Blog 8

Hello One and All!

Auckland to Fiji was a rough & rocky ride – not the idyllic South Pacific we had all envisaged with turquoise water and gentle breezes!

However, Fiji lived up to all our expectations. It was charmingly chaotic and scruffy, with the friendliest people imaginable. Everywhere we went people greeted us with “Bole” (which is the Fijian “Hello”) and enormous smiles and waved at our tour bus as if we were visiting royalty! The coach was one of Suva’s school buses which had been commandeered for the day and we had natural air-conditioning (no windows!). The guide was an enormous guy who used to train the Fijian Rugby Team and, as there was no P.A. system, he shouted out all the information about the island as we rattled along the main coast road (there are only a few roads on the whole island) bouncing in and out of all the potholes!

We arrived at the Fijian Arts Centre and were summoned by another very large, muscular chap covered in coconut oil (yes, girls!) beating a drum made out of a hollowed-out tree trunk. Most people were expecting a typical folklore show, but we were all genuinely impressed by the Beqa firewalkers who are the only tribe on the island who are able to perform this amazing feat – or should it be feet?! Next some large, elderly ladies in grass skirts did a bird dance, followed by more shiny, muscular guys (definitely ladies’ day) who enacted a tribal war legend. All this took place on an island set in a natural setting of tropical plants and traditional Fijian buildings and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

We bumped our way back to Suva Harbour and went off to have a look around the local market. Sarah and her friend Theresa had a great time buying material and chatting with the local ladies in the Flower Market while the two men went off to do their David Bailey bit.

Another day of rough seas and tropical downpours and we were in Pago-Pago – American Samoa.

We all piled into our very colourful buses (again with natural air-conditioning) which had been decorated with beautiful ginger- lily flowers which are a sign of respect for visitors, Samoan or otherwise. The Samoan people are enormous and we had two lovely sisters as our guides although one of them could hardly fit into the front seat!

We went off along the coast road, stopping at various beaches and view points and finally arrived at the venue for our “Taste of Village Life”. Each family in a village builds a guest Fale which is a large platform with a thatched or tiled roof and open sides and this is where they have all their family get-togethers. An entire family group were running the tour- sisters and brothers on the coaches, aunties and uncles doing the cooking and cousins giving the island dancing demo.

We watched them roasting and grinding cocoa beans and then the grounds were boiled into a very tasty drink. One guy shinned up a coconut palm in about 10 seconds and then turned the fresh coconut into a savoury dip into which we dunked pieces of fresh banana on bamboo skewers. The other men had lit a fire under some lava rocks and when the rocks were white hot, they placed packages of pork, breadfruit, cassava, cassava leaves chopped up and mixed with coconut milk (absolutely delicious, just like spinach) and tuna in coconut shells, all wrapped up in banana leaves on the rocks and covered them with masses of huge green leaves to keep the heat in. We all had a taste of everything and, apart from a few crunchy bits of lava ash, it was very tasty!

Although the villagers had organised the day especially for us, they explained that this was exactly what they did at weekends and on special occasions.

They are a very laid back race of people with a great sense of fun and they don’t seem to take life at all seriously – it makes time schedules rather interesting!

We were due to stop at an extremely remote atoll called Fanning Island in Kiribati and were getting excited to get ashore and see a South Pacific Island virtually untouched by tourism, but the weather put a stop to that. The wind was very strong and there were huge waves crashing onto the reef. We were unable to drop the anchor due to the extreme depth of the ocean there and it would have been too dangerous to go ashore by tender so we all stood on the deck and had tantalising glimpses of the coral beaches and turquoise water of the lagoon, with dolphins swimming around the ship – AND THEN WE HAD TO SAIL AWAY!

The sea conditions were atrocious for the next four days until we eventually reached Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. We have to be honest and say that neither of us was overly impressed with Oahu. Brian went off on the trip to Pearl Harbour and, guess what, Sarah went shopping!!

In the afternoon, she went on a circular tour of the lower part of the island, past the incredibly crowded and commercialised Waikiki Beach up to some of the major surfing beaches, saw a blow-hole and loads of bungalows!

We sailed overnight to the island of Hawaii – The Big Island- and anchored off the Kona Coast at Kailua-Kona, a pretty little resort village. Our trip that day began with a stop at a coffee plantation where the Kona coffee beans are grown. We had an interesting walk around the plantation following the progress of the coffee from flower, to berry, to bean and then a talk on the roasting process and a lesson on brewing the perfect cup.

Back into the mini-buses and up and up into the cloudy slopes of the Hualalai Volcano. We transferred in some open-sided, six-wheel drive Pinzgauer all terrain vehicles and had a hair-raising ride over the cinder and rocks through the rain forest and up into the dry land forest, past lava flows and enormous craters. We went up to 6000 feet and had an amazing view of the many volcanoes dotted over the island. The guides took us to see a lava tube, but we were not able to walk through it which was a little disappointing.

We went and had lunch in a local café and then spent the afternoon at a local craft fair which was a bit like an open-air version of the Dittisham Village Show! Very pleasant.

Now we have five days at sea to reach L.A. and we are pleased to report that the sea is calming down at last. Hooray!

We will try and upload the pictures for Hawaii when we reach L.A. but Fiji & Samoa are at http://www.tlsuk.com/cruise/

Four weeks and we’ll be home – doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun!

Love to you all

Steve McGarret and Danno (alias Brian and Sarah)

Click on World to go back