Taveuni Island or Garden Island. Beautiful palm groves, a fertile land that offers plenty of fresh fruit such as mangoes, pineapple and papaya, beaches that you see on postcards and people who take you with all your heart.
On the first day, we walked to the nearby town of Naqara on foot, and from there we took the bus to Bouma National heritage park. We stopped in the village of Bouma and walked along the river along the beautiful grassy trail and admired lush vegetation. After a few minutes we reached the waterfall after which the park is also called. The waterfall is really beautiful, the mighty force of water is poured into a pool, which is surrounded by flowers and plants from all over. There we stopped for a while and ate lunch, rice with curry. We cooled down a bit in the pool and continued the way through the small staircase high above the waterfall. At the top of the hill all efforts were paid with an amazing view.
We had to slowly return back if we didn’t want to miss the last bus. It is the cheapest option for such a distant place, the taxi would cost us a lot more. The very next day we drove back to this piece of Taveuni. We went a little further, where the road ends to the village Lavena. We decided to go on the Lavena Coastal walk and return to the 80’s, because they used this place to record the scenes of the famous “Return to the Blue Lagoon” movie. We were walking along the beach, where the house was standing and they used it for shooting. The path took place all the time along the coast, and before the last part, when we had to cross the river which flows into the sea along the footbridge, it split into the interior through the river valley to the Wainabau waterfall.
We felt like in paradise and around us it was only the noise of a waterfall and nice bird singing. Ana was tired and she fall asleep in Suzana’s arms, but we were just smiling pleasantly because of all this beauty around us. While we were returning, we wanted to cool off in the sea, but we decided to go back home and eat something warm. That night we decided to sleep in a small homestay in the village Lavena. It’s good that we decided to stay because we were left alone surrounded by one of the most beautiful beaches and nature we’ve ever seen.
The night was a bit more scary than usual because we were completely alone, and on the roof there were visitors who disturbed our sleep. In the morning, we immediately forgot our insomnia with breakfast, sun on the terrace surrounded by a white sandy beach, overflowing into the sea in various shades of blue-green colors. All this beauty we enjoyed all morning, we swam in the warm sea, and wondered how the scenery was almost exactly like it was in the movie Moana. But since we know that we will continue to visit similar places and enjoy them, we decided that afternoon to slowly go back to the home of our family. On the way we stopped at my old friend in Matei. She gave us Fiji water and two different types of mangos, in the shade of the tree in the beautiful tropical garden of coconut palms and tropical flowers.
Taveuni will remain forever in our memories as a real paradise island and we are already looking forward of telling Ana our tour around this island when she grows up a bit.
