27-10-11
So it’s nearly time to go home! I think it’s fair to say we’re both ready to come home now, our money ran out a while ago and I’ve been starting to get a bit bored of not doing very much, Emma’s fed up of the inconsistent weather we’ve had since leaving New Zealand.
The last post finished when we’d got to Fiji and had spent a week on two islands off the east coast – Caqalai and Leluvia. Mostly covered Caqalai in the last post, it was a really nice island, but the accomodation was very basic and there was nowhere comfortable to relax – there was only one hammock on the island and no comfy chairs. There wasn’t a bar or anything there though so it was a good place to save some money as we couldn’t buy beer. I went with the owner to the town on one of the other islands called Levuka, which used to the capital of Fiji, which is odd as it’s really small and is on a small island off the coast of Viti Levu (the main island). It still retains a lot of it’s colonial charm and looks like a town from the wild west with all it’s old school shop fronts. Saw a medium sized fishing boat that had capsized on the way back as well – we were riding aong on the speedboat and saw the hull of a boat sticking upright out of the water, it had come from another island the night before and hit a reef. After our adventures on the capsized boat in Indonesia I didn’t have a camera with me unfortunately.
Both Caqalai and Leluvia attract weekend visitors from the mainland as they’re quite close to the capital Suva. Met a Dutch couple on Leluvia who had just moved to Suva to start a new life from Holland, she just searched for jobs in Suva and found one they both just upped and left to move out there. They were on Suva for the weekend but their boat had broken down on the way over and the 45 minute journey had taken them 2.5 hours. We were on the same boat on the way back to the mainland and we also broke down. The engine just seized up and wouldn’t turn at all. Luckily there had been two boatloads of people going back to the mainland from the island so the other boat was back to pick us up after a while. That 45 minute journey took us 3.5 hours – I think that couple were jinxed.
Spent a couple of nights on the coral coast on the south of the island (at the only place we’ve stayed in Australasia with free unmetered internet access – score) before going to the Namosi highlands.
This was about as far off the beaten track as we got in Fiji. A really friendly guy called Apelly runs a lodge up the Navua river from where you can do trekking and stuff.
It was very remote, with no electricity, phone signal etc. Getting there was a 2 hour boat ride up the river in the rain. The boat was very long and very narrow, with us and about 6 locals and a load of supplies on the boat. There were two upstream rapids that we had to negotiate where the boat was going full speed but just not moving, we both thought it was going to get swept back down the river sideways and capsize. It just needed more people at the back of the boat to push the engine further into the water. Should have had more faith in the boatman really – he does the journey twice a day every day but we’d just had such bad luck in boats up until then we feared the worst 
The lodge itself was a small 2 bedroom place with cooking facilities. Apelly cooked for us as, surprise surprise there were no restaurants. The following day we crossed the river on a raft and walked to the nearest village about half a mile away.
The forest is so dense and as it’d been raining there wasn’t much trekking we could do. The village was small, 50 people lived there but when were there only about 5 people around whe we visited. They survive on fruit, veg and meat that they grow around the village and some supplies from the main town. They were so friendly and welcoming, gave us papaya, taro leaves(like spinach) in coconut cream and cassava as well as the obligatory Cava session. Cava is used as a currency of sorts in Fiji – As visitors to the village we gave Apelly $10 to get some Cava which we used in the Cava session with him and the chief.
That was pretty much all we did whilst there but it was just being there that was the best thing. We had to get up when it got light the following morning to catch the boat back to Navua. That ride was one of the most scenic journeys we’ve done since being away, All the trees either side of the river look like they’ve been draped with green stuff and there was loads of mist as the sun was coming up – awesome. Only downside of that trip – Mosquitos. They were everywhere and had no respect for repellant, mosquito coils or clothes, they just went for it – scum.
Next up were the Yasawa islands. The Mamanucas and the more packpaker friendly Yasawas are the most visited part of Fiji and are especially popular with Aussies and Kiwis on their annual holiday or honeymoon. transport to the islands is by the Yasawa Flyer catamaran, which goes from the mainland to one of the furthest islands and back again every day. We’d heard from a few people that you had to pre-book all your accomodation and transport before you left the mainland, and everyone else that we met during our time on the islands had done that, but the downside was that it’s no cheaper than booking as you go, and sometimes people find out through talking to people they meet on the islands that one of the places they’ve booked isn’t really suitable – eg 50 year olds staying at backpacker party resorts. First place we stayed was Nabua Lodge on Nacula – one of the furthest northern islands. It was nice and cheap and the staff were great, especially a girl called Sara who was in charge of the nightly entertainment – fun games with free drinks, dancing etc, sounds cheesy but it was lots of fun and a good way of getting to know the other guests. It also had plenty of hammocks – yay
I’ve realised that for me to enjoy the relaxed island lifestyle that we’ve done quite a lot of, I need to have a comfy hammock and plenty of books. Also staying at Nabua lodge was Russ, who works with Steve from Bristol that we met on Christmas day in Cambodia and spent NYE with along with his wife Claire – small world. Also heard some interesting stories from a 999 operator from Finland and a psychiatric nurse from Auckland who usually talks about nothing but rugby and has been coming to Nabua lodge for 3 weeks every year for the last 5.
After Nabua lodge we moved just round the bay to the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort, which was a bit over budget but really nice. Stayed there for 5 nights and it was worth every penny, the food was good, especially the Lovo that all the resorts do on a Saturday. Lovo is where they wrap lots of food up in foil, put it on a load of hot stones in a hole in the ground and bury it. It’s the traditional Fijian big meal of the week – bit like Sunday Roast. We also met some cool people when were there which we ate with every day and entered (and won) competitions with. John (Liverpool), Tony (London), Ladi and Patricia (Czech republic but living in NZ). Ladi won the crab racing and we all won a champagne breakfast on the beach by winning the weekly Survivor Fiji game – a combination of target practice, general knowledge and coconut husking.
We also played a lot volleyball there and I did a hike with John to the top of the mountain in the island where you can see all the Yasawas all the way back to the mainland.
Next island was Waya and the Octopus resort. It’s got the best reputation of all the Yasawa resorts so we had to book our 6 nights here before we left the mainland. It’s part owned by the same guy who part owns Blue Lagoon Beach Resort so there are a alot of similarities. During the games here we won 2 massages worth $80 and a $100 bar tab in another game. Mostly just read and did nothing there – I did the church visit on a Sunday morning, which was ok as you could leave whenever you wanted to and take as many pictures as you want and no-one minded
I also helped push a boat out of the sea which needed to be repaired – pretty much everyone on the resort was helping push this boat out of the sea.
After Octopus we went back to the mainland and flew to Auckland the following day before flying to Rarotonga the next day.
I enjoyed Fiji a lot more than I thought. I don’t know what I was expecting – probably for it to be more touristy and more expensive than it was. The people there are very friendly and most people you pass on the streets will say greet you with Bula – It translates to ‘life’ and is the way people greet each other in Fiji. It’s easy to talk to people there as English is taught from an early age and their culture is very evident everywhere. As a former British colony, they have the queen on their banknotes and coins, as does New Zealand. We’ve noticed that she smiles on the Fijian notes, grins on the NZ notes and is grave and sombre on the British notes. They also look after the environment a lot more than most of the other slightly less developed countries we’ve been to, they’re not trying to become vasdtly more wealthy by cutting everything down to grow cash crops (eg Malaysia, Indonesia), they seem quite happy just being Fiji.
Fiji is also quite civilised – It’s not poor but is also not very wealthy – I think I define civilised by how easily you can buy a public bus ticket without someone trying to scam you. It’s got enough going on for some expats to live in places like Suva and work in non-tourist (or religion) related industries. It’s not a really cheap place to visit, compared to Asia, but it’s definitely affordable and possible to stay there within our budget
With just a month left, we arrived in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. We originally planned to spend 2 weeks here and 2 weeks driving around California, but places like Australia, New Zealand and Fiji have drained the rest of our money to the point where we still have cash but are putting whatever we can on a credit card to pay off when we get back and we thought the road around California would work out pretty pricey so decided to spend the last month in the Cook Islands….
…Which is where we are now. The date as I’m writing this is 01/11/11, so we’ll be back in just under a week. The plan for the Cook Islands was to spend roughly half the time on Rarotonga and the other half on Aitutaki, which is a beautiful coral atoll 40 minutes by plane from Rarotonga. The first few days I spent in bed with the flu/fever, after that we explored the island a bit by bike, but not before I’d got a Cook Islands driving license! As a tourist, if you want to drive/ride in the Cook Islands, you must have a Cook Islands driving license, even an international driving license will not suffice. The police station is in Avarua, the main town on thet island and it’s mostly full of tourists getting their licenses. It’s NZ$20, plus an extra $5 if you need to do a practical test, which involves riding between a load of cones whilst the assessor looks the other way or talks to his mates and then passes you. Rarotonga has a very green mountainous interior that looks good from anywhere on the island and is mostly round, so the two main roads on the island both run round it, one on the coast and the other about a 1/4 of a mile inland.
We’ve ridden around the island a few times, it’s about 32km all the way round, but haven’t really done anything here yet, mainly cos we spent so long in Aitutaki
When we were planning this trip, I always wanted to go somewhere really idilic in the South Pacific. We were already going to Fiji, but I wanted to go to either Bora Bora in Tahiti or somewhere similar. Aitutaki is an atoll, and it’s got a big light blue/turquoise lagoon in the middle, the colour of which needs to be seen to be believed.
The whole island and it’s bays and the logoon are protected from the rets of the sea by a wall of coral all the way round. It looks pretty spectacular from the sky. It’s very popular with people on their honeymoon or more well of travellers, due to the cost of most of the accomodation there and also the flights to get there. As we had a month here, we could wait until the cheaper flights were available. They still cost £94 each one way, but were so worth it.
It’s now the 9th and we’re back home but I’m going to finish this post before doing a last post!
There’s not a great deal to do there – most people either visit for the day from Rarotonga or for a few days. One of the main touristy things you can do there is a lagoon cruise, which takes you round some of the uninhabited islands (called motus). Ours was a crap, as the weather was really cloudy 
We did however go to the smallest post office in the world on One Foot Island, where you can buy and send postcards and get your passport stamped. Before the airport was built in Rarotonga, the only way to and from the Cook Islands was by sea plane which used to land in the lagoon and refuel before flying on to Tahiti which is why there was a border control of sorts on One Foot Island. The lagoon is the most beautiful idilic place I’ve ever been. The islands in the lagoon are often used to film the Survivor TV series for the USA and the Channel 4 program Shipwrecked has been filmed on the same 2 islands in the lagoon for the last 5 years which made Emma very happy
They’d only just finished filming the last series when we got there and apparantly it’s the last they’re going to film there. Someone called Gemma, who I think is the producer, loves the island so much she’s stayed on there and is working as a masseuse at one of the resorts
Although there’s not a great deal to do, we still enjoyed it and managed to meet someone from Rartonga who turned out to be the brother of the owner of the place we were staying, who’d come to Aitutaki to make a documentary about the cyclone that hit one of the Northern group islands a year ago, the place was devastated but didn’t get any aid for 2 week and that was from the Red Cross in Samoa, it took 2 months for aid to arrive from NZ via Rarotonga.
The Cook Islands have strong ties with NZ. It’s a former British colony, but Britain decided it was it was of little economic or strategic significance so passed it over to NZ to be run. It became independant about 30 years ago, but still uses the NZ dollar and imports almost everything bar some meat and veg from NZ.
Aitutaki had been suffering from a water shortage. All the fresh water comes from tanks that collect rainwater but it hadn’t rained properly for months. On our last day, it rained hard for most of the day. I got caught in it whilst buying some Ukalales on the other side of the lagoon :S
After that it was back to Rarotonga for 5 nights, which we spent on the other side of the island by Muri lagoon
[/flickr]The only thing we did of any significance was to attempt to do the cross island walk, but took a wrong turn very early on and ended up going up a completely different mountain and ended up almost losing the path a few times. We also met up with David and his family that we’d met in Aitutaki.
One of the most popular things to go to in the Cook Islands as a tourist is an Island Night, which is a buffet of food, followed by dancing and singing with live drums and sometimes a fire show. We went to 4 altogether in Aitutaki and they were ace, the sound of their wooden drums is infectious and the dancing was really good. We went to one in Rarotonga as well but it wasn’t as good – no fire dancing.
One of the things that we noticed in the Pacific islands, is that they’re quite envoronmentally concious, and use a lot of solar power to heat water and generate power for use during the day. At Nabua Lodge they used to turn on the generator in the evening, but had a solar powere system installed when we were there. The power produced by that is enough to p[ower all the lights and a PC in the office as well as a freezer. In Aitutaki, there is a brach of the ANZ bank, with 48 solar panel on the roof, which is enough to power the whole building, the AC system and ATM outside. The solar water systems heat the water so well it's easy to burn tyourself in the shower!
The journey back to UK was a bit of a mission - a 9 hour overnight flight to LA, 6 hours in the airport and then another overnight flight from LA to Heathrow.
That's enough for now - knackered
Here photos from New Zealand and Fiji
New Zealand - Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula
New Zealand – Te Anau
New Zealand – Milford Sound
New Zealand – Queenstown
New Zealand – Franz Joseph Glacier
New Zealand – Abel Tasman National Park
New Zealand – Marlborough Wine Region
New Zealand – Kaikora & Hamner Springs
Fiji – Caqalai
Fiji – Leluvia
Fiji – Namosi Highlands
Fiji – Yasawa Islands
