Nadi (pronounced "nan-dee", because some "d"s = "nd"s) is on the west side of Viti Levu, the biggest island of Fiji's 300-odd. It is still a bit inland, so if you go west from Nadi about 10 minutes, you hit the manmade island called Denarau with a cluster of resorts on it.
The Coral Coast is the southern coast of Viti Levu. I had heard about the sand dunes, so, after Josh was a few minutes late (Fiji Time!), we started our drive.
Fiji is so green and lush. And they've apparently had a drought for the last month or two as the rainy season hasn't fully kicked in yet! (We've been advised to not to to waterfalls expecting them to be gushing water.)
It was palm trees and some deciduous trees getting choked out by (or maybe just living in harmony with) vines. There were Brahma cattle and horses grazing in the tall grasses, then chickens scratching around the concrete-block houses with tin roofs. Some in a valley were on stilts for monsoon season. Almost all had brightly colored laundry flapping on a line.
We reached the Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park at a little after 9 in the morning. It was just off the Queen's Highway, which I believe is the round-the-island road that we pretty much stayed in all day. There was a little interpretive center, which included some archeological pieces from ~2000 years ago - some of the earliest remains discovered in Fiji.
The park ranger (with pretty short shorts and pretty hefty thighs - I forgot to ask if he was a rugby player, since that's been on a bunch of billboards around the island) handed us a laminated map and we took the 1-hour walk.
Josh (our driver) started the hike with us, up a bunch of stairs to the top of the green hills surrounding the beach and the dunes. He took a picture for us, then headed back down as we continued up the next rolling hill. It was a final climb up a steep sand bank until a long wide sandy slope down to the beach.
It was gray and cloudy, so it harkened back to the Pacific beaches nearer to my parents in Seattle, but with dark sand instead of rocks. They were the biggest waves we've seen, since there were no islands out further to cushion the blow, and the beach sloped steeply into the water.
Despite the grayness, it was an isolated beach surrounded by green hills that got larger and more impressive as you looked into the distance east. We were essentially at the southwest tip of the island.
Oh, and Dad found a floating rock. (Pumice - but count on Dad to find the interesting rock on a trip.)
We walked back, with a little bit of spitting rain, through a mahogany forest (supposedly - I don't actually know what it looks like enough to say) and back to see Josh and head to our next stop before 11am: the eco park!
I think we all had low expectations, but it was surprising informative! Very hands-on as well - we walked in and immediately were given the chance to hold iguanas and baby boas.
The baby sea turtles (they were at least four, but still pretty small) were in the tank just ahead, and so we got a chance to hold out and toss in pieces of fish for them. They did this odd move where they'd swim with just their back flippers and fold in the front ones over their shells. I think it was defensive to prevent the other turtles from nipping at their flippers.
Speaking of nipping, Dad had an over-eager turtle go for part of his finger as well as the fish he was holding. Ouch!
Next up were the raptors: owls, goshawks, and another hawk. After that was a few cages of large parrots, including the cockatiel that had been in "The Swiss Family Robinson" movie. We tried to get him to say hello, but he wasn't having it.
There were a few more iguanas hanging out. Apparently, some of them came from the airport after a smuggler had attempted to get them out of the country.
There were three sets of free-flying cages, though not a lot of flying was going on while we were in there. The final cage had a honeyeater, some ducks, and a frog that caught the attention of an ibis.
The walk back was a canopy boardwalk. I climbed those first few stairs and was sure I was going to need a nap right then - a jetlag sucker punch. It was through will and effort that I reached the top. It was through childish exploration that I went back down to try the rope bridge.
It hit us while we were up in the canopy, studying the various trees and shrubs they use for medicine, that we didn't need medicine, we needed food.
We got down to the front and asked Josh what his recommendation was - a seafood place about twenty minutes down the road. Could we make it?
The other thing to understand was that all of our meals outside of the resort (so, just the one at the Fijian resort at Port Denarau) have been slow and the food has come out when each individual plate is ready, not when the entire course is ready.
There was one waitress and probably only as many cooks, but we eventually got our prawn dishes and livened up. The restaurant was overlooking the slightly gray ocean, so we could watch the rain smatter down on the rocks below.
We got dropped off at Maui Bay, which was a jetty or pier thrust out 100 feet into the water. The pier was at least 20 feet above the water, but it was clear enough to see the starfish and school of small fish as we walked past. I went down the set of small steep steps at the end of the dock and shuffled my way back to shore.
We had tried convincing Dad that the snake-like things he saw in the water were just branches, but they were actually some bulbous creature that looked like an inflated snake skin. Never asked anyone what they thought it was.
We stood at the dirt parking lot/picnic area watching a few stray dogs run around for five minutes until Josh drove back up.
Dad was most excited for having our own driver so he could direct Josh to a geocache. We went down to another resort row and had him park. We all scampered after Dad, who figured out the location then headed for the giant tree. Before I could peer my head around the other side, he had moved a pair of rocks and was reaching into a hole in the root system.
Out popped a pencil box, and, with that, Josh helped in finding his first geocache.
We attempted to stop at the Intercontinental, but they didn't let day trippers in to use their beach.
Now Mom had the request - stop by a secondary (high) school so she could take a picture to show her class. We did the hour's drive back to Nadi and then deviated for a block to a Muslim private secondary school. It was cinder block, and very well kept up, with a rugby pitch in the middle.
Once we got home, I was ready for some pool time. We hadn't been in the water all day! And it was happy hour! Val and I started at the adult pool and were soon joined by the rest of the gang (except Dad, who was getting some alone time reading).
A banana daiquiri and a half later, it was time to go in to see what Deanne and Maria were cooking up. Dad had started without them, so it was pasta with eggplant spaghetti sauce and fruit (always fruit). I got a chance to call Mark, so was plenty occupied while they were cooking.
It was shortly after dinner that the power went out for the first time. It had such a great whooshing noise as everything powered down. Everyone (our neighbors included) popped out to their balconies to see how everyone else was dealing.
A few tiki torches were lighting the path, but otherwise, all was calm. Dad started a line of Silent Night, and we all were pleasantly surprised to hear the second line from the balcony next door.
In the cover of darkness, we sang the refrain and started the first verse - and the power came back on, ruining the moment and sending everyone back inside. I learned the trick to restarting the wifi through the connected tv, and we resumed the evening with Settlers of Catan.
There were two more brief outages before the power left us completely. We still played by iPhone flashlight, but it wasn't moving as fast as my eyelids were drooping (especially in the mostly dark) and so I traded my spot off to Mom so I could end the day in bed before 10pm. Again.
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