Wild Places and Open Spaces

Jim had first been introduced to Samoa through reading a book by Margaret Mead – an anthropological history. My first introduction to Samoa was through this trip – before that I don’t think I knew about it, and if I did, I certainly didn’t take much note of it. However, both Jim and myself were a bit anxious/apprehensive about going to Samoa once we had done a bit more reading.

Our travel guide made Samoans sound like theives, we may get stoned (ie. rocks thrown at us with deadly accuracy), and we would need to carry our own rocks with us to fend off the ferocious dogs! So understandably, we thought that our last 3 weeks may prove to be less than ideal. And although we did need to fend off some dogs at some points, we couldn’t have been more wrong about Samoans and Samoa in general.

Samoa lies in the heart of the South Pacific. It is 2/3 of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand, and is closer to the equator than Fiji or Tonga. Samoans are the last people in the world to see midnight on any particular day, because it lies on the east side of the international date line.

Samoa consists of 4 inhabited and 5 uninhabited islands totalling 2842sq km, all of which are in one main cluster. The capital is Apia on the isle of Upolu, but Savaii to the northwest is the largest isle of the group. Samoa is independent; unlike American Samoa to the east, which as it’s name suggests is an american “unincorporated” territory. (Unincorporated means the US constitution and certain other laws don’t apply.) We chose Samoa over American Samoa because Samoa is happy to keep western ways out of their country, and traditional, cultural ways are much more prevalent. (Apparently in 1977, Samoa was considered to be one of the least developed countries in the world!)

We arrived in Samoa at about 1:00am – too bad we didn’t have a day flight because I am sure the islands and water would have been stunning from the air. One thing we did notice on the flight was the sheer size of some Samoan people – many towered over us in both height and girth, and can look quite intimidating. However, for the most part, they are quite friendly people.

Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted by a group of Samoan men singing and playing string instruments to welcome us. Jim collected his backpack nearly immediately, as I patiently waited for mine to make an appearance on the carousel. It never did. We waited at the ‘lost luggage desk’ for quite some time until someone came to fill out a report for us – we left feeling as though we’d never see the luggage again due to somewhat of a language barrier and no reassurance from the fellow that we’d get it back. They would fax the report to Fiji, and it was up to me to check in with the airport. They had the contact number for where we were staying the first night. Hmmmm. All of our dive equipment (masks, snorkels, wetsuits, fins, knife, light, etc), my toiletries (including my contact lenses), shoes, etc were missing. The most important things however, were priceless – a journal, photo CD’s, and an address book – all 3 I ALWAYS have in my carry on, except for this time of course. Oh well, we were safe and healthy, and really, that is all that matters.

The next morning (actually the same morning, just after some sleep), we decided to explore Apia, the capital. Our motel was within walking distance of the ‘city centre’ so we went by foot. One of the first things we noticed was that Samoans drive on the right side of the road – just like north americans. Being used to the antipodean way, this was bizzare to us. It would take some time to get used to again! The town itself is very clean, and so are it’s cars – very few have smoke trailing from the exhaust. Another nice thing is that no one harasses you to buy anything from the shops – unlike Fiji! Women here cover up – like in Fiji -they usually wear a T-shirt with a lava lava (sarong); usually their shoulders to their knees is covered up.

First things first. We bought a phone card and phoned the airport. No sign of my luggage. I called Fiji’s airport too…no sign there either. We wandered around the market, bought some fresh bananas and oranges, bought some necessities that were lost with the luggage ie. brush, sunscreen, then decided to go to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum and grave.

Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the classics Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde had bought property here and spent the last 5 years of his life in Samoa. (He suffered from tuberculosis, but he actually died on December 3, 1894 of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 44.) We had a bus schedule which indicated the bus going that route left on the hour every hour – so we waited at the bus station. Their public buses are actually privately run, most having their own village that they are connected with. All the buses are slightly smaller than our school buses, and are totally individual – each one is brightly painted to match the colourful gardens and clothing of the islands. One thing is the same among all of them however – they are always jam packed with nearly every seat having at least someone on someone else’s lap. It can make for a pretty uncomfortable ride, so unlike Fiji, we mainly took taxis as our mode of transport. Oh yeah, it is not uncommon to see a whole, charred pig sticking out the back of the bus either – someone’s dinner for that night.

We waited for 1.5 hours before we decided to give up on Robert Louis Stevenson…we walked to the Samoan museum instead. Once we finally found it (it was on all our maps, but the building was not obviously labelled the museum) we thought we’d found paradise because it was airconditioned! It was like walking into a freezer, but we welcomed the cold as we were absolutely boiling and sweating out of every pore of our body. The museum consisted of 3 rooms, with small displays and books – according to the visitors book we were the first to people to visit in a few weeks. After spending a couple of peaceful hours learning about Samoa, we left in search of dinner. We found a nice spot for fish and chips, and had a couple of stray cats join us for the feast.

The dogs and cats in Samoa look much healthier than those in Fiji. Their skin and hair coats look good, and many of the male dogs are neutered. Yes, there are some nasty dogs, but they are simply guarding their owners property and possessions. You see, many houses in Samoa (and most of those in villages) have no walls. They are called ‘fales’ and they usually consist of an oval concrete pad, with a roof connected to the floor by wooden beams all around the outside. In these open fales is all their possessions, which is often not much, but they don’t need, nor do they want. Within the village is also a large fale which is a meeting place. Here the prominent men and chief would meet here to discuss issues, and the women would meet here to discuss social events and to weave their beautiful mats. The system of chiefs (matai) is strong here – it is a democratic country with an elected Prime Minister – but only a Matai can be elected to parliament. This situation helps preserve traditional Samoan culture.

After dinner we called the airport yet again – still no luggage. We decided to stay in town one more night and check for the luggage again in the morning. No luck. We couldn’t wait around any longer, so we decided to move on to an island called Manono.

We liked the sounds of Manono island because there are no roads on it, no cars, and no dogs (the ‘no dogs’ part sounded good because the dogs bark through the night in town and we were woken up frequently). We got a taxi from the hotel, and the driver was a relative of one of the girls that worked at the hotel -so she tagged along with us for her hour break. We stopped at a shop where Jim bought a snorkel and mask to replace his lost one, but no sense in buying one for myself as I didn’t have my contact lenses, thus wouldn’t be able to see anything snorkelling anyways.

When the taxi reached the wharf we were “greeted” by a bunch of Samoans lying on benches. We were told that at this wharf (which was really just a few boats at the edge of the water) that they would try to charge a tourist $20.00 to cross to the island, but only $2.00 for a local…we didn’t have to worry about this though, because the price of our accommodation included the boat ride over. The locals stared at us blankly, until we mentioned “Sunset View” (the name of the fales we were to stay in) and one fellow hopped up and motioned to follow him. The boat was much like others we had been on around the south pacific isles…doesn’t look seaworthy and no life jackets – but we jumped in all the same.

Manono Island was nice…but the best thing was how quiet it was. The people who ran the fales were really nice and we ate a lot of traditional samoan food. One dish we ate (I cannot remember the name) was taro leaves filled with coconut cream cooked in hot rocks. It was amazing to watch a samoan prepare this…first they heated up lava rocks (as the islands are volcanic) by burning coconut husks. As these were heating, the fellow would place taro leaves in his hand, make a ‘cup’ out of them, then pour the coconut cream into the ‘leaf cup’ then ‘tie’ it at the top and wrap the whole thing in one larger leaf. He made a bunch of the little coconut cream packets, and once the rocks were hot he piled the packets in amongst the rocks, along with some taro he had already cut up. They then grabbed part of a pre-cooked pig, dipped it in the ocean, then put that on the rocks too. The whole thing was then covered with banana leaves and left to cook. (The ‘tongs’ they used for moving the hot rocks were made from the spines of the coconut palm fronds…very ingenious!) The fellow then proceded to weave a basket out of a coconut palm frond, complete with handle in about 2 minutes. Amazing.

Forty-five minutes later we were called back to the rocks to see everything cooked, and we piled it into the homemade basket and had a feast. We ate fish everyday there as well…often the whole fish – head, scales, tail – was on our plate – looked like it should have been in the ocean except it was charred.

We happened to be on Manono Island for Easter Sunday, and we were invited to attend a ‘drama’ put on by the village kids. We didn’t really know what this meant, but at noon some people came and gathered us into yet another un-seaworthy boat and we ventured to the far side of the island. Here we learned that the ‘drama’ was actually different groups of kids from the villages of the island, singing and dancing and performing skits in the church. It was quite intimidating at first, as we were the only white people around (pulangi = foreigners), but the villagers pushed us through the crowd at the back of the church and made room for us on a pew to watch. All of the girls/ladies in the church were dressed in white dresses (shoulders and knees covered) and all the men had on white shirts with pants or skirts on. What was so amazing was how white and clean their clothes were – they all looked like they were brand new, starched and pressed. This wouldn’t be so amazing at home, but here you must understand that people handwash all their clothing – many do it in freshwater streams or just in buckets. So, you can understand why we were amazed. We always feel so dirty compared to Samoans (and Fijians), especially the women, because they always look so clean and beautiful.

Getting back to the church… all of the skits/songs were in Samoan, so we couldn’t understand them of course, but it was great to watch them nonetheless. The kids sitting around us had fun poking and prodding at us – as we were the only white folk and we had a camera…kids love posing for pictures. All the while we sat there we were sweating buckets – to the point where we had to leave after 1 hour. We thanked the people who brought us there by boat, and decided to walk back through the villages to our fale. We noticed on the way out of the church that the fale beside it had a TV on and quite a large crowd was gathered around it -the Australian 7’s rugby tournament was on, and the crowd was rivaling the one in the church! Samoans love their rugby! They are darn good at it too!

Next day we left the quiet little paradise of Manono, in hopes of making it to the other main island of Samoa: Savaii. First however, we’d have to overcome the transportation issue of getting from this little wharf, to the main wharf where the boat leaves for Savaii. We had a taxi called, but that doesn’t mean that a taxi will show up. A bus wasn’t due (not that there is a schedule) for quite some time, and time was running out as we wanted to get on the 2:00 ferry. We had met another couple that had the same plans as us, so the guy decided that he’d go ask a local that had just driven in for a lift. Well, it worked. We loaded our backpacks and ourselves in the back of the pickup, and we were off. It wasn’t until we were in the back that Jim and I noticed teh 2 rifles sitting in the back with us… Jim motioned to the guns and said, “hunting?” to the Samoan fellow sitting with us…he looked confused, but then nodded….

We got to the wharf in plenty of time, with no gun shot wounds, surprised that the fellows wouldn’t take more than 10 Tala (~$5 Canadian) for the bumpy ride. Nice people. We boarded the old car/passenger ferry and made our way upstairs to find that all the seats were taken, so we took a seat on our backpacks on the floor. We soon felt at home, because Samoans will lie down anywhere…and soon there were tons of them lying all over the floor, with legs, feet, heads all over teh place and getting to the toilet was a game of dodging bodies…not to mention all the doors were blocked from bodies. So much for safety issues! The boat ride was ~1hr, with no stabilizer, so needless to say I had started to feel somewhat ill. The good thing though was that we met a really nice couple on the way, who were headed in the same direction as us, so we shared a cab together to our next destination – Manase. Scott, a dentist, and Bridgette a teacher, live in New Zealand. Bridgette however, is a canadian from Nova Scotia. They were on holidays for a week…little did they know at the time that we’d pester them the entire time!

For pictures click HERE

Our next destination was Taveuni, the third largest of 322 islands, nicknamed the ‘garden isle’ for its extensive rainforests and purported birdlife. In order to get there we needed to get to Suva, the capital, and board a ferry from there. We decided to take the bus first to a place called Pacific Harbour which was on the way, and see about a shark dive we had heard about.

The weather was bad in Nadi – raining and flooding. We got picked up on our bus in the morning, and once we reached town we were amazed at how high the water levels had become – many houses were under at least a foot of water. Our bus turned a corner and got on semi-dry ground, and we were all ordered off – we grabbed our luggage and were shuffled to a 4×4 pick up truck. Here, about 10 of us loaded all our gear into the back, sat on top of the luggage and hoped we wouldn’t fall out as the truck drove through the water which at this long dip in the road was over 2 feet high. Kids were swimming in it, people had their skirts hiked up nearly to their waist walking through it, dogs were doing the dog paddle through it, cows were wading through it, etc etc. It was like a lake had enveloped the area. It was quite amusing to watch, although not so amusing when you think of all the damage and disease it can create. However, the rainy season is a part of reality here, and most people just take it all in stride.

We arrived at the hostel in Pacific Harbour relatively dry, but with very muddy feet. We checked into a room that had 2 bunks instead of a double bed….we chose the cheap way, instead of the comfortable/more expensive and perhaps more romantic option. The hostel itself was nestled into an “arts village”, where there was a cultural centre and many touristy stores, which made it a very convenient place to stay as we could get food, money, internet access etc., all within steps of our room.

We looked into the shark dive, which was a bit of a mystery itself. Our travel guide said that there was only one company doing it, then we met other travellers who said a few do it, but only one is good, then when we talked to the booking agents for it, they said there were a couple companies. The problem arose because we wanted to book it for the next week on our way back through, but they weren’t sure if they could take us out because they didn’t have enough people going at that point. So, we basically left it, and hoped that when we returned somehow we’d be able to go. When you are in Fiji, you just learn to go with the flow….it’s Fiji Time. It will all work out, somehow.

Jim got a schedule for the boat service to Taveuni…it appeared as though it was going to work out perfect for us. We would take the bus to Suva the next day, then catch the overnight ferry to Taveuni that night. The boat returned Saturday, so we’d have 4 nights there before coming back to the mainland. Perfect. Maybe a bit too perfect.

Next morning we asked at the desk what time and where the bus would pick us up. We got a confident answer about both, so we set out to wait. Now, the fact that there was actually a bus schedule was promising, but we soon learned that the buses really have their own schedule, and only the bus drivers seem to know what it is. We waited on “the side of the road in front of the post office” for the bus, and not long after, one stopped for us. However, the driver told us since we were going all the way to the capital of Suva, we’d have to wait for the express bus, which should be along shortly. So, we waited again, and finally an express bus came. It was jam packed, just like all the buses, so we didn’t get to sit together as per usual for the hour or so drive. We like taking the buses, because they are a very cheap way to travel, and it is like your own little tour of their world through their eyes.

When we reached Suva, we found someone to direct us to the shipping liner office (the boat we were to take over), only to find out that we were not booked on the boat. Hmmmm…I had called just that morning and booked us on….. Even more strange, the prices were now completely different from what I had been quoted before – of course now they were higher. Anyways, they still had room, and even though the prices were higher, it was still cheap enough to get a cabin so we could sleep overnight. Luxury for us, as everywhere else we were in the world it was way too expensive to even consider getting a cabin! We didn’t hang around Suva, other than waiting at the wharf to get on the ferry. It does not look like a pretty town from what we could see, and we didn’t need any trouble. There are police/military standing at some intersections or places on the side of the roads ‘checking’ cars, but other than that, we did not see any evidence of the coup that is going on.

The boat is a shipping boat…needless to say it is not pretty. It does not look like it would pass North American standards for a passenger boat, but I am sure it would as a shipping vessel that being said…this boats advertisement brags about being the newest and cleanest boat in the entire Fijian fleet! It reeked of diesel of fuel. Every once in a while on most boats we’d been on in the past you’d get a whiff of fuel, or would if you were standing outside, but this boat smelled like the whole thing had been washed with fuel. The only place where it didn’t stink as much was in our cabin, so thank goodness for that. I don’t know how the people who work on the boat handle the smell; I wonder what it is doing to their health? Not to mention if it smells so bad it must be affecting the environment as well?? Leaking??

The boat ride was 18 hours, and uneventful. I slept the majority of it, while Jim slept some and explored the boat for the rest. Our room was equipped with a tiny closet with a sign on it stating there were 2 lifejackets inside. Wow, this was a first in Fiji. However, the door was jammed shut as someone had put something in the crack so that the door could not swing open. So, (me being paranoid) we eventually were able to jimmy (ha ha, jimmy, get it?) the door open, and we found 2 ancient lifejackets. Good. Never ended up needing them thank goodness. Getting off the boat was interesting…we had to wait for all the cars/trucks etc to disembark first, however, there was some sort of hold up and we ended up staying on the boat for more than an extra hour. Fiji time once again. We were getting used to it. Jim found an employee of the boat and asked when the boat would be leaving again for Suva (just to make sure) and she replied that because this weekend was Easter, it would be leaving in 2 days, or not until Monday. Well, that didn’t work at all for us – as we were told that it would be leaving on the weekend. Hmmmmm…..now what? You see, if we left in 2 days, we wouldn’t have enough time on the island, but if we left Monday, then we wouldn’t have time to do our shark dive, because we were to leave Fiji on Tuesday. (You aren’t supposed to fly right after you dive – you must wait a minimum of 18 hours…).

No one seemed to be able to tell us if the bus came to pick people up at the ferry or not (we found out later that it did, you just had to wait awhile), so we ended up taking a cab to the bus station in the little town. We waited for about an hour until a bus was leaving the station, and hopped on. The bus was just like all the others, open windowed, and crowded, but a fun way to travel. Our bus driver stopped right outside the place we were staying – “Bibi’s Hideaway”, a locally owned place. We walked up the long driveway and came to a house where we were introduced to “Jim” ( I was beginning to think every man in Fiji was named Jim…we had met so many). He showed us to a lovely ‘cottage’ that was to be our home for the next few nights. Our accomodation cost $60.00 Fijian a night, while the resorts just down the road cost $500.00 and up per night. Amazing that people would spend that much to sleep!!

We told Jim of our dilemma about the boat not leaving for Suva because it was Easter, and he replied, “no, Easter is next weekend”. Sure enough, he was right. Phew, the girl on the boat had mixed up her weekends. But, we figured we’d call the shipping company anyways just to make sure we could get on the boat….I didn’t want any more surprises. (we rarely ever book return passage for anything, because usually it entails keeping a stub to show proof of passage, and we would most likely lose it, and thus end up having to buy another ticket anyways!!)

So, later in the day, we called the shipping company (twice I might add to confirm what they were trying to tell us) only to find that the weekend coming was an Indian holiday, so the employee was partly right. We either had to leave much sooner than anticipated, or much later and miss our shark dive. We looked into our only other option, which was to fly out. The flight was a bit pricier, but still in our price range, although we’d have to pay for another night accommodation (because we had been counting on sleeping on the boat). We decided to take the flight, which ended up being a good decision. Now that we had that all settled, we were ready to explore Taveuni.

Taveuni is a very quiet place, very lush, and it was very warm while we were there. Somehow we had managed to get to the only place in Fiji where it was not pouring! There was not much around where we were staying – a restaurant about a km away, and a store about a km away in the other direction. Luckily, a dive company just happened to be just down the street, so we booked a couple of dives with them.

The diving off Taveuni is world renowned and we loved it. We dove with Swiss divers and they were thoroughly professional and as it turned out we each ended up with our own private underwater guides. That was perfect for us as Kris could take her time in her descent and let her ears adjust and do a shallowish dive and I got to go full monte and dove for just over an hour! The waters are remarkable with a zillion fish in every direction. We will be permanantly spoiled by those dives.

The only other attraction of the island and one of the reasons we visited was Bouma National Park for its supposed wonderful waterfalls and unique endemic birds.

The bus ride to the park was terrific and cheap. We really got the opportunity to see the ‘real’ Fiji. The roads the bus travelled on were questionable and partially dirt but it was fun. Fijians in the area of Bouma National Park lead a very basic lifestyle subsisting from the land and sea as they did previous to westernization.

As for Bouma National Park…it was fine but perhaps by this point we were getting a little waterfalled out and we never managed to see much in the way of wildlife other than a few interesting lizards. Unfortunately the park trails haven’t been kept up and to explore further up into the untouched rainforest appeared to be quite difficult – and bloody hot! We opted not to explore any further than the rest of the tourists. One thing which really upset us was when we returned to the lower waterfall there were all the rich people having a big luxury buffet and getting massages by the creek – who does that!!! Anyway it spoiled the connection with the environment for us so we wended our way back down the hill to catch the bus before it left ahead of time and without us!

The night before we left we ate dinner at a cute little restaurant which made remarkably good food considering it was pretty much the only option within a walking distance of our accommodations. The evenings cooled down just slightly and were for me the most magical part of the day…A big dinner followed by a couple 750ml Fijian Bitters -aaaah now that’s Fiji Time!

In the morning we went to the airport early to make sure we’d catch our flight. I know it’s not necessary to say our flight was about an hour late…You guessed it – Fiji Time once again. Our plane was quite small and Kristin was a little anxious about it where as I feel much safer in a propeller plane because they rely on thrust AND lift…anyway it was a remarkable flight; the sky was clear and we got an excellent view of some of Fiji’s famous emerald reefs.

We landed in Suva airport and caught a taxi to the city, immediately hopped on a bus – a very clean, new one with a Television playing some movie. We were amazed at how fast a plane got us back compared to the boat! We were back at Tsulus hostel in Pacific Harbour by dark and dining at our favourite gourmet pizza shop practically right away!

We wanted to do a shark dive right away but we’d have to wait a day and decided we’d try some soft coral diving and Kristin would snorkel with some people we met so as not to jeopardize her shark dive by compromising her eardrums by diving.

We set out in a slow old wooden boat with a very friendly crew of Fijians. On our first dive site we dove some spectacular soft corals and a wreck. Fortunately for me I was the only advanced diver so again ended up with my own private dive guide. We ended up diving for over an hour on our first dive…great stuff. The snorkellers weren’t disappointed either.

Upon resurfacing we were informed about a minor problem with the boat…It wasn’t working. They assured us there was no problem and this was just – you guessed it – Fiji Time, no worries. We manged to semi repair the boat and limped to a beautiful sandy beach where we would have our lunch and do some fine snorkelling. In fact the snorkelling was so good the snorkellers opted to just stay there while we went and completed our second dive on some terrific soft corals. It was a great day in paradise and we had a blast. albeit a couple hours longer than first anticipated.

The next morning we were pretty keen to organize our shark dive. We crossed our fingers that things would work out and as usual they DID! They were going out the next morning and there was room for us. We were pretty excited about our anticipated exciting dive for the rest of the day.

We were waiting out front of or hotel to catch the bus first thing after breakfast and due to extenuating Fiji Time circumstances our ride was late. A van from a different dive company showed up and told us he’d give us a ride and everything – somehow as usual – worked out.

Now if it isn’t nerve wracking enough diving with huge Bull Sharks which will be within arms length of us yummy scuba divers we get told that the dive was going to be at a depth of about 30 meters – which Kristin has not done, nor is technically allowed to do. But we’re in Fiji and they told her they would privately escort her down to whatever depth she felt comfortable at. Without any pressure being put on her (no pun intended) she ended up doing the dive without any trouble and got to watch the crazy hand feeding spectacle. It was amazing as Giant Tevalle were swirling around, Sergeant Majors nipping our hands and feet, and dozens of massive sharks fading in and out of the depths to gobble down giant tuna fish heads in a single gulp. Just to spice things up a bit the shark feeders would tease and entice the massive 5 meter Bull Sharks to come towards us – you know just to get a better view of the denture work! It was utter chaos and amongst this chaos I even reached down and petted a very large moray eel which seemed very safe relative to the rest of the scene.

So needless to say we highly recommend Pacific Harbour to all divers or snorkellers who are looking for some terrific water to investigate and with any luck at all we’ll be back again to do some more exploring. Bula!!

For pictures click HERE

Our much anticipated Yasawa Islands trip began with a bus which picked us up in front of our hotel under early morning sunny skies. The bus meandered around the hotels in Nadi, to finally arrive at the very posh Denerau Resort where our catamaran would depart.

We squared up our bill and hoped that somehow the Fiji logistics would eventually sort itself out and leave us with no surprises on our nine day excursion. Everything was pre-booked through “Tomu the travel agent” at the airport, and everything (much to our utter amazement) went very smoothly.

Now that we sort of understand how some things work, we would book everything on our own as we go along, but when you are new to Fiji, and world travel, things can be very cryptic and and little daunting when trying to aquire information. Believe us when we say; ask a Fijian a question, you will almost surely get some strange answer. Generally one needs to ask the same question from several different angles to acquire a semi-thorough answer. Fiji is a very mysterious place to be in that regard.

Anyway, we wended our way through the beautiful islands for four hours under blue skies and calm seas to our destination on Nacula Island. Our big catamaran comes to a drifting stop all the little boats from the ‘resorts’ in the area to come out to drop off and pick up their guests. The boats are not that large, and at times of heavy seas they could, and did get a little over exciting! For our first stop though everything was rather idyllic and the whole area (including the Blue Lagoon film location) was just stunning.

Nabua Lodge was a simple, quiet place in tranquil waters which had excellent snorkelling right out front of the basic bures (little straw huts with thatched roofs) where we would live for the next three days.

The food was rather basic, but at least we didn’t have to wander around the supermarket to look for food and best of all we didn’t have to cook it. The staff pretty much kept to themselves, which was okay since we met some POMS (British people….the Aussie’s call them POMS as a friendly jab at them) we really got on well with, but if there weren’t guests to get along with, one may feel a touch alienated.

Fijians are generally friendly, quiet people with poor math skills – which tend to work in their favour normally?! The way things work at Nabua were at times a little curious. No one ever has any change so when buying drinks we sign our names and how much we owe in a ledger book, and square up whenever we want basically. I noticed when I got around to paying my bill, I was the only one to look at the ledger. The girl who handled the money remained completely detached from the accounting end. She told me to tell her how much I owed and to write ‘paid’ beside all my names. I literally could have written paid beside everyone’s name and she wouldn’t have said boo! Unfortunately, looking through the book I found so many unpaid bills throughout. Just goes to show if you’re trusting people will take advantage of you – too bad.

All in all, Nabua was an enjoyable time – pretty good food, new friends, great water, lots of fish, and lots of coral, which is what we came for.

Our next stop was David’s Place. We don’t have a lot of great things to say about it. We found the people at this place unfriendly. Basically they would only speak to their guests when it involved collecting or making money. There was a nice beach/snorkelling area which would take us 10 minutes to get to if we walked along the shore, but we could only access it at low tide. The rest of the time we were stuck at the lodge. There was no fan in the bure so it was hot at night for sleeping. The mozzies were very bad in the evening and despite a sign which read, ‘bar stays open until last guest goes to bed’ the bar would close without warning; usually very early. We have learned signs and prices on signs mean very little in Fiji. Kris met a girl (another POM) she enjoyed talking to and we met an older British couple we got along with so that helped pass the time.

I suppose that is the positive side of a three night stay – it goes by rather quickly I’d just like to add that the ladies in the kitchen were very nice and worked very hard. What it boils down to basically is, Peter who ran the place was a dick, and really created the bad Karma we felt from this place – bottom line though is, it beats the hell out of being at work and winter!

Our last stop was Wayalailai, and despite some questionable weather and stomach disruption, this place was grand and we felt extremely welcome the minute we got on their shuttle boat. Arriving on their main beach we were welcomed/seranaded by their staff playing guitars and singing.

Wayalailai Island is very picturesque and has some terrific snorkelling with crystal clear waters right out front. Their generator would only run in the evening for 5-6 hours, which never bothered us. Meals were a bit of an adventure, but generally decent and plentiful. Strangely, the bar would call out last call and close very early even though people were still drinking?! We did manage to drink a fair amount of Kava though, and the taste actually started to grow on us….

We did some snorkelling on a terrific reef (which we got to by a boat that had absolutely no safety equipment on board….although by this time we were quite used to this) and were fortunate enough to see a couple white tip reef sharks up close. We also saw a sleeping leopard shark on another snorkel adventure. We went out fishing in some pretty rough seas without much luck, but have to say being out in an open, leaky boat in rain and rough seas with an engine that keeps cutting out (and no safety equipment, remember) conjured up some visions of floating off into oblivion!

We had a terrific time at Wayalailai in every aspect, and would certainly be happy to return, and of course we were sad to leave.

The day we left to catch the big catamaran was a rough one. We loaded 10 guests, 2 crew and all our gear into the rather small boat and crossed our fingers as we crossed the rough wind lashed strait separating us from our destination. We made it….barely, and our journey back to Nadi was the antithesis of the calm sunny ride we took coming out to the islands. However, we met up again with some of the friends we had made and swapped stories of our adventures in the Yasawas, which made time fly by on the boat. So sad it’s over…

Here’s looking forward to sunnier skies and calmer seas for our journey to the island of Taveuni.

With much anticipation, we boarded Air Pacific March 13th to fly to Fiji. It was a rough take off and landing due to the low ceiling and rain. We had spoken to many fellow travellers along the way who had been to Fiji since the coup, and they had no problems. We hoped it would be the same for us. We had booked only our first night in Fiji, as we never have an itinerary, and have learned it is not beneficial to the pocketbook to book tours. So, we planned to book/plan everything when we arrived. How and where were details to later deal with.

Later came much sooner however, as we were bombarded at the airport by people welcoming us, “Bula”, and asking where we were staying. We told them, and each person we came upon pointed in the same direction for us to go to get our ride. The airport lies a fair distance from town (Nadi, pronounced ‘Nandi’) and any accomodations, so most places do a free pick up. So, we waited. And waited….and waited. We watched all the people that were on our flight leave the airport in one way or another – herded like sheep by their tour group, in a taxi, or in the hands of a teary relative. All of this was done in a downpour of rain. We later heard that it had been raining straight for a month, and even the locals were getting sick of it.

One of the ladies who had approached us earlier came to ask why our ride had not come. Of course, we had no answer for her. She asked what our plans were for the next couple of days, and when we told her we wanted to go to the Yasawa Islands (a group of islands west of the main island) she immediately reported that she could get us ‘deals’, including a free night accomodation in Nadi. The hairs on the back of our necks went up, and we tried brushing her off with no luck. She decided she’d try to call our hotel and see what was going on. So, off she went. A few minutes later she came back and reported that they did not book us in. Hmmmmmm….she said, “you know it costs $80.00 there to stay?” Funny, because we were told it was $60.00. She thought she’d try the hotel again, using just our last name this time instead of our full names (??). Miraculously, she came back and said “oh yes, you are booked, and they will send your taxi”. Now knowing that at least we’d have a bed to sleep in, we decided to give her a chance to tell us about the Yasawa Islands. Deciding that it wouldn’t hurt, Jim went up to her office in the airport (once finding out she was indeed a travel agent) while I waited for our ride. I watched the last of the luggage carts being put away by a couple of young rambunctious locals, while wondering how the airport can afford to pay the number of people working there.

When Jim returned, he still did not appear to have a clear idea of what the travel agent was trying to say (nor do I think she understood us well), so we thanked her with plans to contact her the next day, when she’d have a price for us. Now off to the hotel. Feeling somewhat safe in the cab from further harrassment, we relaxed. We wanted to get settled, then give things a good going over before doing anything drastic.

At the hotel we checked in and were surprised to find that the night would cost us $58.00FJ (about $40CAD)…better than the $80 or $60 we previously were told. Strange, but good. Anyways, the hotel was more than adequate for us – a small restaurant, shop, pool, and we had a private room with our own toilet and shower. Luxury accomodations!! We didn’t even mind the springs that stuck out of the mattress, nor the ants that followed a path from the window to behind the bathroom mirror…

Once settled, we left our room to investigate – bought a phone card at the shop and found a lady at a desk who books the Yasawa Islands. What seems to have happened to these islands is that a foreign company has created packages and group prices for the accomodations and getting to the islands. It does appear to make it way more convenient (booking wise) but one pays for convenience. The lady at the desk could offer us no less than what the brochures could, so we left with the knowledge that there has to be another way to get around the ‘package’ thing.

We ate a meal at the restaurant – Chicken Schnitzel for both of us and 2 Fiji beers, then headed for our room. Jim had a bit of a buzz going because he had already drank Fiji Rum earlier that he had bought at the airport ($17.50FJ for 40oz of 50% Rum – he saw some Fiji rugby guys buing it so figured it must be good) and he fell into bed and immediately started snoring and doing this funky leg twitch thing. I read for a bit, until my eyelids fell heavy, mentally exhausted from the day.

We woke up early, 1st to my alarm, second to the birds, and third to the builders working on a development next door. We decided we’d try to contact the woman we spoke with at the airport to find out what price she had come up with for us. Knowing full well not to use a hotel phone (due to outrageous charges) we walked to a public phone down the street. This was all done in the pouring rain while dodging puddles, as the amount of rain had now formed somewhat of a flood around us. We eventually found the phone, only to find it dead. Hmmmmm…okay, we’d go see her at teh airport, but first we’d visit the visitors centre that was there as well.

We made our way back through the puddles and rain to the hotel – I’m sure we looked a sorry sight as we were on our way to being completely drenched -and asked at the desk how much a taxi is and could we call for one. Here in Fiji one has to negotiate the price for a cab before you get in. We had learned earlier that a cab from the airport to our hotel was $4FJ, but if you get a taxi outside the hotel, you generally pay more. So, $6.00 it was, once again back to the airport.

Having learned from the day before, we made our way through the arrival welcoming people with no eye contact, lessening the amount of harrassment we got from agents. The lady was no where in sight, and the office was closed. As we were wondering aimlessly, another travel agent approached us. We got pulled into his office, but he turned out to be a nice helpful fellow, who did save us a fair amount of cash since we did not book through the foreign company. He warned us not to use credit cards on the islands, as most places charge 5% more for this luxury. We left “Tomu the travel agent” feeling good that we paid less than expected for our trip to the Yasawas.

Click HERE for pictures

The best part of New Zealand other than spending time with our friends in Palmerston North, was our trip north of Auckland. I was interested in doing a farmstay, and had contacted a family I met over the internet, about staying at their ‘spray free’ orchard. They generally have paying guests stay at their cottage on the property, but the cottage was being used by a family member. I explained over email that all we wanted to do was camp anyways, and Mark graciously agreed to let us do so.

After making our way to the very top of NZ (34 degrees latitude) and visiting the extensive sanddunes in the area, we headed to the farm. We were greeted by 2 friendly dogs and Mark – and from this first meeting I knew we’d made a great choice. We set up our tent and Mark gave us a tour around some of his property – he grows oranges mostly, but also has bananas, avocados, tomatoes, etc etc. (I know it may sound strange that you can grow this in New Zealand, but it is sub-tropical at the north tip.) We learned that Mark, his wife Sue and daughter Sam are from the UK and moved to NZ a few years ago. The property they bought had not been well looked after, so they have done a lot of work to bring it back to ‘life’ again. Mark told us to feel free to wander the property at our leisure and mentioned that we could go meet the 2 friendly steers they have as well. Sam, who is about 9, is mature way beyond her years and has cleverly named the 2 steers – Stroganoff and another ingenious name which I can’t remember right now – as they will be in the freezer soon enough.

We figured we’d go meet the steers before it got dark, so we wandered up a hill in the direction Mark had shown us. We had nearly given up, when suddenly I saw the 2 of them out of the corner of my eye and they came up to investigate us. At first they seemed friendly enough, and seemed to enjoy the odd pat and our company. However, this quickly changed as one of the steers decided to have some fun with us, and started charging at us! Luckily, there were some small trees around and when he’d have a go at us we’d ‘hide’ behind the protection of the tree. What you have to understand though, is these trees were really skinny and there was no where to hide – we were merely putting the trunk in front of us in the hopes that the steer would hit that before us when he charged. This was starting to get ridiculous…Jim clapped his hands and yelled “Arrrrrrr” at him, and initially this seemed to disuade him. But then he came back at us with a vengence and started bucking and foaming at the mouth. Great. We must have looked ridiculous running circles around the trees trying to avoid contact with his head and bucking feet. I was beginning to feel like I was in a ring holding a red flag….

Finally, I figured I just had to go for it – the fence seemed miles away, but it was actually only a few metres. Jim distracted him (and nearly got stampeded) while I made a mad dash for the fence. I clambered over it, the whole while anticipating a bull’s head coming at my back end, while trying to negotiate over the barbed wire. Phew, made it. Now Jim’s turn. He ran like a bat out of hell and made it to safety on the other side of the fence. By this time we thought the steer was going to collapse or something because it was so worked up…the foam was dripping from its mouth and he had started hacking and coughing violently in between bucks. Little did Mark know that Stroganoff was going to live up to his namesake much sooner than anticipated!

Breathless, with our adrenalin pumping still, we wandered back down the hill along the fence line. Both steers followed us, the one still raving mad, while the other watched the whole situation quite dumbfounded, possibly wondering what had gotten into his buddy?! By the time we made it back down the hill to the gate where the steers could no longer continue to follow, life had been restored to its normal order. The hacking and bucking had ceased, the foam had nearly subsided, and both steers enjoyed a pat on the head over the fence line. Crazy.

Mark and his wife invited us into their home for a drink that night – needless to say we did not recollect our steer encounter, for fear of sheer embarassment. We learned that Sam gives night walking tours of their property to the guests on weekends. However, it was Thursday night…a school night. We figured we were only going to stay one night, so Mark and Sue made an exception and let Sam take us out provided we were not out too late.

Sam once again amazed us with her maturity and her knowledge of the creatures of the night. She took us to a creek and showed us all the glowworms above it when we turned our torches (flashlights) off. She found an eel for us in the creek too, as well as wetas and other interesting insects. The huge weta she found she took back to the house to show to her dad who “I’m sure would want to see it”. Priceless. It was amazing to watch her trounce through the mud, in the creek, up hills, down hills, over rocks, all with no worries of getting dirty or falling…a true nature girl. We fell in love with her…if we could have a child like her we would in an instant!

The next morning we offered to pick some oranges for Mark. It was the least we could do, not to mention it was totally fun! He takes them to the market each Sunday and squeezes fresh orange juice – he gave us a jug to try, and it was amazing. He offered us dinner with the family if we stayed another night, and we simply couldn’t resist. We were so lucky to come upon such a great family. So, after the picking, we left to explore the area – went snorkelling in the chilly sea, and drove around town. We returned to a wonderful dinner and conversation with Mark, Sue, Sam and Mark’s mom. We were very sad to leave the next morning – I wish we had found them at the beginning of our trip as opposed to the end of it. We will always have fond memories of our time with them – thank you to them all.

For pictures, click HERE

Our next day would prove full of wildlife. We left Invercargill and headed to the Caitlins – a stretch of land meandering the southern coastline. However, we first drove to the most southern spot one could drive to in New Zealand – this so far is the furthest south we have ever gone!

We first went to a beach where petrified wood lies in rocks along the shore. We lucked out because it is only viewed at low tide, and we just happened to catch the tide right. While looking at the wood, Jim noticed a yellow-eyed penguin in the bushes. These penguins we have been told are the rarest penguin in the world. In February they begin to moult. During this 6 week moult, they cannot enter the water, thus they do not eat. We made the mistake of telling another couple that there was a penguin in the bushes, and as we were leaving they went right up to it, and their child started harassing it in the bushes. Then about 10 other people began crowding around, and even an adult entered the bushes trying to get a photograph. We were so frustrated – Jim yelled out “10 metres!!”, as this is how far one is supposed to stay away from them so they do not get stressed (there were signs stating this so everyone should have known), and some of them started to back away. What the people don’t realize is that stress takes energy, and the penguins have to be very careful with their energy output while moulting. Just getting stressed can ultimately lead to their death. We left there, feeling very guilty as we had shared our secret with people we thought would be sensible. Frustration and anger outweighed the guilt though, as it always astounds us how stupid people can be.

We stayed that night at a campground in Kaka Bay, and after quickly setting up our tent in the afternoon, we left on a seal/penguin search. We were rewarded with both. We managed to time the tide right, and there were large tide pools in amongst the rocks at the shore. We had a terrific viewpoint from the cliff we were on (with our binoculars) to watch the seal pups frolick in the pools with each other. In each pool there were at least six pups, and each pool had one adult seal sitting along the edge of it. It seemed as though the pups were practicing all their fancy moves for the ‘big sea’ while the adults monitored them, making sure they were behaving themselves. By the time we walked back along the same way, all the pools were gone as the tide was high, and all the seals were gone – putting the practice to real life.

We then walked along the beach for quite some time, just checking out critters (mostly hermit crabs) and shells, when suddenly I saw Jim taking pictures of something in the distance. He pointed at something, and at first I didn’t notice it. On further inspection, I saw it….a yellow-eyed penguin who blended in so well with the surrounding driftwood I was amazed that Jim had seen it. The good thing was that the penguin never noticed us as we were quite far away from it – the beauty of having binoculars and a zoom camera lens. We watched it for a while as it preened itself constantly, wondering if they get lonely and bored during the time they are stuck on land with nothing to eat or do, other than preen. No one else was around, and we were happy about that, especially because of the harrassment that had occurred earlier in the day.

With no where else to go but north, we made our way through Dunedin – a very nice looking place (for a city) – and visited the museum and took some pictures of some old buildings. We basically just drove through Christchurch, as it seemed too big and busy for us and made our way along Arthurs Pass. We were told that we could see Keas here; Keas are a type of parrot that we had been looking for, but had not seen yet. The drive along Arthurs Pass was incredible – the weather was perfect and the hills, mountains and valleys were beautiful. We still didn’t see any Keas that day, although we heard one. So, in hopes of seeing one, we decided to spend the night (camped for free!!) at a site that they are known to frequent. Hmmmm. No luck again, and instead we were bombarded by blackflies. We were beginning to believe that the keas have gone the way of the kiwi, and that all the signs stating, “Do NOT feed the Keas” were some kind of sick joke put on by the natural resources department.

The next morning our last chance to see them would be at a lookout site, made for viewing the engineering ingenuity of the road in this area. We had heard that the keas frequent this spot as well.

We found out quickly that the birds do indeed frequent this spot, as our car was immediately bombarded by squaking keas, trying to pick away at any rubber part they could get their beaks on. Well, this wasn’t exactly the way we had wanted to see them, but nonetheless, we got ‘up close and personal’ with them, often having to shoo them off of our car. So, they do exist after all, and from the show they put on for us, it seems as though they are quite used to cars and humans!

By this time we had seen much of the south island, and took the ferry back across to the north island again. We dropped in on our friends again in Palmerston North, where they took us to a professional rugby game. Our knowledge of rugby (especially at this point in the trip) was not very good, and we seemed to miss many of the highlights of the game. However, that was okay, because it was very entertaining just watching all the spectators’ antics throughout – they really get rambunctious, and many were wearing very little except for paint in the colours of their team.

Thanks again to our NZ friends Dave, Liz and Kayden for your hospitality and friendship – we had a terrific time with you (and Kayden, I miss our card games!).

We visited a ‘wildlife sanctuary’ called Mt Bruce, where the Department of Conservation is trying to keep all feral animals out of the area, while introducing some native species to the area. They are having a good amount of success, and even have a nocturnal kiwi house. We had by this time given up seeing a kiwi in the wild, so we decided to check them out at this park.

The park has a large building in which 3 (at that point in time) kiwis are held. It was quite well done, and we were able to see the kiwis quite well. Once our eyes got used to the darkness, the red lights illuminated the kiwis enough so that we could watch them forage around in the leaf litter with their long beaks for food. They could not see us, nor hear us, so they just went about their nightly business of collecting insects, etc. During our night, the lights go on in the kiwi house, and they sleep during this time since they are nocturnal. The kiwis were much bigger than we had anticipated, (however, there are many different sizes and kinds of kiwis) and quite amazing to watch – their beak is so long that it looks like it would be pretty cumbersome, but they manage to make it work for them easily. They are such a unique looking creature; it is so sad that so much of their forest has been taken away from them by us, and that feral animals are killing more than what can sustain the population. The hope of the Dept of Conservation is to try to populate reserve areas and off shore islands with the kiwi and maybe they will make a rebound.

Heading still north, we came across a place with the longest name in the world. Try pronouncing it…Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu. It means, “The hilltop where Tamatea with big knees, conqueror of mountains, eater of land, traveller over land and sea, played his flute to his beloved.” Needless to say, the sign for this place is very long indeed!

Driving north to Lake Taupo, we passed by Mount Ruapehu (Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings) in Tongariro National Park. Unfortunately it was overcast and rainy, so we did not get a clear view of it. We continued on, not having time to wait for a better day to view the mountain, and set up our tent before sunset. We walked to the beach at Lake Taupo, where Jim proceded to get stung by a wasp. This would not be such a big deal, except for the fact that Jim is allergic to many types of wasps, and in the past has swollen up so badly that body parts have become unrecognizable. I always carry 2 epi-pens on me for situations just like this, in case of a bad reaction. The wasp got him on his ankle – the stinger was still in him. We walked back to the tent and I got out the tweezers so I could remove the stinger. Managed to get it out fine, and surprisingly the site was not swelling up that badly. He felt fine, popped a benadryl, cleaned the sting site up, and we hoped for the best. We actually could not believe that this was the first time on the trip thus far that he had been stung, as for some reason wasps always find him wherever he is, and he has swatted away hundreds on this trip. Myself, I have probably only shooed away, at the most, 10. Anyways, next day his ankle looked pretty good – no major swelling and he could walk on it fine. I was just glad that I never had to jab him with the needle…not looking forward to the day when I have to do that!

We spent a day in Rotorua, which is an area known for its geothermal activity. Unfortunately, most of the thermal areas are privately run, and cost a fortune. We managed to find a thermal stream, some bubbling mud pots and some steam vents all for free, and saved ourselves from another exploited attraction. While in town, we went to a Maori ‘hangi’ (cooking in an underground oven) and dance. The food and dancing was good, albeit in a conference venue at a hotel.

Next stop was Auckland where we tried to arrange a night stay at Tiritiri Matangi Island. This island is a nature reserve, and has both kiwis and tuataras on it, along with many other types of birds. There apparently is dorm style housing on the island that people can stay overnight in, and we were keen to do so. However, no one could give us any information on it, stating that everyone just goes there for day trips. This I don’t understand because kiwis are nocturnal, and wouldn’t it make sense to stay over to try to see one? Needless to say, we were unable to arrange it, so we just headed more north. We would soon find out that the north would prove to be a good route to go.

We left Australia February 6th on, strangely enough, an Argentina airline. The plane was an A340, the only plane we’ve flown on that had 4 engines. The flight was uneventful, and we landed in Auckland around 3pm.

At first, we had mixed feelings about NZ – we had been doing some reading about it and realized that NZ has no native land mammals. This was not good news, as we tend to form our plans around where to find wildlife. Being in Australia had ‘spoiled’ us, as we had been seeing new species of animals nearly every day it seemed. But, once we got past this fact, and found that we just had to look a little harder for interesting creatures and places, we found we started running out of time!

When most people think of New Zealand, they have a picture conjured up in their minds of beautiful scenery – much like that in the Lord of the Rings. NZ certainly is full of spectacular scenery (and sheep!!), and since the filming of Lord of the Rings tourism has soared dramatically. Entire books exist on touring all the places where the filming took place. However, with this increase in tourism, prices have also soared, and there is not much one can do or see without shelling out a lot of money. This poses a problem for us as 1) we don’t have very much money and 2) we hate tours.

The first place on our list was Waitomo caves – and of course there is no seeing them without a tour (didn’t I just say we hate tours???). So, after browsing the endless tour brochures, we settled on the cheapest one. The bonus of this tour in our eyes was that David Attenborough -the nature guru- had been through this particular cave which we figured must count for something!

The Waitomo Caves are known for their numerous gloworms, and although we had seen them in Australia, we couldn’t bypass this large tourist attraction. There were numerous other adventure tours – abseiling, black water rafting, etc etc – all out of our price range, so our tour was a driving/walking/boat ride tour. This is a good place to mention that NZ must be the adventure capital of the world! It seems any extreme sport that exists, they have it here. Zorbing, abseiling, white water rafting, black water rafting, caving, helicopter rides, bungee jumping, sky diving, parasailing, diving, etc. You name it, it’s here.

Anyways, back to our cave tour. It consisted of 2 caves; the 1st was less than average – no really nice formations, but there were a couple of ‘set up’ skeletons of moas. Moas are an extinct flightless bird – related to the cassowarys and emus – that were hunted out by the Maoris (Maoris are the indigenous people of NZ – more on them later). The second cave had a river in it, and we took a short raft ride down it and we were greeted by a light show above us with thousands of glow worms lighting up the cave ceiling above us. If we didn’t know better we’d have thought we were outside looking up at a clear night sky with stars twinkling at us. In total, the tour was pretty good, but not quite our $110.00 worth!

Next stop was Palmerston North to visit our friends Liz, Dave and Kayden who we met in Oz. We were treated like kings, had a bed to sleep in, and they took us to our first kiwi beach (new zealanders are known as ‘kiwis’). New Zealand has both white sand and black sand beaches – just depends on where you are. All of them are equally beautiful though.

We said our goodbyes to the Johnsons, and in doing so they gave us a mobile phone, cooler (aka chilli bin in NZ), and map book with a promise that we’d return on our way back through.

We headed to the south tip of the North Island – Wellington – to catch the ferry to the South Island. Maybe here’s a good spot for a geography lesson…NZ is made up of 2 major islands (the north and south island) and numerous small islands off the coasts. There are no provinces or states, so it is governed as a whole with Wellington as it’s capital. The tip of the North Isle is subtropical, lying at about the same latitude as does Sydney, Australia. The South Isle lies further south than Tasmania, and lies around the same latitude south as we are north at home.

In Wellington we spent the day in the free museum (bonus), then took the ferry to the South Isle the next day. A beautiful, sunny day with plenty of wonderful scenery and the odd dolphin pod splashing about.

After browsing many brochures about kayaking (it’s no wonder much of the islands have been raped of their trees – to produce all the paper for their tourist brochures and land for sheep), we decided to rent our own double (kayak) and explore Abel Tasman National Park with it. This park is known for it’s crystal clear waters and scenery.

We packed the kayak full of our camping equipment and backpacks (surprisingly it all fit) and after a short lesson on ‘paddle strokes and how to use the emergency flares’, we were off. We lucked out – it was a beauty of a day. We stopped at a secluded beach along the way for lunch and a rest, made our way past the seal colony, and after about 4 hours of paddling we reached our destination. Both Jim and I have kayaked in the past, but being canoeists at home, our kayak strokes are less than perfect. Needless to say, our shoulders and arms were sore at the end…although we fared much better than another couple we had met…they had to camp out even before they got halfway due to lack of strength and oncoming winds…
We snorkelled (yup it was cold) and beachcombed, and hiked the 18km back out over two days. After tending to our numerous blisters, we were on the road again to find a less populated place.

We had been told by several people that the road to Oparara (north-west) was one much less travelled and very scenic. However, strangely enough no one mentioned how bad the bugs were. The road certainly was scenic, and passed through some great forest walks. Most notable were the 2 caves that we didn’t need to pay a guide to go through! We donned our headlamps and explored the dark abyss alone. It was here where we found our 1st cave wetas – wetas are insects that look similar to a cricket crossed with a grasshopper. We also found huge egg sacs of cave spiders suspended from the ceiling; quarter-sized in diameter, dangling by a thin strand of silk. Thank goodness they weren’t hatching out when we were there…

Our campsite we came upon was beautiful – on a beach facing the west, and we looked forward to enjoying a nice sunset. That was up until we stepped out of the car. The blackflies (called sandflies here, but they are definetly just like our blackflies) were incessant, attacking any bare skin with a vengence. After a very short walk on the beach, we set the tent up spending the rest of the time in there, escaping the devouring appetites of the blackflies. They rivaled the flies in Australia, only these ones bite!!

The good thing was, after a couple hours of darkness, the blackflies went to bed. We were able to go for a night walk, in hopes of finding the elusive nocturnal kiwi. Kiwis are an endemic, flightless bird in NZ. There are a few different species, but on the whole, they are not doing well due to predation by introduced pests such as the possum, stoats, fishers, cats and dogs. These birds are kind of the national icon for NZ, though most New Zealanders have not seen them in the wild. On our night walk we did hear a kiwi in the distance (they make very strange noises), but the only thing we saw was a curious possum.

Needless to say, we only spent one night at this campsite. When we awoke we quickly took the tent down (we are pretty darn good at this now since we’ve been doing it for so long) and bid farewell to the evil insects.

Heading south we found a boardwalk that took us out to a platform where we could view New Zealand Fur seals. On the way up the walk, we spotted an interesting spider on the handrail that we stopped to investigate. He was very pretty, and I decided to take a picture of him. I got my camera up pretty close to him, and he was poised to take me on, but I thought nothing of it…that is until suddenly through my lens he shot up at me, landed on the lens and all my childhood fears came rushing back….and ‘BOOM’ down went the camera onto the wooden walkway. Geez, my camera has taken a real beating on this trip – it still works fine, but now it is quite difficult to thread the filter onto the lens as it was dented a fair bit in the fall.

Onto the glaciers of NZ…the two most famous (and most accessible) glaciers are the Fox and Franz glaciers. We were driving along a seemingly deserted road, when suddenly we came upon hordes of people, and realised we must be at the next tourist destination. This phenomenom tends to happen quite a bit in New Zealand. You can drive miles without seeing anyone, then suddenly the number of people is overwhelming because there is something to look at. I guess that is what happens when a country is small and nearly everywhere is accessible with a car. Unfortunately, because of this many things get exploited.

The Queenstown area on the south island is quite well know for it’s scenery, and when we reached this town we were again quite overwhelmed by how busy it was. We camped out of town, on a beautiful lake surrounded by sheep. It has not been unusual to camp surrounded by sheep and cows, not to mention waking up to the occasional rooster at 4am. We actually skipped the fiordlands – this is usually the favorite thing that people talk about when visiting NZ. We had browsed the tour brochures, and found that everything was REALLY expensive, and that all the pictures were similar to those of what we had seen in Alaska, minus the wildlife. So, good or bad, we missed it. We were actually happy to leave the busy metropolis of the area.

The drive south to Invercargill from Queenstown was pretty scenic – we came across some of the ‘bluest’ lakes and skies we have seen. We actually really liked the town of Invercargill – it is the southern most town in NZ. It has some nice buildings, a great park in the centre of town, and it was really good weather when we were here. We ended up staying 2 nights exploring around. It was here that we came across the Tuatara – a creature that resembles an iguana, but actually is not a lizard. We saw a live exhibit of them at the museum, as it is very difficult to see them in the wild as they only exist in sanctuaries or on outlying islands of NZ. Once again, they are not doing very well due to predation of introduced species.

We highly recommend seeing the movie, ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’, as it is about a fellow from Invercargill who still holds some of the fastest speed records on the salt flats in Utah, USA. He did it all with a homemade bike – it truly is amazing. Our friends the Johnsons rented it for us one night, and we are really glad we got to see it. It is worth the rental we think!

More to come soon!

“How ya going?” = this is their typical greeting

Give way = yield

Dunny = outhouse

Take away = take out food

Toilet = washroom

LayBy = lay away

Car Spa = car wash

Eskie = cooler

Cordial = they don’t have juice crystals, so they use cordial to make any flavoured drink

Jumper = fleece/sweater

Lemon Squash = lemonade

Lemonade = Sprite (if you order lemonade at a restaurant, they bring you Sprite)

Drink Driving = DUI or drunk driving

Billabong = watering hole/pond

Smoko = cigarette

Cuppa = cup of coffee

Pom = English person (from England)

Bitumen = paved (road)

Capsicum = pepper (green/orange/red/yellow)

Budgie smugglers = speedo bathing suit

Paw Paw = papaya

Amenities = toilets/shower/laundry building at campground

Petrol = gasoline

Bonnet = hood of car

Boot = trunk of car

Windscreen = windshield

Gas = propane

“Fair dinkum” = ‘the real thing’, good quality

Betta = better

Pie shop = meat pie shop

Yabbies = crayfish (land or water; fresh or salt)

Crayfish = lobsters without claws (fresh or salt)

Lobsters = lobsters with claws

Hash sign = ‘pound key’ on telephone

Uni = university

“Fantastic” = awesome

Tasty cheese = cheddar cheese

Stinger = jelly fish of any kind

Caravan = trailer

“Good on Ya” = “way to go”

Ute = pick-up truck

Mate = buddy, but can apply to women, children and strangers. ‘How ya goin mate?’

Chook = chicken

Track = trail for walking on or 4×4

Breaky, Brekky, Breakie = breakfast

Banana Bender = Queenslander

Vege, Vegge = veggie

Coldie = beer

Tucker = food

Sausage = any tubular meat (no such thing as a hot dog)

“Boil the Billy” = ‘put the kettle on’

Cheap as = good deal

Ta = thank you

Make a jug = make coffee

Supa = super, ie supa centre (it is actually written like this!)

Singlet = undershirt or tank top

Thong = flip flop

Long Flat White = regular coffee

Camping: is pretty easy as most caravan parks have a camp kitchen (fully equipped) and BBQ’s (their version is a stainless steel hot plate) are everywhere. We even travelled over 20km into the bush to find a lone BBQ! However, there are no picnic tables at the campsites like we are used to. Aussie campers bring their own portable tables with them.

Public toilets: tend to be clean as a whistle…much different than many we encountered in North America (this include the pit toilets in the bush). Every flush toilet we encountered had a much different ‘flushing mechanism’ than we had envisioned. We were waiting to watch the water swirl down the toilet in the other direction (isn’t that what everyone first does when they get to Australia??) but the water in the toilets does not ‘swirl’ due to the mechanism…instead it kind of bubbles up, and spurts everywhere in the toilet (and often on the seat which is quite disgusting when you think about it) and doesn’t seem to ‘get rid of’ all the wonderful things that go in a toilet. Very strange and not very hygenic I don’t think. However, nearly all flush toilets have two buttons on them to indicate if you need a ‘big flush’ or a ‘little flush’ – depending on the big or little mess you made in it. Good idea to save water. Okay, enough about toilets.

Topography: the whole east coast is way more mountainous than we had expected. The outback is very flat and full of scrub brush.

Water: Australia is either ina drought with fires (it’s amazing the whole country hasn’t burned to a crisp), or in a flood.
Freshwater: Australians drink three types of water: 1) treated water in the cities, 2) bore water (well water) 3) rainwater. 2 & 3 usually occur in the countr. The Aussies are keen on their rain water. The rain water tanks collect rain water off the roof…it could be the water from any building…outhouse, barn, garage or house. This tank has NO filter in it, simply a screen that removes the ‘big stuff’. They all drink rain water out of these tanks…what we don’t understand is that bird poo, frog pee, and anything else that gets on the roof ends up in these tanks…but no one seems to care. Needless to say, we didn’t drink it after e heard it is neither filtered or checked…and surprisingly (not) our upset stomachs magically disappeared. We bought 5L jugs of wate, but no water fill up stations exist in Australia. So, unfortunately every time you need to buy more water you need to buy a new 5 jug of it…what a terrible waste of plastic! (See recycling below)

Sea water: The water in the south is beautiful but freezing. The water around Sydney is beautiful and cool. The water around Brisbane is warm and stinger-free. The water in the north is quite warm but unswimmable in the summer due to stingers.

People: We found the people in Queensland to be the most laid back and friendly. There is no such thing as ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service’ in Oz. It is not uncommon to see the majority of kids/teens with no shoes on, men in grocery stores with no shirt, and women on the beach with no shirt.
The road workers, in their fluorescent shirts and wide brimmed hats are much like our city workers – always on a break.
All school children wear uniforms and wide brimmed hats – the hats are mandatory to protect them from the sun as they claim to have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.
The posties (mail carriers) ride mini Honda motorcycles over everyone’s lawns to deliver the mail (I don’t think that would go over well at home!).

Transportation: People drive either really small cars or utes. People usually don’t drive utes unless they need them for work – unlike we do in North America! Regardless of what they drive, Toyotas are the most popular type of cars. They drive Holdens (GM), Ford, Chrysler, Subaru, Hyundai, Honda, Mitsubishi and Citrons, although Chrysler owns a small portion of the market too.
It is common to come across Road Trains in the outback – they are transport trucks and can have up to 4 trailers on them.
Speedbumps are more like ‘speed jumps’, and there are millions of them.
Roundabouts are common (rather than traffic lights) and it takes a while to get used to them! There are hardly any stop signs (or street names for that matter), rather just ‘give ways’. Australia has fast drivers – 100km/hr on any road not in the city. Fuel prices are a little more expensive off the beaten track. Ferries cost a fortune.

Towns and Cities: Most ‘downtown’ areas are referred to as the CBD (central business district). Most towns have all their downtown on one main street. It is nice to see all the small industries still alive – there are usually a butcher, baker, barber, pub/bottleshop, and cafe in each town. Each town seems to pride themselves on winning the “Australia’s Tidiest Town” award, but it seems every town we entered had won it or is currently holding the title! Seriously though, their towns are clean for the most part, and each one has a public toilet on the main strip and usually a picnic area to boot.

Food: They ae huge meat-eaters in Australia. It was a common sight to see people have only meat for dinner, usually in the form of sausages. Kangaroo is sold in the grocery stores and it is quite tasty. Their fruits and veggies are AMAZING…not always cheap, but always tasty. Meat pies are sold everywhere, and are an Aussie staple. Their food is always well presented in their store fronts – ie deli sandwiches, prepared salads, desserts, etc. Food presentation is huge here and everything alwas looks fresh. However, fast food is on the rise, and most are American companies that we’d recognize: McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Subway, Burger King. They have wonderful coffee here – it’s expensive, but good. Took us a while to get the lingo down…there is no such thing as a ‘regular’, ‘double double’ etc. You need to order a ‘flat white’ if you want a regular, but you need to put your own sugar in. I think we only ever bought 2… we just couldn’t part with $4.00/cup.
Alcohol is bought in bottleshops, commonly called BWS (beer/wine/spirits). There wine is terrific and cheap as chips. Aussies love their beer – common brews are: XXXX, Carlton Mid, VB, Crown, Tooeys, but NOT Fosters.

Miscellaneous:
Movies are expensive to go watch, and they don’t put butter/topping on their popcorn.

Men wear short shorts, and big hollywood-style glasses are on both men and women.

Electricity is 240 volts and 50htz which wreaks havoc on Jim’s electric shaver. You can hear him a mile away when he shaves.

Radio stations play all different types of music on one station – you can go from Metallica to Enya to Hip Hop to Garth Brooks in 5 minutes. We NEVER found a good radio station.

Weather forecasts: their favorite expressio is “FINE” – we still don’t know what this means however, as it seems to be very subjective.

Internet was readily available in big city centers, but no where else, especially in Tasmania where they seem to be about 15 years behind…

Recycling appears to be almost non-existent much to our surprise. If it exists, it is not organized at all. Very sad.

Stamps are very expensive. $1.20 to send a postcard (hence why hardly anyone got one).

Books were even more expensive…ridiculous money for a small paperback ($18.00!).

We have now reached the unfortunate end of our Australian leg of our one year journey.

In four months, we have learned a great deal down here. The most unique part of being in Australia has definitely got to be its array of interesting animals.

If most people are like us, Australia conjures up imagaes of poisonous snakes, crocodiles, kangaroos, and platypus. Oz does have its fair share of the previously mentioned…but it is so much more!

I guess we’ll start with the myths and realities of snakes and reptiles.

We spent a lot of our time bushwalking and other than many tiger snake encounters in Tasmania, we never came across many snakes in the rest of Oz. Many of Australias snakes are highly venomous, but in most cases if they’re left alone and not trodden on, there is likely very little to worry about. They tend to just want to get out of the way – usually.

There are a vast array of other reptiles including the notorious crocodiles of the north. A lot of reptiles are easy to spot basking in the heat of the day. All of them are non-venomous and pose no threat to humans – except for the crocs. The croc is an animal Australians take heed of and warnings are abundant throughout tropical Australia.

One would be lucky to see a croc in the wild – if they are standing in the right place – and unlucky if one doesn’t follow a few simple rules: 1) Never camp near infested waters. Crocs will and do go a long way from water. 2) Never stand too close to a riverbank where you cannot see into the water clearly! Crocs can hide perfectly in 1.5ft of water. 3) Don’t swim in tropical waters near estuaries or river mouths. Crocs can be found 100kms up inland rivers!

Australia has some truly huge lizards! There are goannas (monitors) all over and some species rival the Komodo Dragon in size!

Australian mammals are truly unique, abundant and varied. There are three classes of mammals in existence and all present here: the placentals (which other than the bats are feral and/or introduced species); the monotremes (which are egg-laying mammals); and marsupials (which Australia has a plethora of!)

Placentals: the bats are indigenous to Australia. There are many species of bats (over sixty occur in Australia), but to us amateurs they all look similar except for the fruit munching flying foxes.These bats are enormous and plentiful, especially in the north-east.

The only other ‘Australian’ placental is the dingo, which is actually a wild dog introduced by the indonesians about 5000 years or so ago. Dingos are responsible for the demise or reduction of many native marsupials. Aussies have went to great lengths to try to contain dingos, although generally it’s to protect their livestock rather than threatened endemic animals.

The rest of the placental mammals in Australia are introduced and many have become thriving ferals. The most notorious being pigs, rabbits, foxes and cats. These animals have been a bane for endemic species. In most cases they compete with native species for food or eat them.

Our greatest lessons revolved around marsupials (pouched mammals). Before coming to Australia we would be hard pressed to name 5 marsupials, and I’d hazard to guess most people would only be sure of one marsupial for sure, and that would be the kangaroo. Try before reading on to see if you can name 5?!

Like everyone, we were familiar with the kangaroo – we thought… We were soon to learn that there are several macropods (big feet) in Australia, not to mention several species of kangaroo alone. We learned of wallabies (smaller than kangaroos), wallaroos (which need no explanation I believe), pademelons, tree kangaroos, bettongs and potoroos, which are all macropods and most containing several species. Excuse my taxonomy, but taxonomists can’t even seem to agree how to classify animals half the time.

Here’s a short list of other marsupials we’ve learned about, and on most occasions, have spotted. Eastern and Spotted-Tailed Quolls, Brown and Barred Bandicoots, Brush-Tailed and Ring-Tailed Possums, Dunnarts, Pygmy Possums, Sugar Gliders, Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Koalas, Feather-Tailed Gliders, Antechinus, and hosts of others!

An added bonus for us in Australia was the abundance of incredibly beautiful birds. We had no idea of bird life in Australia, so it has been a terrific education. We identified over 160 birds! And that’s with a pair of broken binoculars! (they got busted when we dropped them on the pavement by accident…so now they have double vision…) I’m not going to list them all as not only would it be plain boring, but it would be darn meaningless. Suffice it to say a lot of the birds we have in cages in North America fly free here. Kookaburras are hilarious and we will mis them. Seeing the giant emus and cassowaries in the wild was like stepping back in time. If you are a birder, you won’t be disappointed with the sights and sounds of Australias bird life.

Australia is also infamous for some of its poisonous spiders. The funnelweb spider is the world’s most deadlyl spider, but unless you are a gardener, you probably won’t encounter one. The only ‘baddie’ to be concerned about is the red back spider, which are widespread and more likely to be encountered. They also pack a good whallup, but are unlikely to cause death. There are a lot of other interesting non-venomous’ish’ spiders, particularly notable are the very large Huntsmans. Although quite ominous, they are quite harmless.

We encountered many interesting insects (including huge termite mounds), but the only ones which caused us any real grief were the darn flies! They will drive anyone not used to them (which we aren’t) BONKERS.

Australia has enough moths and butterflies to keep the average lepidopterists interest. We were delighted with them, particularly in Queensland where the most spectacular are the Ulysees and Cairns Birdwing. Good luck photographing them though!

Australia is well noted for its amazing sealife. We swam with mammoth Manta Rays, lethal Bull Rays (responsible for Steve Irwin’s death), graceful Eagle Rays, Wobegong Sharks, Leopard Sharks; we encountered dolphins, seals, sealions, penguins and if you come at the right time of the year you’ll be treated to pods of migrating whales.

There are many interesting critters to be found in Oz tidal pools. We found many creatures we still haven’t figured out! Just be careful of poking around areas you can’t see, as you wouldn’t want to tangle with cone shells or a blue ring octopus. Both these creatures have lethal venom which can and have killed humans!

So, if you are into wildlife, come to Australia and discover a plethora of interesting animals!