Isa Lei Fiji

The finale of our trip has been three memorable days at the Matanivusi Eco-Resort located on the south shores of Vitu Levi (see panorama picture of the coast line below). The resort, just opened last year, caters to surfers and divers and is run by an Australian couple who were able to secure land rights to an amazing secluded stretch of the coast line through a long term agreement with a local village who hold the land and fishing rights to the area. This gives them exclusive access for their guests to the nearby reefs for surfing and diving, similar to Tavarua and Namotu, but they have built a much more modern style of accommodations with 6 guest houses all connected by an elevated wooden walkway that leads to a central dining room, huge patio and beachside pool. We loved the set up with the small group of guests (one family and a few other surfers) which allowed incredible personal service from the staff and owners. Mark focused on surfing and Paula and the girls spent days doing exploring the area with guidance from a local villager. He took them along a road and cut down into a trail through the trees where he explained how they make use of the naturally growing plants for medicinal purposes, and how they grow their food in the middle of the jungle, with a small garden of taro, bananas and pumpkins growing together. He explained how they use the sea grass that washes up on the shore for fertilizer and pest control, and how they also utilize naturally growing coconuts and sugar cane. He then found a coconut and used his bushknife to quickly chop it open and scoop out some coconut meat for us to chew on. Then he disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a sugar cane stalk that he cut up so the kids could chew on the sweet, fibrous stalk – what a treat! With the giant lagoon formed by the reef, the area was ideal for sea kayaking, and some great sea life could be seen while snorkeling along the outer reef. The beauty of the area seems endless.

The resident pet was a dog named Mercedes – Sadie for short, a very sweet German Shepherd who had a face so much like our LuLu that we adopted her as our surrogate pet for our short stay. The resort owners, Brian and Donna, were very fortunate to secure this remote stretch that had a pre-existing road-base filled in for a planned resort in the 1940's that was never built. Matanivusi means "Cat's Eye" and named after the smooth rounded shells that the hermit crabs use to cap the small opening of the shells they live in.

As we prepared to load the van today to wind up our final day of this amazing trip, the staff all gathered today to sing us a song called "Isa Lei" – a heartfelt farewell song Fijians sing to those that are leaving, wishing them safe travels and the love of their village until they meet again. Very touching and a great send off for us to remember how genuinely warm the Fijians are.

We are on the plane to Auckland now where we board our final flight back to Vancouver. "Home" is a place we have not seen since December! We will work on a few final parting words to the journey on our next flight.

SURF REPORT: The set up is really good, with access to three local breaks, two of the rights are private for us only and a fast left called Pipes that also allows access to one other camp. They also go to Frigates Pass, which is a lot like Cloudbreak (Brian has a really good Australian beach boat with twin 200's – so it only takes 20 minutes out) but due to the winds and squalls, we didn't make it out. We ended up doing all our surfing at Pipes – a fast roping left break only surfable on mid to high tides. The best session had sets a couple feet over head and if you didn't make the section there was some serious punch to the pounding and the long paddle back around. If you made the wave you were flying and would scream out into the corner of the reef into about 2 feet of water and have a nice dry paddle back out to the line-up. Couple pictures – one showing a good size set wave that no one was able to get to and then one fun corner one of the guys was able to snap a picture of me on a little zipper of a wave. Matanivusi is a great way to round out a trip to Tavarua and more flexible for surf access and smaller groups.