Last stop on this sojourn was a return to the Shangri Las Fijian Resort on the Coral Coast. We didnt think that it was all that big when wed visited it four years earlier, but maybe the builders had just been very busy since. Our room was about as far from the action as it was possible to get. Im pretty sure I remember counting more than 800 steps to dinner one night. I hope we were actually staying in the right resort, and that we hadnt instead accidentally wandered into rooms in the next resort along the coast. Our interconnecting rooms had TVs. Groan. Why is it that teens and are so attracted to electronics. We could have stayed at home and saved a lot of money if all theyd wanted to do was glue themselves to movies all day. And they seemed to manage to attract a large group of friends. It wasnt unusual to find a dozen or so youngsters draped over the rooms beds and chairs, engrossed in whatever was showing on the sacred screen.
the trip was in a small train along a track that I think was used to transport sugar cane. Then it was over on to some speedboats for the short trip out to the small island. If the ever reliable Wikipedia is to be believed, it holds quite a bit of cultural significance. Theres apparently evidence of civilisation there dating back to 1500 BC, and its close to an area where the first humans are believed to have settled in Fiji. Until a resort was developed there it was reserved as a location for significant ceremonies and Chiefly gatherings. The locals called it Likuri Island, and it was apparently only renamed after a yacht was shipwrecked on a nearby reef, and the owner and his cat took refuge there. The cat was called Friday. Id like to believe that a Chiefly gathering was held to decide on the name change, but somehow I doubt it.
Id also like to believe the bit about the cat being called Friday, but I couldnt help but notice that the whole Wikipedia page on the island was headed with a few perhaps slightly concerning notes: this article has multiple issues. Please help improve
it...., this article contains content that is written like an advertisement.... Now Im not sure what to believe. I think Ive always known that anyone can add or edit Wikipedia articles, however editors ... unreviewed research will not be allowed to remain and the content must be free of ... contentious material about living people. Why only living people? What ever happened to not speaking ill of the dead? I wonder how youd go about reviewing research on what a cat was called. I suppose you could ask the owner, provided he was still alive, and if he wasnt well Wikipedia apparently doesnt care what you say about him. Ive often relied on Wikipedia for research on the background for blogs on places weve visited, but maybe I need to rethink this. Or, of course, I could as usual just be overthinking all of this a bit.
The island was effectively a small backpacker resort, and we enjoyed an excellent day there. Emma found some backpackers to play Spit with. This game wasnt being played up on a first floor balcony, so unlike on Mana Island there wasnt the same risk of cards going missing as they were being
flung in all directions. We also enjoyed a traditional Fijian feast where the meat was cooked in an underground oven. We were told that the island was well known as a turtle sanctuary. After lunch we were herded around a small sandy mound on the beach where we were told that if we stayed really quiet, the turtle that was hiding under it would soon crawl up out of the sand and make its way down towards the water. We all held our breaths. The silence was deafening. Just a bit longer they kept saying, out eventually. The in the group were on a knife edge; cameras at the ready. The suspense was palpable. Suddenly an explosion of sand, and a Fijian man wearing a turtle shaped hat sprung up from his hidey hole under the mound. Groan.
Back at the Issy and I decided to join a group of other guests for some snorkeling off a boat.
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