Taveuni and the \”Far Side of the World\”……

Dear F&F, July 22nd-23rd

We upped anchor early in the morning for the short 1 hour run to Mateui Anchorage at Taveuni Island. We were optimistic about getting a taxi to fuel up by Jerry Can, go to the market and find someone with a fax machine to finally get our \”Lau Permit\” sent to us from the Copra Shed Marina in Savusavu. We finally had gotten the word that the Lau Council had been issued our permit the night before.

We anchored at Matuei Anchorage on Taveuni (Fiji\’s third largest island) and luckily found a taxi waiting at the \”new wharf\”. He and one of his mates did all the above errands for us and we were off to the north end of the island\’s \”Nasalesale\” anchorage by 2:30 p.m. Before we left however, we had our taxi driver take us to a fairly unique spot on the planet \”Aqua-Marine\” AKA: \”Earth\”.

The actual International Dateline rarely runs through land. However, the 180th meridian of longitude where the Eastern and Western Hemispheres meet, exactly one half way round the world from Greenwich, England runs right through Taveuni Island. Except for the far East Coast of Russia and one of it\’s islands as well as Antarctica, there is nowhere else the the \”true\” dateline runs over land.

We of course took photos as the two different places where it is well marked. They will be put in the Photo Gallery as soon as I\’ve decent internet.

Nasalesale was a lovely spot where we took a taxi and then did the hike to the Tavaroa (if memory serves) waterfalls. There are three falls and the lowest one has been used in many movies over the years and might be quite recognizable. I got lazy and introspective and just hung out at the lowest fall. Sandrine and Anja did the entire hike in a fast two and a half hours.

We were lucky enough to catch the perfect arc of a rainbow with s/v Migration at the anchorage. Photo to be posted soon. We\’ll be off to Matangi Island resort tomorrow with s/v \”Migration\” to do some diving and decide if we will go north or directly to the Northern Lau Group\’s, \”Vanua Balavu\” in the Exploring Islands. KIT, Scott with Anja and Sandrine.