Bula Fiji!

Saturday, July 31, 2010 | Posted by Hazel


"Bula!"...you hear this everywhere you go in Fiji!  It's the Fijian greeting, meaning 'Hello' and 'Welcome'.  It means more than hello though, literally it means 'life', it is said to you everywhere you go!

So, I just spent 9 days in Fiji. It was mostly like you would imagine...white sand, blue water, palm trees, hammocks.... I spent the majority of my time on the islands, to the east of the main island. Initially I thought I'd just stay on one island for the week, but then realising there is only so much sun bathing I can do, decided to take a look at a few of the others, and I'm glad I did because the ones I saw were all quite different.


The first island I stayed on was 'Bounty Island', and was simply a small island with sun, sea and sand. You can walk round it in about 20 mins and is where they filmed 'Celebrity Love Island' a few years ago if anyone saw that! The left over set has now become part of the resort there. It took me a couple of days to get used to doing nothing/not much after all my sight seeing in New Zealand, but surprisingly didn't take me too long to get used to the pace of life!


Fijians actually promote themselves as having a different pace of life to the rest of the world, referring to it as 'fiji time'. They told me that Fiji is the first place where the sun rises in the world so they don't see the need to rush - 'fiji time' also means buses are late, taxis take detours and life is just generally chilled out and laid back! (Although in contrast, on one island, Fiji time meant dinner was sometimes half an hour early and you could turn up on time and have nearly missed it...)


I have found Fijians to be really friendly and helpful people. They like to treat you like 'family' on the islands and all the guests get treated to some singing and dancing most evenings! Here's a photo of a bit of a fire show they treated us to one night...


Bounty Island was also where I first tried the infamous 'kava'. Kava is a traditional Fiji drink that everyone seems to drink, mainly in the evenings and looks (and tastes) like dirty water. It's made from the roots of a native pepper plant and acts as a mild sedative to the drinker. Apparently it is now sold to western countries to put in to sleeping tablets. When I was drinking it, although it was gross, I was attempting to be hardcore and keep up with the Fijians so had 5 'low tides' (high tide = big coconut cup full, low tide = small!). It had no effect on me in the evening, but all my limbs felt so heavy in the morning, I didn't want to get up!

When you leave the islands, they like to sing you a goodbye song to send you off, as I was the only one leaving Bounty Island this day, I got my own personal rendition as I sailed off in the boat...

The second island I visited was 'Waya Lai Lai'. Here I got treated to some 'bula boy' dancing, which was amazing. Traditionally, the men don sarong type things or grass skirts and do welcome dances and war dances - you name the occassion, they'll have a dance for it! Very entertaining!


Another night, the staff did a fashion show of what people in Fiji used to wear, and here they are pretending to attack me (they used to be cannibals you know...)

I also had a weaving lesson and made a bracelet from a padana tree leaf!  And on one of the other islands, I was taught how to weave a bag out of a palm tree leaf...here it is, modelling how it can hold a large kitchen knife.


I spent 1 night in 'Tavewo' island, right in the north of the Yasawas and then a few nights on 'Naviti'. Here I went on a village tour, met the chief, who conducted a kava ceremony and I got to enjoy some more of their wonderful drink and then a local school sang some songs for us. It was good to get out of the resorts and see the contrast of how the local people live, which in some ways reminded me a little of some places I saw in Asia. 

This is the kava ceremony in the village 


 Some boys at the village school giving us their performance of the 'Bula dance'


One day on Naviti one of the staff climbed up a coconut tree and threw down some coconuts for us and then shimmied down the tree head first, it was rather impressive! 


Some more pictures of 'Bula dancing' on Naviti Island

Fiji was really nice, hot everyday and I didn't even have to cook for myself as all the places to stay are catered, it was great. I did, however, realise that there is only so much 'relaxing' I can do on the beach so am looking forward to a bit more exploring in USA!

I left Fiji today, and due to the fact LA is 19 hours behind Fiji, it is still 'today' now and I've been here, and awake, for ages now, but seem to have gone beyond the point of tiredness. Well, this is definately the longest 31st of July I've ever had.

Here are just a few more pictures I took from my time on Fiji...

My final farewell song as I left Fiji...


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The smells and sounds of the north

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 | Posted by Hazel

So, last time I filled you in on my travels, I had just arrived in Taupo. I love Taupo, it's such a cool place - apparently the number one place to skydive in the world (maybe because it is also one of the cheapest), this seems to be the big thing that all travellers do when they are here. I would have loved to do one, but am trying to cut back on the spending right now, and also figured I need to save some fun stuff to do in the future otherwise I will have done it all already!

Taupo is also the beginning of the geothermal areas I visited in the North Island. For a small fee, you can visit 'Craters of the Moon', an area covered in geothermal activity. Its pretty cool to see if you haven't seen it before, all these spouts of steam are shooting out the ground, big craters are all along the pathway, and my favourite bit, the mud pools. Hot bubbling mud, when I stood at the edge I could actually hear it, it was ace.





The other 'top' thing to do in this area is the 'Tongariro Crossing'. Voted the 5th best walk to do in the world (I am not sure who decides these things), its marketed as a pretty cool thing to do. I was up for it, then everyone I told basically told me it was the hardest thing they had ever done, blah blah blah, which put me off. But I figured, what the heck, got to love a good challenge and decided to do it. Because it's the winter and the ground can be icy and snowy, they advise going with a guide rather than attempting it on your own, so that's what I did - which was also good because they provided me with all the kit I needed, including a coat, which is good since I don't have one with me! Anyway, the trek, or 'tramp', was pretty good. It was challenging at parts, particularly 'The Devils staircase', which consists of 267 steps (about that) which seem to go on forever. I also got to use 'crampons' for the first time - spikey things you put on your shoes so you can climb up the snow! 20km later I felt as though I had achieved, so I'm pleased I did it!





After Taupo I headed for Rotorua.  On the way we stopped at 'Thermal Wonderland' and got to see a geyser erupt, 'Lady Knox'...they did spur her on a bit by sticking some soap inside her, but they knew what they were doing, and we got an eruption, take a look... 


Met some other people heading the same way so managed to catch a lift, one of whom was a German chef who offered to cook us all dinner, it was impressive, it even got a photo (which doesn't do it justice, I served myself, hence the sloppy appearance)...


At the hostel in Rotorua there was a hot tub in the garden which was heated by the ground, it was so flipping hot though, had to keep jumping out and running round the garden to get cold so I could go back in again!




Just like the Ozzies, the Kiwis also love a good 'BIG' statue, such as this giant kiwi on the side of the road, just north of Rotorua.  I didn't actually realise until I was here that the reason the kiwis are called 'kiwis' is because they are from New Zealand...I have read 2 different reasons for it...the first one, that they are named after the 'kiwis', as in the name the people give themselves (which is after the bird with the same name, confusing, I know) and the second being that the fur of the kiwi fruit looks like the fluffy kiwi bird.  Either way, everything is linked back to the almost extinct bird.


Rotorura, affectionately known by the locals as 'Rotting Rua', smells. It's a kind of eggy smell, due to all the sulphur there is floating around.



I then spent the next couple of days travelling the northland with Kadri, an Estonian girl I met....[sorry, I digress here, I am sat in the library using the free internet, whilst the elderly gentleman next to me is attempting to send a photo of himself to some lady he has been chatting to for a while across the internet...don't ask how I know, but lets just say, everyone in the room pretty much knows what this dude is up to]...ok, I'm back, yeah, so travelling around the northland. This was a bit of a hit and run type tour as we had only hired the car for a couple of days and everything is actually quite far apart. We did manage a day trip to Cape Reinga though, the northern most point of the North Island, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. I also got to see lots of 'Kauri' trees, which the kiwis are really proud of - its a type of tree that grows really old and produces a gum which they use for stuff. the oldest living tree was recorded at being around 4000 years old and the wood they make stuff from at this place we went to had come from trees that were 140000 years old, apparently. I'm not really into trees so much, but everyone seems to go on about these Kauri trees, so I guess they must be pretty impressive.

Light house at Cape Reinga



The Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meeting



Driving along 90 mile beach (which is actually more like 90km than miles - apparently in the 'olden days', the people here thought that they walked 30 miles in a day and it took them 3 days to walk the length of the beach, hence the name, but science now says they were wrong...)



View from Pahia



After the excitement in the north, we headed down again to Auckland which is where I am now. There's not so much here, just a City, but its quite nice to relax for a couple of days before I head off on my next plane tomorrow...to Fiji!

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Super-tramping it up

Monday, July 12, 2010 | Posted by Hazel

One of the most bizarre sights I have had during my time in New Zealand was when I was in the south island, driving along Haast pass.  I'd taken a detour down some 'country roads', (if you don't class all the roads as that) and happened upon a farmer, (I assume) in a beaten up old car, towing 6 horses around the field, they were kind of attached and being forced in to a trot...pretty gutted I didn't get a picture, but so I can share this rare vision with you, I've done an artists impression...(my horses weren't recognisable, so admittedly they are not the artists own work, and yes, I know there are only 4...you get the idea)



[Although a 'tramp' in the UK is another word for a homeless person, the kiwis use the word 'tramp' as their version of 'hike', so they have 'tramping tracks' and go 'tramping'.]


Anyway, Nelson, supposedly the sunniest place in New Zealand...spent a couple of days here on the north of the south island.  Spent a day 'tramping' in Abel Tasman National Park, walked around 20km, got lost in the bush and thought I was going to become a missing person there, but you'll be pleased to know (possibly) that I didn't and made it out alive and it was good, turned out to be a warm day, had to strip down to my t-shirt and everything.  Nelson also has some of the most amazing sunsets, the whole sky goes red and its like that everyday throughout the winter.

This is 'Split Apple Rock', in Abel Tasman National Park.


You can do a 3/4 day walk through the park, and camp along the way or stay in huts, the kiwis seem to have thought of everything, they even provide wood for your fires at the campsites...not sure they've thought about the possibility of any axe murderers visiting the campsite though...


I had a day in Picton, where there is not much more than the main port for coming in and out of the south island.  Then, I had the roughest crossing in a ferry I can remember going across to the north island.  It was supposed to be 3 hours long, but ended up being 4.  I used all my effort trying not to vom up my cheese and tomato sandwich (successfully I might add), unlike my fellow passengers who were spewing all over the place.  It's all part of the adventure eh?!

Wellington was as I had been warned, wet and windy!  Learnt about the maori's at the pretty cool Te Papa museum.  Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, and is right at the bottom of the north island, unfortunately my hostel had not heard of heating.  Considering New Zealand is badged as one of the most 'eco countries', no-one has double glazing, insulation or central heating - intriguing.

Some art in Wellington, a suspended ball...


The Beehive (New Zealands parliament buildings in Wellington)


Ever heard of 'craft graffiti'?  Well, the idea is to use things like crochet, knitting etc to create eco friendly, removable graffiti in common areas to get messages across.  Here's some I found in Wellington, giving a positive message to the commuters of Wellington! [It says 'You are doing OK']



I also saw this in Wellington, it amused me, was on a garage in a church carpark...


From Wellington, I headed north to Napier, famous for being an 'art deco' town.  Basically, there was a massive earthquake in 1931 which pretty much destroyed the whole town.  It was then rebuilt, all at the same time, in the style of that time (art deco).  It's a pretty chilled out town, right on the beach.  Watched a Rugby match on the TV, never knew how exciting things got...one man got his pants pulled down and you saw bare cheeks...

I am now in Taupo, a couple of hours west of Napier.  Taupo is famous for having a massive lake (the biggest one in New Zealand), which, 5000 years ago was a volcano, which erupted, and is now a lake!

Walked up a mountain this morning when I got here which was challenging, it was so steep and just went up and up, but had a pretty good view at the top - could see across to Mount Doom (it's not called that in real life), which is covered in snow this time of year!


[Mount Doom is the smaller of the 2 white lumps in the distance just under the clouds - that's how high I had climbed, I was pretty much in the clouds!!]

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Glaciers and Pancakes...

Saturday, July 03, 2010 | Posted by Hazel


Well, this was me in Dunedin!  I made a friend, a Taiwanese girl who was looking a little lost in the street, and we decided to go and see if we could find the Albatrosses and penguins!  Picture above is me comparing my wing span to that of an albatross, so you can see how hefty the old birds are...! (average wingspan of 3 metres)

And here is my picture of one!  You may not be that impressed, but with a bit of a zoom you can see them there, I think there are 2 of them.  You could tell they weren't seagulls because they don't really flap their wings, just glide along in the wind...it was pretty cool to see.


I was lucky enough to meet some more sealions on 'Sandfly Bay', just by Dunedin...you've got to love the sealions!


What I was looking for though were the 'Yellow Eyed Penguins' - they come up and nest along the east coast of New Zealand and in the evenings you can see them hopping to shore, which is where I saw these guys (its a bit blurry, but you get the idea).


This was a sign I saw in Oamaru, just north of Dunedin.


From Oamaru, on the east coast, I drove through the middle, to the west coast and got to drive through snow, frost, sun, rain - all the different weathers, loved it.  Here are a couple of pics from the journey.




On one bit of road on the west coast, just before you get to the glaciers, there was a stretch where people wrote messages on stones along the roadside...I added my piece, although didn't have the handy marker pen on me that lots of other people seem to have had on their person...


There are over 3000 glaciers in New Zealand, but two of the biggest and most famous ones are the Fox Glacier, and Franz Josef, these are both on the west coast of the South Island.  You can walk up to the base of both of them, which I did, but if you want to walk on them you have to go on a guided tour, or take a helicopter ride...I went for the latter option which I was quite excited about, having never been in a helicopter before!  Here are a couple of pics I took from the air...


I had only paid for 20 mins (the cheapest option), but I got upgraded because everyone else had paid for 30 mins, so 10 extra mins for me...these could have been the extra minutes that tipped me over the edge and made the nausea kick in, but either way, enjoyed my first helicopter flight!  It was a great sunny day for it too!



Here's my shadow waving at Peter's Pool (near Franz Josef glacier).
 

Sunset at Hokitika (just south of Greymouth)
 

I spent a night in Punakaiki, just north of Greymouth, to see the 'Pancake Rocks', so named because apparently they look like stacks of pancakes...I have to admit, a lot of imagination is needed to get the pancake thing.  They are some kind of geological mystery as no-one really knows why they have formed the layers.


I am now in Greymouth, where I have dropped the car off this morning (pleased they didn't make me wash it...)

 
Tomorrow I get a bus to Nelson and then in a couple of days a ferry to the North Island to spend a couple of weeks there before my next flight...having fun in New Zealand and enjoying the scenery, pretty much the whole of New Zealand was featured in Lord of the Rings somehwere...

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