Farewell and reflections on our Pacific tour

Tomorrow is our last day in Fiji, before heading to Tulsa Oklahoma on Saturday to spend Christmas with Catheleen's family. After Tulsa it is back to Ottawa before the New Year.

On these last days of our trip abroad, sitting by the pool enjoying the weather, it's as good a time as any to reflect on the trip and write my last blog. Thank you to everyone who has kept reading throughout our adventure. I'm thinking about gathering up this blog along with the kids' blogs and Catheleen's Facebook entries, and creating a book for our coffee table. I think it will be fun to take the book off the shelf years from now, and reminisce about our family trip to the Pacific back in 2015.  

Catheleen and I had been thinking about taking a mid-career break (Catheleen would say late-career break) to do some travelling with the kids for years. We agreed a year ago there was no better time than 2015 to do so. John (now 13) and Elizabeth (age 10) were old enough to get some experiences out of the trip and hopefully remember it. I think they have many memories from our journey, and many stories to tell their friends when they get home. Some of them may even be true!

We sure had some adventures and laughs along the way. We had a great time on B.C.'s west coast visiting my family and exploring Vancouver island. From the small restaurants of Tokyo we slurped many noodle soups and watched well dressed commuters come and go, all on their smart phones. A highlight in Thailand was our sailing trip around Ko Tao, snorkeling amongst the coral islands and white sand beaches; the banana pancakes and green curry were also great. The laid back but very hot land of Laos felt like the end of the earth, with ladies riding side-saddle on motorcycles with parasols. Vietnam was a beautiful but frenetic place with amazing food and insane traffic. Indonesia offered us contrasts between the relaxed Hindu culture of Bali, and the Muslim culture of Java with its call to prayer. Singapore was a place of order and great international cuisine within a gleaming, modern cosmopolitan city-state; and the kids won't soon forget our amazing day at Universal Studios. Downtown Sydney was a fun place to enjoy a good beer by the harbour after listening to stories of life and adventure when the place was a convict colony. In New Zealand we explored the county's amazing scenery as we drove around the south island; the north island offered us some Maori culture, the windy capital of Wellington and the very livable cosmopolitan city of Auckland. Fiji was a relaxed stop on the way home, where we experienced island life in the South Pacific on Fiji time.

Before this trip, when I explained ours plans, some people thought what a great experience it would be for the kids. I think this has largely panned out, but it has also been a great experience and break for all of us, and an opportunity to bond even closer as a family. Having said that, I think everyone is looking forward to a little more space once we're back.

Travel opens the mind, and at its best is a journey of self discovery. After travelling around the Pacific, I think we've learnt a few things about ourselves, especially when we encountered the odd problem. But I think the best tip I picked up on this trip was from someone in Bali who said, "Stop and listen to the brook". Yes, good advice indeed.

As we left Canada at the best time of the year in July 2015, I wondered if we would find anywhere as great as Canada. The north island of New Zealand came close by the way, but that may have been because it seemed so familiar to me. But I don't think I was asking the right question - the quest is not to find the best place to live, but rather to live the best in your place.


We'll soon be back in Canada to get back to work and school - doesn't sound so bad if you ask me. As we like to say after every trip, it's nice to go away but it's nice to come home. Farewell and happy travels.

Resort activities on Fiji time

We're at a Outrigger Resort on the coral coast on this last week in Fiji. The resort is very nice - similar in many ways to the resorts we've visited over the years, but different. When we arrived at the resort we drove up to park our car, and were greeted by the attendant. As he opened the gate, he raised his hands high in the air and yelled "BULA!" in a loud booming voice. It startled the heck out of us, and then we started to laugh. The attendant does this every time we park the car.

Today was a rainy day, so John asked that I play bingo with him after lunch. To my surprise I won the first game and a free cocktail. John was one square short, and kicked himself that we didn't swap bingo cards at the start. As I said to John, it's nice to win. Elizabeth joined the kid's club today, and enjoyed hiking, egg tossing, snorkeling, and boogie board racing. She was the only kid her age there who wasn't from Australia or New Zealand. She said that her new found friends first didn't believe that she was from Canada, and when they finally believed her, they wanted her to choose which of the two countries she liked best. She wisely didn't choose.

John has been kicking around the resort doing his own thing. He befriended a number of the Fijian staff members, and convinced one to drive him around the resort on a golf cart. It all worked out until they had a flat tire and had to walk the rest of the way back. He also talked his way into the gym to use some of the exercise equipment, even though you are supposed to be 17 years of age or over. The latest of his shenanigans involved first getting a few dollars from me to buy a snack, and then using the code on the receipt to access the Internet laptops in the café. The only problem was he needed to be 15 to use the Internet café by himself without a parent. John claimed to be 14 and 1/2, hoping that the attendant would be nice and let him in. She would have none of it. I'm not sure how claiming he was under 15 was going to help his cause.

The resort is intended to showcase indigenous Fijian culture. Catheleen overheard an Australian father admonish his two young daughters, who were around five years old, to get out of the pool. He said that they didn't travel half way across the world to swim in the pool all day, and rather need to go experience some Fijian culture. First of all, I'm not sure five year olds even know what culture is, and secondly, they didn't travel that far. There are cultural experiences to be found here though, including listening to some of the singing groups performing around the resort. Singing is a tradition here, and they even have a poignant goodbye song a group sings as guests depart.

Almost all the staff seem to be indigenous Fijians. Many of them are quite overweight I've noticed, in stark contrast to the typically slim Asians we're seen all throughout South East Asia. Speaking with Lynn last week, she noted that the diet in Fiji is poor, which contributes to a great deal of heart disease, diabetes, and an early grave for many. Too much of everything is the norm for many unfortunately.

We've driven to the local town a few times now. It's a small town but buzzing with activity. They have a covered market with fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood, and many vendors sell their vegetables and other items on the street, mostly spread out on mats. One lady had conical sea shells for sale, all fresh with the muscle or sea creature inside the shell - I don't know what type of sea food this was. We stopped by a few Indian stalls selling sweets, and picked up a few squares and balls, all brightly coloured and tasty. As always, we ended up at the bread shop to pick up some fresh bread, butter and various pastries. It's curious that inevitably an indigenous Fijian will strike up a conversation with us and point us to his store or a Fijian market, and warn us about the local Indian vendors who are supposedly aggressive. Funny thing though, the Indian vendors have been anything but aggressive. What a strange rivalry exists between these two groups.

We're enjoying the sunsets around here too. Just tonight we had dinner at a restaurant along the coast and just marvelled at the clouds, calm sea, and setting sun. It's nice to take it slow and enjoy the moment. As they say around here, we're on Fijian time.

Here's Elizabeth's silhouette after sunset near the restaurant.

Mud pools and stray dogs

We're back at the Hilton for an afternoon by the pool. It's not as hot today which is nice, and it's certainly been good to get to the pools this week, something we missed in Australia and New Zealand. It gives the kids access to some exercise.

Yesterday we visited the Sobeto Thermal Mud Pool. I wasn't keen on going at first. Something about the thermal part didn't appeal - it's already hot here. Also I wasn't thrilled about the mud part - who wants to get all dirty? But as it turned out it was a fun activity and I'm glad we went.

When we first arrived at the mud pool in bathing suits with cameras in hand, we were presented with buckets of mud drawn from the mud pool. We proceeded to coat ourselves in mud from head to toe, and then we let the it dry. I found it cooling to be covered in mud. I can see how this works for elephants and other animals. It must be the combination of protection from the sun and the slow evaporation effect from the drying mud which makes it cool. John wasn't too impressed with the idea of coating himself in mud at first, but he joined in once everyone else started. He did seem a little concerned though as the mud stiffened up. When we stretched it felt very strange as the mud cracked and stretched. After a while, we soaked in the mud pool itself, with contained a few feet of water over the warm mud below. As we stepped in, we sank up to our knees in the goop, and the kids tried jumping from a tree into the mud pool. After we washed off the mud as best we could, we soaked in a separate, and mud-free thermal pool for a while.

After our mudding experience we joined a kava drinking ceremony going on for a tour group that had just arrived. This time the kids joined us and they each had some kava. It was interesting to see each of the kids' reaction when they drank the kava. Elizabeth smiled, but you could see the grimace on her face for an instant. She later said it tasted like mud and she felt like she was going to throw up. I think she was exaggerating, but I don't see them trying the drink again. Me either frankly.

Lynn, the owner of the bed and breakfast we're staying at, used to drink a lot of kava, but not anymore. I asked why, and she said that after she had her daughter, she found that it was hard for her to wake up at night and in the morning to take care of her daughter. Lynn had an interesting perspective on life in Fiji, not all of it positive. A common observation from her again and again is how laid back the Fijians are, sometimes to their detriment.

One issue we've seen a lot here is a stray dog problem. Where we are staying we've seen and heard packs of stray dogs wandering the neighbourhood and fighting with the local property owners' dogs. Some people have taken to poisoning the dogs. Lynn has gone through a few dogs since hers have been poisoned, likely by accident. There are plans to build a dog shelter, funded mainly by a wealthy private family who recently emigrated to the island. It will be better for the dogs and locals when this dog problem is under control. They sure howl at night - good thing we have our ear plugs.

Here's Catheleen and me about as dirty as we're ever likely to be.

Fiji coups and kava

I think the quality of life for Fijians is about average for a developing country. Their standard of living is about the same as Indonesians based on their incomes. Not as high as Thais, but much higher than Vietnamese. About 70% percent of the Fijian population relies on subsistence farming. Quality of life, based on the human development index, places it in the middle rank of countries. Average life expectancy is 72, a few years behind the developed world.

The country certainly has its problems, which I think it's doing its best to resolve. One of the biggest issues it faces is racial tensions between the indigenous-Fijians and the Indo-Fijians. When the country gained its independence from the British in 1970, the Indo-Fijians wanted equal rights and privileges, while the indigenous Fijians were concerned about protecting their customary lands and communal life.

We got a sense for this communal life when we visited a primarily Indo-Fijian market today. A lady saw us eyeing the kava powder for sale, and asked us if we wanted to visit an indigenous Fijian market. We said yes and were led around and up some stairs to a craft store. Once inside, we were treated to an indigenous-Fijian welcoming ceremony, still widely practised to welcome visitors and guests throughout Fiji. We sat barefoot on a mat across from two gentlemen. One of them made some kava by straining water through a cloth containing grey powder, and strained it into a communal bowl. The powder was made from ground kava root. We clapped once, I drank the kava from a carved coconut shell, and then clapped three times. Then we shook hands as friends. Catheleen did the same. The kava didn't taste like much, just somewhat bitter; I imagine if I drank clay it might taste like this. It also gave me a strange light-headed feeling and a tingling sensation in my throat.

This community life also includes many community obligations. Lynn who runs the bed and breakfast told me about karekare, which requires anyone to comply with any reasonable request from an indigenous Fijian, like the loan of shovel for example. She said you must comply with these requests or face social disapproval from this group. Extended families are very important, and requests to support extended family members cannot be ignored. It's not uncommon for indigenous-Fijian relatives in town to house cousins, nephews or nieces from rural areas so the children have better access to schools.

Back to my story. In 1970, the British brokered a compromise where each group could elect 22 members to parliament, with the remaining 8 seats up for grabs. This gave the indigenous-Fijians a slight advantage based on their population. What has transpired since over the last 45 years, with four coups and four constitutions, can best be described as a microcosm of racial tension and healing. At the moment the country seems more united as one multi-cultural nation.

The first two coups in 1987 were staged by military leaders on behalf of other indigenous Fijians, who felt threatened by the first coalition party of Indo-Fijians and other parties. This prime minister, who was overthrown in the coup, was elected partly based on a fast growing Indo-Fijian population, along with growing support for coalitions between the two racial groups. The new constitution stacked the deck in favour of the indigenous-Fijians however, and led to an exodus of Indo-Fijians and economic stagnation. The Indo-Fijian population dropped from slight majority to slight minority.

The country re-grouped, punished the perpetrators somewhat, and amended the constitution in 1997 back to the 1970-style constitution. But in 2000 there was another coup shortly after the first Indo-Fijian prime minister was elected. This time it was orchestrated by a local civilian businessman under the pretext of supporting indigenous-Fijians. He was also upset with the cancellation of some of his contracts, after a new government was elected. This was the only bloody coup with 15 dead, and the military leaders were implicated in the coup but nothing was proved. Within a couple years the coup leader was serving life and the 1997 constitution was restored.

Next in 2006, Fiji's military leader staged a coup to topple the government, under the pretext of government corruption, but mostly to prevent amnesty for the remaining participants in the 2000 coup. The leader promised a new race neutral constitution and free elections within two years. It was 2013 before the new constitution was issued and 2014 before new elections were held.

The new constitution is definitely an improvement over the previous three, since the Indo and indigenous Fijians no longer vote for a separate group of parliament members. Now each vote counts the same. In fact, the only differentiation between these groups is indigenous Fijians are entitled to the lease-hold rents from customary land. Over two thirds of Fiji land is customary land, which can't be sold and can only be leased. Some of it has been leased for development based on 99 year leases.

I think the jury is out on whether these two groups can get along for the common good. The elections held last year were free and fair, and a coalition party representing all Fijians won out over a party representing indigenous Fijians' interests. But they'll need to stop the coups for one thing, and trust each other more. The current cooperation will be tested again if the Indo-Fijians become the majority group by population. If they can stay united over the next generation, come what may, I think they will have set a good example to the world for tolerance.

I wish them well. It's a beautiful country and it would be a shame to see the country's future squandered over racial tension.

Here's Tony, who welcomed us into his store with a kava drinking ceremony.

Fiji and Indian food

We've been in Fiji for a few days now and we're starting to get to know a few things about another country. This is the first time we've visited a tropical place and rented a car at the same time. This has given us much more freedom to explore the area than if we just stayed at an all encompassing resort, something we tend to do for March breaks when we go to Mexico or the Dominion Republic with the kids.

We're staying for a week at a place near Nadia town. It's a separate house next to the owner Lynn's place, a British lady who is married to a Fijian. It's a nice enough place with a pool. There's no air conditioning, but luckily the nights are cool. It does heat up to 30 degrees Celsius during the day pretty quickly though, so we make use of the pool often to stay cool.

I can see why Fiji is a famous vacation location that everyone seems to have heard of. The weather is near perfect with a warm ocean and cool breezes. The people are friendly and welcoming, and say bula, meaning hello. This is a popular holiday destination for Australians and New Zealanders mainly, since it's relatively close by.

On Sunday and Tuesday we visited the Hilton and Radisson resorts respectively. We were surprised at first that we could visit these resorts but they have both been welcoming to day guests like us. Since these resorts make their profits selling meals and drinks to their patrons, they are happy for us to show up to buy a few drinks. I think it also helps that it's off season and the places are not fully booked up, so there are always lounge chairs available.

On Monday we visited the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, a property with many walking paths with orchids, lily ponds and other cultivated gardens of various trees and flowers. The place used to be owned by Raymond Burr, the actor who played Perry Mason in the popular 50's and 60's TV show. He had an interest in orchids, and helped discover many previously unknown orchids.

We visited the market in Nadia this morning. I didn't recognize some of the local fruits and vegetables, but we did enjoy looking around the stalls. They sell a lot of pineapples, and a root called kava, which is ground down into a powder and used to make a popular drink. The drink is an acquired taste and apparently makes you very relaxed if you drink enough of it. It will also make your face feel numb. The local Fijians drink this every day. It's not a drug and is legal in Canada and the U.S.

We've been trying some of the local Indian food, which has been really good. Half the population is of Indian decent, the descendants of indentured labourers who came to work here from India in the 1870's through 1916, when indentured work was finally banned. Indentured workers often had a five year contract, after which time most people stayed on. Most couldn't afford to return home even if they wanted to. Fiji was a British colony from the 1870's until 1970, when the country gained its independence. The country has had an interesting period since then with four coups and four constitutions. I'll save that story for the next blog though - it's quite the tale.

Here we are at the Radisson resort today.

Killer whales and volcanic eruptions

We drove from Thames along The Firth of Thames bay to Auckland. Here we stayed at a place north of Auckland for two nights and then spent two nights in downtown Auckland before flying out for Fiji on Saturday morning.

The bed and breakfast north of Auckland had a great view of the bay. The owner, Rod, had built a pathway down a steep slope through the trees to a common path that led to the sandy beach below. Catheleen and I walked the path strewn with broken shells, and it was great to stroll the beach and look at the houses on the beach front and surrounding tan coloured cliffs. The place has a few big and modern houses, something we haven't seen much of throughout most of New Zealand. It's not surprising since this is New Zealand's only true big city with a population of 1.4 million. One in three New Zealanders lives in Auckland. For whatever reason, tensions exists between Aucklanders and the rest of New Zealand, especially the further south you go. The term JAFA for an Aucklander means "Just Another F***ing Aucklander", or if you're an Aucklander, "Just Another Fabulous Aucklander". Reminds me some of the rivalries between Canadain cities and regions.

We were told that killer whales have been seen in the bay, but we didn't see any when we were there. The ocean is warming up, this being late spring, and we saw people swimming here without wet suits. There's a swimming raft out in the bay, and we were told swimmers have been trapped there for awhile as killer whales swam about. There's been no reports of orcas hurting anyone, but I definitely would stay put on the raft if I spotted an orca.

One morning on my way down the path, Rod was working on re-shelling the path. He pointed out a Kauri tree, with a trunk not much bigger than a broomstick, that he planted 17 years ago. He said this tree was doing very well for its age. Unfortunately these trees, among the oldest and biggest in the world, were mostly wiped out by the forestry industry in the 1800's. Nowadays the forestry industry harvests mostly foreign species that do well here like Monterey Pines, that can grow to harvest size in under 20 years. We saw whole forests of these trees in the north of the South Island especially, all planted in rows in easily seen patterns. After awhile we started to distinguish between the local trees and the foreign trees. We've met a few people with an appreciation for the local trees, which was great to see.

In downtown Auckland we started off with a visit to the Auckland Museum, with floors for natural history, Maori and pacific people, and war. The kids went straight for the Minecraft exhibit of the Gallipoli campaign, which local university students put together. I really liked the volcano exhibit. We sat in a living room with a screen showing the Auckland harbour while the news came on the television. The newscast announced slow progress on the evacuation of Auckland, following warnings of volcano activity in the harbour. The newscast was interrupted when the volcano slowly started to rise out of the harbour, and then a rolling cloud of ash and steam quickly rushed into Auckland, covering the neighbourhood, while the house shook. It was a bit unnerving. Best advice, if you're living in Auckland and this thousand year event occurs - get out of town early if you can. The exhibit included a cast of a crouching figure who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over 2000 years ago. Most of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii evacuated the day before the eruption based on some warning signs. The few that remained to protect their property did not survive and were buried in over two meters of ash.

Yesterday we did a family activity called The Great Escape, where we were locked in a room for an hour, and we needed to find the clues to get out. The room was in an Alice in Wonderland theme, and we needed to work as a team to solve the clues. It was really a lot of fun and well done, and we managed to get out with only 30 seconds to spare! The kids especially loved this, and solved most of the puzzles themselves.

I liked this sign at a coffee shop in Auckland. If you're going for hyperbole, you might as well go all the way.

Hot water beach and German immigrant culture shock

We spent a few days in the town of Thames, a bit east of Auckland around a bay called The Firth of Thames. We explored the town and the area, and on Sunday we drove north up the peninsula's west coast to the town of Coromandel, a quaint small town having a motorcycle convention the day we arrived for a visit. There were mostly older people walking around in black leather pants (what's with that?), and looking at each other's chopper or hog motorcycle. There was also a community band in the street playing hits from the sixties and seventies, so we stopped off at a cafe to enjoy a flat white while listening to the band. The kids have been drinking ginger beer lately, which is much like ginger-ale but with a much stronger ginger flavour. So I bought them another brand of ginger beer called 'Frank's Damn Good Ginger Beer', which they enjoyed, as much for the name as the flavour.

We then drove across to Hot Water Beach on the east side of the peninsula, where we watched the kids dig a hole in the sand to contain their own little hot tub. The beach is special because there is lava a couple of miles below the surface, left over from a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. The lava is still hot, and heats up the water above, creating a steamy section of sand on one part of the beach. It was curious to see everyone building their hot tubs out of sand, including Elizabeth and John, all next to each other. It reminded me of a bird colony on a rocky cliff, with each bird family claiming their small section of land for their nest. It was fun, but you had to be careful not to burn yourself since some of the sand could get up to 65 degrees Celsius.

In Thames we stayed at the bed and breakfast of Mathias and Elena, immigrants from Germany, who arrived here five years ago with their five children. Besides the warmer weather, they moved to New Zealand so their kids could go to school in a more lassez-faire environment, where they could learn and make mistakes at their own pace, and where the whole family could explore their own interests with fewer social constraints. In Germany Mathias was a doctor in a small town, and they felt constrained by social pressures to act as a doctor's family is expected to behave. But here in New Zealand they find they are less defined by their jobs, and this has given them more encouragement to try other things. For instance they just opened up a bike shop, not something doctors typically do in Germany.

But their story is also a cautionary tale for would-be immigrants. While their kids are thriving in this new culture, the parents are contending with some of the typical issues many immigrants face, such as re-starting careers at a more junior level, isolation from friends and family back home, and adjusting to a new culture and way of thinking that has its negatives as well as positives.

Mathias has been practicing medicine in New Zealand for a few years now, and said that he sees more mental health issues here than in Germany, more drug and alcohol abuse, and more family violence. He has a theory that New Zealand is more of a 'happy culture' than Germany, meaning people act more positive here than in Germany and expect others to do the same. Consequently people here are less likely to discuss or listen to others' problems. This aggravates depression issues for those who feel they have few outlets to seek help. I don't know how accurate this is, but he told an interesting scenario to expand on his point. Suppose someone dreamed of a paradise with better weather, where he thought all his problems would then fade away. But then suppose that once he emigrated to this paradise he was still not happy, but he no longer had the dream that moving to paradise would solve his problems. He might end up more unhappy than if he hadn't emigrated in the first place. I couldn't help but wonder if he was speaking about himself in some small way. I certainly learned more about their life in Germany from these chats than anything. They do plan to move back to Germany once the kids have grown up.

We are a few short days from Saturday when we fly out of Auckland for Fiji. With five weeks in New Zealand, we will have spent more time here than anywhere else. We've enjoyed our time in New Zealand. There are obvious differences in climate, flora and fauna, which we've had fun exploring, especially around the South Island with its spectacular mountainous scenery and endless rolling pastures. 

But what strikes me most about this country is its similarities to Canada, more so than its differences. The way New Zealanders think and act, their whole culture and outlook, seem almost identical to Canadians in most respects. If Canadians and Kiwis spoke English with the same accent, I think I would be hard pressed to see much difference. Visiting New Zealand is both interesting and commonplace. It's always interesting to visit a new place, and there are always new things to explore and discover. But it is also commonplace, since the people remind me so much of Canadians. It's a bit strange, but also comforting, to be on the other side of the world and still feel like you are still in your home country to some degree.

Here are the kids at Hot Water beach.