The Zaandam arrived to Dravuni Island to cloudy and overcast skies. The temperature was around 80 degrees and there were some light passing showers. The sea state appeared to be slightly rough with some strong winds. By 8am, the seas leveled out enough for the tendering to begin.
Dravuni Island is a mere one square mile at the most. Like we stated, it is a tender port where you have to disembark on a floating pier….something resembling a Rubbermaid plastic puzzle. It not only floats, but will fluctuate with the waves of the bay. Like being on a magic carpet ride without good railings. Less than 200 residents live on the island in a single village. Power is supplied by generators and water appears to be collected in cisterns from rainwater possibly. The only kids we have ever seen here are the little ones – primary school age. There are no teenagers to be seen. Other than a few caged pigs and some free-roaming chickens, there is nothing else here. No grocery store, no pharmacy, not even a restaurant.
The locals set up tables outside their basic houses with souvenirs like sarongs, t-shirts, and trinkets. Other services include massages, beer, soda, and snack sales. Some fellows were cooking chicken on the greasiest grill we have ever seen. Locals offered fresh coconuts for the juice, and some homemade breads and cakes.
There is no visible means for employment for these people, so we do not know how they survive. We guess a few cruise ships stop here, but not that often. So we need to do some more research to satisfy our curiosity.
We were in no big hurry to go ashore. And there were no tours here, so people could go over starting shortly after 8am. We left the ship around 11:30am well after "open tendering" had been announced. We figured that by this time of day, most of the guests would have gone to shore. Wrong again. We did not need tender tickets, but when we got out of the elevator on deck A, the line had wrapped around the hallway and back up the stairway. Vini, our go-to-guy for priority tendering, was no where to be seen.
A tender boat was just being off-loaded, so we waited in the long line because we were in no hurry to go ashore. This crowd of folks were polite and not complaining about the back-up, and as it turned out, the wait was only about 15 or 20 minutes. If there had been two tender landing platforms opened, there would not have been a wait. We still cannot figure out who is running the show, but they do not seem to be as well- organized as all of the other HAL ships.
When we got to the tenderboat landing, there was a line of folks coming back to the ship already. It must have been 60 people deep who may have been going back for lunch. Anyway, by now, the sun had begun to peek out of the clouds, and it was really warm. Since we are not really beach lovers, we took our usual walk to the right, passing the stands of souvenirs and makeshift massage tents. The school was right there, but the little kids were on a lunch break too. Covered wooden boxes were set up in front of the school for donations. We wondered if the guests who brought things for Fanning Island, brought them here? It would have made the locals, especially the children, very happy. Can't say we saw any hand-outs while we were there.
The entire stretch of narrow beach was filled with sunbathers and snorkelers. From past trips here, we can say we have never seen an abundance of tropical fish in these waters. But it was so warm and humid, most guests were happy to be floating in the turquoise waters. There were some local fellows that offered boat rides around the island for $10 each, which may have been in Fiji money….we did not ask.
On the way past some of the rudimentary houses, we saw some wooden pens that were home to some pigs. These are not the type of hogs we have in the states, but resemble more of a wild pig in size. One of the pens had three smaller pigs that were wallowing in pure mud and whatever else was in that pen. The flies were thick, so we did not linger there for long. There were some chickens roaming around, but not many. Some of them may have already been on the BBQ grill.
The further we walked the sandy trail, the fewer people we saw. This trail will lead to the hilltop view, but it is too much of a hike for one of us. And it takes a lot of time since it is steep and slippery. Once at the top, there are breath-taking views of the coastline, which one of us has seen numerous times. The sun had come out enough to make this hike way too hot, so we skipped it today.
After taking a gazillion pictures, we back-tracked and made our way to the opposite end of the island. Near the tip down a narrow almost hidden path are the remains of what they call the Old Village Site. Actually, all that is left here are several graves, that had been covered with strips of purple and white fabric. It is mostly in tatters now. One of the graves had plates and cups on the top, as if family members come here to have a meal together. It is a dead-end path, literally, so we did not stay more than a few minutes. It is an eerie, but peaceful spot at the same time.
Then we continued on another path that led to the island's tip and the volcanic rocks that pretty much blocked the sandy beach. The tide was coming in quickly, so we did not stay there long either. We suspect that the backside of the island as well as the tips have a strong riptide that might drag you out to sea. It was so littered with volcanic rocks, it would rip your feet to shreds.
Back near the center of the beach area, we relaxed on a veranda of an old facility that at one time had been used for day visitors. It was in ruins now and will not last in these elements for much longer. We could see another very long line of guests waiting for the boat. Better to wait here and not in the hot sun on the bouncing landing. When the second boat arrived, we went and got in the line and made it for the ride back. Once again, we were squished in the smaller tender. Had they run more than three of these boats, we might have had more space. But what do we know???
A Lido lunch was in order, or we could have gotten room service, which we have not done yet. We figured it may take too long, so we went for our usual salads and some pizza. The salads were good, but the left- over pizza slices had been sitting on the warming tray far too long. They were dried up and not good. So we went back to the sandwich section and picked up some torpedo rolls with lunchmeat, cheese and pickles. Not bad.
The final tender boat was at 4:30pm, and we did leave the area by 5pm under heavily clouded skies. Not much of a sunset tonight. We are now heading to the final stop in Fiji, Savusavu. That will be another tender transfer, and we are not looking forward to it.
While one of us was working on photos of the day, the other was checking out the shipboard account to see if that missing credit was posted yet. It was there along with two other credits we always get as part of the President's Club perks. However, even with the credit added back to our account, it was not adding up correctly. So one of us went down to the front desk to get an explanation of what had been done. After 20 minutes of waiting, the final explanation was given by one of the pursers that work in the back office. Unknown to us, they had made an error with two of the previous credits, but failed to inform us they had adjusted the account. The account just showed up differently on TV than my printed statements. From here on, we will have to check this often in case more errors are made. Honesty, we have never run into this problem ever on all of the ships we have sailed with HAL. And we hope we don't have this problem on future cruises.
Dinnertime rolled around quickly again. It seems that the majority of folks still dine at the earliest hour like 5pm. Even at that, our meals seem to take a long time in arriving. The Caesar salads are back, except the lettuce is not romaine. It is very close to it, and still tastes good. Their room service chicken noodle soup is the best on this ship compared to even the world cruise. Another appetizer was smoked duck, also tasty. Our mains were one sauteed pork chop with fried potatoes and onions and carrots and peas. The other entrée was chicken cordon bleu, but homemade and not frozen. Much better and both served hot as could be. We saved enough room for desserts of a strawberry sundae with biscotti cookie crumbles.
Bill & Mary Ann
