We were up early again. We were going to go on a tour of the Coral Coast of Viti Luvu, which is between Suva and Nadi. We were being picked up from the Sheraton, where Adrienne had just checked in. We had decided to get breakfast at the Sheraton. Regrettably the food was not good and the service was slow, even by South Pacific standards.

For the tour there was another couple with us, Hilary and Russ. We were in a 4 wheel drive SUV (sport utility vehicle) with seating for 7. We left Denaru and went through downtown Nadi. The drive to the coral coast was quite long. The scenery is mostly rolling hills with grass, scattered palms trees, and the occasional cow or horse. There is one area that is a pine tree forest. Pine timber is one of their major exports. There were several farm areas, mostly sugar cane. We saw lots of cut sugar cane ready to be sent off to the factory for processing. Sugar cane is their primary export.

Our first stop was a Sagatoka Sand Dunes national park, where we went on a hike. We were told it was a hike through sand dunes, so John skipped the hiking. He lives in Nevada and sees nothing but sand dunes all day. The hiking trail is well maintained. We walked up a steep hill offering scenic views of the surrounding countryside and a peek at the ocean. In the distance are more rolling hills covered in grass. We could see windmills on a hill on the horizon. We found out that most of the electricity here is made with wind or hydroelectric power.

As we continued on the trail, we got to the sand dunes. After a short trek over the sand, we came out to the beach.

We followed the beach a bit, then the trail took us away from the beach into a forest. There were a couple pop art sculptures located in the forest “The Tree Huggers” and the “Tree of Lost Soles”. It was a nice hike and we enjoyed having our new friends along on the hike with us.

The next stop was a traditional village where they make pottery. We were given a brief tour of the village. There is a road into the village, but once inside, there are just walking trails. There are rows of modest houses that make an L shape, with a grass area in the center. Surrounding the village are crops that the villagers raise.

After the tour, we went into the “town hall” for a demonstration. They started with a kava ceremony. Each person was given a small bowl of kava. Before taking the bowl and after finishing it, each drinker had to say thank you and clap, and everyone else in the room said thank you and clapped in response. We needed a ceremonial “chief”, since the chief was a key figure in the kava ceremony. John was elected. He was pleased with his new title, because in Fiji chiefs, and only chiefs, are allowed to have multiple wives. This kava was definitely stronger than the kava in Tonga. Once again, it was too small a quantity to feel, but it did make one’s tongue tingle.

After the kava ceremony, we watched the women make pottery. They mixed the clay and sand, then began shaping. In just a few minutes, with no wheel and the only tools being a rock, seashell and stick, they created a vase, decorative bowl, and a figurine. Sculpting pottery is not easy even with all the modern tools, and yet they made the sculpting process look easy. It is amazing to us how good the pottery looked. The pottery is fired in an open fire, then, while still hot, rubbed with tree sap. The tree sap is a glaze that makes the pottery waterproof.

After the pottery demo, the ladies of the village danced for us. They all wore hot pink satin tops, long dark skirts, and a short patterned brown skirt over the long one. They all held fans. The dancing was very demure, with very little motion. It seems the farter west we move, the less vibrant the dancing. The ladies looked like they were uncomfortable performing for us, so maybe it is normally more lively than what we saw. We were all recruited to join in and we did a couples dance that reminded us of square dancing in that someone would yell out and everyone would change direction. That was followed by a snake dance, which is another name for a conga line. Our tour guide, Mike, says snake dances are popular here.

After the village tour, we went to lunch. Food was included with the tour, and we didn’t have high hopes. Much to our surprise, we actually went to a real restaurant and were served beverages, entrees, and desserts of our choice. The food was good, too. While in the restaurant, it began to pour down in buckets. It never let up, so we skipped our last stop, the beach. The coral coast supposedly has nice beaches, but this certainly wasn’t beach weather.

We made one more stop at Adrienne’s request at the market in Nadi so she could buy a souvenir. The market was typical. Venders in small booth hawking similar wares. We were hassled by high pressure salespeople. Adrienne chose to buy from a booth close to the back of the market where the lady was nice, not pushy, and started the bargaining with a price less than half of what the high pressure guys at the front of the market started with.

We were dropped off at the marina shortly before a Polynesian dance show began. Mike had told us his daughters were dancing in the show. We have noticed that in the afternoon there are performers in their late teens in the courtyard of the marina mall. We hadn’t realized that many evenings there was a big show put on. They did dances from all over Polynesia and Micronesia. They did a great job. They did a lot of fire dancing, which was nothing short of amazing. Pictured below is one of the finale acts where the girl stands on the guy, each of them holding a fire in each hand and simultaneously doing tricks. Fire dancing is from Samoa, which is why we haven’t seen much of it in our travels.

Hilary and John had gone to the show, too, and after the show they came by for a visit. We had a nice time with them.