April 3, 2026- Day # 88

 

We had an early tour, that leaves the ship at 7:50 am, so we had an early light breakfast at one of the buffets. This tour is called the “Best of Suva”. Suva is the capital and largest city, which including the surrounding towns has a total population of about 100,000.  Fuji has a population of about 928,000. We are on the southeastern coast of the island called Viti Levi. Suva is said to be the most modern and sophisticated city in the South Pacific, outside of New Zealand. In 1882, the capital was moved to Suva and has grown because of expats and students coming in to the three universities. Suva is governed by a Lord Mayor and a 20 member elected city council. 

On tour we learned that the appropriate greeting which our guide repeated frequently is “Bula” meaning “life”. We saw and I have pictures of the palace, with a guard at the entrance which changes every two hours. We did not get to see the changing of the guard. Also, have pictures of a few of the scenic views from around the city. We did pass a golf course, but reportedly the nicer courses are on the other side of the island, which is several hours away. Multiple photos of the market place that only had vendors outside due to being closed because to it being Good Friday holiday.  Some good looking fruits and vegetables. We did get a tasting of some of the local tuna and fruits after the tour segment in Fiji Museum. The pineapple in particular was very sweet. There are several pictures of some of the exhibits including the remaining portion of the rudder from the HM Armed Vessel Bounty which was burned after a mutiny of a portion of the crew to control of the ship from Captain William Bligh in 1787.  This mutiny occurred during a transport of breadfruit ( one of the local crops) from Tahiti to the West Indies. Also have a not so great picture of a doubled hulled canoe, named the Ratu Finau which in 1913 was able to sail 10- 15 knots which was unheard of in that time. Not sure if I got a good picture as we passed a group of people reenacting the walk down the Via Delarosa for Good Friday. 

Two final notes. Not sure of the freshness of the fish, but this market had a not so nice odor. We also saw a  roadblock of police, but I have no other details. We were told that guns are outlawed, even for the police! We saw security at the pier, and I did not see that they were armed either. Our final stop was also at a store that opened up on the holiday for us and another cruise ship that was also in port. With the long lines at the checkout, I think it was worth their time to open. 

Pictures for April 1st

 After multiple hours and attempts, today I was finally able to get these pictures uploaded from my April 1st post.

Sorry for this delay.

April 2, 2026- Day # 87

 This is our son, Royce’s birthday, but we can’t wish him a happy birthday today because back in the States it is still yesterday, April 1st. We will have this date deferential until we set our clocks back another 16 to 20 hours to get this resolved.

As you may know by now, our cruise course has been changed because of the war in the Middle East. We will divert south after Singapore and go around the southern tip of Africa and up their west coast until we get to Southampton England. I will try to get our new ports of call and course uploaded. Of course we are disappointed, but others are more dissatisfied. There was a meeting of the Captain, General Manager, and Cruise Director with all the Around the World passengers to give us the option of getting off the cruise in Singapore and then rejoining the cruise in Southampton if people did not want to go around Africa. We are also getting a refund of 10% of our cruise cost toward a future cruise, but of course this is unsatisfactory to some people as well. Go figure! 

On a positive note, we were able to watch the Artemis II launch today. We will be in Fiji tomorrow.

April 1, 2026- Day # 86

 Arrived at Vava’u (Neiafu) Tonga about 8:00 am this morning. Our tour leaves at 8:50 beginning with a tender transport to shore. The tour is called the Nature and Historical Tour. We had about 8 buses all on the same tour at the same time, making for significant congestion at the stopping spots. Our first stop was at a sign and obelisk that we could not get to ( see the photo from the fence line).  A picture I took called this Pouono Park. Hope you can read this history of the island. We did not get any other information. It sounds like this area was never under colonial rule. We saw several viewing sites to take scenic photos, the first was up a set of 180 steps. At least I got in some exercise. The second site, we were served some nice local fruits, which were very sweet and delicious. The guide told us multiple times about the churches and the church schools in each village. We did not stop at any of these, but did visit (see photos) the oldest Catholic cathedral on the island. Also, we heard about the number of Chinese stores (like a general store) that are over taking the commerce in each village; putting the local Tonga shops out of business. 

Another stop was a cemetery and narrow steps down to the Veimumuni Cave. This was a challenge with our large group having people trying to go both ways, most without any handrails. There is a story about a princess and her lover who was described as a common “dude”. They would go down to this cave to be alone and swim in the freshwater in this cave.

 Last stop was to see some vanilla plants growing in a plantation. We also heard that many of the houses have their own plantation, that sounded more like a garden to grow some of their own food, as it seems like the people really do not own much and have to be innovative to make a living. Apparently vanilla is a major export to Australia and New Zealand, with some coming as far as the US. 

As they only have about 11 cruise ships per year, and a couple of hotels, it does not seem like tourism is a big part of the economy on this island. The largest island of Tonga is Tongatapu, which has over 60% of the population and government. We are not visiting this island.