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.