Saturday 22nd September

Suva
Fiji.

18 07.331 S
178 25.470 E

The day started with a division of labour, Gerry went ashore to the machine shop to see how they were going with the frame for the generator whilst I stayed on board and swept out the interior of the boat and cleaned the shower sump etc – all the fun jobs! Gerry returned to the boat just as I was about to sit down and type the blog, he had gone via Micky D’s and bought us breakfast (even though we had already eaten toast before he left); honestly he is a junk food addict and just couldn’t go past a Macca’s without going in. So would the frame be ready today? Of course not, did you really expect it to be done when they promised – it’s now going to be ready on Monday, I’m not taking any bets on whether it will be ready or not. This had kind of thrown our plans for the weekend as we had planned to do the re-installation all day tomorrow, then the final stock up for our onward trip on Monday morning before returning the car on Monday afternoon; now we have to have the car for an extra day to make sure we have transport to get the generator back to the marina, ho hum! After eating the Mac whatever they were we dinked back ashore, deciding to go for a drive around to see if we could locate the road that heads north towards Rakiraki and go for a drive in that direction to see whatever there was to see. We headed towards the center of town which was teeming with people, everyone and their dog was out shopping and milling around the town center streets. We followed several roads out of town always ending up back where we started – the map isn’t particularly good and the roads have few indications as to where they end up; despite it not being our intention we saw pretty much all the streets in the center on town and enjoyed the bustle of the city. We also managed to find our way out to the big football stadium, drove along the water front road, saw the parliament buildings with the guard in his traditional Fijian uniform (we though it would be quite difficult to take a guard in a skirt seriously, but he does have a rifle slung over his shoulder so I guess we wouldn’t laugh in his face); found the historic buildings of Suva – the library, the Fintel building, the old town hall, the Grand Pacific hotel (a shadow of it’s former self from what we could tell)

and the Fiji museum with it’s surrounding Thurston gardens. The worst thing about it all was that there was no where to park so photos were impossible to obtain, we will have to try again before the car goes back; I especially want a picture of the guard in his skirt! What we didn’t manage to find was the road heading north that we were looking for.One thing that I've failed to mention so far is that the Royal Suva Yacht club is directly opposite the Suva prison - if you get too drunk it might be difficult to know which one you are at! Eventually we had enough of driving around and gave up, headed back to the yacht club for a few drinks, met up with some fellow travelers and sat chatting with them until it was time for dinner – what a way to pass the day! We ate in the yacht club as it was pouring with rain and we couldn’t be bothered to go further a field for the evening. Once we had eaten it was back to the boat as Gerry was feeling a bit off colour and wanted to go to bed early. I sat up for while and read whilst the engine was running to top up the batteries then I also went to bed. Good news the pillows are finally dry.