Day 28 April 3 – Suva, Fiji

Day 28 Friday April 3rd (92 days to go) — We booked an excursion to a resort for the day unaware until this morning that it was 75 minutes to get there and 75 minutes to return so the six-hour excursion was 3 hours at the resort. That turned out to be okay as the two hours we had just laying around was much needed. It was a gorgeous resort and the meal served was also better than we anticipated.

After our time at the resort, we were driven to a local souvenir shop for 30 minutes of shopping. You know that I complained that it was 29 minutes too long…laughing. Then, we were given a brief tour of the city of Suva right before the rains hit and I mean RAINS so we were unable to leave the ship and visit the Sacred Heart Cathedral. Below I found stock photos and a photo sent to me by David Chen.

The start to our day docked in a container port.

Driving through the containers leaving the port

Photos of The Pearl South Pacific Resort and Spa in Fiji. I am unsure how she is able to cope with all this stress in her life 🙂

The Pearl South Pacific Resort website – Pacific Harbour

Good Friday lunch — look mom, no meat 🙂 Now, the shrimp were great but my lips and mouth were on fire after the meal

Sadly, while the resort was absolutely gorgeous, the drive to and from was quite depressing. Here are photos of the homes. See if you can figure out what is missing in most of these homes

Tent set up for Easter Sunday celebration

Most of the homes have the old type of windows slates that you would crank open and close

Cajun Fijians!!!! Check out the shrimp boots. Congratulations to Ann Sanamo for noticing this first 🙂

Cemetery outside of Suva

Famous Jack’s of Fiji 🙂 We went in looking for matching red outfits that we had seen Russ Borman and his wife Kelly wearing on the Villa Vie Residential Ship The Odyssey. The store was out of the red outfits which is a bummer because it would have been great for Christmas

THESE are the outfits were looking for. Modeled by Russ Borman and Kelly Smith on The Villa Vie Odyssey

The man who brought men’s sulu to Fiji. He got the idea from men in Scotland wearing a kilt

An open field and stadium used for various sports in Suva. The field is where the first airplane landed in Suva by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in 1928. It is named Albert Park.

The Suva Clock Tower. Built in 1918, it serves as a memorial to Gabriel Jacob Marks, the first mayor of Suva, who drowned in 1914.

Easily the biggest disappointment of the day was us missing a visit to The Sacred Heart Cathedral. The Sacred Heart Cathedral or simply Cathedral of Suva, is the main ecclesiastical building of the Roman Catholic Church in the island nation of Fiji, and is located on Pratt Street in the City of Suva, Fiji’s capital.

Suva Cathedral was built in 1902 with sandstone brought from quarries near Sydney, Australia. Its architecture is inspired by the churches of Rome in Italy. The building is covered with ornaments and stained glass and has a crypt in the basement.

The cathedral serves as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Suva (Archidioecesis suvana) which was created in 1966 by Pope Paul VI by bull “Prophetarum voices”.

Below are stock photos of the interior along with an exterior photo sent to me by David Chen.