October 21st Lautoka Fiji.
Ever since leaving Maui we’ve had seven lazy ‘sea’ days crossing this giant Pacific Ocean with a daily eye on the ship monitor following our progress southward across the equator. We began at 47.6 degrees north and because of our south-westerly direction the latitudinal markers were slower. But we reached 0 degrees and eventually transitioned to the South Pacific and the minor Fijian township of Lautoka. We spent a couple of hours mixing it with the locals, politely responding with an Aussie G’day to the innumerable proferrings of Bula—attention seeking Fijian for g’day—“ won’t you came and shop at my stall?”
The inevitable sharing of sniffs, sneezes and coughs took hold of Isabel about the same time and so the following day in Suva was for me alone, hunting down wifi in a city beset with bunting everywhere proclaiming Digicel with minimal impact; for no one had wifi.
Eventually, two kilometres from the centre of town an enterprising Indian restaurant came up with the broadband goods in return for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Self proclaimed political boss Frank Bainimarama took control because of the imbalance of Indian versus ‘Bula’ indigenous Fijians. He would do well press-ganging Kevin Rudd to introduce fibre to the premises in this Melanesian outpost.
Following another sea day, on October 24 we arrived early am at Mystery Island. The tiny little atoll will for us ever remain an enigma as the captain announced we had a medical emergency and we would be full steam ahead for Noumea to enable the transfer of the patient. So at a genuinely great rate of knots we high-tailed it away from Mystery island and headed for the New Caledonian capital……..but along the way we got diverted once more toward Lifou and at 4pm 3,200 passengers rubber-necked from every vantage point, attempting to view the patient.
After the successful medivac our cruise-liner headed once more for the open seas and the 12 nautical mile limit to satisfy the needs of the pokey junkies and shoppers of bling, golden chain by the metre and cheap Balinese watches.
The very next day we returned to Lifau (Oct 25) and then another little island Mare (Oct 26) both being attractive to the snorkelling set and very little else.
So we simply continued to enjoy the ship-board life, which is not too difficult and helped in our recovery from the colds that by now had afflicted us both.
Sunday October 29
Around 5.30am this morning we had the feeling our floating palace was near to destination and from our balcony the Opera House was coming into view…..aaghh! the harbour bridge, and Circular Quay……we had arrived home into Sydney.
Disembarking was a breeze, pick up our luggage, onto a waiting coach to take us to Central Station and a train ride to Gordon and there was Julie waiting to pick us up.
Graham took to the local hospital yesterday in need of emergency treatment, but today is back to his chipper self and staying put for a couple of days—— so we’re off to Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley by ourselves tomorrow for a few days.
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