Namena 

Namena Island

We left Vanua Levu for Namena Island, a very small, currently uninhabited island about 30 miles from Savusavu. Namena was habited at one point, prior to Cyclone Winston last year, but the resort that was there is now closed. Our first night there, we were the only boat, and without any light and a late-appearing moon, it was pitch black allowing the stars to shine bright in the anchorage. Namena seems to be an unofficial “bird sanctuary” that is loaded with all sorts of sea birds nesting in the trees and scrub. We kayaked in to explore a bit, and it became clear this island was hit hard by Winston. There were some concrete steps up to a large rock—but they were beat up so badly it was difficult to figure out what it used to look like or where the trail led. And the plant debris, logs, and trees that covered all of the trails made it pretty much impossible to hike to the other side. So, we enjoyed the birds and combed the beach while we were there.

We also went diving.   Here, the dive sites are on the fringing reef around the island. To dive, we pulled up anchor and moved Do Over to near the dive site, and from there, we were able to swim a bit and descend on some amazing chimney coral heads. (Think pyramids in the water.) These pyramids were loaded with fish. Ari and Dan went the first day, but it was too late to do a second dive so I could not also dive that day. The next morning, Dan and I dove around a different chimney coral head, and then he and Ari did the same spot in the afternoon after Dan had enough of a surface interval. Once again, our dive compressor came in very handy. We pulled it out and made our own air, stuffing it into our dive tanks. We didn’t know if we would need a compressor on this trip, but it sure has come in handy in remote places where air fills are impossible to get—or when dive shops won’t fill them for liability reasons.

Ari Getting Ready to Dive

Setting up my BC and Reg

Diving

Looking Up From Below

Dan’s Artistic Shot of Me in a Coral Window

So Full of Fish and Colorful Coral!

So Full of Fish and Colorful Coral!

The Chimneys in Namena Waters

Sunset in Namena

Kids Doing School.  That is Kava Root in the Background

After a few relaxing days in Namena, we tried to pull up anchor but it was wrapped around a huge rock, which unfortunately, was so strong, our anchor roller on our bow snapped off and fell into the water when we tried to free it. Add that to the list of things that we’ve lost to the sea! They say “boat” is an acronym for: “bring out another thousand,” but boating long-term also means: “lose everything overboard” (which I guess would be “leo”). Well, without an anchor roller, our anchor chain would be scraping against the aluminum strut that spans the bow—and it would get very abused. So losing it meant we needed to head back to Savusavu so we could get our spare anchor roller riveted onto the bow. After the 30 mile return trip, we entered the Savusavu harbor right at dusk, where Nina and Paw Paw gave us a rock star welcome. They screamed and woo-hoo’d us as we headed in to a mooring ball! We got to have dinner with them both nights we were back in town, which was really nice. Dan was also able to rivet on our spare anchor roller the day after we got in, so we were good to go again.

Back in Savusavu at Dusk

Dan Riveting!

Next stop: Yadua. We ended up staying one night in the southwestern part of Vanua Levu (with Kate and Steve from Blue Summit) in Bua Bay, which did NOT look or feel like Fiji. The view on one side could have been North Carolina river waters, with low-lying scrub and dark, unclear water, while the view on the other was full of distant mountains. It was so peaceful and we saw no other signs of human life while we were there for the night. The next day, we continued on to Yadua.

We knew we were going to have to do Sevusevu with the village chief, which meant stocking up on some kava root. In each village, you are supposed to dinghy in and ask to speak with the chief. Local villagers take you to the chief and you present your gift of kava. Sometimes, they produce kava drink right then and there and ask you to share it. Other times, the offering is accepted without the drinking ceremony and you are then welcomed into the village while you are anchored there.

Bua Bay

Yadua

Interestingly, out of respect for the village chief, what you wear to this ceremony is very important. Women must wear a long skirt (or a sarong/lava lava) and shoulders must be covered—no tank tops. Women are not supposed to wear t-shirts either. Men are either supposed to wear long pants or a lava lava (skirt-type wraps) and also cannot wear t-shirts. Well, we didn’t realize how terribly devastating this would be for our poor, feral children. They had a rare case of clothing trauma. My 14-year old daughter does not own a skirt. Really. Why own one if you won’t ever wear one? And as we found out, Ariana really has nothing other than t-shirts that fit her right now. Add to that the fact Ryan has not worn pants in nearly a year, so we had to hear a few complaints about how hot and uncomfortable pants are. He also has not had to wear a collared shirt in a long time, but he was a trooper and didn’t complain too much about it. Ari ended up wearing the pareo the folks on Palmerston Island had made and given us, and wearing a t-shirt that’s back emblem could be covered by her extra long hair. We worked it all out. I can just picture our kids trying to go to school next year in shorts, t-shirts and flip flops—even when it snows!

Back to the village of Yadua. What an amazing travel experience we had in this village!

Heading to Sevusevu

Women of Yadua Doing Laundry

Yadua Garden

Yadua Houses

Sevusevu in Wilamina’s House

The four of us went to the village with Steve and Kate (from Blue Summit) to do Sevusevu. When we got to land, Dan said: “Toranga ni koro,” which means, in essence, “take me to your leader.” I bet you didn’t know Dan spoke Fijian, did you? Yadua’s village chief was actually on a different island at the time, so an adult (who understood Dan’s incredible command of the Fijian language) instructed the local kids to bring us through the “old” village to the “new” village where we would meet with the man second-in-charge. The old village had the church and a handful of houses, some more rustic than others, but the old village was the area that was demolished in Cyclone Evan three years ago. This island, luckily, actually fared quite well with Cyclone Winston last year. The new village was another bunch of houses that you came upon after a five to ten minute walk through the trees a little further away from the water. The Fijian government funded these new houses after Cyclone Evan.

The villagers live so differently from us, it is hard to imagine, but I will try to describe the scene. The houses are all only one room, and many have no furniture at all. Some have one single bed, and others have one single bed and one chair. The floors are decorated with mats that are hand-woven from thin strips of bark that were dried by the sun. Surprisingly smooth and soft on your feet, these mats hold up well and the largest ones take about a week to weave. It is customary for everyone to take off their shoes prior to entering a house in Fiji (and Tonga, for that matter). Many of the houses have a few colorful pareos (they call them something else) hanging in the room either as decoration or as room dividers. In one corner of the room, there is a stack of clothes and pillows, as well as some additional bark mats. In another corner, there is a wall shelf that contains plates, bowls, and a few pieces of silverware. In yet another, a suitcase, a laundry basket and a few towels sit stacked on top of one another. Flies are prolific, even when no food is present.

The kitchens are in separate grass huts that have wood fire pits placed strategically in the prevailing downwind direction so the cooks are not smoked out of their own kitchen. The floors of the cooking hut are also covered in woven mats, and buckets of cooking supplies line the insides of the hut. Fresh peeled coconut fills a bowl, ready to be added to the large pot of boiling seafood. Outside, a few cooking supplies are kept on a wooden platform high enough off the ground so that animals cannot get to them, but a few large aluminum and stainless pots being used that day are set on the ground, and occasionally, the dogs and chickens go to the pans looking for a good drink. Dogs in Yadua are commonplace, quite thin, and generally a bit neglected. Chickens and their chicks run free without the harassment of the dogs; the dogs know they will get hit if they bother the chickens. The children are all barefoot in mismatched clothes, but they are well fed and seem quite happy. The bathroom facilities are corrugated metal outhouses and are, intelligently, far enough away from the houses so there is no smell. The children have few actual toys, but in one house, a child was playing with Lego look-alikes. Some of the houses have electric lights, and solar panels can be seen scattered throughout the village. Hopefully, that captures the physical description of the village and its houses.

Wilamina Cooking in Her Kitchen

Awaiting Lunch

The Bathroom in the Center

Kate Holding the Smallest Puppy!

What cannot be described nearly as well is how incredibly warm and friendly the people of the village are to us foreigners. I thought the people of American Samoa were friendly, but Fijians are some of the warmest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and being around. When we walked through the village, everyone screamed “bula!” (hello), and all of the kids would gather around to see the strangers who had sailed to their town. The children walked with us everywhere we went, the little girls seeking to hold our hand. When we sat, the kids would touch our skin and hair, and at one point, I looked back and saw two young boys each playing with a long strand of Ariana’s blond hair in their hands!

The adults were just as friendly. We were welcomed into the home of the man second-in-charge, and his niece spoke English quite well. (We met no kids who yet knew English, and even among the adults, very few spoke much English.) I do not know how to spell the niece’s name, but it was similar to: “Wilamina.” We sat and talked about their life on the island. Wilamina was aware of things like automatic gas stovetops, but she also recognized village life meant a much more simplified way of living. She had actually left the island to receive education above and beyond the eight grade levels they have on the island.

We brought with us some candy and Zhu Zhu pets that belonged to Ari and Ryan from years ago to give to the children, and the kids really got a kick out of them, especially when they “talked” to them and scooted across the floor. At one point in our conversations, Wilamina invited us to come back for lunch the next day (Sunday). Church was to start at 10 a.m. and lunch would be at noon.

Kids Playing With the Zhu Zhu Pets We Brought For Them

Ari in a Sarong for Sevusevu

We all accepted the invitation and set out on our way back to our boats. We rounded out the day with cocktails and a game of Uno on Blue Summit before we departed and ate Chicken and Vegetable Korma with Naan bread back on our own boat.

The next morning, we decided to do something we have never done on this entire trip—we went to Church! We felt it was the right thing to do out of respect for the villagers and we also believed it would be a good cultural learning experience for all of us. Once again, we donned long skirts or pants and headed to the island.   After a long dinghy ride through the shallows of the reef, we arrived and immediately had the assistance of a group of children to pull our dinghy up high enough to survive high tide later in the day. I had baked a sour cream, brown sugar coffee cake to bring to lunch, and I brought that along with us to church. Church, which is Methodist in this village, started late. Kids and adults meandered in until about half past ten, and finally the service started. It was in Fijian, except for the brief welcoming one of the parishioners gave to us in English. After 45 minutes, church service was over, and we shook hands with the key church members outside. The minister invited us to his house for a rest, where his wife mixed together a packet of Tang and water and we talked for a little over a half hour. His house was similar to the rest, except that he had a large photo of Jesus, no chair, and multiple, colorful pareos making his house a bit more festive.

We then had to head off for lunch, so we excused ourselves and headed over to Wilamina’s house.   Wilamina was still cooking, so we were able to see how they cook by the fire. They had a boiling pot of these large mussel-type things, and to tenderize them, they essentially beat the heck out of them outside the kitchen hut. If one falls out onto the dirty and grass ground, they just throw it back in. I have to say—these did NOT look appetizing at all, especially knowing it was all getting thrown back into the pot, dirt and all!

A few minutes later, we all settled in on the floor. The spread was large and there were many extended family members present. We each had a bowl of smoked fish and bok choy in a broth, and there were sides of Cassava and Breadfruit that they grew right there on the island. Our Fijian friends eat with no silverware, but we were given spoons; they know we typically eat with silverware. It was a HUGE bowl of food, so Ari and I and Dan and Ryan shared one bowl. Dan and Ryan’s fish was much smaller, a bit more bony, and had the face still in there. Ari and I had a great piece of thick, wonderfully tender white fish that had a lovely flavor. We had small pieces of breadfruit and cassava as well. I was so pleased to see they did their best to keep all of the food covered when folks weren’t taking pieces of it. There were SO MANY flies! I can’t tell you how many flies there were. We were constantly shoeing them away while we ate. When the gigantic, lip-like mussels were set on the table, I have to say, I didn’t partake in them. Blue Summit had one each, and they said they were rubbery. I guess I didn’t feel that adventurous…

Lunch at Wilamina’s House

Wilamina’s Family

The Floor Feast

The Lunch “Table”

Kids Waiting For Lunch

Tenderizing the Big Lip-Like Mussels (and Flicking the One that Fell to the Ground Back into the Pot)

The Dog with the Very Injured Paw

My coffee cake and Kate’s chocolate chip cookies and popcorn were shared amongst the villagers, and we talked about how they celebrate Christmas and New Year’s. In a nutshell, they prepare extra-special foods for Christmas, some family members who live off-island come back, they give gifts, and there is a lot of dancing and Kava drinking on New Year’s Eve. Other than the surroundings, it sure sounds a lot like the U.S.! A little while after lunch, we said our goodbyes and headed back to our boats. The villagers of Yadua all had very little in the way of material possessions, but they sure were welcoming and wanting to share what little they had. It was a wonderful experience to share food and stories with people from a culture so different from our own.

Giving Some of Ariana’s Old Clothes to the Girls

Views from the Top of the Island

Views of Our Boat From the Top of the Island

The winds changed direction, so we chose to head out with Blue Summit to another bay on the same island. There we had Blue Summit over for dinner one night, played some more Uno, and did some great snorkeling. It was some of the best snorkeling we have had since French Polynesia. Wonderful! What isn’t good is that the housing on our GoPro is broken (and our underwater camera was stolen in Tonga), so we could take no underwater photos here. I saw, for the first time, my new favorite fish, which is called an Oriental Sweetlips. It is beautiful! It is black and white horizontally-striped with bright yellow on its back and highlights of yellow on its fins, with a yellow with black polka dotted tail. We have seen so many beautiful fish here, from Clown, Picasso and Titan Triggerfish, to a Humphead Bannerfish, tons of Anemonefish and Clown Fish, multiple types of Parrotfish, Regal Angelfish and Saddleback Butterflyfish, Moorish Idols, Blue Sea Stars, etc. There are so many amazing varieties of fish in these Fijian waters!

My favorite fish (an online photo):

Our time on Yadua was amazing and I am so glad we came here. Next, we were off to Champagne Bay, on the island of Yasawa!

Ariana Getting Caught in a Photo 

We arrived into Fiji on a Friday after a three night sail, specifically into the non-touristy island of Vanua Levu.  We did have a lot of miserable rain the first night, but overall, we had decent wind, and no major seasickness to speak of (thanks to the patch!).

Savusavu 

More Savusavu

The Farmer’s Market (Not Open on Sundays)

World Coconut Day:  A celebration of the coconut for two days straight.  I bought some soaps for gifts and some coconut oil.  

We picked up a mooring our first night at Savusavu Marina because Copra Shed and Waitui had none available.  We celebrated our arrival with dinner and beer/wine after clearing into customs, etc.  Woo hoo!  Fiji!  I already felt better about this destination compared to Tonga, and after having been here about a month, I still feel the same way.  After one night, we were able to get a mooring at Copra Shed, where we stayed until we left for the east side of the island.

The Celebration Beer!

Singers from Australia

One day in Savusavu, Ariana decided to sail Optis with the local kids.  She hasn’t been sailing on a small boat since the BVIs.

Ariana Sailing an Opti

Ariana Sailing with the Fijian Kids

Enjoying Lunch at the Copra Shed Marina.  They REALLY Do Drink Fiji Water Here!!  

While we’ve been in Savusavu (which is one town on Vanua Levu), we celebrated Ariana’s 14th birthday.  We arranged a tour which would include paddleboarding down a river, bareback horseback riding, and a hot spring pool.  One other woman (a doctor from New Zealand working for a few months in Fiji) came with us on the trip.  We set out for a ride upriver, and once we arrived, we loaded onto our paddleboards for the first time.  We have actually never done paddleboarding before so we were looking forward to it.  It was a leisurely paddle down the river.  We had to navigate some very shallow parts along the way, but no one got launched off or anything.  We all managed to handle it very well, and took a swim about half-way down.  We also got to watch some Fijian men spearfish from their boats and they were incredible!  They could throw the spear and catch a fish.  I think I would starve if I had to count on my own ability to land an arrow in the center of a moving fish!

We then had the opportunity to ride horses for a little while.  We have definitely been on better horseback rides, but we also had saddles for those.  For this one, I was put on a pillow on top of the horse.  I didn’t really want the pillow, because how are you supposed to hold on to the horse with your legs and big ‘ole butt?  I found out the pillow was a very bad idea.  I got the horse up to a canter, and the stupid pillow starting coming out up front and I nearly took a nose dive off the front of the horse!  I stopped her, but I seriously was about to lose it; I had about two seconds more and I was a goner!  I couldn’t wait to get that pillow out from under me.  Things were much better after I did get rid of it and I had no further nearly-trampled experiences.

Ariana was a bit disappointed because the owner of her horse didn’t really want her doing more than a walk (I think he was nervous Ari would hurt herself), but at least she got a leisurely ride.  Ryan was happy to have a man holding his horse as they walked.  I don’t think he felt comfortable riding without a saddle.  It definitely IS different!  We had gone on a 2.5 hour horseback ride in Nicaragua prior to this trip (2 years ago) and both of the kids did great going through woods, cantering on the beach, and navigating their horses through barbed-wire fences that lined the backyard fences.  This trip was a let down in that regard, but it was still pretty fun.  Dan, of course, looked like a proper Texan, riding his horse like a pro.  (Lisa, you would be proud!)  We finished the day out by going to a hot springs pool that, in actuality, really seemed like a glorified mud puddle.  Good thing there weren’t any strange brain-eating Amoebas in the water.

Paddleboarding for Ari’s birthday

Paddleboarding down the River

Horseback riding on the beach.  Ari is on the far right, Ryan is on the far left, and Dan and I are in the middle. 

Having a cold coconut after our ride.  These photos were taken on our guide’s camera phone and weren’t the greatest, but beggars can’t be choosers!

The Hot Springs Pond

Ariana’s birthday cupcake!  

We had a bout of terrible, rainy weather, and I was thinking we were going to have Tonga all over again.  But, one day we decided to rent a car despite the rain.  Our intended destination was Labasa, which was about a two-hour drive.  I have to say, it ended up being one of the most surreal days for me.  It felt like we traveled through time, to India decades ago.  So, we left in the rain, drove up the mountain reaching the rain forest which had gorgeous palms I hadn’t seen before and the most amazing scenery, but it was cold and surprise, surprise–still raining.  But then, we went down the other side of the mountain and the scenery changed dramatically.  It was dry, sunny, and completely not what you would expect from Fiji.  We arrived into Labasa and it was like a hectic India.  It was so neat!  After minutes before driving in desolate natural beauty, we then went into a dusty, busy, river town full of Indian-run shops and restaurants.  Aside from the loud music blasting from some of the shops, it felt like we had stepped back in time.  There were some women dressed in traditional Indian clothing that was so ornate and beautiful.  One older woman dressed traditionally stopped to pinch Ryan’s and Ariana’s cheeks and then kissed Ari on the cheek.  I don’t think they saw a lot of blond/blue-eyed kids around Labasa!   And to top it off, we ate at the restaurant at the Grand Eastern Hotel, which had many photos from the early 1900s and the atmosphere seemed like 1970s India (at least from the movies I’ve seen).  With respect to Fiji, Indian people were brought to the island to work in the sugar cane industry in the late 1800s to early 1900s.  Apparently, Solomon Island people were brought to Fiji even earlier to work in the Copra industry (the processing of the coconut).  Learning the history of the places we visit has been pretty fascinating.

Lunch at the Grand Eastern was great, and after walking around for a bit, it was already time to start heading home.

On the Way to Labasa

The Rainforest at the Top of the Mountain

It was Chilly Enough to Wear that Sweatshirt!

Coming back down to the Dry Side.  So Little of the Land Here is Developed.  It is Beautiful!

The East Side of Vanua Levu Island

After nearly two weeks in Savusavu, we took the boat over to the east side of the island, which was about 40 miles away.  (It is a very big island.)  We took a mooring that belonged to Jack Fisher, an icon of the bay.  He is a native Fijian who lives with his family in the bay and has been there for the yachties for a very long time.  It is well known that Jack is available to take cruisers out to the popular dive spots.  Here, you have to have your own gear, or you can go with one particular resort.  But, the way it works–everyone in the bay who wants to dive (or snorkel) pile on one boat (usually a catamaran for the space) and head out to the reef where you anchor.  That boat drags everyone’s dinghies out.  Then you load into your dinghy and, tied together, Jack brings you out to the actual dive site.  They are drift dives, so Jack watches for your bubbles and picks you up when you are done with your dive.  He does this for $10 Fijian dollars, which is $5 USD.  That’s a great deal and he is a very nice man.  One day, we went with a handful of other boats, and because Lian on Changes in Latitude did not want to dive, I was able to use her gear.  That allowed Dan, Ari and me to dive together, which was a nice surprise!  The next day, Dan and Ari went for a dive with a group of other folks, and Ryan and I kayaked around the bay, took a hike along the ridgeline, and swam in the ocean.  We had a nice time while Dan and Ari dove.  Yet another day, we had everyone over to our boat to do another dive, but the conditions were rainy and it looked rough.

Charisma, Changes in Latitude and Sojourn on Do Over Going to the Dive/Snorkel Sites

Frances and Jonathan from Charisma

Owen, Marcel and Anna from Changes in Latitude and Sojourn

Dragging the Dinghies

We aborted and tried again two days later.  It was still rough by white wall and purple wall, but we went for it.  That dive was pretty nice, although the visibility wasn’t as good as some of the other diving we have done (e.g., Fakarava, Niue).  I went with the couple on Changes in Latitude (Lian and Owen) so that Dan and Ari could both do the dive after us.  The following photos certainly don’t show the colors that were evident that far down (we were at about 60-80 feet).

This is how the kids get to school in Vianni Bay!  

Hiking in Vianni Bay

All four of us decided to take the dinghy into the beach in Vianni Bay to go hiking along the ridgeline (and into the woods).  We were met on the shore by four kids (2 of Indian descent and 2 of Fijian descent) who helped us get our dinghy out of the water and climbed a tree with our kids.  We told them we wanted to go hiking and we wanted to donate some textbooks to the school.  The oldest boy said their father was a school teacher and he was excited to take us to his home to meet him.  So, we headed over to his house, which was extremely modest.  They had no furniture.  Most people sit on mats on the floor, which is where their dad was–typing away on his computer!  How funny it is to see a SMALL house with no furniture yet the residents are computer-connected.  After we met their dad and donated the books, we were off for our hike–with four helpful escorts!

Our Four Hiking Guides

The kids showed us the trail and led the way.

Hiking the Ridgeline

What’s funny is that the kids originally did not want to walk the ridgeline because they were told there was a dangerous beast up there.  But, they followed along with us anyway.  As luck would have it, we ran into a mythical creature with sharp teeth and horns coming out of its head.  Okay, no we didn’t, but we did have some magical views.

Views From the Top

The Valley Side

This was a short hike, so we were up for finding another route.  The kids came to the rescue again and told us they would take us on a hike through the forest–where there are fruit trees and killer cows.  Yup.  Killer cows.  We were off on our adventure.

Trying Yet Another Country’s “Guava”  The Little Girl Climbed the Tree to Knock Down Some Fruit for Us

We walked for about 30 minutes or so and arrived at a house that had farm animals, including cows, pigs, and chickens.  We said “bula!” (hello) and met some of the family members who live there.  Apparently, one of the kids’ friends lived in this house too.  They had a pig tied by the hoof so he couldn’t go too far, and the kids got to pet him.  Here, pigs are really not viewed as pets; I think they are mostly ignored by the kids unless us foreigners are excited by them (like I am!).  Well, as we were leaving to go back to the beach, one of their cows got out of its fenced pasture.  The kids said:  “don’t run.”  So we didn’t.  No sense in getting mauled by some killer cow out in the middle of nowhere!  Maybe there really are killer cows there.  🙂   The woman ran down and ushered the cow back into the pasture and we were on our way again.  All in all, it was a fun hike, and it was made even more fun hearing about the kids’ perspectives of the island legends.  Interestingly, the two Indian boys were here living only with their father.  Their mother and sister were living elsewhere.  The family had lived in New Zealand and the dad took a position teaching on the island.  It was nice to see kids who played outdoors all day rather than sitting inside hooked to electronics…

The Family who Lived at the End of Our Hike

Their Pig

Back to Savusavu

After Vianni Bay, we headed back to Savusavu.  Dan realized he needed to complete several credits for his CME (continuing medical education) requirements so we needed to have some strong Internet.  I guess we can’t be totally “off the grid” since that would mean Dan’s medical license would lapse!  When we got back to town, K1W1 Beanz was there!  We ended up having dinner with them our first night back and had a good time.  Another time, we all went to curry night at Waitui Marina.  There was another boat of kids there as well, so all of them sat and hung out together.  Ariana was the oldest and she is definitely getting to that age where she often would rather hang out with the adults, but she likes the kids on K1W1 Beanz so she chose kids that night.

Kids at Dinner

Music at Curry Night

Photos in Savusavu

Fully provisioned, we were off to Namena Island (about 20-25 miles away), where we planned to do some diving.  The night before departing, Kate and Steve from Blue Summit came into Savusavu and we had dinner with them.  It was great catching up with them; we hadn’t seen them since Tahiti!

I will do a separate post for Namena, but as luck would have it, we were there for a few nights and ended up breaking the roller for our anchor chain on our bow.  So…we ended up back in Savusavu on a mooring so we could fix it.  We have an awful lot of anchoring to do so we needed to get our spare on there.

Upon arrival back into Savusavu, we had the most warm (and loud!) welcome from Nina and Paw Paw.  We hadn’t seen Nina since Tonga and we hadn’t seen Paw Paw since American Samoa.  We were so excited to see them!  We had dinner at the marina with Steve, Lynda, Peter, Karen, Roy and Elaine.  It was a fun night.  Interestingly, this island has very good and very inexpensive restaurant food.  The Indian and Thai curries are good, they have fresh rotis they serve with the Indian curry, there is a religious Korean restaurant that serves great dishes, and they have passable pizza.  At one restaurant (Decked Out), the kids and I ordered the boneless Indian chicken curry, and it came with a roti, white rice, Dahl soup, and a spicy vegetable dish (like pumpkin).  Dan had the Thai Chicken Curry.  We shared a large Fiji Gold Beer and the kids had Cokes.  We also bought a large Fiji water.  The total price for everything was $27!  You can’t beat that!  And it was so good…  I know the main touristy island is much more expensive so we may as well enjoy the surprisingly low prices here.

We have been in Fiji for over a month already and we have so many more islands to see. If we get the rivets we need, we are leaving tomorrow.  (Such is the cruiser’s life; you never know if you can get the parts you need!)  We will eventually go down the Yasawas and then over to the main island (Viti Levu) after stopping in one bay on the western side of this island.  Then, we’re off to New Zealand!

Whales!!   Fakarava was sharks, Mo’orea was stingrays, and Tonga was whales. We sure did see a lot of whales. Each year, whales come here to mate, give birth, and get their calves ready to travel the oceans. Apparently, the females will lose 75% of their body weight while they are here.   While we were in Tonga, we saw whales breaching on our way to an anchorage called Hunga Haven and on our way back. We had a whale come into our anchorage in Port Maurelle and in Avalau. In Avalau, Ryan and I were on the beach while Dan and Ariana were working on Physics, and I saw a whale immediately behind our boat from the beach.  I screamed to Dan and Ari, but of course, the ONE time I am off the boat, it surfaces right there.  That happened in Niue too.  The dive captain apparently tried calling us to tell us there was a whale playing on our stern, but we had no idea.

Vava’u, Tonga

Here in Tonga, every time we left the main harbor, it seems, we saw whales. The negative of that is that private vessels are not supposed to come within 300 meters of a whale. If you’re in an anchorage and they come up to your boat, obviously, that is fine, but you are also not supposed to jump in the water with them either, even if you are at anchor and accustomed to swimming off of your boat. However, if you are a tour operator whale watching boat, you can go much closer to the whales and you can toss your tourists into the water to swim with them.

This is a still shot from video I took coming back from Hunga Haven Anchorage.

I’m fairly certain the expats who live on Tonga (and there are many of them) are the folks who lobbied for these whale “rules.” The tour operators charge $200 U.S. per head to come out on their boats to see and swim with the whales. In essence, they want to force private boat owners to take their tours. In my opinion, it is a racket, given it costs more to see the whales for a few hours than it does to do a two-tank scuba dive (where much more expensive gear is required) and they don’t guarantee you will actually be able to swim with a whale (or see one for that matter).  Such is life!

Tonga Sunset

In Tonga, many of the restaurants and “resorts” (which are very small) are owned by expats rather than Tonga natives. I am not sure why someone would settle here (maybe there is a lack of taxes?), but I wouldn’t be able to live here long-term! Other than the whales, perhaps some snorkeling and diving, and the handful of decent restaurants, there really isn’t all that much more. Hiking is limited and there aren’t too many sites to see here either.  Also, many areas are quite dirty and there is NO veterinarian on the whole island, and the dogs, especially, are in very sad shape.  That being said, it seems the ex-pats who do live here are active in the community and all seem to know each other quite well. They seem to make the place more livable by having events at some of the restaurants on different nights of the week. For example, there is a Thursday trivia night at Bounty Bar, Monday Pizza Night and Taco Tuesday at The Aquarium restaurant, Sunday movie night at the Dancing Rooster, Friday sailing night and BBQ at Mango Restaurant.

Overall, Vava’u was not the most organized place.  Often, they ran out of fuel, had a shortage of eggs, and the expats often asked those going to American Samoa to get yachties headed for Tonga to bring them things that weren’t available in the Kingdom.

Reef outside of Reef Resort!

The Reef Resort Dining Room and Verandah

Below is Blue Lagoon next to Hunga Haven.  It is not “The” Blue Lagoon, but we are going to the actual Blue Lagoon (from the Movie) later on here in Fiji!

Some of the beaches on the out-islands are pretty, and the diving is pretty good. We did a dive outside the pass at Hunga Haven (one day, Ari and Dan went and another day, Dan and I went). The visibility was pretty good and there were swim-throughs and crevices, which made for varied underwater topography, but the fish were average in abundance and variety. Ariana had a good time on that dive because she enjoyed the tight spaces she had to go through while following her dad. (That IS exciting as a diver!)

Local Island Kids

In Port Maurelle, Emily and Isabel from Blue Raven came over to see if Ari wanted to kayak into the beach with them. They are close to Ari’s age, and Ari went along and hung out with them for a few hours. She found out that the girls on Blue Raven knew the boys on Widago and K1W1 Beanz, so they already had that in common. The next day, after Ariana and the girls on Blue Raven did school, and then both Ari and Ryan went to their boat to look at the movies they had each made, and to play games. Dan and I kayaked to the beach, walked around for a while, and met up with the parents on Blue Raven (Brian and Nicole). They ended up coming to our boat for happy hour, and then we went over to their boat for dinner that night. We had a really good time. We ended up trading an almost full bottle of Flor de Cana Rum for a handful of fresh mahi mahi when the New Zealand (and Italian and Canadian) whale researchers from Sea Runner came over to Blue Raven. Sea Runner had gotten drone footage of the whale who came into our anchorage that morning, and they were willing to share some of that video—which shows the whale right next to Blue Raven (who was right behind us in the anchorage). The next day, Blue Raven left for Fiji, and we will likely catch up with them again while we are here in Fiji.

Me in a wetsuit in Swallows Cave.  We snorkeled through here and climbed up to explore.

A Million Fish in Swallows Cave!  It was beautiful in there and the Kids enjoyed Climbing up and Exploring in the Cave as well as the water.

Below is a short movie of Dan snorkeling through the fish in Swallow’s Cave…

mvi_7454

The Aquarium Restaurant had movie night one night and it turned out that they had someone from National Geographic (Abraham Joffe) there who had just finished filming the Tongan Islands (including Swallows Cave and the whales).  We got to see the not officially complete movie he and his team are creating for National Geographic.  We talked with him afterwards and his job seems like a lot of fun.  I can imagine Ariana doing something like that in the future!

Another night, we went to movie night at the Dancing Rooster (The Mummy was the movie), and had some good food.  We ended up eating there again a few times.

We left the anchorage to go to the moorings off of the Tongan Beach Resort. There, we planned to spend the day at their pool, I was to have a massage, and Dan and I were to celebrate our 19^th anniversary over dinner at their restaurant. Well, the pool was no longer in service, it was rainy, and the Internet was slower than you could ever imagine.  Plus, our anniversary dinner was mediocre at best. It turned out not to be the best day, but that massage sure was great…

Pretty Flowers.

Dan and I decided to celebrate a “do over” (hee, hee, hee) of our anniversary at another small resort called The Reef Resort. Dinner was much better there, and the weather was pretty darn good.  It was a lovely evening.  Each year, the kids make our numbers that represent how long we’ve been married.  The one is compliments of Ryan and the 9 is the Ariana’s artwork.

19 years!

Another night, Dan and I decided to go out to the Bounty Bar.  We went for the transvestite show that turned out to be quite fun!  The only bad thing was that my favorite camera was stolen–which I am not happy about because it’s not like I can just reorder it on Amazon!  It was my small, waterproof Canon that I took pretty much everywhere I went.  Luckily, I had downloaded my photos a few days before that so I didn’t lose many.  Another $300 down the drain!

Back to the Bounty Bar.  All throughout Polynesia, you can find people who consider themselves a third gender.  Here is a description of third gender as it appears in Samoan culture from Wikipedia:

“Fa’afafine are third-gender people of Samoa, American Samoa and the Samoan diaspora. A recognized gender identity/gender role since at least the early 20th century in Samoan society, and some theorize an integral part of traditional Samoan culture, fa’afafine are male at birth, and explicitly embody both masculine and feminine gender traits, fashioned in a way unique to this part of the world. Their behavior typically ranges from extravagantly feminine to mundanely masculine.^[1]Traditionally, if a family had more boys than girls or not enough girls to help with women’s duties about the house, male children would be chosen to be raised as fa’afine. ^[2]  It has been estimated that 1-5% of Samoans identify as fa’afafine.”

It is interesting and refreshing to me that people here seem to have little to no prejudice against those folks who choose to live their own way.

Okay, I think that about summarizes Tonga well enough.  We then had a three night sail to Fiji, which is where we are now.  I will update more soon!

Isn’t this Piglet adorable?  It matches its mom!

Ariana on the Boat at Anchor in Front of the Reef Resort

Our Hike Up to The Observation Area (in the Rain–Again!)

The View from the Top

Another View…

So, we arrived into Fiji a few days ago.  We had a three night passage with rain the first day, and clear, but somewhat rough seas the second day.  I wore a patch and was not seasick.  Ariana and Ryan took Stugeron and they were somewhat tired, but not sick.

Internet is so much better here than Tonga, and we even have Internet on our boat (at least at this marina mooring).  I still need to update Vava’u, Tonga (which I will do this week), but here is the update for right now in Fiji:

(1) Ariana turns 14 tomorrow!  We are surprising her with a day that includes stand-up paddleboarding down a river and horseback riding on the beach.  We have to be up and at the marina at 7 a.m. for pick-up, which pretty much is the earliest we have had to be anywhere for quite some time.  (Yes, I know.  We are spoiled.)

(2) My favorite camera was “stolen” in Tonga.  Dan and I went out one night and I accidentally left my camera in the bathroom.  Five minutes later, I realized it and it was gone.  The owner of the Bounty Bar (Laurence) was very upset and made an announcement to return it, but not surprisingly, no one did.  This was my small, waterproof camera that I used for about 95% of the photos I have taken on this trip.  It is a terrible disappointment because I can’t replace it out here.  I am hoping to get a new one in New Zealand.  In the meantime, I have the GoPro and our Sony DLSR camera, but the latter is bulky and can’t get wet.  There is one good thing though–I had JUST cleared all of the photos (about 700 of them) off of the camera only two days before it was taken.

(3) The weather in Fiji, so far, is SO much better than Tonga.  I am loving that.  It was downright chilly in Tonga and made me not want to get in the water!

(4) We are going to be doing a lot of diving as soon as we leave Savusavu.  The diving in the out-islands here is supposed to be some of the best in the world, and superior to that of the southern Fijian Islands.

(5)  We need to get Kava root.  When we go to the smaller islands, we need to bring it with us as a gift for the village chief so we can be welcomed to their village.

(6)  Right now, we are off to get some good Indian curry!  Yummy.

For this passage, Ryan, Ariana and I took Stugeron, an oral anti-seasickness medication. I still felt nauseous, had a headache, and had the motivation of a slug, but at least I didn’t physically get sick on this passage. Neither did the kids, so that was great. It didn’t help that we were back upwind which makes for a more bumpy ride. (Most of the time we were 45-60 degrees off the wind.) I was, once again, happy to arrive at our destination. Surprise, surprise.

I am going to shorten this island to “potato” in my description because it is too long to type all the time! Also, many cruisers actually call it “new potato” rather than learn how to say the name (which is pronounced: “New-a-toe-poo-tah–poo). This was another of our destinations I had never heard of. I knew of Tonga, but specific islands on Tonga or even where the heck Tonga was? No way. Potato was due south of American Samoa, about 160 miles.

The View of the Anchorage from Land

We arrived on a Sunday and stayed onboard to relax and have dinner because we knew we couldn’t check in to the country on a Sunday anyway. The next morning, we hitchhiked into the customs check-in and learned they would come to our boat as a group at 3 p.m. that day. We were, however, allowed to exchange some money while we were in town. The bank was a glorified white painted shed with a card table. It was so funny. We exchanged our money and were brought back to our dinghy by Sia, who worked in the office.

The Niuatoputapu Bank (Yes, seriously)

At 3 p.m. the customs and health officials met us at the dock and came to our boat via our dinghy. We provided snacks and drinks (as is expected) and our boat was inspected. They looked at our produce but luckily, did not take anything. We were not allowed to bring any food to shore, however. Sia had told Dan ahead of time to hide our alcohol because one of the customs officials liked to find a reason to confiscate alcohol from boaters because, well, he enjoyed drinking it. The kids and I scurried to hide a few bottles of rum (Ariana thought Ryan’s room would be good for that), and a bottle of coconut liquor and vodka (that I mostly have for vodka cream pasta sauce if you can believe that!) was left in our salon in a cabinet. The man was surprised by generally unhappy to see that that was all we had onboard. Apparently, the island is a dry one, so he must really be really motivated to obtain what he could get away with!

The Officials (The One Sitting next to Ari is the Official who Wanted Photos of our Palengi Daughter to Show his Twin Kids)

Another official wanted photos of each of our kids with him so he could show his children—twins. That was unexpected too. He was very nice though. After check-in, we decided to head to land to go for a walk. We learned from an Australian boat in the anchorage that the King of Tonga would be coming that Wednesday. He only visits the out-islands once a year for a big cultural celebration. How lucky was that?! We decided to stay at least until Wednesday for the event. It is not every day that you get to see a King…

Our few days in Potato were fairly uneventful. There were no restaurants, and although I heard there was a VERY small store, I never saw one anywhere. We interacted with a lot of the kids on the island (and passed out candy to most kids we saw), and did a bit of walking around the island. I most liked that pigs and piglets were allowed to roam free. You would see a whole family of pigs coming out of the woods and heading across the street. The little piglets were so cute!

Pigs Everywhere!  Pig and Piglet

Pig in the Graveyard

The Town

A Typical House (Most seem to be Nearly Identical Shed-sized Houses)

This Family Decorated Their House to Make it Unique

This, apparently, is a safe location for a tsunami.  Really?  A bit rickety if you ask me…

This military ship came prior to the King’s arrival.  It had his SUV and the King and Queen Chairs for the Ceremony.

Island Kids we Passed Out Candy to–very sweet!

The common mode of transportation was hitchhiking and most people would pick you up if they had room in their vehicles.

Finally, it was Wednesday, and we ended up catching a ride into town after walking a part of the way with some of the other boaters getting a ride from a local family. We squeezed into the back of a small SUV and pretty much looked like a clown car at that point.

The highlight of our stay here was the King’s visit. Even though it had some very boring moments, we were able to see, up close and personal, the authentic Tongan celebration of their King. The locals call non-Tongan visitors “Palangi” and I don’t believe it is meant to be derogatory; it’s just a way to differentiate us tourists from Tongans. But, us Palangis were able to be as close to the King as the locals. And the coolest part? There were only 12 Palangis on the whole island, including our family of four! Being on a pretty unpopulated island for the King’s celebration was definitely better than experiencing the festival on a large island. (He later visited Vava’u, which is much more populated with more ex-pats and tourists, and you could not get very close to the King and Queen in that environment.)   We were able to participate in the agricultural show, walk around the grounds like everyone else, and there seemed to be no concern at all about outsiders at this event. The King had his military security personnel, and at one point, I thought I saw one of the military men take out a rifle. Talk about disconfirmed assumptions; it was an umbrella! His duty was to keep the King dry while he was walking during the rain showers that day.

The Day of the King’s Visit

School Kids Waiting to Welcome the King and Queen

More School Kids

Kids Getting Ready for their Performance

Locals Waiting for the Celebration

Dancing to the Music

A Little Boy Waiting for the King

The King and Queen

The King (Without Any Camera Zoom).  They let us be very close to their King. The King is Wearing the Light Blue Shirt and Traditional Ta’ovala (skirt with burlap-type cloth wrapped around).

Another One of the King and Queen (in the background)

There were a lot of speeches, singing, dancing and school children performed for the King and Queen, and at one point, the King and Queen walked around the agricultural grounds to look at all of the food and handicrafts of the locals. There were tons of handmade fans, straw rugs, dead fish of all kinds, lobsters, a small shark, and very sadly, a turtle. Ariana said she saw the turtle move and I dismissed it (probably as a defense mechanism), but when Sue on the Australian boat told us later that the turtle was still alive, I felt terrible. How could anyone keep a turtle out in the blazing sun just to suffer? I can’t imagine killing them to begin with given they’re endangered, but this is a different country with different cultural practices, so I get it. But to make an animal suffer? I see no point in that.

The Handicrafts and Agricultural Goods that are Being Shown to the King

This Turtle was Alive; It was Very Disturbing to Me.

The day after the King’s visit, we dinghied over to a small island we heard was good for snorkeling, but we could not see any good reef to snorkel in. We later learned that when you go at low tide, you can walk out to an amazing snorkeling wall. We didn’t go at low tide and that was our problem. So instead, we had wooden stick fights and tried to make a wooden shelter on the beach. Good thing we weren’t on Survivor because we gave that up pretty quickly. We, once again, had dinner on the boat and watched a family movie (we do that a lot).

A View of Our “Day” Island

Stick Fight!

Our Lean-To

The next day, we were off to Vava-u, which, thankfully, was only an overnight passage.

Today, we leave Tonga to head to Savu Savu, Fiji, which will be a three night passage.  I am not looking forward to the sail, but I am looking forward to Fiji.  When we hit Fiji, we will have a handful of overnight passages to the various islands, but this is possibly our second-to-last big passage.  We will be sailing to New Zealand after we cover the Fiji Islands.  Unfortunately, I was unable to update the Tongan Islands because I wasn’t able to upload the photos we took.  Hopefully, Fiji will have stronger Internet.  We shall see!

Talk to you soon!

Well, we had a short passage (two and a half days) to American Samoa and it was absolutely terrible. Ari, Ryan and I were very seasick, especially Ari and me. We tried not using a Scopalamine patch since we are low on them and they cause pretty significant side effects (Ari and I both get chest pressure just left of the center of our chest and some blurred vision) but the trade-off was terrible seasickness. I was miserable and Ari was too.

Then we finally arrived into American Samoa. Shall I start with the negatives and finish with the positives? I think I will so I can finish on a positive note! Check-in at American Samoa was terribly inefficient and was not made easier despite the fact we are also American. The harbor was remarkably dirty—absolutely disgusting—so we could not make water the whole time we were there. In fact, we had to fill jerry jugs with water from onshore to be able to shower, since we knew our tank water wouldn’t last long enough given cooking, washing dishes, etc. That meant cold showers all week. (Even when we make our own water, we only have hot showers if the starboard engine has been running that day or if we run the generator.) We also changed Lucky’s tank water in the open ocean before we got into the dirty bay. The smell in the bay was often disgusting. They have two fish canneries (one is Starkist) and the smell is nauseating downwind. A few nights I actually was awoken by the terrible smell. I will never forget how horrible that smell was!

That Bright Yellow Building is McDonald’s

The Main Street

The Beach in the Downtown Area

Another negative was the terrible holding in the bay. It was the worst holding we have come across. We held well for a little under a week, but one day after being out all day, we returned to see our boat in a completely different place, side by side with a monohull, attached to the gigantic, rusty ship mooring. That’s always a little disconcerting, to say the least. From what we understand from Paw Paw, a monohull in front of us dragged back and loosened our anchor. (They also were not on their boat.) Then we started dragging back—apparently getting closer to reef. A few guys from other boats came over, hopped onboard and started our engines. They could not pull up our anchor because we keep the compartment with the windlass control locked because we have our Parasailor in there, etc. So, these men had to power forward dragging our anchor. Apparently, our anchor then got wrapped around the monohull’s anchor, so they then dragged both of our boats a bit to get to the ship mooring, where they tied us. We were tied up next to Vasco (a Bulgarian 78 year old who was sailing around the world solo on a boat he and his late brother built). We ended up staying a few more nights on the ship mooring tied to Vasco’s boat, but when the wind got slack, we would hit the big ship mooring. Dan and Vasco were out there trying to keep us off, and we ended up bending (and breaking) our boat hook and causing slight damage to our bow above the waterline. We are going to have to get that repaired in Fiji. Bummer. In hindsight, we should have gotten off that mooring and taken our chances with our anchor again. Vasco was so nice. I made him a breakfast burrito one morning and he made us all rice pudding the next day. Dan also helped him get up his mast for a repair he needed to do and when Elaine and Roy from Paw Paw came over one evening, Vasco joined us as well for a few beers. I can’t imagine sailing alone at that age (or any age for that matter!).

A House in American Samoa

A View of the Trash:  There was A LOT of Trash

The Fishing Equipment.  For Some Reason, I Like This Photo

Now for the positives of American Samoa. The people were, by far, the friendliest and most helpful we have come across in our travels. It wasn’t just because we were American either; Roy and Elaine reported the same thing (and they are from Ireland/South Africa originally). Also, the provisioning was wonderful. Although I found no turkey bacon or soy sausage, we were ecstatic that we could find things that are really only available in the U.S. or that we have not seen in months. We found great canned soups, Cheeze Its, mint Oreos, Bella Vita Breakfast bars, convenience foods such as pre-made Veggie lasagna, black beans (woo hoo—it’s been MONTHS!), refried beans, bagels, fresh ravioli (but then frozen) and Amy’s Organic Frozen Burritos (for the kids). We were like kids in a candy shop.

The buses in American Samoa were fantastic and fun. They were essentially built by hand with wood on a truck frame and each driver would decorate them differently. Most drivers played common American music remade into a reggae style fairly loudly, and one driver had a huge TV where he showed Ultimate Fighting Club matches. (I preferred the music.) These buses would take you nearly anywhere you wanted to go. We took the buses to go shopping (and a cab back for our big provisioning), we took the bus to the movies (to see “The Secret Life of Pets” with the kids), we took the bus to Carl’s Junior/Green Burrito for burritos and Tropical Pizza (which was really Pizza Hut), and another day we went to the Army Reserve Center to shop at the Exchange and for an appointment to get our retiree Military Identification Cards. We were unable to update our IDs before we left because Dan was still essentially active duty (on terminal leave) up until December. So, we were pleasantly surprised when we learned American Samoa had an Army Reserve Center and they could make us our IDs by appointment. If, for some reason, we now want to take a Space A flight from Europe home, we need to have the most updated IDs to do so.

American Samoa with one of the Crazy Buses In the Background

We Could Get Our New Military IDs!

American Samoa had a McDonald’s. What’s funny is that we never eat McDonald’s for lunch or dinner at home (the kids have actually never eaten a McDonald’s hamburger), but we sometimes would get McDonald’s breakfast if we were on a road trip, etc. We eat there, on average, about 4 times a year. Well, in American Samoa, I think we ate there for breakfast five times in nine days! Crazy. Oh, and the kids also ordered a large fry to share on another day. I guess you want things more when they are scarce to you. Also, we always have that “convenience” when we are in the U.S., but almost nothing is convenient traveling out here, so I guess we just wanted to take advantage of it while we had it.

Another day, the kids and I went to the small museum they have in Pago Pago. I think it took us 30 minutes to go through the entire museum, but it was quaint and we learned a lot about the herbs they traditionally used to cure ailments (including “supernatural” ailments), we learned about their tradition of tattooing, and we saw the very small moon rocks (in acrylic) that Richard Nixon sent to American Samoa after our (America’s) moon landing. They were very tiny and maybe not so climactic but worthwhile nonetheless!

A Carving Outside the Museum

Moon Dirt or Rocks

The island of American Samoa has an amazing colony of large bats that hang in the trees across from the Port. They were very interesting to watch, especially at dusk when they became really active. We learned from a local man out for a walk that the bats settled here in this busy part of Pago Pago because they know that in that location, they are safe. We asked “from what?” and he said that even though it is illegal, the locals will shoot and eat them if they are in the less populated areas. Interesting. Bat stew?

While we were in American Samoa, we also took a bus to a trailhead in the National Park system. The hike turned out to be an interesting day. Apparently, you can either walk 3.2 miles to the summit and then come back the same way or continue the 2 miles up onto the narrow ridgeline and on to a town on the other side of the ridge. We talked to a group of locals who had just completed the hike. They went up to the first point and came back to the start and said it was a nice, tiring hike. We asked them if the bus goes to the town on the other side of the ridge, and she said they only run every two or three hours over there and they may not go that late in the day. We kept that information in our back pocket and started up the trail. About 30 minutes in, it started to pour. It never stopped! It got lighter a few times, but that rain was persistent. When we finally reached the first point, on one side of the bay we had no view at all. On the other side, we could see a portion of the view. This area at the top used to have a tram that I think the military built prior to WWII for some strategic reason. All of that was gone now, but they had a few structures still standing at this ridgeline. We ate the sandwiches we brought standing at a high worktable that had a rusty covering over it while the rain dripped down. After lunch, we asked the kids if they wanted to continue on to the town or turn back. We told them they may not have any buses over there, so we knew we might get “stuck,” but the kids wanted to continue on versus go back the same way we came. I think they were partially motivated by the fact the distance was shorter if we continued on, but that turned out to be misleading. Although it was a shorter distance, when you continue on with the hike, you spend a lot of time using ropes to go down these “ladders” and up others. We went up and down about 20-25 of these in the pouring rain. They had no room for any switchbacks in this area because we were actually traveling on the very top of the ridgeline. At some points, on either side of us, it was sheer cliff, but thankfully, the areas have very thick foliage so you knew that if you fell, you wouldn’t fall far without the dense trees and bushes stopping you. It turned out to be a very interesting hike, and the kids really enjoyed it. I was complaining (at least, on the inside), but they seemed not to care that we were soaking wet, cold, and trudging through muddy lands. I must be getting old. Anyway, we finally emerged out of the forest into a village of houses. The only person we saw was a power worker who was called out to fix something in the village on this rainy day. He looked at us like we came from the moon.   He asked us if we had done the hike and when we said yes, he asked: “All the way from the other side?” We said yes, and he asked: “Wasn’t it really muddy?” We said yes once again, but I think the mud on our legs was the giveaway. When he was over his shock, we asked him if there were going to be any more buses here. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. Nope. No more buses…uh oh. But then this man called over to his friend in a pick-up truck (who literally was the only car on the road), and he asked his friend if he would drive us back to the harbor in the back of his truck and he agreed. Great luck! We jumped in the back of his truck and had the pouring rain pelting us in our faces as we traveled through the mountain roads back to Pago Pago, which was a good, solid 20-minute drive. In hindsight, it was a really good thing we caught a ride because there is no way we could have walked it and there didn’t seem to be much in the way of civilization in the village (no stores, phones, or businesses), so I am not sure we would have found a way to call a taxi to where we were.   Heck, I’m not sure any of us even knew the name of the town! When we finally reached our dinghy, we were so cold and it was still pouring rain. It was so wonderful to finally get back to our boat to clean up and get warm. Overall, it turned out to be an adventurous day. We slept well.

The Very Wet Hike!

There were so Many of these to Climb (Up and Down) Because we were on a Mountain Ridge.

Some of These Were High Up and Slippery!

Finally!  The Village We Were Hiking To.

Drowned Rats in the Back of a Pick-Up Truck

One of the main reasons we chose to go to American Samoa was so that we could pick up the kids’ school materials for the 2016-2017 academic year. If we had all of that stuff shipped to anywhere else, it would have cost a ton more in shipping and we would have had to pay hundreds of dollars in duty fees. Thanks to John and Stacey, we received all of our packages through regular, USPS Priority Mail. I couldn’t get a replacement battery for my Mac though. Batteries have to come via cargo ship rather than airplanes. If I knew what I know now, I would have had the company send it via ship to American Samoa back when I was in Niue (which is when I had most of the other packages sent), but I thought my brother would be able to send it more easily. You live and you learn!

We saved a lot of money on the kids’ school supplies this year. I bought several of Ari’s courses and Ryan’s curriculum on Ebay second-hand. For Ryan, we ended up getting Calvert’s 6^th grade with Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra for Math. For Ariana, we ended up getting an Oak Meadow Biology Course, an Oak Meadow Language and Composition Course, a “Great Courses” World History set (DVDs with a Californian history/theater teacher who plays the part in his lectures, and a workbook, etc.), another World History DVD collection put out by the BBC, Teaching Textbooks for Algebra 2, and for both of the kids, I purchased Wordly Wise for their grades, and Spanish Workbooks that I will use to supplement my teaching of Spanish.   Ryan finished school this year on time, but Ariana took longer. She has finished most of her work, including Geometry, but she is still finishing up her physics course (with Dan’s assistance).   Two more chapters out of 20 left!

After about 9 days, it was time to leave American Samoa. We had our materials, we had re-provisioned our boat, and it was time to leave that dirty harbor. Our next passage would be a day and a half and we were headed to Niuatoputapu in the Kingdom of Tonga!

Niue

A photo of Niue Island

Craig on Watch from Palmerston to Niue

After a three night sail from Palmerston, we arrived into Niue, an island that is a New Zealand protectorate and uses New Zealand currency (which is a great exchange rate for the US dollar right now!). Niue was such a pleasant surprise. I was expecting little from the island and ended up enjoying it immensely. In a nutshell, we spent time scuba diving, hiking, exploring caves (via land and water), playing mini-golf, and eating Rotis at Gill’s Indian Restaurant. As soon as we were cleared into the country, we headed to the Yacht Club for a cold beer.   Here, we hung out and met a couple from New Zealand who were there on vacation (Ann and Barry from Dunedin), and then continued on for dinner at a Japanese/Pizza restaurant (strange combination served there) with Craig. We had a fun night!

Waiting patiently for dinner–we were hungry!

One interesting thing about Niue was that you had to use a crane to pull your dinghy out of the water every time you went ashore. Even the dive boats used this system each time they took people out diving. This is how it would work: We would motor over to the pier, Dan would let us all out to go up the ladder, we would grab the crane rope and give it to him so he could pull the hook to just above the dinghy, we would grab the crane control that would lower and raise the crane, Dan would hook up the crane to the dinghy lines, he would then hop out of the dinghy and we would lift it up and he would pull the rope that would pull the dinghy over the land. We would then lower the dinghy onto a handheld trailer and park it in a dinghy parking space. We couldn’t lift Dan IN the dinghy with the crane because the weight of the dinghy was not balanced with the (three) lines that connected to the crane. Over the course of the week we were there, we realized this system was not as irritating as it seemed, because it became a relatively quick process once you got it down. Unless…

–A local who is trying to be helpful yet knows nothing about boating (or physics) decides to keep control of the crane lever when you’re trying to pull up your dinghus. Yup, that can be terrible, as we found out… And of course, it had to happen on a day when Dan had a backpack with Ari’s and Ryan’s computers in it, so it was especially important to be careful. Mr. Local Man, however, did not bother to ask: “Do you want me to lift you in your dinghy?” or even: “Are you ready to be lifted?” Instead, Mr. Local Man just started lifting our dinghy out of the water without Dan expecting it, and as soon as the dinghy rose above the water, the imbalance threw Dan out. Luckily, Dan had the rope that swung the crane, so he was able to keep the backpack (mostly) out of the water and I was able to grab the backpack quickly. The backpack was wet, but miraculously, the computers stayed dry. Patagonia must make their packs water resistant; thank you Patagonia! Ryan had to turn off his touch screen because it was acting up, but otherwise, the computers survived. But, our lunchbox started floating away, Dan’s only pair of sunglasses fell to the bottom of the water, and Dan was now soaking wet.   To make a long story short, Dan went back to Do Over to get a mask and snorkel (and dry clothes) so he could find his sunglasses. After about 40 minutes, he managed to find his sunglasses and a headlamp (that was still working)! It was amazing that he found his sunglasses, quite frankly. It was rough, the tide was going out and he had to anticipate where the current would have taken a lightweight item like a pair of sunglasses. He and Ariana finally arrived at the Yacht Club, fully successful, and all was better…

The crane for lifting dinghies and boats and the dinghy parking spaces

A Different Crane was Used to Load this Big Boy into the Water as a Transport from the Supply Ship that was Coming

(As an aside, salt water is a VERY harsh environment for all electronics. We’ve had to bury a tablet, two Kindles, and our IPad has perpetual touch screen issues. And the newest update is that Ryan’s T and Y keys on his computer work only sometimes after their temporary Niue dip.)

A beer at The Mini Golf Restaurant

The View (of Our Boat) from the Mini-Golf Restaurant

Niue is very deep right off the shore, so we could dive right underneath our boat. But, Niue had a bunch of really cool dive sites we couldn’t find on our own, so we decided to go with one of the dive shops on a dive called “Dome Cave.” The dive involved swimming down 10 meters (about 30 feet) and then swimming into a cave for about 30 meters (90 feet) and then you surface inside land, in a cave with stalagmites and stalactites. This particular dive guide also lets everyone take off their gear and explore the cave for a while before descending back into the water to continue the dive.  This dive sounded very unique, even for people who have been diving for a long time. We knew Ariana would do great on this dive and we really wanted to be able to do the dive with her. The other dive shop said they could not take her because it was a cave and she was 13, but apparently there is some ambiguity in the Padi rules depending on whether it is a truly dark cave with no visibility of the entrance/exit versus a cave where the entrance/exit remains visible. In this cave, you could always see the entrance/exit in the water (the blue light of the ocean glowed), so it technically was not enclosed “cave diving.” And not to be those old people who say: “back in MY day” but the rules have changed over time for reasons that most likely pertain to money. Dan was certified to dive at 13, just like Ariana. At that time, 13 was the youngest you could be to become a certified diver, but once you were certified, you had no restrictions because of your age. You took the whole course just like an adult, you had to understand the physics of it just like an adult, and you had to demonstrate physically that you could do all that you needed to do to be a competent diver—just like an adult. Ariana had to do this too last year in the BVIs; it was a full course, just like an adult. However, on her certification, she is now considered a “junior” diver until she hits a magical age (I think the magical age is 15 now.)

Also, when I became certified 19 years ago, a recreational certified diver could dive to 100 feet. They have now changed it so that an adult recreational diver is supposedly only allowed to go to 60 feet for the first certification level, but of course, you can sign up for a separate costly course that would permit you to go deeper. Funny how things change.

The Trees on Niue That Look Less Tropical

Okay, now that I’m off my soapbox, I’ll get back to our dive. As we were riding over to the dive site in the powerboat, we saw a whale spout. When we got to the dive site, as soon as I rolled off the side of the boat into the water, I looked around under the water and saw a whole pod of dolphins swimming away. Sadly, by the time Dan and Ari were in the water, they were gone, so only the New Zealand college student (the only other diver besides our guide) and I saw them. The dive was pretty incredible. It was just as described where you descend and then go forward into the cave for about 90 feet and then you surface inside the land. There is an area where some fresh water hit the salt and the effect was very strange. The water was blurry; the visibility was still good, but it just became blurry and Ari said it made her feel a bit weird. I agreed. We had flashlights when we were inside the cave underwater and there were a ton of squirrelfish hanging out there. When we surfaced inside the island, we all took off our gear and walked around the dark cave.   At one point, we turned off our flashlights and it was pitch black except for the slight glow of beautiful blue ocean water in one corner of the cave. We got to see a coconut crab in there as well, which apparently, is quite characteristic of Niue. Finally, it was time to get back into the water, descend and travel out of the cave, and continue through the natural chasms on the ocean floor. Many times on the dive, we were visited by the most venomous snake in the world—the Niue sea snake. They are quite commonplace in these waters, but luckily they are not aggressive. They are, however, quite curious and they would come close to you in the water—VERY close. At one point, one came out of deeper waters and ended up grazing Ari’s face in his efforts to swim by us. Another followed my fins for a while and finally left. We heard they cannot bite humans because their mouths are not that large and they cannot get them around a human, but I am not too sure I trust that since they apparently eat moray eels. Last time I looked, my arm wasn’t nearly as wide as a moray eel’s. What’s to prevent Mr. Crazy Sea Snake from thinking our arms are slithering morays? And speaking of moray eels, we saw one in between two rocks on our dive. We sat there looking at him for a few minutes and he must not have liked that we were eyeballing him because he all of a sudden just dashed out through the open water to get away from our stares. It’s not often you see morays out in the open so that was a special treat! It sure is crazy how many cool animals there are in the world! Despite wearing wetsuits, Ari and I came up from our dive cold, but it was well worth it. Just as we suspected, Ariana handled the dive like a pro. We were proud parents!

Another day, we decided to dive underneath our boat. The dive guide told us there were some amazing chasms you can swim through and the visibility was purported to be even better than the Dome Cave site. The O-ring on one of our tanks was bad (this happened in Fakarava too with another tank), so we found ourselves with only 1,000 PSI of air in one of our tanks (they were all filled the day before to 3,000 PSI so—big leak)! We had rented a BC, reg and wetsuit from the dive shop so all three of us could dive together (and Ryan just stayed onboard our boat), and here we had a leaking tank. Figures! Dan just decided he would buddy breathe off of our octopi at various points in the dive so we would all have enough air for the dive. That worked out great. He buddy breathed with both of us for a while, and we all ended up coming up with about the same amount of air left in our tanks (about 600). It was a nice dive. The visibility was great and there were a ton of fish. We even saw a turtle.

In Niue, we rented a car for a few days (it was REALLY inexpensive at about $28 a day USD). We toured around the island and did some great, different hikes. One was a hike down to this beautiful arch on the water, another was a hike along the jagged, rough volcanic shore that ended by going down a really high ladder into a lagoon, and another involved exploring caves, which was also fabulous. We played a round of mini-golf at the most scenic putt putt course I’ve ever seen, and it was even cool enough to wear a sweatshirt that day!

Mini-Golf!!

Putt-putt with a Beautiful View

Our Hike: The Arch

The View of the Arch from the Cave

Hiking on the Volcanic Trail

One of the Cool Caves on Niue

Another Volcanic Hike Photo

Our Flat Tire–At Least Dan Got to Show the Kids how a Tire is Changed!

Ari Climbing on the Cave Wall

A Shrimp Underwater in this Lagoon

The Ladder we Had to Climb Down (and then up!)

Cool Cave Formations

Volcanic Hike

Beautiful Lagoon That Ari and Dan Snorkeled

My love of Niue suffered some setbacks after about a week when the winds shifted and caused an immense amount of swell in the anchorage. We had a solid mooring ball so we didn’t have to worry about coming loose or someone dragging into us, but it was ROUGH being out there on the boat. Ari and I didn’t feel great out there. I was pretty seasick and I wasn’t even sailing. That seems inherently unfair. I suffer through it when I sail, but in port, I should get a break from it, shouldn’t I? In hindsight, I wish we had just gotten a room in town for the few nights that the anchorage was so rough.

Stopping for a Cocktail

The Kids Exploring

Dan and I had intended to go on a date night, but understandably, the kids didn’t want to stay on the boat with it rocking and rolling so much, so we scratched date night and all went in for dinner, despite the roughness of the dinghy ride into shore. That dinner turned out to be excellent, and we dined with Mark and Eileen on Wavelength (from Washington State). The food was fantastic, the company was wonderful, and I didn’t want to leave shore. Finally, we had our weather window to leave Niue, so we checked out of the country and headed on down the road. Next stop: American Samoa.

Since we were not going to be able to go to Maupiti (because of our 90 day issue), we decided to stop at Palmerston Island on our way to Nuie. It was going to be a 4 night sail to Palmerston, and another three-night passage to Nuie. I was very much looking forward to Palmerston, which has an amazingly unique history. It is part of the Cook Islands, and therefore partially supported financially by New Zealand, but the residents are essentially all members of the Marsters family who settled on the island back in the mid 1800s.

Palmerston

Heading to the Island

The Island

This is the description of Palmerston from Wikipedia:

“Overview[edit]

A true atoll, Palmerston Island consists of a number of sandy islets on a continuous ring of coral reef enclosing a lagoon. The largest of the islets include Palmerston, North Island, Lee To Us, Leicester, Primrose, Toms, and Cooks. The total land area of the islets is approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km²). The coral reef covers about 3,600 acres (15 km²). Thelagoon is some 7 miles (11 km) across, covering an area of 56 square kilometres (22 sq mi). There are several small passages through the reef for boats, though there is no safe entry for large ships. At a latitude of 18 degrees south, Palmerston enjoys a tropical climate but is exposed to severe tropical cyclones. A particularly destructive series of storms occurred during the 1920s and 1930s.

All the islets are wooded with coconut palms, pandanus, and native trees. There is some natural ground water on Palmerston but water captured from rainfall is preferred for drinking. Shellfish inhabit the reef, and fish are abundant although there are concerns about overfishing. There are only 62 people living in Palmerston,^[3] all but three^[3]descended from an Englishman named William Marsters (see History, below).

The economy is based on fishing, tourism, copra, and bird feathers, though Palmerston’s extreme remoteness makes a cash market difficult to maintain; in fact it is more like the subsistence ways of life in the northern atolls. Electricity and other modern utilities are available on the island. A recently built telephone station provides the only permanent link to the outside world. The island has no airport or regular air service, but cargo ships visit a few times a year.^[3]

History[edit]

Palmerston was discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, but he did not land on the island until 13 April 1777. He found it uninhabited, though some ancient graves were discovered.^[2] Cook named the island after Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, then Lord of the Admiralty.^[2] The ancient name of the island was supposedly Avarau, meaning “two hundred harbour entrances”.^[2] In 1863 William Marsters, a ship’s carpenter and barrel maker, arrived on Palmerston from Manuae with two Polynesian wives and annexed the island from the British government. He added a third wife and sired a large family of some 23 children, whose descendants now inhabit Palmerston. Thus, Palmerston Island is the only island in the Cook Islands for which English is the native language.

William Masters, originally thought to have come from Leicestershire, England, is now thought to have come from Gloucestershire, which might explain why his descendants now spell the name “Marsters” due to the Gloucestershire accent.^[4] By the time his youngest daughter Titana Tangi died in 1973, there were over a thousand of Marsters’ descendants living in Rarotonga and New Zealand.

Though only some 50 family members remain on Palmerston, all of Marsters’ descendants consider the island their ancestral home. In 1954 the family was granted full ownership of the island. Three branches of the family remain on Palmerston, each branch being descended from one of William’s three wives,marriage within a family group being prohibited.^[4] All of William’s wives came from Tongareva and there are still many family links and common ancestors between these atolls.”

Here is a bit more about William Marsters:

William Marsters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

For other people with the surname Marsters, see Marsters (surname).

William Marsters
William Marsters on Palmerston Atoll
Born	Richard William Masters 6 November 1831 Walcote, Leicestershire
Died	22 May 1899 (aged 67) Palmerston Island, Cook Islands
Occupation	Sailor, cooper, merchant
Known for	English adventurer who settled on Palmerston Island in the Pacific

William Marsters (born Richard Masters) (6 November 1831 – 22 May 1899) was an English adventurer fromWalcote, Leicestershire who settled on Palmerston Island in the Cook Islands on 8 July 1863, with his Polynesian wife and two Polynesian mistresses. A handful of his descendants continue to live on Palmerston Island, while the majority now live in Rarotonga, or elsewhere in the Cook Islands, New Zealand and Australia.

William Marsters was born Richard Masters in 1831. He originated from Leicestershire, England, and arrived in the Pacific around 1856. He first settled in Penrhyn, the most Northern of the Cook Islands. He married the daughter of one of the chiefs on the Island and in 1862 they moved to Manuae and then to Palmerston on 8 July 1863 (or 1861 or 1864 according to different documents^[1]). They were accompanied by his wife’s cousin with whom he later had children. His task was to produce copra and collect bêche-de-mer for a Tahitian trader named Brander, but Brander never returned. William Marsters decided to settle his family permanently on the island. He took up a third wife, and the descendants of these three Penrhyn women make up the present inhabitants of Palmerston.^[2] Marsters died on 22 May 1899 at the age of 67 (although his headstone records his age as 78). He had 23 children and 134 grandchildren.^[3]

Ownership

In 1887, a Scotsman, George Darsie, contested an application by Marsters for a license to lease the island. Palmerston was annexed to the UK on 23 May 1891 and in 1892, the British Government granted William a 21-year lease which was extended until 1954.^[4] Full ownership of Palmerston Atoll was granted to the Marsters family in 1954 by an amendment to the Cook Islands Act passed by the New Zealand Government.

Succession

Two years after William Marsters died, disputes arose about the succession of the leader. In 1901, Colonel Walter Edward Gudgeon, the British Resident in Rarotonga, appointed William’s eldest son, Joel, agent to the British Resident and Magistrate for the Island. In 1992 the Palmerston Act was passed, and today Palmerston is governed by this Act, along with the Outer Island Act.

Island Council

Before William Marsters died, he organized the island so that each of the three wives and their descendants had a share of the main island and each of the atolls. This arrangement still stands. Today the Island has its own council, representing the local government, which consists of six members, the Head of each Family – Matavia family, Akakaingaro family and the Te Pou family, and one other member appointed from and by each of the three families. This appointment is carried out every four years, and the Mayor of the Island is appointed from one of the three Heads, in a rotational manner.

On Palmerston, each of the three families has their own version of the history of Palmerston and life of William Marsters. This has been passed down by word of mouth from their great-great grandparents. Although oral tradition may differ from the documented versions, each will stand by their version.

Our Time on Palmerston

Their major export is Parrot Fish, although it doesn’t specifically mention that above.

When you go to Palmerston, one of the three families “hosts” you.  We contacted Bill Marsters ahead of time via email and he told us to contact him via radio when we were close to arriving.  Apparently, there is some competition among the families in hosting the yachties and he wanted to make sure he came to our boat first.  Once we were moored and settled for a few hours, Bill (and Craig from New Zealand who was visiting Bill and his family on Palmerston for a few months), came back out to bring us to the island.  We toured the island for a while, which included a visit to the school.  We had brought some school supplies so we wanted to drop those off.  While we we there, we met the students, the teachers (a married couple from the United States and South Africa who met in Korea), and the principal (who was from New Zealand).  The kids actually do a Christian-based homeschool program and the teachers act as guides and help the kids when they need it.  The kids had a break and Ari and Ryan got to play rugby with them for a little while.  Then we went back to Bill’s place for a HUGE lunch and hung out there until early evening.

The next day, we came back to the island at around 10 in the morning.  After school, Bill and his wife, Metua, were having a birthday party for their daughter, Julianna, who was turning 15.  In the meantime, we went to the other side of the island where Dan, Ariana and Craig snorkeled and Ryan and I beach-combed.  Ari said the water was very cold, but they did manage to see a shark and some pretty fish.

Later in the day, we attended Julianna’s birthday party, which was very fun and unique.  Some of the kids dressed up (similar to Halloween) and we all ate traditional foods as well as some more recognizable to us Americans (e.g., Lasagna).  We met so many of the folks who live on the island, and Bill supplied us with a great deal of food to take with us (e.g., coconuts, parrot fish, mayonnaise, a local chicken cooked traditionally, bread).  They were so nice.  What was fascinating was how much food the people on Palmerston stock in their freezers.  Apparently, there are more freezers than people and they are full to the brim with food.  I guess that is a result of not having any idea when another supply ship is going to come to the island; you end up hoarding food!

Solar Power on the Island

Telecommunications

Fish Head, Fish Head, Roly Poly Fish Head…

More Photos of the Island, Including the Roaming Pig

Interestingly, two sons of Tom Neale (who lived on the island of Suwarrow and wrote a book about it), reside in Palmerston.  Arthur Neale asked us if we would be willing to take along Craig as crew since his 90 days were coming to an end in Palmerston and there were no supply ships expected to come to Palmerston anytime soon.  So, we had a passenger/crew for our passage from Palmerston to Niue!  Craig had been to the island several times before and had stayed in touch with Bill for years.  Bill had to fly to NZ for his daughter, who was having unexplained seizures.  Bill contacted Craig and asked if we wanted to come back with them and visit for a while. Craig did, and was on Palmerston for nearly three months.  Those supply ships really ARE unpredictable and infrequent!

Craig was easy to have onboard and helped by cooking curry dinner and taking watches.  He was trying to get home to Napier, New Zealand for his partner’s birthday.  She was quite happy to hear he had gotten a ride and would be able to be home in time.

Our New Zealand Passenger/Crew/New Friend, Craig

I would write so much more about our time on Palmerston, but I can’t right now if I actually want to get this posted!  It was a VERY worthwhile destination and I am so glad we went.  Dan had thought it might be fairly cult-like on the island, but it was nothing like that at all.  As you can imagine, being around your extended family all the time has its pros and cons, but most of the people were so nice and just living their lives like everyone else.  What perhaps surprised me most was how “regular” the teenagers were.  They had Facebook, dressed up sometimes, and acted just like American teens (for good or bad, ha ha!).  What an experience!

We are traveling to so many places, sometimes I have to stop and think:  Where am I?  We are currently on Vava’u, Tonga with (surprise, surprise) SLOW Internet!  We have a few gigs of data on our MiFi, but the major updates with photos will have to be done at a restaurant in town where you pay for Internet by the hour, rather than the amount of data you use.  The connections seem to be faster from what I have seen; one couple was able to Skype their credit card company, so I hold out great hope!

So…I will be updating this blog while we are here with:  Palmerston, Nuie, American Samoa, Nuiatoputapo, and if I am really ambitious, Vava’u, Tonga as well!

We are still planning on traveling through Tonga and Fiji and making our way to New Zealand in late October/early November.  Then we get to be on land for a while to explore both the north and south islands of New Zealand.  I am very much looking forward to that!  Out for now!