Iain Plank

The last time that I wrote to you I was just about to leave Australia after 5 months of touring around the mainland. It had been good but I was looking forward to a change in culture and for a rest ! On the agenda were a little over 5 weeks on some of the islands in the South Pacific.

The South Pacific
The South Pacific Islands are split into three main groups:

• Micronesia: (Small Islands): Mariana, Caroline, Marshall and Kirabati Groups
• Melanesia: (Dark Skinned Islands): Papua New Guinea, Solomans, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji
• Polynesia: (Many Islands): French Polynesia, Tonga and the Cook Islands

I was due to visit two of these: Melanesia and Polynesia.

Fiji
I arrived in Nadi at 5 o’clock in the morning and the first thing that I noticed was the hair. It’s unbelievable !! Walking through the Arrivals gate was like walking into an audition for the musical ‘Hair’. It wouldn’t have looked out of place in ‘Starsky and Hutch’ – unreal.
After the initial shock, my first stop was the rather non-descript town of Nadi to work out what I’d do with my time. With 3 weeks in Fiji I decided to split my time between the Nausori Highlands and the Islands as I’d heard that they were very different. First stop then was the Highlands.

Bukuya
Bukuya is a small hill villiage of about 700 people about 1-1/2 hrs truck ride from Nadi along some of the most bone-shaking tracks that you would ever hope to experience !! I stayed at a place called Peni’s which was basically a family home that had some Bure’s (huts) where visitors could stay. We basically lived and ate with the family and, just for a moment, became part of the village.
Bukuya is set in beautiful surroundings in the highlands and is pretty much a self-supporting villiage with it’s own water supply and hydro-electric power. Like all traditional Fijian villages it is led by a chief (in this case, an ex-international boxer !!) and everyone supports everyone else and assumes collective responsibility for everything to do with the village.
So what did we do while we were there ? Not much really !!

Fiji Time
The first thing that we learnt in Fiji was “Fiji Time”. It’s the idea that as long as it happens eventually then that’s good enough. I tell you, what Fijians don’t know about relaxing isn’t worth knowing. They’ve got it down to a fine art !! Surprisingly it’s actually very hard to do – no, really !! You have to get the pose first – it normally involves lying on your back, legs apart and with one arm flung casually above your head and with the other over your chest. Ok, now that you have the pose here comes the tricky bit………do nothing !!! No, stop thinking about work and all those things that you have to do…and do absolutely nothing. It’s really not as easy as it sounds but with practice it soon starts to come naturally.
Apart from that we went horseriding, swimming in the local river and sat around chatting alot. Probably the most energetic thing we did was Pig hunting. Which involved trapesing through the undergrowth along exceptionally muddy paths for about 7 hours. Did we see a pig ? Did we hell !!

Kava
One of the most culturally important events in Fiji is drinking Kava. Kava is made by drying and pounding the root of a kind of pepper plant called Piper Methysticum (I guess that you’re not likely to find it down your local supermarket). The Powder is placed into a bag and water then filtered through it. The result is a large bowl (a Tanoa) full of extremely muddy looking and tasting liquid. The Kava is blessed and then given to individuals in a half coconut shell called a bilo. Protocol says that when offered the Kava you should clap, say “Bula” (Cheers) and then down the liquid in one go – which believe me is the best way to do it !!! After finishing the bilo you should clap 3 times in appreciation. (?!)
Kava is actually mildly narcotic and your lips and tongue soon begin to start feeling numb. You don’t get drunk as such, more stoned really. One of the meeting huts in Bukuya was part of Peni´s and so the locals were there every night drinking Kava – It was like their Local pub, just without the alcohol. Because of this we were able to drink Kava with them the way that they actually drink it, which is very different from the ‘formal’ Kava ceremonies that they perform for tourists. The men in the village would be drinking Kava throughout the day as well as all night and we soon got into the habit of sitting with them, drinking copious amounts of Kava and chatting. Some of the faces pulled when they had to drink ‘another’ bowl of Kava were hilarious and the hocking and spitting out of the window definitely wasn’t in the tourist show. They were extremely sweet and friendly people and on a couple of occassions they sang for us – no accompaniment, just voices. It was so beautiful- you could close your eyes and imagine sitting on a beach with the waves lapping at your feet.

As in all villages in all countries the children are always good fun and the children of Bukuya were no exception. They managed to surprise us though with their questions. Along with the usual: “What’s your name ?”, “Where do you come from ?” etc came “Is your’s a Nuclear or Extended family ?” Huh ?! Apparently, the older children had just covered the subject at school and managed to catch us completely off guard !!

100 Day Feast
The wife of the owner where we were staying had unfortunately died some months before and in Fiji they have major feasts after 5, 10 and 100 days. We were ‘fortuneate’ enough, if thats the right word unbder the circumstances, to be staying during the 100 Day Feast. The family of the deceased and lots of friends were invited and the day was spent preparing food cooked in a traditional Lovo. What they do dig a bit hole and place wood in the base and then stones and rocks. They light the wood to heat up the stones and, when hot, place the food, wrapped in banana leaves or in pots on top. The whole lot is then buried and left for several hours to cook after which they dig the whole lot up and serve. The result is absolutely delicious and needless to say that following the feast a large amount of Kava was drunk !

Nacula
After 5 days I headed back to Nadi to meet up with some Scandinavian friends that I had met the night before going to the Highlands. We had arranged to go to the island of Nacula in the Yasawa group of islands for a few days.
Nacula was great and very much what you think of when you think of exotic islands: Palm trees; White sandy beaches; Crystal clear azul sea. The best think about Nacula was that it wasn´t in the Lonely Planet and so very few people knew about it !! We stayed in a Lodge made up of several Bures close to the beach. There were 4 villages on the large island and 14 backpackers – it was supurb. True to what I’d heard the Fijians were a lovely people and extremely friendly and generous. Everynight the locals from the nearby village of Sisilli would come and play Vollyball by the Lodge. It was great and they always did their best to make sure that you joined in. They always laughed and the worse you were the more they laughed !!

I spent a lot of time relaxing and diving. I got an amazing deal with a dive shop on one of the other islands. When they found out that I was a Divemaster they said that I only had to pay for my first couple of dives as long as I helped out when needed !! In the end I got 10 dives for $75 US and they never asked me to help !! The diving was also excellent. Not so many large fish but some of the most amazing coral that I have ever seen and in the main, completely undamaged. Think of a colour and you could almost guarantee that you’d see coral of the same colour. It was fantastic.

As with most places it’s the people that make the difference between an Ok time and an amazing time and again I was extremely fortunate to have met up with some fantastic people – both other travellers and locals. Thank you !!
I ended up staying on Nacula for 12 days it was just perfect. All too soon, though, it was time to leave Fiji and to move on again.

New Zealand
I hadn’t actually planned to go to New Zealand but due to airline changes I had to fly to Polynesia via Auckland.
At Passport Control they went through my passport and granted me Permanent Residency which was interesting, if a bit of an overkill for a 6 hour stopover. As least it confirmed what I’d been told in Australia that my Australian Residency was also valid for New Zealand.
Auckland, the City of Sails, was nice enough – New Zealand had a few weeks before hosted and retained the Americas Cup here and there were still some nice yachts in the harbour – but all too soon it was time to get back on the plane. New Zealand will have to wait from another day.

As far as I could go…
Fiji is actually 180 degrees from London and is, as such, about as far away from ‘home’ as you can get. I’d spent the last 11 months progressively getting further and further away from Europe. With my flight to Polynesia, I started on the long way home.

Talk to you soon,

Iain