Day 187, 188 - Levuka, Ovalau - Friday 20th, Saturday 21st April 2012

Our four alarms went off in unison at 4.30am - we were most definitely awake! We arrived at the bus stop and started our fourteen hour journey over to Levuka. The journey was ok apart from the big waves - every so often we heard a massive bang only to find it was a wave hitting the boat. The day was overcast and rainy throughout so it seemed we'd picked the right day to travel - perhaps it was fate our alarms hadn't gone off the day before!

We arrived in Levuka after dark and made our way up to Levuka homestay with the help of the directions of some of the locals. Once there we were greeted by John and Marilyn and showed to our room and then invited up to the top terrace for a beer. The homestay was lovely and we chatted merrily over a beer with John, Marilyn and their friend Matthew before setting out to the Whales Tail restaurant in town. We ate prawns in coconut cream with spinach and cassava chips and chicken - it was tasty. Knackered we headed straight back to the homestay for bed and on the way home chatted and said bula to everyone including a rugby referee who told us that they was a big match tomorrow between Ovalau and Suva - sounded interesting.

The next morning's breakfast was a treat - I can honestly say I don't think I've ever had better! John and Marilyn served up the works - there was homemade muesli, fresh fruit, fresh fruit smoothies, banana pancakes with syrup and passion fruit butter, hot berry bread with homemade pawpaw jam, then followed by poached eggs on toast with bacon and washed down with Yorkshire, yes Yorkshire, tea!! Needless to say we were absolutely stuffed. Over all of the food we also chatted with John and Marilyn about Fiji and learnt lots about the country - they're been living in Fiji for seventeen years and so were a font of knowledge on the place. We also learnt a bit more about Levuka town and its history - it was the original capital until it was swapped in favour of Suva; it therefore has a lot of the original colonial buildings including the first ever church in Fiji.

The weather was still dismal and there was no sign of a break in the clouds or rains and so we decided to book the boat back to Suva and the main island the following morning, this instead of our original plan of heading out to one of the little islands off of Ovalau - there is no point of going to a little deserted island with white sand beaches if its cloudy and raining! With this in mind we walked into town to book our tickets and were none too happy to learn that it involved another 4.30am start! Oh well….

We spent a few hours wandering around the town and taking in the sights and then come 3pm we headed over to the rugby field to join the crowds to watch the game. We paid our $5 to watch the game and stood alongside everyone else on the side of the pitch in the rain. The players were huge and as soon as the game started the shouts, dancing and general buzz of the crowd increased - it was hilarious even though it was in Fijian so we couldn't understand it; however John translated some of it which made for even funnier hearing! It was really fun to watch the game and feel like part of the community - everyone cheering and saying hello. Unfortunately our side lost in the end but they put in a good show - with mud covered kits and bruises and blood to show for it!

In the evening we grabbed a bite to eat, had a chat with John and Marilyn and headed to bed early to try and get some kip ready for our early morning start.