Taveuni is know as the 'Garden Island of Fiji' located in the 'Friendly North". It is well known for it flora and fauna is a popular destination for many travellers and tourists. The island is approximately 10 kilometers wide and 25 kilometers long and has some of the most fertile land in Fiji. It is a place where travellers go to spend that special vacation or holiday in Taveuni's lush green rainforests. Here you can find one of the best places for diving and snorkeling in the world ! for us it was absolutely a must place for hiking, since there are so many walking tracks around.
Sunrise on the way:
Des Voeux Peak:
Des Voeux Peak is Taveuni's 2nd highest peak approximately 1,200 meters above sea level,
Generally the walk up the mountain takes 3-4 hours of very long, not very steep climb, but this time we cheated while taking a ride with some of the locals which offered us to join them with their truck, that was after a 1.5 hour walk.
The trip up to the top provides splendid views of the rich tropical plants, palms and rainforest trees on Taveuni. This region is also popular with bird watching trips, enabling them to view many of Taveuni's rare species. From the peak we got to see splendid views of the other islands.
When reaching to the top, the weather suddenly started to change from sunny day to heavily rain, so we decided to stay at Vodafone Communication tower which located here.
We had a nice talk with the workers over there, one of them was really interested about Israel nation.
Unfortunately we forget to bring the camera with us at that day, so sorry - no photos of the peak with its beautiful views ...
Wairaki Catholic Mission and the White Cross:
This impressive church was built in 1907, thanks to the french missionary who helped the local warriors with their fighting strategy against the Tonga warriors in the 17th century, the ancient cross still sits in the church - the original cross which was given to the leader of the warriors 400 years ago.
Behind the mission, a dirt track leads up to a huge white cross, a nice local young guy called: "Bravo" walked with us and showed us the way, it was not the first time for us seeing the locals leave their work at the farm and come and help us with the way - this is something we never seen in other places, he explained about the plantation near by and many other things about the Fijian agriculture. On the way we passed a very unique waterfall, the view from the hill of the white cross are superb.
Waitavala Water Slide:
This natural water slide is not for the faint of heart. A bruise or 2 is unavoidable as you fly down this rock chutes. We didn't want to take the risk and slide, taking pictures was enough for us, regardless of the slides, it is a magnificent place to visit.
Lavena Coastal walk:
Lavena Coastal walk is situated on the coastal boundary of Bouma National Heritage Park, this walk gives you the chance to see a mixture of remote beaches, rainforests and traditional gardens. The walk takes about four hours there and back.
Although it was heavily rain, while Efrat had a cold, we walked the trail getting wet from head to toe, it was really worth making a day of it.
The cherry of the track come at the end of it - Wainibau Falls.
Tavoro Waterfalls:
After doing the coastal walk, at the same day we went to Tavoro Waterfalls (also Tavoro Falls).
These falls are a spectacular series of three waterfalls of 24m, 15m, and 10m. These falls are also called the Bouma Falls as they are in the Bouma National Heritage Park. The tallest waterfall is the Lower Tavoro Falls. Then, the Middle Tavoro Falls has the next tallest drop. Finally, the double-barreled waterfall of the Upper Tavoro Falls has the shortest drop of the three, but has an interesting character to it.
We have seen only the first 2 waterfalls since we didn't want to miss the last bus back to our accommodation. This day we will definitely not forget.
Vuna:
Vuna at the south end of Taveuni island was a bit disappointment for us, it took us 2.5 hours to get there with the local bus, although it was just 40 km away (dirt road which wouldn't allow the crappy bus to go over 40 km per hour).
Vuna is well known of its reef, it is very recommended to snorkel around, that was the reason we got there. Unfortunately we couldn't find any snorkeling equipment since the only place in the village who rent this stuff couldn't find the key for the room of the equipment (we are not surprise because this is also part of Fiji's way ...).
Eventually we found ourselves sitting infornt of the reef having a nice conversation.
While we were waiting for the bus to pick us up back near by a primary school, Efrat started to have fun with the kids, Their teacher didn't like it since they were suppose to get back to the class.
Efrat with school kids at Vuna:
Naqara:
pronounce as - Nangara, here we found our accommodation for most of the days in Taveuni, here is the main village where you can find shops and other services. We stayed at a nice family which have accommodation, they have 5 daughters. They really got attached to us, when we left they were quite sad.
Have fun,
Efrat and Yoni.
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