We decided it would be best to see the island with an official Savusavu Island Tour. Matt, Wayne and I hire a local guide, Alla and a taxi driver to takes us around to some of the key sites of the island of Vanua Liti.
Our first stop is the natural hot springs where many residents of Savusavu prepare their meals. You can cook an egg in less than 2 minutes, boil soup, cook chicken and oh so much more. They keep large plastic tarps near the edge of the hot springs so you can heat or steam your food.
Pearl Production
Our next stop was the J Hunter Pearls of Fiji. We did not take an official tour, but we did peak around the facility where they clean the oyster shells, graft, and do some carving. Nothing on the same scale as French Polynesia.
It was super interesting to see the different colors in Fiji. They tend to produce white, off white, yellow, gold, and pink colors vs the dark colored pearls of French Poly.
In my opinion, the pearls were ridiculously expensive and a far lower quality than what I am used to seeing.
Copra Plantation
Originally, I was not too excited to see a copra plantation as we had seen so many in French Polynesia. But what this really turned out to be was a coconut oil plant. They make a variety of coconut oil including extra virgin, cooking, and beauty oil.
First, they manually husk the coconuts and separate them into batches. Talk about hard labor! Then they dry them using large wood burning ovens. The Polynesians just laid them out in the sun for weeks to dry them!
Once they are dried, they separate them yet again and prepare them for squishing. Yes, I climbed on the top!
We visited the oil making divisions and boy was the floor slippery 🙂
Urata Overlook
We pass by a small village that has the most beautiful view!
Vuadomo Village and Waterfall
Today we will see two waterfalls. The first one is at the Vuadomo village. We must pay homage to the chief but he is out for the day. So, we visit his wife who works at a small artisan market.
The waterfall is not super tall, but it is wide. We happen to visit when two other vans pull up which sort of stinks.
But we were the only ones who actually got in the fresh, cold water so we had the pools and falls to ourselves.
Nagawaga Falls
Our next visit was the Nagawaga Waterfall. We pay a quick trip to the chief of the lands and head to the path. It is a nice 30-minute hike through the forest to get to the secluded waterfall. This one is a lot taller and super private. We were the only ones here and I can see why. Parts of the rock side were precariously hanging on to the side of the mountain.
Savusavu has lots of beautiful flowers growing around this area.
And there was a gorgeous view of the valley and river below. Savusavu is very green as they get lots of rain.
On the way back we stopped at the Grace Kitchen Farms to pick up some fresh produce. All in all, it was a fabulous day.
Here is a fun link with descriptions of some of our adventures.
Events from this blog occurred in early July. Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events. Did you read about our River Tube and Mud Bath adventure in our last blog?