Sailing fast!!!! from Fiji back to Australia. We tour a giant clam farm and have a mud bath...Ep37

In Taveuni we anchored in an anchorage on the north west of the island. Through a friend of a friend, we found a great driver who explained some of the economy of Taveuni to us. He said that Taveuni is the garden island of Fiji with its fertile soil and high rainfall. It grows great Taro and the Kava is the strongest in Fiji. We first walked along a famous path beside the surging ocean through a few villages and enjoyed the varied rainforest flora. Then to the Bouma Waterfall which was gushing with all the recent rain. The path to the waterfall was festooned with bougainvillia and heliotropes and other colourful plants and flowers. And enjoyed by nervous piglets, foraging for food. Then back to the boat across a nearly flooded creek. We then sailed towards Makogai, having a fairly rough trip for most of the way. We weren’t sure if we could get in through the reef pass in the heavy seas but fortunately we made it through and anchored just near the village. Next morning we dinghied into the village and met the chief and his son Johnie who showed us around. Their income is from growing giant clams and sea turtles, with government support, and selling them to the resorts for tourists to enjoy. Johnie took us to see the remains of the buildings that housed the people with leprosy and the associated health care workers several decades ago. He explained that after the leprosy clinic closed, the island wasn’t inhabited until the government approached the current chief and asked him to move to the island. Johnie then took us along the 10km path to the other part of the village where the school was located and where the teachers lived. We gave 60 Days for Girls kits to the wife of the chief for her to further distribute to the girls and women in the village. We asked if some of the children would join us to walk along the beach and to look at shells. This was a highlight for us as the children were eager to find shells for us and brought us an array of beautiful and aged shells. And we chatted with the older girls about school, books they liked reading and what they wanted to do after school. We then sailed back to Denarau via the north of Viti Levu and Rakiraki. Once back in Denarau we asked Joe our favourite taxi driver to take us to the botanical gardens up in the hills above Denarau. We loved the thousands of orchids there and then enjoyed getting covered in black mud and progressing from the warm to hot pools on a local farm. The massage afterwards was magical. Sadly we prepared for our trip back to Australia leaving our friends @SailingZatara and @TheSailingFamily behind for now, but we found a great weather window and took off with enough food and fuel to last the trip. We were sad to leave Fiji but for insurance reasons, we had to get back to Australia for cyclone season. We promised ourselves that we would return to see more of this exquisite place. We had great weather on our passage, as predicted, with following winds and seas for the whole trip, the winds only inching up to about 30 knots towards then end of the trip. We explain how we used the Predictwind Offshore app and the Iridium Go to get regular weather updates and to send emails and messages to friends and family.