to the village, we climbed from our canoe to a bamboo raft for a peaceful glide down river aboard this traditional form of river travel. Just above the rapids, we climbed back into our canoe for the rest of the river trip to the village.








Once at the village, we asked some boys if there were coconuts. One of them climbed up the coconut tree and knocked down coconuts for each of us. The other boy used a bush knife to open it up for us to drink. We love to drink the water from the coconuts. We then made our way to the bus for the trip back to our resort.

We so much enjoyed being able to get into the mountains, on the river, and swimming in the pool beneath the waterfall. Great choice to spend our extra day in Fiji.
                                    
                                         “Oh the places you’ll go.” -Dr. Seuss