Salutations!

Like I already told in previous post, Lucie (a friend I made on the way) and I came to Taveuni island on Tuesday. Taveuni is the third biggest island in Fiji. It is also one of the few places where the 180th meridian - which represents the international date line - crosses land, which means that theoretically it would be possible to stand with one foot in yesterday and with the other in tomorrow. There is no real towns here, as only 12,000 people live here, which reults in incredibly clean waters and pristine nature, that's why it's also called 'Garden of Fiji'.

We came with a ferry, since flights are pretty expensive for a backpacker's budget. The journey from Savusavu takes about 5 hours, but because everything takes more time here, it actually took us the better part of Tuesday before we arrived to Maravu Plantation Resort. The resort has the same owner as Bamboo Backpackers, where I started my journey, and the 'plantation' part of the name comes from the times (I think about 100 years ago, but I'm not really sure) when there were vast plantations of coconut palms around here, some of which are still visible today.

They put Lucie and me in a 3 bed room, despite us booking an 8 bed room. Naturally, we didn't complain, it's nice to be in a less crowded space, especially after spending time at Zare's in the middle of the jungle. Plus, I can finally put my gas stove to use, it already started to look like I smuggled the gas cartouche all the way here for nothing.

On Wednesday I woke up at 9:00 AM, which - I might add - is the latest I got out of bed since I started my journey, and it represents quite an achievement for me; I like to sleep in whenever possible. Lucie was already up, making us some tea. Our plan was to go to the nearby supermarket, which is about 2 KM from here.

We cut up a pineapple (a gift from Zare), ate it for breakfast, had our tea, and went on our way. We just started to walk form the reception, when Lucie pointed out a huge spider hanging on a web by the road:

At approximately half way to the shop I liked the scenic view by the side of the road:

As we proceeded, we spotted two small islands nearby the coast to our left, there was also a boat anchored there and, naturally, I had to take a shot:

Other than that, the way to the supermarket wasn't really interesting, I might add that we've picked 3 ripe papayas on the way home. It still amazes me how much fruit is just growing everywhere around here.

When we came home we started to prepare lunch (pasta with tuna sauce) and in the middle of our work a new roommate, Cassy from Australia, arrived. The room is now full. As were our belies after consuming almost a kilo of pasta among the two of us, and that put us in beds for a couple of hours.

After my afternoon nap I decided to go explore where the road behind our bungalow is going to take me. I was hoping that it will go to the top of the island, where I could make some nice sunset pics, as the golden hour was approaching. Boy, was I wrong; there was just jungle and a couple of empty houses on top, no view whatsoever.

I made some photos nevertheless. First, I encountered this flower:

After hiking uphill for a couple more minutes, I was fascinated by the way those lianas (each about 30mm thick) grew around each other:

I also snapped a photo of banana in flower for anyone who wondered what it looked like and never bothered to google:

Fun fact: if bananas are intended for consumption, it's better to cut the flower off, so that more energy goes into fruit, which means bigger bananas.

When I reached the top of the hill, the Sun was already setting and the light was beautiful, but sadly the only interesting thing I have seen was this tree:

I was disappointed at first, because I spent the nicest part of the evening in an uninteresting jungle, but then I practically ran down the road, through the resort, down another (main) road, and got to the beach just in time to see these amazing colours in the sky:

This about sums up my Wednesday. Let's move on to Thursday.

I only made one picture today, while Lucie and I were waiting for the bus to Naquara; the closest thing to a town around here:

I wanted to make some photos of the town as well, but unfortunately we only had about 30 minutes form our arrival to last bus back to the resort, and we were running around to get everything we set out for.

Unfortunately I missed another amazing sunset tonight (I know because Lucie told me about it; she went for a swim in the evening), because I had to oblige by my duties of writing new updates for you :)

But don't worry, I'll get another chance tomorrow, every sunset here is out of this world.

Finally, everything is up to date!

Have a nice day, and see you all in my next post!