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Coups, New Years and a Final Goodbye

Well, like all blogs this one has been very slack over the last couple of months. So whether i am doing this for my own pleasure/boredom or maybe there could be some people still checking on this, I am still not sure. But here we go........

In case you have been living in a bubble, or perhaps you killed a few too many braincells over Christmas, Fiji had a military coup in which they took over the government on 5 December last year. It was a bloodless coup which resulted in the Australian media getting bored of it very quickly. Essentially, the country goes on as per normal, except for those people holding high positions in the public sector. They have all been replaced and a new interim administration has been put in place by the military commander, Voreqe Bainimarama (or Frankie Banana-rama). Leading up to this coup, the Australian government became worried about its volunteers in the country, so they pulled them out on about 1st December. This all happened while Bella was in Suva, and i was stuck on a island in the Yasawa's diving every day (supposedly working). Bella's evacuation consisted of being told on the Friday about lunchtime, that they were being evacuated to Nadi for the weekend and were given two hours to pack. Once they arrived in Nadi, like all good volunteers with nothing else to do they decided to have a few drinks at the Nadi Bay Hotel whilst awaiting there meeting at 11pm on Friday night, after the powers that be, had decided what to do. At this meeting they were informed they were being evacuated the next day. Needless to say, people were less than impressed to be evacuated on effectively 2 hours notice of a weekend away. On Monday, i made it back from my island and headed off to Suva to do a pack up as much stuff as i could fit in and changed my flights as i didn't really see the point of remaining in country without any friends with a possible coup on the way. Effectively, it gave us a month long Christmas in Australia. Not such a bad thing.

As for the coup itself, it was definitely Fijian. No noticable differences apart from a few soldiers forming roadblocks on the major roads into Suva. However, these roadblocks failed to stop any cars and normally were just a source for the soldiers to wave hello to friends and family passing by. Fiji is a small place and this more than kept them occupied.

FiX

Fiji 2006 New Year's celebration was a plan that had been 12 months in the making and was conceived on a hot day under the harbour bridge 12 months earlier. It resulted in 9 Aussies (including 3 local guides) taking over a house in Taveuni, Fiji. An island to the North-east of where most people fly into. In one word, AWESOME! After a lot of effort it some-how managed to come together. We all met at Brisbane airport a few days after Christmas. We all flew into Nadi, road-tripped it across the country to Suva. Partied all night in Suva, some harder then others. Made it to the airport the next morning at 7.30am for our domestic flight that flew out at 10am, after a few Fijian moments. The house is gob-smacking (good word that), with the picture speaking for itself (1,000 words and all that).

Completely made of Fijian hardwood, with the most amazing position. Although, slightly disturbing house of death with about 5 turtle shells, rams horns, shark jaw, shells, etc....Oh well, the're Hawaian.

The crew, Bella ('s legs), Jake, Rap, Joel, Carla, Leon, Alby and a slightly gay Hammer.

Taveuni is kwown as the Garden Island. It is a bit out of the traditional tourist path, but it is a little secret of fiji. The island itself is simply stunning. From the tiny airport, surrounded by coconut trees to the dense jungle everywhere, to the waterfalls and water slides, the rugged un-disturbed coastline and don't forget the friendly Fijian people. The week was filled with substantial amounts of sun-baking (sometimes extreme-baking), waterfalls, drinking, kayaking, drinking, swimming, New Years parties, cards, lovo, kava and drinking. All in all, a great catch up for people who don't see much of each other.

The final good-bye

Whether it was due to some strange political motives by Australia, we will never know, but for some reason the volunteer program Bella was on has been pulled from Fiji. We are pretty sure it's is not a safety issue as the program operates in developing nations and with likes of Solomons, Tonga, PNG and the rest all being re-instated, it seems strange that Fiji is not. Oh well, the decision has been made. We had pre-planned this and stayed on in Fiji for a few weeks after FiX. During this time, we did a few things that we had wanted to do but hadn't quite got around too. This included a trip to Levuka and Caqali (Thanga-li). Levuka is the old capital of Fiji and use to be a popular sea port. An amazing setting of a strip of buildings against a 'beach', with mountainous jungles behind it and a fringing reef out the front. A debaucherous town full of drinking, women and some excuse of trade for its existence. With all of that well gone with the invention of the internet (just checking you are still reading), the town has an amazing history, yet is again a little out of the traditional tourist path. Well i guess people don't come to Fiji for history lessons.

A couple of days here and a couple of dives later and we were off to Caqali. A tiny island resort, very basic, but beautiful and exactly what we expected/wanted. We had heard good things all year but never made it here. Some quality beach time, snorkelling and a good chance to catch up on my volleyball that i had been missing since leaving Nananu. But with no volleyball on Sunday, we decided to leave for our last week in Suva.

This is just a funny fijian moment. A sunset boat cruise complete with a Bula Band and drinks, including a bucket of Kava.

Our last week in Suva was one of mixed emotions. Saying good-bye to friends, whether they were from work, other volunteers, people we had met, our favourite restaurants and eateries, the markets, our little house that we set-up, our lovely house-girl Ali, the taxi drivers, O'reileys on a Friday night and so many more things. Eventually we did manage to cram our lives into around 70kgs of luggage that we had to take on the plane. Luckily it was Fiji and we didn't pay a cent.

We are now about to start work for a couple of months before we head off travelling again. We are working in Mackay and are in Super Saver mode to ensure we don't have to work again for the longest possible amount of time. It will be a shock to work again in Australia and i'm not sure how Bella and I will handle it. But it will all be worth it with our plans to spend about 5 months in South America before heading up to Whistler/Vancouver for a snow season.

I'll let you know when we have something more interesting to up date you all on. Until then....

The place where Mick works

Mick has been toiling away at his Dive Con traineeship since August, and there's not signs of him getting sick of it. His parents came to visit last weekend to suss out exactly what it is he does....

The place where Mick works....the Nananu Lodge Dive Shop

Mick helps Robyn gear up

The Fusses are ready to dive.

Bella's Work Trip to Taveuni

It was with much excitement that I headed to the Air Fiji office on the afternoon of Friday, 1st September. My task - "Two return tickets to Taveuni, first flight out Monday morning, please". "I'm sorry Ma'am, there are no seats available until next Thursday". "But...but...but there has to be!" There was not way I was giving my colleagues an easy out - they were all too keen to postpone this trip, I could tell. But there was nothing I could do.

Plan B was rolled. 18hr overnight boat it would have to be. Scheduled departure - 6pm Monday; arrival Tuesday lunch. 1.5 work days lost, not too bad.

So, my counterpart Isoa picked my up in the work vehicle we would take with us at around 5pm - boarding was scheduled for 4, but surely we still have plenty of time. We made it about 500m from the loading dock before we hit the jam. I wish I had taken photos to illustrate the chaos, as it really is hard to describe accurately. They were loading two different boats at the same time, both massive ferries that transport big trucks. There were two roads leading to the dock entrance...which converged at the dock entrance. Superb traffic planning that. The dock entrance was one vehicle wide. Absolute bottle neck. No traffic conducting going on, just every man for himself trying to muscle onto his ferry. People wandering in amongst all the vehicles. So anyway, long story short, we got onto the ferry eventually, but it was pretty obvious we weren't going to get away by 6, they still had lots of trucks to load. So we just settled into the lounge, ordered some dinner, and waited.

Before too long the speakers crackled and it was announced that our revised departure time was 9pm. I was mildly surprised that it would take quite this long to load the rest of the trucks, but ok.

At 9pm, the speakers crackled again. New estimated departure time? 3am. At this point they also admitted that the reason was actually 'engine trouble'. There was nothing I could do but retire to my little ship bunk and wait to wake up to the gentle sway of a moving boat.

I stirred a little after 6. "Hmmm, let's see...I certainly don't feel any different. Maybe this is a particularly sturdy vessel?" I'll admit it was more than a just a gut feeling when i looked out the window....and my suspicions were confirmed. I looked out across Suva Harbour, not quite believing that I'd just spent the whole night on a boat that never left dock. This time when the speaker crackled it heralded a promise of 7.30 departure. I went up on deck and occupied myself taking these photos. Somehow, my hopes that we would eventually depart remained in tact.



But alas, those hopes proved futile. At 10 am they finally admitted we weren't going anyway. Although they didn't admit that they had no frickin idea what was wrong with their engine, despite this being obvious to me. They assured everyone they could use their tickets on the next day's service, full of confidence she'd be running by then.

Thankfully I managed to convince my counterpart of my doubts and we switched to another boat company. We sailed at 1pm on Wednesday, arriving at our destination 7am Thursday morning. Only 3 working days lost.... This proved wise, as the original boat didn't end up sailing again until Friday evening. Why did they board the boat in the first place if they didn't have a running engine? Beats me. Why did they continue to keep us on the boat, stringing us along with false promises of departure for no less than 14hrs?!?! Beats me even more. All I can say is this is definitely my best Fiji story yet. Just sums things up nicely.

So anyway, Taveuni itself was pretty great. It's one of Fiji's larger islands, a population of (very) approximately 15 000, and there's a few impromptu towns popping up, so they sent us in to assess the situation and come up with a master plan to gently guide these townships in the right direction! More or less.

Lot's of cruising up and down the coastal road and 4-wheeling through the inland tracks to 'familiarise' ourselves with the study area. A few consultation (grog) sessions with the landowners, although I excused myself from some of these seeing as I can't understand a word and can't really add much to the meeting. Mick joined me toward the end of the second week, and we checked out a pearl farm:

a natural waterslide (the local kids were showing us how to block the water for a better ride):

and a very cool campground right on the beach:

The plane trip home offerd some great aerial views of the reefs.

Michael Fuss
Naturalist Photographer

Discover Fiji's natural beauty through Fuss' lense.

(All images copyright M. Fuss 2006. Orders welcome)














(Those last three are actually the natural beauty of Fraser Island, not Fiji, from our pre-Fiji camping trip. But they are also such good photos I had to put them in.)

- Posted by Bella (Mick wanted that clarified)

2006 HIBISCUS FESTIVAL, SUVA

Just some of the crazy things you can see and do at Hibiscus Festival. Unlike Australian shows where you can try you luck in sideshow alley, at this festival you can try your luck on dozens of different rides! I'm not a gambling person, so I steered clear. With themed performance nights, street parades where Miss Hibiscus contestants were carried along in tinnies, and fairy floss three times the size of your head (no joke), I think it's safe to say a fun time was had by many a Suvan that week.

Get out of Suva
These are pictures are from Lawaki Beach House. Our most recent attempt to escape the rainy cold Suva winter. A complete jungle of an island with just a handful of villages and of course, resorts. If the tide is out here, you can't snorkel, which means your are pretty much restricted to doing not much. Great for relaxation from our busy lives over here.
If i had a boat like this i would sail it to a spot like this too.

If you look to the background of this photo you can see what we were running away from in rainy Suva. Meanwhile, we had fantastic weather on Lawaki, except for the wind of course.
Whilst this photo adds to our collection of Fijian sunsets, it also shows the boat that we got over there in. As sturdy a vessel as she is, I think it will prevent some from making it to this island. Admittedly we did have pretty bad conditions, but it is not the most comfortable vessel to be in when there are about 1.5-2m swell combined with wind of about 25 knots and about a one hour trip back to mainland.
Another over the shoulder photo.

What comes before Part B?

Like all good overseas jaunts we are having our share of parties. Below is the birthday girl getting on down to celebrate her day.

Bella decided to have a Masquerade theme for her party. A few anonymous bowls were had beforehand. If you have worked out which one Bella is the other two are our housemates Joel and Lou.

A mad cow and half a fairy crash the party.

This is just Bella dressing up for a "wrong" party. I just thought i would put it in.

First visit from a Family Member

Benson graced us with his presence for a week in which he saw a side of Fiji most tourist choose to ignore. He spent about 10 days with us in rainy Suva to start with. Mostly occupying himself with the various eateries around the place and what he could get for a little as possible. I think his favourite was the 50 cent roti wraps at the market which are a veggie curry wrapped up in a roti. The local open aired buses pumping out the reggae music was also a favourite.

Ben also brought with him the first care package from home. Of which, the main ingredients were a whole bunch of lollies and 4 pairs of thai pants. Bella, needless to say, was excited to see both Ben (who she hadn't seen in over 12 months) and the package.

Somehow we managed to get sunshine on the first weekend but Bella and Ben chose an indoor option, much to the disagreement of myself. The evidence is below, notice the brilliant sunshine outside. I don't know, the Wallace's and reading, honestly.

We did however make it to the touristy path on the last weekend before Ben's departure. But still just staying at simple accomodation and catching the local buses around to the local beach. Ben you'll be pleased to know i didn't put in the photo of you losing all your money in poker.

This is Natadola beach, the best on the main island. Notice the huge surf that me and Ben were about to take on. There was a perfectly breaking lefty a short walk away. Problem was it was about half a foot and pretty hard to catch. Twas fun to paddle around in the sun, none the less.

The elder siblings.