By the time we made it up to the north end of Waya Island, our kid boat posse was briefly down to three: Exodus, Fluenta, and Honey. Nalauwaki Bay is a large, north facing bay with dramatic volcanic geography which was stunning in the rising or setting sunlight.
Shortly after arriving went to shore with Fluenta and Honey in order to do our Sevusevu. This one was one of the most impersonal ones we’ve had, but after we got a bit of a tour of the village. The Octopus Resort is just over the hill from here and many people of the village work at the resort, so it boosts their “local economy”, but it also means they have a lot of access to tourists. We were all quite interested in hiking to the top of the mountain (shown in the picture above) and the villagers were tripping over themselves volunteering to guide us. It seemed very nice, but after delving a little deeper and asking a few questions it turned out that they wanted us to pay $30 each for the hike. Of course, we recently had guided hikes in both Matuku and Gau without any price to pay, and while we did give our guides gifts afterwards, it didn’t have that feel of an impersonal transaction like this one was shaping out to be. In the end we passed on the hike, and we also passed on the coconuts they tried to sell us. When I mentioned I thought the price seemed very high, their response was that “this is what we get at the resort.” Our friends on s/v Honey were interested in trading for some local fruits, but it took a while to convince the villagers to trade rather than charge cash. To be honest, unlike some island countries, trading is not so prevalent in Fiji, because their infrastructure makes most of the basic staples accessible to most people. Even in the more remote villages of the Lau group they didn’t need to trade for food items and preferred to accept money over trading. Of course, if you have something they cannot easily get, like a mask and snorkel or some fishing hooks, they may very well be interested in trading. But breakfast crackers just aren’t going to get you much.
After the sevusevu and the village tour we hung out on the beach for a while. Tim and Max (Fluenta) made some friends and of course the kids found some village kids to play with. Truth be told, our boat kids all wanted to back to the boat right away and play amongst themselves, but we made them hang out for a while. I can always count on Alex to just make the most of it, and he started playing catch with some of the village kids, and pretty soon, there was all kinds of fun to be had.
We stayed in the bay for a few days before continuing on up the Yasawa chain. There is a tiny surf break on the coral in the middle of the bay and at the right tide conditions you can surf it. Most evenings Tim and Max spent an hour or two surfing the breaks on stand-up paddle boards. Before we left, we were happy to be joined by Field Trip again, so our kid boat fleet was back up to four.
Our friends on Lumbaz were the ones who introduced us to “special project days” where the kids research whatever they want and then give a presentation on it. Our four boats continued the legacy and we had a special project day when we were at Waya. The kids are usually pretty nervous, but when they all get through it they are relaxed and happy to have gone through it together. This time, even some of the moms got into the action and gave presentations.
Gresham Family Exodus 