My wife and I just spent a week and Namale resort near Savusavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji. It was an incredible resort. We meant to hook up with Fiji Jim who lives nearvy, but schedules didn't work out.... next time. Here are a bunch of pics (trying to keep it palm-centric) from the trip. Many IDs needed.....

Little palm in front of our Bure..... livistona jenkinsiana?

The walkway out of our Bure...

Cycad.... these were all over the place.... ID?

Seeds from the cycad...

The place used to be a coconut plantation... tons and tons of really big fiji tall Cocos..

These were also everywhere.... ID?

There were 3-4 of these.... ID?

2 Metroxylons were nearby... both looked damaged from a recent cyclone... one was flowering...

Giant cycad....

I really liked this groundcover.... ID?

You can kind of see the Dypsis Lutescens in this pic... there were zillions of them all over the resort...

young palm ... ID?

more Cocos...

another one.. I took like 300 Cocos pics.

This was the view of our Bure from out on the reef...

There were tons of non-palm tropical trees all over...

a trail out to a lookout... you can see the pandanus roots...

2 more of the palms around the resort.... IDS?

Livistona?

The airport at Savusavu.... definitely the smallest airport I've been to....that's the plane.. an 18 seater de Havilland

more of the palms from the last post...

On our balcony of our Bure there was a little plunge pool..... nice when it gets hot...

They have these fruit bats that are bigger than crows...they were really cool! first two pics are of one in a Cocos palm

This one was in a mango tree......

This is our balcony...

More Cocos....

More cocos and me....

Still more.....

The Cycad in #1 looks like C. thouarsii.

The ground cover in #3 is Rhoeo spathacea or Moses in the cradle.

Funny.... I thought they looked like Thouarsii too.... but they were so big and so old I thought maybe they had to be something native....

more of the beach at the resort....

A hanging bed at one end of the beach.....

lava pinnacle with a little tunnel... there is a beautiful Bure atop the pinnacle

Caryota..... Urens?

Pritchardia ... Pacifica?

another Caryota...

the dinner eating area.....

If you look closely at this Dypsis Lutescens, there's a branch at about waist high... kid of weird looking....

Livistona?

Weird looking fruit.... ID?

That's it for the palm pics...... won't bore you with the resort itself.... but it was really awesome.....

Aw, go ahead and bore us with the resort! Looks really fabulous, Dave. Can you contrast this trip with your Hawaii travels?

Kim,

I'll put together some resort pics tomorrow....

The Savusavu area reminded me climate-wise of the Leilani area.... very wet, very lush, lava in lots of places, etc. But I was surprised by how much the Fijians did not resemble the Polynesians... different look, different customs, no tattoos, no tikis... British accents, driving on the left side of the road. They consider themselves Melanesians and not Polynesian.

The Vanua Levu island was much more sparsley populated. The local Fijians lived in small villages... at least in the area surrounding the resort. The staff of the resort, if they are at all indicative of the Fijian people in general, were so unbelievably nice it is hard to describe. We literally cried as we left the resort. There were at least half a dozen people from the resort that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

The resort itself was amazing. We'd never been to an all-inclusive resort before. Food incredible, meals delivered anywhere you want... your room, dining room, beach, local waterfall, etc.

The local drink, Kava, made from the root of the Piper Methy-something or other, tasted loke dirt, but was drunk from a communla bowl, and was a great relaxant.

All in all, it was an incredible, memorable trip....

Melanesians are quite distinct from Polynesians, culturally, linguistically and geographically. Melanesians generally occupy New Guinea, Torres Strait Islands of Australia, the Solomons, and across to Fiji and New Caledonia. Polynesians are generally further east. And to the north of the Melanesians are the Micronesians.

Are you sure the tree in post #8 is a mango? Looks like Barringtonia asiatica.

The weird fruit in post #15 is a Soursop, Annona muricata. I've got one at home. They need lots of water but I don't give it any so it has a hard time during the dry season.

Hi Dave,

I was wondering where you disappeared too. You've been awol. Looks like you had a great time, thanks for posting the excellent pictures. I say circinalis on the cycad.

Matt

Everything looks so lush and exotic .

Thanks for the pics,

Jonathan

Hi Dave,

Sorry that we missed you but my work schedule has been somewhat hectic and after arriving home at 5 am on the ferry from Suva, the day you departed, I needed to collapse and recover.

Give us some more notice next visit and we would love to show you around.

We have done much of the landscaping for Namale and provided plants many years back, but nothing much in the last 6 years.

The cycads there are either C.circinalis or C.rumphii var. seemannii. The circinalis have small spines on the petioles where the other has none.

In post #1 the small palm is a L.rotundifloia.

The palms in pic 3 of post #2 are manila palms, Adonidia merrillii.

Below it is a Phoenix sylvestris that I planted many years back. It is showing salt burn from the recent cyclone Tomas and should be pruned.

The sagu palm is Metroxylon vitiense.

The groundcover below is Moses in a Cradle, Tradescantia spathacea.

I planted the palm in #6 and that is Archontophoenix maxima, also burnt from the cyclone.

And the pic below that is the same and below that are betel nut palms, Caryota catechu that were all installed by us many years previously.

Then the Livistona is a chinensis.

The fishtail is probably C. mitis. Fijians have a shocking habit of separating clumping palms. I hate that.

The Pritchardia is pacifica, the fiji fan palm from Tonga.

The Livistona in #15 is also rotundifolia.

Below that is soursop, Anon muricata and the tree with the seed looking like mango is either vutu or Barringtonia asiatica or vao, Neisosperma oppositifolium. It is difficult to say from that pic.

We are glad that you enjoyed your stay and that the weather was OK as this time of year it can be unpleasant with damp, consistent tradewinds.

Do you do any diving ? There are some awesome dive locations close to Namale.

Jim

Melanesians are quite distinct from Polynesians, culturally, linguistically and geographically. Melanesians generally occupy New Guinea, Torres Strait Islands of Australia, the Solomons, and across to Fiji and New Caledonia. Polynesians are generally further east. And to the north of the Melanesians are the Micronesians.

Are you sure the tree in post #8 is a mango? Looks like Barringtonia asiatica.

The weird fruit in post #15 is a Soursop, Annona muricata. I've got one at home. They need lots of water but I don't give it any so it has a hard time during the dry season.

I watched a special on NGC "Wild Pacific" or something like that, and they say the Fijians originated from Twaiwan and so is their language. That's a new one for me.

BTW, great pictures Doubravsky! More!

great pix,dave! loved the ones with the coconut on the beach!

Post # 6 look like Archo alexandraes then Areca catechus, and I agree with Kim, resorts pics please, thanks for posting, how many clear days did you get ?

Post # 6 look like Archo alexandraes then Areca catechus, and I agree with Kim, resorts pics please, thanks for posting, how many clear days did you get ?

You are correct there Wal.

Areca not Caryota. Silly me.

But the Kings are from the same batch that you lot here have previously identified as maxima.

It looks to me like all those pics, except for the airport, are in Namale Resort.

It is owned by Tony Robbins and mostly attracts wedding and honeymoon couples when it is not used for seminars for his so called "Life Mastery" courses.

Jim

its cool to see some stuff there thats not "run of the mill" like the a.maximas!

Dave, I enjoyed all the pics you posted of your recent visit to Namale Resort in Fiji. It looks like a nice isolated resort (meaning not near any large population center). Wow, a beautiful resort with beach and all and then to have such beautiful friendly Fijians to add to the atmosphere is doubly nice.

Thanks all for the kind words.... Jim, thanks for the Ids.... cool to know that you planted many of them! You arr correct, all of the palm pics are from the resort.

The Fijian people were unbelievably nice.... Jim, is that just at the resort? It actually seemed authentic. I think the people are what we'll never forget from the trip.

The resort is owned by Tony Robbins... (hadn't heard of him before, but it looks like he has a tv show copming out now that I know the name!) There is now a conference center just north of the resort where he does his "stuff".

Here comes some pics from the resort......

This is the path from our room out to the road. At the road is a "Bure Kart", the golf carts they used to take you around if you didn't want to walk

The view of the beach on the first day. It was overcast and rainy the first 3 days... after that it was all sunny...

The main path and one of the smaller Bures....

This is the view of our Bure from out on the reef......

There was a blowhole out on the reef....

There is a nice little waterfall on the property.... one day we rode horses there and they brought us lunch

Waterfall...... and ranch hand.

This was the tiny little 18 seater that went from Nadi airport to Savusavu

The Savusavu airport........pretty much all of it

big ole' spider! They said they were harmless... ( not that it helped much!)

Breakfast and lunch dining area.

big ole' bat!

The bedroom part of the bure....

small island across the way from the resort.... said to be where the bats live.

Jacuzzi tub...

They would leave little messages in flower petals each day......

The rest of the bathroom......

there was a plunge pool on our balcony.....

another balcony view......

yet another balcony view....

another view from inside....

Drum they would beat at mealtimes....

small Bure out on the beach...

pathway to an overlook..

Seeds from the cycad...

The place used to be a coconut plantation... tons and tons of really big fiji tall Cocos..

These were also everywhere.... ID?

There were 3-4 of these.... ID?

The id of the palm is Adonidia Merrilli (spelling?) Also known as the Manilla Palm or the Christmas Palm. Native to the Philippines.

Chillin at the blowhole lookout....

The beach from the reef....

The blowhole...

lunch at the waterfall....

In town Savusavu there were hot springs.... here some local lunch being cooked....

The main street.... Savusavu... on Saturday.

Savusavu bay...

Kava root hanging at the market at Savusavu...

Walkway from the dining area.....

Bowling alley... (aptly named "Kava Bowl")

Bure atop a lava pinnacle

"Kava boys" band playing on Kava night.....