In Australia for Australia Day (26 Jan 2008)

A 4 hour flight on Air Pacific brought me here from Fiji to the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. I am staying at the Rydges Oasis in Caloundra which is the southernmost point of the Sunshine coast. A funny little place, it feels like I have come to Bournemouth – but a little warmer! The hotel is like a small housing estate with a mix of terraced houses and 3 storey flats. I am in one of the flats – a studio that is fine and clean although a little tired (especially after my room at the Hilton). There’s a little kitchen area in the room too – but a dire warning on the wall about the danger of burning your toast and you then having to pay for the fire brigade turnout if the smoke alarm goes off! There is a little lake, a reasonable swimming pool and a restaurant that also does takeways. Today is Australia Day so I as soon as I arrived (about 5.30pm), I ventured out to see what was happening. The whole town (and country I assume) seemed to be “en fete”. There is a lovely boardwalk along the coast from here to King’s Beach, and it was thronged with families out enjoying the warm evening. There was a bit of a wind off the sea and some big surfing waves, but loads of people in there watched over by the lifeguards. Picnics everywhere, and people cooking their food on the public bbq’s they have out here. Stalls selling candyfloss, fairground rides and Oz flags everywhere, on balconies, cars and beachtowels. There was even a campervan with a huge model of a kangaroo wrapped in a flag on the top. Lots of “tinnies” too, but no sign of anyone being drunk. So different from at home. It’s so nice to see, it seems to be a nation who take a real pride in being Australian and today there are also a lot of citizenship ceremonies where people who have emigrated here take their oath of allegiance before being officially naturalised. Everyone it seems, men included, also had a little Australian flag painted on their face, I felt quite left out! And as I sit here on my balcony writing this, I can hear the firework display in the background. The weather in this part of the country has been really bad recently with some very bad flooding – they did need the rain as Queensland was running very short of water, but in some areas it has been catastrophic. But at least the rain held off here for their Australia Day celebrations, and hopefully for the next couple of days, Sunday and then Monday which is a National holiday.

Bula from Fiji (21 - 26 Jan 2008)

Bula is the traditional greeting here in Fiji, you can’t walk past anyone without them saying it, nice but it got a bit wearing at times. It also sounds quite close to the Spanish “Hola” and as my Spanish is so good, I found myself replying “Hola” to them, no wonder they looked confused! I have to admit, I have been a bit lazy here in Fiji, but the hotel was so fab, I really didn’t want to move. Most of the activities also seem to be based on boat trips, and as there isn’t a tame little lagoon here, we are talking open sea, I wimped out. It’s odd, it felt a bit like a “holiday”; a week in a great place – but holiday from what I ask myself, isn’t that what I am doing all the time? The pic is my favourite reading spot, 2 metre square cushions sunk into the deck by the pools (there are 5), with a view of the sea – very relaxing. And after the edge of the cyclone passed the weather has been perfect, a really pleasant change from the Cook Islands. Lots of sunshine with a really heavy tropical shower in the late afternoon. I did go into Nadi for the day – a scruffy little town with not a lot to redeem itself. Half of the population here are Indians who generations ago came here to work the sugar fields. Nadi is very Indian – small sari shops, lots of curry cafes and motor spare part shops; the smell of the curry combined with lots of incense really took me back. There is a large Hindu temple at one end of the town which I went to see and was taken around. Very colourful buildings and murals and ceilings, all depicting the various Hindu gods. I made a special puja to Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, so will check my lottery numbers this week! Whilst I was there, there was a service going on so I was invited to stay for that. Not sure my ears have recovered yet, drums seem to be rather important, and unfortunately I was standing right beside the “drum machine”, a Heath Robinson contraption fuelled by a diesel generator and lots of fly wheels that made the most unbelievable noise… the guide confided in me that they used it to save the cost of drummers, obviously diesel is the lower cost option. The guide also suggested that I might like to stay on for lunch at the canteen inside the temple, but I made my excuses and left! I was also shown the “float” with statues of Hindu gods on that is taken around the town each day. I was told that on Saturday as it is the biggest Hindu festival of the year, it will be pulled around the town by men who are attached to it by hooks embedded in their skin… not sure if I am sorry or glad to be missing that spectacle as it is the day I leave. Each night at the hotel there was something on at 8.30pm. A couple of nights it was the usual not very good hotel band, but I also saw a fire show and a Fijian dance. The fire show was really interesting – obviously a strange local custom and there was lots of macho throwing of rather dangerous looking flame torches by the men in their grass skirts (how come a man in a grass skirt with a flower behind the ear can look so good – perhaps it was the six packs they were all sporting…), and lots of more graceful fire basket swinging by the girls, odd really but entertaining. But like on Aitutaki, I think we got the local amateurs, lots of fire was dropped on the sand…… But it was all done on the beach against an amazing backdrop of the huge Nadi Bay, a full moon and a thunderstorm in the distance with some quite impressive lightening in the background. And as the final fire crescendo happened, there was the most tremendous roll of thunder exactly the same time as the audience applauded – the gods must also have approved of their performance. Last night there was a Fijian dance – it has been interesting to see the slight differences in the cultures of the different Pacific Islands, but all with similar hypnotic drumming and beautiful Polynesian voices and harmonies. And fashion of course, the costume here is still grass skirts, but only for the men and the young women. Last night’s dancers were mainly larger middle aged women and they have eschewed the old half a coconut bra (probably wise…), they wear what looks like some sort of tree bark wrapped around, which is tied in a very elaborate bow at the back. So back to my fantastic room to pack, and at turndown was presented with a lovely miniature carved Kava bowl as a souvenir from the Hilton. How nice, thank you Mr Hilton, I really appreciated it.

Flashpacking and frogs free in Fiji (20 January 2008)

Thanks Hilton Honors, am very happily ensconced in a 1 bed suite at the Hilton Fiji – free courtesy of my Hilton points. This is real flashpacker stuff, a new, ultra modern resort, an upgrade to this amazing room overlooking acres of navy blue swimming pools with lots of infinity edges and then the sea. It’s a virtual home from home, a laundry (washer, dryer, iron etc all tastefully hidden behind clouded glass doors), an amazing bathroom with a huge freestanding bath (and a key measure for me is always “would I have a bath here?” – very few hotels in the world would I answer yes, this is one), a huge bedroom, a little fitted kitchen with all mod cons including a dishwasher in a drawer and a living area with big squashy sofas. 2 huge flatscreen tv’s, Bose sound system, the works. Think I will be quite the domestic goddess doing my washing and cooking a bit of tea! But of course there is always room service and a great restaurant if needed. On my terrace I even have a rather flash gas barbie – you can order a barbie pack from room service of steak and catch of the day and cook away – I may just have to do that one night! Good flight here with Air Pacific – seat 1A (always my favourite) on a jumbo, with a longer flight than usual to fly around the bad weather. Cyclone Funa is hitting Vanuatu and skirting Fiji….. When I arrived the winds were really strong – less apparently than the day before, but quite scary nonetheless. But as today has gone on they have got lighter and lighter and the sun has even been shining – long may it stay that way. The Hilton is on an island (well it is actually an island but the bridge from the mainland is so small you don’t even know you’ve crossed it) called Denarau. It’s a bit of a tourist enclave with five 5* hotels, golf course etc. The Bullah bus (a thatch top shuttle bus) does a free circuit into the port where I went today to do a bit of shopping – not good shopping but was able to stock up for my fridge. There’s also a great deli here that does good coffee and sadly rather gorgeous doughnuts…. So today has been settling in, getting my wifi up and running. The beach is not one of the best I’ve seen, in fact it’s not really very nice at all, but there were loads of people today clearing the rather grey looking seaweed, so perhaps that’s a result of the bad weather over the last 2 days. As is usual in resorts like this, there is a programme of “animation”, nothing too in your face though. At 6pm there is the torch lighting ceremony – two rather well muscled men with war paint in grass skirts banging drums and then lighting torches all around the resort, looks a bit dangerous to me, those grass skirts could catch fire any moment, but they could always fling themselves into the pool in an emergency. I think it’s not really local custom, more a way of waking everyone up from their afternoon naps to get the bar takings up! But quite a nice sight…. and it was rude not to go to the bar as they had made so much effort. It was a happy me that was lounging around on a 10ft square sofa drinking a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc as the sun went down. And tonight was the international frog race. Long story short, 9 frogs, each a different nationality race against one another. But to “own” a frog you have to place the highest bid. It’s really interesting watching the bidding – you can feel the testosterone as males from each nation seriously bid against one another. Sadly England was the lowest at $5, I think Australia was the most at $135. Ant, I did bid for the Welsh frog for you, but gave up at $12, the bidding was too rich for a poor pensioner like me…. India won by the way. And so far so good here on the South Pacific mozzie front – I’m obviously not such a culinary treat here as I was in the Cook Islands, or perhaps it’s more to do with flashpacking and a good shot of DDT every so often in the foliage!

The long and winding road....(18 January 2008)

…..back to Auckland. My time in Rotorua has come to an end, and I have really enjoyed it. It’s given me the taste for exploring New Zealand a little bit more. It’s so easy to get around, with good roads and good signposts, and very little traffic, so driving is a pleasure. And the weather has been really fantastic – I was expecting a “British” summer, but have got something much better – lovely hot days (but cool evenings) and blue skies all day long – not sure it’s always that way. Perhaps next time a motorhome, there are loads of them about. So I decide to take the long way back to Auckland, and drive over to the coast and take the Pacific Coast Highway north to take in the wonders of the New Zealand coastline. I get to the coast – where is the sea? Nowhere to be seen! My map didn’t show it, but the land must rise from the coast very steeply, so the drive along the Pacific Coast yields very few glimpses of the sea! The one bit I did find is in the pic – with rolling waves and beautiful blue sea – so I had to stop to have fish and chips! But most of the drive was through heavily wooded mountains, up and down (the car struggled at times), around really sharp hairpin bends with rather alarming drops to one side. But spectacular scenery. When you finally hit the flatter bits outside of Auckland you see again all the blue and white agapanthus – they seem to grow like weeds here, as do avocados – 12 for 75p advertised all the way along the road. This must be the fruit growing area too as there were also pick your own for plums, nectarines, peaches. Tonight am ensconced in a good little motel near the airport (complete with palm fringed swimming pool – see pic), ready to take my hire car back in the morning, and fly to my next destination – Fiji.

Flying laundry and the most unusual theme park in the world (17Jan 2008)

Having my trusty hire car is great, it means I can do my own thing, so today I decide to head further down the North Island to Taupo, the great big lake in the middle. On the way I visit the Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland, including the world famous Lady Howe Geyser that erupts at 10.15am prompt every day. All the way there, I was puzzled – time is a man-made thing, so how does this geyser know to erupt at the same time each day? I sit in the “amphitheatre” with everyone else, looking at this grey pyramid shape of stone awaiting the wondrous event. And at precisely 10.15am the park ranger appears with a brown paper bag in his hand and throws the contents down the hole. He explains that the normal cycle of the geyser is not predictable, so they drop down 300g of soap powder to break the surface tension, and bingo, off she goes! A bit like a giant bubble machine as the soap powder does its work. I’m sure at school they taught us that volcano things spurt lava, not lather. Bit of a let down really... Apparently many moons ago, there was a prison nearby and as the prisoners did their washing, they accidentally dropped some soap in the geyser and got the fright of their lives as it went off and their undies flew 20 metres into the air. So their accidental discovery has spawned another tourist spot. But the rest of the park seemed a lot more natural, amazing colours depending on which mineral is present, champagne pools (sadly not the real thing, just lakes with small bubbles rising all the time), and deep holes full of mud plopping away. But that was only the starter, my main target for the day was a theme park like no other, situated near the Huka Falls – the publicity blurb reads “The Huka Falls are impressive, true. But after you’ve seen a million litres of water fly off a cliff once, you need to pick up the excitement a bit. Luckily Huka Prawn Park is just up the road”. The idea of a Prawn theme park, the home of “Shawn the Prawn” was just so silly I had to go. It was the kind of place Ant and Dec would go – I remember a couple of years ago when they were doing I’m a Celebrity in Oz, they had to go to Tropical Fruit World as it was so silly – this for me was the same! This place is about as far away from the sea as you can get in New Zealand, why are they growing prawns? I can’t believe I’m saying this but it was really interesting! I learnt all about prawn farming, and even fed the baby ones by hand. I passed on the killer prawn golf and the hook a prawn fishing (whatever you catch they cook for you), but did the nature walk along the Waikoto river, and finished with the geothermal foot bath – very nice it was too. But the real target, it so happened it was just about lunch time, was the restaurant where I was able to sample the delicious fruits of their labour. I then actually went to the real natural wonder of the area, Huka Falls – not really falls as we know them, more a rather large bit of white (or should I say deep blue) water where the river goes downhill a bit. The water was so clear it was amazing. Then on into Taupo where the enormous lake has a little beach that was full of people having a day out and enjoying the water as it was a lovely hot summer day. But as you look in the distance, there was a mountain that still has lots of snow on the top. A great place to live if you like the water, a bit of heat and also skiing. Back the country way, driving through farming and logging areas, with lots of dairy cows (all that farming education in Argentina has paid off…) eating all that green grass to make that lovely Anchor butter. It was a really clear night and it was quite special looking at the Southern skies which are so full of stars, whilst listening to the primordial sounds of the bubbling mud just a few yards away.

Pompeii of the Southern hemisphere (16 Jan 2008)

Rotorura, when you get over the smell (but actually the wind must have changed direction, it’s nowhere near as bad today) is a great place. There’s such a lot to do, both here and a little further afield. As well as the geothermal stuff (there are sites everywhere) it also appears to be the adrenaline junkie’s paradise with bungy, zorbs, off road, sky diving – you name it, it’s here. And other attractions like the Agrodome (sheep shearing demos) and Caterpillar world – no not those little wriggly things but the earth moving equipment…. But those of you who know me will not be surprised that I go for gentler pursuits. So Day 1 of my sightseeing started with a visit to the buried village (New Zealand’s Pompeii), a Maori village that was destroyed by a volcano in early Victorian times. It was really well done and told the story of a Victorian tourist trap where people came to see the volcanic terraces. Tourism took over the village, they stopped planting and growing and started drinking; the elders foretold that destruction would follow….. they were right. One night the volcano went, the village was destroyed and buried forever – perhaps there’s a lesson there, if there’s too much drinking in Rotorua tonight, we’d better watch out! Then a drive to the various lakes in the area, a geothermal park to see mud pools gurgling away and spurts of water popping up every so often… watch where you walk, or you could get an unexpected mud bath treatment. Then on to Lake Rotorua which is lovely, and so easy to park, it’s right in town, and admire the rather regal black swans that live there. Then into town to find wifi – and found it in the local backpackers hostel that looked really nice. It’s amazing the variety of people that you see checking in – perhaps I need to take a closer look!

A day goes missing between Raro and Roto... (15 January 2008)

As I relaxed on my flat bed with Air New Zealand between Rarotonga and Rotorua (via Auckland), enjoying good food, good wine and a smooth flight, suddenly 27 hours had gone by – given it was a 4 hour flight and NZ is only 1 hour different from the Cook Islands, what had happened? Had I been abducted by aliens? No, I was only paying a debt, paying back that extra Xmas day I had had by crossing my old friend, the International dateline yet again. It’s interesting what a different perspective you can have on a city depending on how you travel. Last time I came via Auckland, I was out of the airport in a limo, and quickly checked in to the Hilton on the harbour (one of the flashier ones) and I saw Auckland as a small but sophisticated city. This time, getting onto the mini bus shuttle and checking into the Kiwi International Hotel and Hostel (I was checking into the hotel part, god knows what the hostel was like….) suddenly Auckland appeared to me more like Birmingham on a bad day. The room was clean (always the first thing I check), but the décor of peeling yellow wallpaper and nasty dark brown lino on the bathroom floor wasn’t quite my décor of choice… But as ever, I survived, and had a good night’s sleep. This morning after a decent coffee (well, I know not everyone would agree, but a skinny latte at Starbucks has to be decent after weeks of Nescafe), I sorted the hire car to drive the 234 kms along the Thermal Explorer Highway to Rotorua. A nice drive, a mix of motorway, dual carriageway and single lane roads, and NZ drivers on the whole do seem to be much better than those at home. The car, not the blingmobile I am used to, but a rather old Toyota Corolla reminiscent of the one in the tv series Starsky & Hutch (you pay a lot for vintage these days) but the driver’s door did open - I didn’t have to climb in through the window. I have booked into the Quality Inn, Geyserland, the only one with a view of a geyser, and it seems I have been upgraded to a corner suite (they must have known I am a lady of quality) and the room is much nicer than promised on Tripadvisor. It’s a feast for the senses, vision – a view of a huge geyser spouting white water many metres into the air against a green backdrop of wooded hills; sound – the mud pool plopping away like a pan of mushy peas, touch I haven’t sorted yet as I think it may just boil your finger off, and of course smell. I thought initially that there was a bit of a drain problem in the hotel, but no, forward planning again, book geyser and mud pool facing and you should really expect to be assailed by the smell of sulphur. Another opportunity for P&G; Febreze sales here must be huge! How people can live with it I don’t know, I’m sure there are benefits like free hot water and all that, but frankly, I’d rather pay British Gas and do without the smell. Am sure I can manage for a couple of days. The hotel is right on Te Puia, New Zealand’s Maori Cultural Centre and nowhere else on earth is the earth’s crust thinner. It’s a bit like a pizza I suppose. I always thought I was a thin crust girl, but feeling the heat of the inside of the earth through your feet at times feels a bit too close for comfort. Every so often I can feel a vibration in the earth, but I’m sure that’s just big lorries going by on the main road behind the hotel….
The welcome here is Kia Ora, meaning Hello– funny really, all those years ago when Mum used to buy Kia Ora orange squash it sounded so exotic – hello orange squash doesn’t sound quite the same!