A RECENT trip around Viti Levu to deliver prizes for the 2016 Kaila! Design Your Own Newspaper project was the perfect opportunity to take stock of Fiji’s natural beauty.
The early morning pickup at 5.30am signalled a gloomy start to the road trip because of the light drizzles that followed, and of course the terribly frightening thunder and lightning. I lost track of which came first, the thunder or the lightning but either way, it gave me the chills.
So I sat in the back seat of the Probox with enough leg room for those occasional stretches. Our photographer Sophie wasn’t so lucky in the passengers’ seat but she didn’t complain either. Off we went via the Kings highway. It took us a couple of minutes to reach Nausori Town, crossing that beautifully constructed pothole-free bridge and taking the Bau tikina access road, the bypass route that opened up after the slip at Kasavu, which closed a portion of the Kings Rd.
What usually takes about 10 minutes to cross that portion along the Kings Rd now took about 20-30 minutes to cross through the alternative access on the network. Just before the turn off to resume travel on the Kings Rd, a sign could be seen restricting heavy vehicles, buses included, from travelling that path.
But our good old Probox made it past and we were soon on our way to our first stop, which was Rakiraki Public High School. It took us about three hours to reach our destination and at that time of the morning, the sun showed no mercy as we entered Rakiraki Public High School.
Two of the common sights along that stretch to Rakiraki are the tents and makeshift shelters that are still housing people almost a year on since Severe TC Winston struck. Even as we made our way into Rakiraki Public High School, the first thing that caught our attention were three huge tents on the school’s lawn filled with schoolchildren, sitting on chairs and jotting down notes as the teacher spoke.
This was the start of Term 1 and while students in areas not severely affected by the Category 5 storm have the privilege of going back to fully-furbished classrooms indoors with ceiling fan and proper tables and chairs, students in schools such as Rakiraki Public High School have to make do with what they have until they have proper classrooms or learning spaces set up.
After about half an hour at the school, we hopped into the Probox and made our way to Ba. Now, the sights along the way are definitely one to behold. The Sun Coast actually boasts some of the most beautiful mountain ranges that seem to run for miles on end. And with the sun glistening off the surface, you can almost picture yourself doing a Julie Andrews move in The Sound of Music, at the beginning of the movie where she’s singing with arms stretched in a meadow with the mountaintop in the background.
At one point during our travel, we spotted a herd of cows making their way to the paddock. Their cowherd on horseback looked every part the lone ranger with his hat and chatting away on his cellphone.
We made a pass through Togovere in Ra Province and couldn’t resist a stopover at a roadside mini-market with plates of ripe apple mangoes. The ladies there greeted us with big smiles all the while asking, “mangoes?” Thinking it would cost $5 a plate like it is in Suva, we were pleasantly relieved when told it was $2 a plate and mind you, one plate had about 6-7 mangoes compared with the 3 or 4 you’d usually get for $5 at the Suva market.
Once you reach Tavua Town, you know you’re already in Ba Province. The town is quite quaint and I still have vivid memories travelling to Tavua and Vatukoula to visit family. The scenery along the way is the usual dry feel one would expect from the “Burning West”.
We reached Ba Town at 10.30am for a short visit to Kamil Muslim College before starting our journey half an hour later to travel 37km to Lautoka City aka the Sugar City.
One thing I notice with these long trips is the convenience of service stations along the way. So if you’re travelling this way, rest assured you don’t have to rush off to the bush somewhere.
It didn’t take long to reach Lautoka either as we tried our best to keep to our timetable. We got there around lunch hour. Lautoka is a great city, great sunshine, confusing one-way streets for the newbies but fantastic! We stopped over for a quick bite and at the recommendation of our photographer, it was off to Nani’s restaurant for a Joji-like experience … and it cost $5, well $6.50 was the most expensive, compared with the nearly $10 meal prices in the Capital City.
If you’re a Suva susu-madrai kind of person like me then seeing the locomotive go past with stacks of sugar cane will leave you staring like one kaicolo. It’s happened to me one too many times and doesn’t get old. There are the botanical gardens and parks in Lautoka you can check out or their famous sugar mills, shopping centres along Vitogo Pde, Naviti St or Yasawa St.
We left the Sugar City about 2.30pm for Sigatoka and finally Suva City. Of course along the stretch from Sigatoka to Suva, you cannot miss the Baravi Handicraft centre and the hot sila sellers right across the road with big pots of cooking corn spewing out steam.
And you know you’re almost reaching Capital City when you’re greeted by the typical Suva weather, and this happened when we reached Pacific Harbour. It was raining all the way home, arriving around 6.30pm just in time to catch a nice cool shower minus the thunder and lightning.
So the next time you have this itching feeling to go on a cruise or day trip, take a trip around Viti Levu. Whether you’re driving or bus hopping, the experience will leave you feeling a lot more appreciative of what you have and of course thankful for being blessed with a rich and beautiful environment.
