Tavarua Part 2

Tavarua Part II

My tan is starting to fade and the jet lag fog has lifted but the memories are still at the fore front of my thoughts.  This blog will be an overview of lots of little things that I took notes on while we were there.

Our home away from home for the week

Inside our bure, please excuse our stuff laying around!

The Bure, our room was very spacious for just the two of us.  It had queen beds and a day bed.  They were pretty comfortable.  The windows, which we never closed, all had screens.  The only bug I saw in the room was a spider, that Mark quickly got rid of as he knows my fear of spiders.  We did have a gecko in our room.  I only saw the gecko a couple of times.  Geckos don’t bother me as I know they eat the spiders!  As I mentioned in an earlier blog, because the water supply depends on the what rain they catch, they don’t change the sheets and towels daily.  Which is fine as they make up the room daily and we handle the sheets not changed nightly.  You know I don’t change them daily at home!  The only towel that got a little iffy was the floor mat.  I washed my feet a lot!  The shampoo/conditioner and soap were Pure Fiji products and smelled great.  We had fresh flowers daily and house keeping was delightful.   

To help keep the sand out of your room, at the bottom of the stairs in front of each bure was a tub of water for you to rinse your feet in before you entered. That really helped to keep the sand issue down.  Plus we always took our shoes off and left them outside on the deck.  We never once locked the door.  Theft is a non issue there.   We kept our wallets in the safe in the closet and we didn’t bring anything valuable with us.  On this vacation, leave the jewelry at home…you won’t need it!  Here is a list of the things you do or don’t need to bring

Hair dryer – -Dont ’t bring, already in the room 

Beach towels –Don’t bring, they provide nice big plush ones 
Casual clothes – shorts and tee shirts are the attire for the week.  For women, sun dresses, bathing suit cover up.  Nothing fancy necessary!  I think I packed 4 bathing suits, and wore them all.  One night I did wear my sweater during dinner.  I don’t think Mark ever wore more than a tee shirt and shorts
Shoes – I brought 2 pairs of flip flops and a pair of water shoes that look like sneakers.  I tried to designate one pair of flip flops for getting wet and tried to keep one pair dry.  In hindsight, I wish the water pair had been rubber rather than the leather ones I bright.  One of the other guest had a great pair by Gisele Bundchen.  They were rubber and had a heel strap.  Cute, stylish and would stay on in the water.  

You know I'll be ordering these!

Flippers - If you are bringing your kids or If you have a small foot, bring your own flippers for snorkeling.  They do provided them there, but they were too big for me.   I wear a Women’s size 6 (US)  and I think the smallest they had was a men’s size small.  I did put on my water shoes and used a men’s large flipper over my shoes.  It worked!   Your Camera!  Between Mark and I we took tons and tons of photos and videos. 
Flashlight – the path from the restaurant to your bure is lite, but it was nice to have a flashlight to light it up a bit more.  The beach isn’t lite up night except for by the moon.  A flash light was a must for that quick stroll on the beach  in front of your bure.
Water bottle/travel coffee mug – The water in your room isn’t purified for drinking.  It is fine for bathing.  At night after dinner we asked to take a picture of water back to our room each night.   While they serve coffee & tea all day long in the restaurant, it was nice to have my travel mug filled with coffee to sip on when we took our daily walk around the island.
 

Sunscreen & chap stick!  I started the trip off with 30 spf.  I had somewhat of a base tan but I didn’t want to burn.  I gradually went down to a SPF 8.  I did use SPF 30 on my face for the whole week.  This is the first time I’ve ever come home from a vacation and didn’t have my nose peel. A shout out goes to Dennise Nipper for her turning me on to Mary Kay’s 30 SPF facesunscreen.  It didn’t sting my face like most sunscreens do!  

 Books - If you do a lot of beach reading, get a Kindle or other type of electronic book.  The airline has weight limits and books just take up too much of it.  I have a clip on light so I was able to use the kindle in the room at night

Mark and I with our Kava before we presented it to the Island Chief

When you land on the main island in Fiji, get your Kava there for the Kava Kava ceremony.  It is customary to provide the island Chief with Kava or some other gift the night of the Kava Ceremony.  Our shuttle driver picked it up for us before he drove us to the boat landing to the island.  I wish we had another gift to offer him has well.  We should have brought along some XL Santa Cruz Tee Shirts.   

A note pad -  to take down the email address of all the awesome people you will meet on your week.  They only have about 38 guests each week.  You get to know them all very well and will want to keep in touch with them.  We were lucky enough to have met Susy and Craig and their sons from Australia.  We are looking forward to vacationing with them again.  If not at Tavarua then Mexico or someone where else.   Also there during our week were some other fantastic families from Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, San Diego and of course the guys from Brazil.  The Brazilians were professional surfers and their photographer/videographer and editor from a Brazilian surfing magazine called Hard Core.  They were there for photos shoot and video for the magazine.   

Brazilian Pro Surfers and Crew

I know this one is blury but it has great memories behind it!

Not only were they amazing surfers, but wonderful guys at well.  They left their egos at home and joined in to become part of our week long family. It was a common sight to see the two year olds using them as jungle gyms in the pool or to see them offering words of encouragement to the grommets while they were surfing or challenging them to games of ping pong.   

Craig and Lucas playing against Mark and Adam

They also offered something to look at for all the women staying on the island.  Even after all the 1000’s of photos they took for the magazine, they were still willing to share in photos with the rest of us.

The staff there is amazing.  You feel more like pampered family members than hotel guests.  They remember the details of what you like and go out of their way to make your stay enjoyable.  

The staffing singing to us as we arrived to Tavarua

She is amazing and treats us all like family!

 In addition to the resort staff, there are volunteer life guards who went out on the surf boats each day.  They discourage you from going out on your own.  Safety is always first and foremost.  They let you know where the best waves are breaking that day and tips on how to avoid the coral.  Mark went out on the 6 am surf boat each morning to get the best waves and conditions of the day.  There is a doctor there on the island, one of the surfers needed him when she cut her foot on the boards fin and required 6 stitches.  If you aren’t surfing and need medical attention, let someone on the staff know and they will locate him for you.  

Between the location, food, the resort and everything else, this was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had!