Fiji must have a violent history because most of the carvings offered for sale were war clubs, war knives and cannibal forks! They also had kava bowls which were used during ceremonies. It is a liquid narcotic! Some of the tours were offered some to taste. The people who tried it said it numbed their lips and tongue. Only the chiefs used the cannibal forks, they were the only ones allowed human consumption. We bought a fork then saw this one on the shelf. It had just been brought out from the back. I took a picture then we bought it. It was the only one that came with a stand.
Fiji was the first port where we didn't plan well. Mel arranged with another couple to try to get a boat to snorkel first thing in the morning but I wanted to visit a garden that closed at noon. We ended up going to the garden first thing then meeting the others at 10...which left us no time to do anything but the garden. Oh well, can't see everything in every port.
The Garden of the Sleeping Giant was started by actor Raymond Burr. He was an avid orchid grower so wanted a place to showcase his collection. It is called what it is because it is on the side of a mountain referred to as the sleeping giant. It looks like one from the distance. We grabbed a taxi on the pier and took the 30 minute ride out to the garden. The first walkway was under a net for shade and had pots of orchids on both sides. It was really beautiful. After the orchids was a pond with water lilies. The trail wound around up the hill, most of it a boardwalk. At the top there was a rope across the path. I went under it for a ways and saw that another couple who was ahead of us had gone that way so we did too. Unfortunately it was closed because it was slippery and Mel fell twice. Not good. The first part had sand on the boards to make them less slippery. Fortunately Mel was not hurt, just one scrape on his back.
It was extremely hot and humid walking thru that place. When we got back to the entrance we were given cold fruit juice to drink, thought that was nice. We headed back to the ship.
We were in our cabin at 10:10. The other couple didn't contact us until 10:30. They had had no luck in finding a place to snorkel. The beautiful pictures everyone sees of Fiji are taken on the outer islands and it is a full day trip to do that. So at 10:30 we really had no plans. We took the ship's shuttle into town. There is a famous store called Jack's that sells anything and everything from Fiji. We were told not to buy there and instead buy in the market where crafts were a lot less expensive. We walked thru Jack's then headed to the market. Unfortunately it was Sunday so the market wasn't open. Nor were most of the stores in town. The few that were open were selling fabric and Indian outfits. Most of the businesses in Fiji are owned by Indians. We did go to the supermarket to look around. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was quite busy though.
Back at Jack's, we picked out a number of carvings and shirts. They had brought in a lot of extra people to help out which was nice as the place was packed with people from the ship. No where else to go! We got back on the shuttle and were on the ship for lunch at about 1. It was very odd being back that early on a port day. I decided to walk on deck. First time around a lady was looking over the rail. There was a sea turtle swimming right beside the ship. That was nice to see. But they were doing maintenance on the deck so we had to walk back and forth rather than around. After a mile I gave up. I went back to the cabin and told Mel there was something I still wanted to buy at Jack's so we went back on the shuttle for more shopping! This time we were back on board at 3:30. All aboard was 4:30. It wasn't a very successful day.
After dinner we were just about to pass thru the reef that surrounds the larger island. We went out on deck to see the waves breaking on the reef. Behind the ship were about 10 tiny porpoises playing in our wake! They were jumping it or just jumping and doing flips in the air. That was fun to watch. Next port we will have better plans.
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