Tales of the South Pacific - Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji

Cruise Day 26

Saturday, October 25, 2025

We have moved on to another Fijian island for our final stop in Fiji.  Today we’ll be tendering into the town of Savusavu on the island of Vanua Levu, the second largest Fijian island.

We have moved from Viti Levu to Vanua Levu.

Our port today is Savusavu (the red marker) on the island of Vanua Levu.

We arrive in Savusavu.

We are scheduled to take a ship excursion today, and when I asked Val if she felt well enough to go, she said yes.  We didn’t have to get up very early as we didn’t have to meet until 9:00.  After a quick breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we went down to the World Stage to wait for our tour to be called.  Because we have to tender ashore, it is always a much more cumbersome and tedious chore to get to your tour, but we made it, found our bus and were on our way.

A couple of views of the ship as we head to shore.  That is the tender platform where we boarded the tender.

Another tender loading.

The tender dock where we'll dock, the cafe behind us is where Val and I had a cold drink and a snack before catching the tender back to the ship.

The tender is heading back to pick up another load of people going ashore.

The tour today is called Traditional Fiji where we’ll visit Nukubalavu, a village with a population of around 300.  No air-conditioned car for us today, we are back on one of the open-air island buses like we rode in Pago Pago.  The island of Vanua Levi is much less developed than Viti Levu that we just visited and is much more an island of tropical jungle.  It was a nice drive through Savusavu and then through the jungle to get to Nukubalavu.  There were only a few tours offered today, so there were two buses today with probably around 60 people total.

Here is what Google said about Nukubalavu: “Nukubalavu Village, near Savusavu on Fiji's Vanua Levu island, is a significant traditional village known for welcoming visitors to experience authentic Fijian culture, showcasing daily life, crafts like mat weaving, and important rituals such as the ceremonial kava ceremony. It's home to the paramount chief of Savusavu (Tui Na Savusavu), making it a culturally rich destination for tourists to observe local customs, enjoy performances, and learn about Fijian traditions.”

Our bus arrived first and we were greeted with palm frond leis and then welcomed to the village and entertained with some songs.  We were then led on a tour of the village, while the second bus was greeted.  We visited the building that held the kindergarten that was the only school in the village.  After kindergarten, the children have to be bussed to another location.

We were welcomed to the village with greetings and songs and a much appreciated bottle of water as it was very warm and humid.

 

Inside the kindergarten

This village is located right on the ocean, so next we walked down to the beach area.  What a beautiful location to live in, the beach was beautiful and while not a white sandy beach, it was lined with palm trees which made it a perfect south sea setting.

After a short visit to the beach, it was time to head back into the village.

From the beach we walked to the village meeting hall where we waited until the group on the second bus caught up with us.  When we were all seated in the meeting hall, the formal welcome started which of course included another Kava Ceremony.  Since the group was so big, only four people were chosen to actually be given the kava (which was fine with Val and I as this was our fourth Kava Ceremony).

Some views of the village.

 

The Kava Ceremony began.  Because of the size of our group, four volunteers (seated up front) would receive the Kava.

After the Kava Ceremony, there was singing and dancing and we were all invited to join in.  Many people did, but Val and I didn’t.  It was quite warm and very humid today, so we wanted to avoid any exertion.  After the entertainment, plates of fresh pineapple, watermelon and coconut were brought around for a very refreshing snack.  While we had our snacks some of the villagers demonstrated the traditional arts and crafts that included mat and basket weaving.

We then had time to walk around the village and also visit tables where the villagers had their handmade crafts on display for sale.  Val made a few purchases and then we were ready to head back to the ship.  The temperature was only in the high eighties, but the humidity made this the most uncomfortable day we’ve had weather wise.

There were several tables set up where the villagers were selling their handicrafts.

We didn’t have to wait too long, and we were soon on our way back to Savasavu.  Despite my complaints about the humidity, this was a very good tour.  Our guide was actually from the village and gave us a lot of insight into life there.  Being able to walk around and see how the people live and view the beautiful beach made it very special.  It was well worth being out in the heat, that I suspect it’s only going to get worse as we move on.

We arrived back in Savusavu and saw that with our tour returning, and several others, the line for the tender was quite long so we decided to walk around a bit.  There were a lot of people displaying their crafts along the road to town, so we walked along there for a short bit, but the humidity was just too much for us and we gave up.

Val had spotted a small café right on the dock, so we decided to go in there and get a snack and a cold drink (we had an early dinner scheduled for tonight, so we didn’t want to eat too much).  We saw some people at the next table eating something that looked good, so we asked them what it was.  It was called Mexican Dip and was the Fiji version of chips and salsa.  We ordered that and a couple of cold drinks and enjoyed the view of the harbor and the nice breeze coming off the water.

It was very nice to relax, have a cold drink and enjoy our Mexican Dip.

 

The line of people waiting to board the tender back to the ship.  The line actually extended back through the building where the cafe was, but it moved pretty fast.

The Mexican Dip was quite good, but wow, was it spicy.  I’m pretty sensitive to spicy food, but even Val, who likes things spicy, said it was pretty intense.  It was good though, so despite my burning lips and tongue, I ate the whole plate and really enjoyed them.  After we finished, we headed off for the tenders and unfortunately found the line still long.

We had no choice but to get in line, but it actually went fast as they can load quite a few people into a tender and when a new one arrived, the line moved pretty quickly.  We had one interesting thing happen while we were in line, we heard the couple in front of us say something about California, so we asked them where in California they lived.  It turns out they live in Morro Bay that is only about 15 miles from us.  Once again, we were reminded of how small the world can be.

We got back to the ship about 1:30 and Val and I both took a shower which felt very, very good.  We relaxed until it was time for trivia and then met up with Donna and Arthur.  We didn’t do very well at all today, but it was nice to catch up with Donna and Arthur.  After trivia, Val and I walked down to the medical office to pick up some paperwork from Val’s visit yesterday.  After that it was back to the room for more relaxation.

A week or so ago, Val received an invitation from the casino for a complimentary dinner at the Canaletto Restaurant on the ship.  The Canaletto is an Italian specialty restaurant on the ship that has a surcharge to eat there, but thanks to Val, tonight’s dinner will be on the casino.  The only downside was that the reservation was for 6:00, which is a little early for us on the ship as we are used to eating at 7:30.

We cut our relaxation short, got dressed and headed up to the Canaletto.  We weren’t too hungry, so we started out by sharing a burrata appetizer and then for our main course, Val had Italian Sausage Paccheri and I had the Mussel, Scallop and Calamari Trenette.  Mine was very good, but Val said her’s was only mediocre.  We both had gelato for dessert which we both thought was very good.

After dinner we made a quick trip to the casino and were back in our room by 8:30, which was fortunate as we found that after getting an extra hour of sleep as we headed west, we were now turning back east and would be losing an hour of sleep tonight.  We read for a while but turned out the lights early as we were both tired.

Even though Val is getting better, she is still sick toughed it out again and we went on our excursion.  I wouldn’t have blamed her at all if she had just decided not to go today, but she wanted to go and she did it despite the heat, humidity, and her not feeling well; well done Val.  Tomorrow is a sea day before we visit two ports in Tonga.