The Taveuni Treehouse and the Bouma Waterfalls (Days 32-33)

Our hour-long flight over to the island of Taveuni, Fiji's third-largest island was a sight-seeing event in and of itself.  The tiny 18-seat plane offered us a novel way to experience the sights of Fiji.  We flew over part of the inner terrain of the main island, part of which is a national park, and then continued heading northeast towards Taveuni.  We admired the magnificent turquoise, blues, and greens of the coral reefs seen from above, and saw some more of Fiji's other 333 islands.

Our plane!  With the pilot, for scale.

After this thrilling flight (turbulence takes on a whole new meaning in a tiny plane like that!), we landed in the Matei airport, which is pretty much just a small shack.  Our driver from our booked treehouse accommodation was there to met us, and after a mere two minute drive, we arrived at Maravu, the resort that our treehouse was adjacent to.  After checking in, we were driven over to the treehouse and the staff kindly carried our heavy backpacks up the 76 stairs.  As we climbed the stairs, I got more and more excited by the wonderful place I could see emerging through the trees.

Main bedroom

"It's beautiful!" was all I could say when we got there.  The staircase ascended up into the tops of the palm and fruit trees, and brought us up to a very large deck with two reclining chairs and a gorgeous view over the trees, gardens, and out to the sea.  Inside the treehouse, we were greeted by a wall of glass doors offering us the same views as from the deck, a beautiful bed with these same views, and plenty of cozy chairs to sit in, some day beds, and several showers with beautiful grey stone floors - including one right outside on the deck!

Large, spacious deck

After over a month of traveling from one place to the other, living out of our backpacks, it felt like such a luxury to be able to relax in this beautiful space for four days, unwind, and settle into our last four days of Fiji.  We had so looked forward to our treehouse, and we were finally here.

After dropping off the rest of our things, we headed back the staircase through the trees and took a short walk to the main road in search of the beach.  We found a small patch of beautiful sand and palm trees, and sat there as we watched the setting sun play colours of gold and orange over the ocean.  Sometimes the best way to experience a country is just to sit still and enjoy quiet moments like this.  They have become second nature to us.  We let the universe show us where to go and what to do quite often, instead of pre-planning.  In other words, we let life surprise us.

The next day, October 10, was Fiji Day -  Fiji's celebration of independence.  Fiji was ceded to the UK on October 10, 1874, and then regained its independence on the exact same date in 1970.  Everyone here is very proud of their independence.  As we were having breakfast down in the main resort, they invited us to come and join them as they sang their national anthem, and handed us some Fijian flags to wave as they sang and played.  Later on in the day, as our taxi driver drove us to the Bouma waterfalls for our hike, people in the streets called out "Bula!" and "Happy Fiji Day!" as we drove past. 

The Bouma waterfalls are located in Taveuni's National Heritage Park and are also known as the Tavoro waterfalls.  We had seen pictures of these three waterfalls before coming to Taveuni and were enthralled by the beautiful photos of people swimming in them, so it was a must-do while we were here.

The hike to the first waterfall was only about ten minutes, but we didn't stop to swim in it, as we had the goal of making it to all three waterfalls first, and it was an hour and 40 minute hike to the final one.  We enjoyed the lush green jungle-like terrain as we ascended slowly upwards.  Some points required river crossings, but there were plenty of boulders to step on and handy ropes to hold on to as you went.  After the tiring hike, we were more than ready to jump into the final waterfall's pool.  It was a little cold, but very refreshing and the most perfect reward after the trek to get there!

It was so much fun to swim under a waterfall.  The last falls is actually three falls cascading into the same pool, and we enjoyed swimming between all of them in the clear water as the falls crashed down around us.  At one point, we saw some locals jump off a very high rock above the falls and down into the pool.  It looked like a lot of fun but also really scary.  We decided to try and jump from some rocks that were a bit lower.  The chosen jump-off point involved needing to first jump out and away from some boulders that were close to the jumping place, and J's attempt at doing this ended up in a painful-looking belly flop into the pool below.  I didn't quite trust myself to be able to jump away from the boulders that much, so I selected a much lower jumping point for my jump.  Still fun, and not as scary!

Me swimming in the first falls

After swimming there for a while, we started the hike back to the first waterfall, which went much faster, and then went for another swim there.  As I lay in the waterfall pool on my back and looked up at the high water falling just beside me, and the lush greenery everywhere I looked, I marveled at how deeply rewarding this simple experience was, and how much joy a simple swim in a waterfall could give me.  A completely different experience than simply being in a swimming pool.  There's nothing quite like being totally surrounded by nature's greenery during a refreshing swim.  I felt like a child and just enjoyed the pure sensory experience of it.

The first falls, seen through the lush jungle

View on our hike to the falls

Nice place to relax... even the local village dogs make the hour and half hike to
the third falls at the end of the trail - completely on their own!

The third, and most difficult to get to, waterfalls

We reluctantly left the waterfalls and headed back to our waiting taxi, who drove us the 20 minutes through Taveuni's dirt roads back to our lovely treehouse for an evening of rest in our idyllic place among the trees.

The lit staircase up to our treehouse in the evening