Saturday, October 30, 2004

Hiking

So the first time I hiked to the top of Wayalailai I went with some guys from the resort, and one guy thought he could make it up without a guide. We didn't want to pay $10pp for a guide. So we went up and made a wrong turn somewhere within 5 minutes of starting. The dog we took up wasn't much help as it wasn't leading us up, but instead chasing goats. Anyways we made it up fine, after scrmbling over some rocks and stuff we found the right path. And we made it up to watch the sunset. Coming back down we got lost again, but this time in the dark with bats flying high overhead. Fortunately I brought my headlamp. I wasn't too concerned about getting lost because we knew the way was down and once we made it to the beach we could just follow it to the resort. I was concerned about missing dinner. Well they saved dinner for us which was nice of them. They're pretty good about that at the resort.

A couple days ago I went hiking in the Koroyanitu National Heritage Park outside Lautoka, back on the mainland. I decided to do the 4hr hike since I had the time. I decided to get a guide, but all the regular guides were gone, so I got a discounted ($5 less) guide - a kid named Manga. Fortunately he knew where he was going, although I couldn't understand all that much of what he said. We reached the top (879m) elevation gain of 500m in 1.25hrs. It was quite difficult as it must of been 30degrees outside and probably 90-95% humidity. After the first half hour I had to rest almost every 10 minutes. The view from the top was brilliant.

Kava

I don't know if you've heard of kava (or yaqona), but it is a root they grow here and bash up and then make this drink out of it in a big bowl that looks like a mud puddle. It apparently has narcotic properties and is good for helping you sleep. The Fijian men sit around at night drinking it and singing for hours. It is served in half a coconut shell, when you get it you clap your hands, say Bula!, drink it all down and clap your hands three times. I found that it doesn't taste as bad as people said. So we were sitting around with the Fijian guys at Wayalailai resort in the evening one day, playing games and listening to music and they had the kava out. So we were drinking it, and I had 6 bowls of it. I didn't feel any different. But later on I woke up in the middle of the night and my stomach wasn't too happy. Then in the morning my head felt heavy and foggy. The other guys that were drinking it didn't seem to have any problems though and they drank even more. So I decided to not drink kava again. Well until two nights later I wanted to hang out with the Fijian guys and some other guests and they were drinking kava again. I tried to say no, but it didn't work. I only drank 3 bowls before I excused myself and went to bed. My stomach still protested to it, but at least I was fine in the morning. So here's a precaution, don't drink the kava.

Bula!

I'm here in Fiji and enjoying it quite a bit. Its quite relaxing and everything runs on Fiji Time - which means don't rush things, they'll happen when they happen.

The first five days were great just taking it easy on the beach, lying in a hammock between two palm trees as the crystal clear water lapped at the shore. The only bad thing was that it is a coral beach so you can't really walk in the water all that much unless you have Fijian feet. Those guys walk on everything, its quite amazing. I hiked across the island I was staying on and I took a guide and he was walking over rocks and old lava, roots, dirt, everything. Even going down hill - which was quite steep, he did fine. His feet were kind of deformed though.

I went snorkeling a few times and saw a huge variety of fish, plus the water is super clear so you can see at least 80ft I would say. The weather has been good on my time spent on Waya Sewa Island, the breeze was nice to keep it a decent temperature. I'm currently in Suva and it is more humid here and not much of a breeze. I'm going to put up a few posts in a row relating some stories.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Departure

Tonight I leave. Departing Vancouver at 1900, change planes in LA, arrive Nadi, Fiji at 0510 local time on Saturday Oct 23. Hopefully I will be able to sleep on the plane, it is over night so I think I will be able to. When I get to Fiji I have to find my way to the wharf and find the right boat (hopefully they have room) by 0900 to take me to the small island where I'm staying for four nights. Check out www.bbr.ca/wayalailai to see the sweet accommodations I have. I emailed them to see if I could reserve a bed, and their reply was "dear Aaron, please do come over. You can get to the island by ...." I thought it was humorous. The forecast in Nadi for Saturday is cloudy with sunny breaks with a temperature of 30C.


Saturday, October 16, 2004

Convocation

I would like to update this thing everyweek, but nothing really has gone on that I would write about. Well I did convocate from SFU last Friday, which was exciting since now I'm officially an electronics engineer. Nothing out of the ordinary happened - unlike last fall. I was writing a midterm for Physics (on the 5th floor of the AQ right above the pond), I sat by the window so that when I got bored or tired I could look out the window and watch the clouds pass through the AQ. Well I'm writing away, I hear the bagpipes play which meant the procession of graduates was underway. Then a few minutes later I hear a "AHHHHHHHHH!" Since I'm writing a midterm I can't get out of my seat and see what happened. Later on I found out that a girl fell into the pond as the procession walked over the bridge. That sucked for her. We didn't get to walk over the bridge since it was raining. That was a disappointment since I wanted to walk through the AQ over the pond and then down the stairs in to the Convo Mall.

I leave in 5 days. I think I have everything taken care of - except my first night accommodation in Fiji which I am waiting for an email reply that hopefully says they booked the room for me.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Let's try this

So I figure that I should explain what I'm doing in the South Pacific since some of you may not know what's going on. First I'll try to not to start all my posts with "So.." I find myself starting sentences that way too much. Anyways. I'm going to relax in the South Pacific after a long stint up at SFU. Well I guess it wasn't that long - only five years, but that is over a fifth of my life. So where are you goin in the South Pacific you might ask. Well let me tell you. I leave on Oct. 21 for Fiji, then head over to the North Island of New Zealand on Nov. 4, and then catch a plane to Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 15. I'll leave Sydney on Dec. 18 to be home in time for Christmas. I'm travelling by myself through Fiji and NZ, but meeting my brother in Australia, since he is over there studying and will just be finishing his semester exams when I get there.

Hmmm, here goes something
Garibaldi Lake

Look a picture, it worked. I went for a hike last Saturday up to Garibaldi Lake and I thought I would practice posting a picture in this blog so I would know how to do it when I'm away. It might make my postings more visually attractive.

Friday, October 01, 2004

So I got a blog.

So I got a blog. I didn't even know what a blog was until recently. I still don't really know what it is or why it's called a blog, except that it's a handy place to publish stuff for other people to read. Well, I got a blog to post random (and not so random) things that happen on my trip to the South Pacific.

That's it for now.