Kiteboarding: Leleuvia Island, Fiji

We stayed 3 nights on this island. We went for one last kite in the morning at Caqalai island and boarded a long boat to Leleuvia island after breakfast. A mere "stones throw" away at just over a couple of km away. It would of been great to actually kite over and get the boat driver to simply take our gear over. If the wind was stronger I'd probably set this as a real option.

Looking out that very useful application Google maps, it's another compelling place for our purpose:

and as I say, for an adventure minded kite group with perhaps a few more people the inter island possibilities are evident:

Leleuvia is a more upmarket place, it's about 70% dearer than Caqalai, but in return it does offer more facilities. You have a bar, toys to play with eg. canoes, paddle board, dive shop and better bedding. I'm not going to say it's a better to place to be in as - for me anyway - it is not, it is different in this regard that is all - a bure is a bure, a bed is a bed. I had a great time on both islands.

We had fantastic wind on Caqalai and I thought wow what a coup. But some of our chickens hatched early and the rest did not. We headed into the doldrums soon into our stay on Leleuvia and could only use the big kites in the afternoon. Here we have another great reef to kite on and only marginal winds ! Luckily high tide was happening in the afternoon.

Luckily we brought the big kites. Again our bure was situated on the windward side, but not as good as Caqalai as it was at the mid northern side. At low tide there is nothing but reef, so you have to walk to the southern side of the island near the spit to get out. This is not so bad as that is where the bar and dining area is and the walk is all of 10 minutes.

After we checked in, I was keen to get the kite out. So I pumped up the 17m Griffin and launched opposite the bure. The run over the reef was superb, but woe betide me the wind ran out of puff. Well, sort of - the wind was around 9 knots and the tide was running out at probably the same rate ! So I drifted out off the reef and into the deep heading off to Vanuatu somewhere. Dennis put himself into emergency rescue mode and ran and grabbed the camera no doubt pissing himself laughing but somehow had the wherewithal to inform the dive guys that there was a crazy tourist floating off into the blue yonder.

This was the first time I have been rescued by boat. It is a good idea to be conversant with boat rescues. I found out later from that other great Internet tool: YouTube what the correct method is. I should have wound the lines up and deflated the leading edge. Doing it wrong by loading the kite fully inflated I creased one of the struts and ended up with a slow leak.

Later in the week I thought I would have a go at repairing the leak. Thinking it was in the leading edge I tried disassembling it and failed. In an attempt to put it back together I popped the end as it was slightly creased. Education on repairing bladders is a very useful piece of knowledge to have. I had the repair kit but no experience ! Oh - yes Wi-Fi is available on this island, but this is Fiji, not Australia so wind back the clocks 20 years and you've got the speed experience to be expected, plus I only had a small HTC phone to do my research.

Luckily I brought along a mate who parted with his kite every now and again, and that was required only one more day.

On Caqalai, there is no bar, you bring your own alcohol - we had a couple of bottles of red; the entertainment is a few Fijians strumming a guitar or ukulele and drinking kava. After a heavy duty day of 4 sessions of kiting we were hammered and went to bed early anyway. The Kindle proved to quite relaxing as well as a few discourses with the locals. We steered way from the kava as 1) it tastes like river water and 2) it is a good way of getting stomach bugs.

In contrast, on Leleuvia island there is a bar, sound system and weekend live entertainment. We indulged a bit on the alcohol and also unfortunately tried the kava on the last night and suffered the consequences the next day. (more about that in the next blog entry for Mana island !)

When you travel you meet up with all sorts of people from all walks of life and experience all sorts of things left of field. Here, there is no exception. We met up with an all time great Australian swimmer: Lisa Curry, here is her credentials on Wikipedia. "Curry's swimming ability was noticed at a young age and by the age of 12 was one of the fastest swimmers of her age in the world. From 1977 to 1992, she represented Australia 16 times." She was here running a bit of a retreat workshop for weight loss participants with her beau Mark Tabone an entertainer. Some detail of her trip are on this press release.

Lisa and Mark are very nice people, and quite happy to converse. Mark was generous enough to put on some shows over a couple nights. He got the twenty of so ladies jigging most of the evening - some might say we lucked it big time with this harem ! Anyway, the lack of wind dynamics was made up for with the entertainment.

The group got into the swing of things, exercising in the morning, paddling the 10 person canoe catamaran to Moturiki and "honeymoon island", yoga and so on. (Then losing out on that effort with the food and booze ...) They also visited a village and attended church on Sunday on Moturiki; it was quite a sobering experience as they witness the power and might of cyclone Winston's destructive might. Here on the islands we were pretty oblivious to the cyclone's force, but in the village there is wholesale destruction of homes and other buildings.

When the wind dies down there is other options: stand up paddling into the sunset or sunrise (inclusive in the island price).

Paddling an outrigger canoe. Funny story this one. I was racing Lisa and her girls in their 10 person paddling canoe catamaran when the straps holding my outrigger came adrift - sabotaged ! Embarrassing moment two on this island: I was instantly in the drink. This was the first time for me paddling an outrigger canoe, it was difficult to steer the thing - give me a surf ski or kayak any day.

The snorkelling is pretty good here (as it is on all the islands we visited). We spotted some spiny lobster as well as all the lovely coloured fishes running from blue, red to yellow and combinations thereof. Dennis went for a couple of dives and spotted a reef shark. I also snorkelled off a place they call "the wall", which is a reef wall running out from Moturiki island.

The water is quite warm, but a wore a thin 2mm 'Sharkskin' wetsuit to protect against coral scrapes and the slight chill that occurs after long immersion.

Speaking of cuts. On the last day of Caqalai island I stubbed my toe on the door jam. Luckily we had some hydrogen peroxide and tea tree oil to help manage the wound. I also used super glue to seal the skin. Tropical ulcers are not pleasant things and immediate treatment of cuts is important.

To make matters wors, on Leleuvia I managed to kick this nasty exposed, rusty bolt dead centre on that injured big toe. I'm sure the thatched roofs on the nearby bures almost suffered spontaneous combustion, the pain was extraordinary, and it does not dissipate for quite some time afterwards. By this time you are probably rolling round the floor laughing at all these micro disasters I've been describing, and there a bit more !

Staying a Saturday night is extra, but in return there is some Fijian live music and a lovo which is rather like the Maori hangi feast ie a meal cooked underground. The food is cooked in coals covered in banana leaves, taro pulp, chicken and pork. Also fresh caught fish was on offer. Yum.

Leleuvia island for kite surfing is a worthwhile consideration, especially if the group is big. Caqalai island is in my books better as it has less obstructions (jetty, anchored boats) and easier deep water access. At the end of the day it is a coin toss and I'd recommend doing both.

Another titbit for that aforementioned 'additional' disaster. Nice little jump below in marginal winds, big kite does the job ! No, there was no incident here. We self launch using a string with a quick release cleat tied to a log on the beach, with the kite in the water. No, nothing went wrong here.

There was one dog and 4 puppies on the island. The beach had one doggy stool and a big one at that right near where I launch. You guessed it, yours truly decided to bury it deep in the sand with his bare feet. A wonderful unctuous concoction of a greasy paste mixed with grit working its way through my toes and working hard to retch the inner contents of my stomach completely out of my body:)