Fiji Trip – The final post

Me at Nadi Airport.

And now, finally, is the last post in my series about my trip to Fiji. I planned on doing this last week, but life got in the way. It’s not the first time that’s happened, of course, and it certainly won’t be the last. On the positive side, the delay gave me time to fix the typos in the parts of this series I’d already published.

The day we left went reasonably well, all things considered. I say that because the rental cars we had weren’t great, and the replacement one was smaller than the original. So three of our group took a taxi to the airport, and I went in the care they would’ve gone in, something that gave me the entire back seat. The other four went in the car I had been in on the trip to the resort and on our little trips. What this meant in practice was that we were all more comfortable—less squashed—than we were on the trip to the resort.

We got to the airport in Nadi with plenty of time. I went inside with the sister-in-law I’d travelled to Auckland with so we could check our suitcases. The selfie up top is shortly after I was inside the terminal.

Our flying chariot awaits.

When we went through security, I took my devices out of my bag, of course, but I also put all my leftover Fiji coins in the tray and took off my belt, too, something that I didn’t do in Auckland. It worked: I didn’t have to go through full body scanner (aka “the porn scan”) or get a pat down. In fact, it was the fastest I’ve ever gone through security ever since “security theatre” began at airports in 2001.

We went to the gate area and had a quick lunch (I had Burger King, for the record). I bought some snacks for the plane (rather than buying anything on board), and basically waited and waited and waited. Boarding finally started, and we headed toward the plane.

In Auckland, we had to take a bus to the plane and walk up steps. In Nadi, it was a normal boarding through a skybridge. Much more civilised. I found my seat, and just as in Auckland, the screen in front of me said hello to me—here’s the evidence, along with my on board selfie:

The flight was uneventful, and we ended up landing roughly on time, despite waiting around 20 minutes after boarding to be cleared for take-off. Once in Auckland, I had to go through the “something to declare” line in customs because of the artwork the family had given me: The hook looked like it might be made from a seashell, it had a line woven from natural fibres, and it was in a wooden frame. The agent cleared me without even inspecting it.

It was a loooooooooong walk to my sister-in-law’s car (the carpark area is being totally reworked, and the complaints about it have piled so hight that planes have to fly around the stack. Sort of.

When we were on the road and close to Hamilton, I texted my cousin-in-law who’d offered to bring Leo to my house, and shortly after that we found out the motorway was closed (it’s being re-built for around the hundredth time since it opened a decade or so ago (slight exaggeration, but it has been worked on many times, allegedly because they cut too many corners when it was first built on the swampy land, and constant repairs have been necessary). By the time we found that out, my cousin-in-law was already on her way.

We needed to take a detour, and at first neither of us knew where we’d ended up—but then we reached a roundabout and I knew exactly how to get to my house from there, something that’s still a pretty unusual thing for me in Hamilton. My cousin-in-law was already at my house when we finally got there.

My sister-in-law left for home, and I rushed inside and turned on the air conditioners. My cousin-in-law and I visited for awhile, with Leo sitting right up against her on the sofa. He eventually forgave me (I shared a photo of him and me from that night in a post a few days after I got home).

In each of my posts in this series, I’ve talked about some of my impressions relating to the things I saw and did on the days I was talking about in the post. Some of what I said, like about the omnipresence of overt Christianity and religiosity in Suva, was actually true about what I saw elsewhere, too. I also saw what we’d consider poverty everywhere: The traditional lodge-style thatched homes had nearly all been replaced by simple frame houses that can be seen in any New Zealand town, but with one difference: In Fiji, they often had no doors nor glass in the window openings. Instead, the windows might have wooden louvres, or maybe just some sort of sheer net-like fabric, a bit like window screens in curtain form.

Every village along the road had speed bumps in them to slow down traffic, but those same speed bumps were sometimes in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. In general, the roads we took were pretty well maintained, with some exceptions here and there.

The road from Nadi to the resort often reminded me of New Zealand, with similar vegetation. However, the road from the resort to Suva was more what I expected Fiji to look like: Lots of palm trees of various species, and other tropical plants.

The people I dealt with were all polite and friendly, and they really do say “Bula!” when you enter a shop or whatever. I’d seen that in tourism commercials, but I didn’t know if it was real—it is (it essentially translates as “hello” or “welcome”).

Cash was still used a lot—something I’m not used to anymore—but EFTPOS (debit cards not on a credit card network) were harder to use. The resort had fairly decent wifi (I installed a VPN on my devices right before I left Hamilton so I could use their wifi safely), but there was no television, and I know Fiji has TV broadcasts. Some TVs in the resort were “smart TVs”, so they could stream Netflix (I don’t have an account), and some rooms had DVD players with a selection that could be borrowed, though some of our group tried that and found that many DVDs wouldn’t play. I never even turned the TV in my room on.

Once I was on the road to Auckland, I felt better than I’d felt in weeks, because I was beyond the stress and anxiety of my preparations to leave, especially having to leave Leo in someone else’s care for so long. Apart from the rocky “pre-trip” time, I enjoyed the experience, and had a good time with our group.

Having said all that, I have no desire to go back to Fiji, nor to go to any other tropical south Pacific island nation. They’re all different, and absolutely are not all the same, but this trip taught me that I don’t cope well with heat combined with high humidity. Also, I learned a long time ago (when Nigel and I lived in Paeroa) that I’m a city boy at heart, and a short time in a remote area is fun, but if it was too long, I’d get over it pretty fast.

The length of our trip was perfect: The day we left I was absolutely ready to go home, and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, a decent warm shower, and, most of all, seeing Leo. I think even one more day could well have been too long for my liking.

I don’t know how many more opportunities to travel I’ll have in the years ahead, nor whether they’d be solo or a group trip (though I doubt I’d be willing to go on a long trip by myself). I know that, as I said only once at the very start, the trip would’ve been more fun for me if Nigel had been there. I was well aware that my last overseas trip was when he and I went to Australia’s state of Queensland in 2017, and my last trip away anywhere was to Queenstown in the South Island back in November of 2020. It turned out that it was good for me to get away: I didn’t realise how much I needed a complete break until I was on one.

Now, though, it’s time to push on with everyday life again.

Previously:
”Travelling gratitude” – After I was home.
Fiji Trip, Part One
Fiji Trip, Part Two
Fiji Trip, Part Three
Fiji Trip, Part Four
Fiji Trip, Part Five

Fiji Trip, Part Five

This is the penultimate post in this series, so I’ll soon have to find new things to blog about. Such a burden! Today’s post is all about Monday, January 22, our last full day in Fiji. The next morning we left to return home.

When I posted about this on my Facebook, I wrote:

Last full day in Fiji! Tomorrow morning we leave the resort to head to the airport in Nadi (pronounced “Nandy”, and rhymes with “Brandy”, the one who’s apparently a fine girl who’d make a good wife for someone whose life isn’t the sea, unless pop music lied to me? 🤔).

I was in a good mood, and it’s obvious (to me…) because of my lame joke about a 1972 pop song—a song that, by the way, went to Number 10 in Australia, Number One in Canada, 5 in New Zealand, and in the USA it was Number One on both the Billboard “Hot 100” and on Cashbox and was certified Gold. Hm, this just become a crossover post…

We had nothing planned for that day—apart from relaxing and packing for our trip home. The only thing we did was go up to a shop nine minutes drive from the resort because it sells souvenirs, clothing, and artisans’ work, etc. (and it's where my birthday gift came from, the one I showed in the photo in my ”Travelling gratitude” post. I bought a couple t-shirts. During the afternoon downpour, I just relaxed in my room where it was cooler and far less humid.

The rain meant that new photos were out of the question, so I shared a few I’d taken earlier that day and a couple from other days. I’m doing that with this post, too.

First up, a collage of photos I actually took on January 22, just before we headed to the shop that morning (before the rain). The larger photo at the top is looking toward the plants that separated the service road where the resort (and others) were accessed. There was a wall separating the service road from the busier road that connected Nadi and Suva. The photos were all taken just outside the front gateway.

From our first full day, January 19, when I was on a beach walk near the resort. 

This was on the beach, right by the resort. The back of this sign can be seen on the second and third photos in Part One (link below).

These plants were growing near a parking area next the building my room was in. I think the green fruit is bread fruit. I took this January 19, too.

This photo was actually a rejected birthday selfie. I addeed on my Facebook, "With both me and the flowers behind me, I was concerned there was too much beauty in one photo—is what I might say if the real reason wasn’t that I didn’t like the black strap of my bag being in the shot (somehow I didn’t notice when I took it).

Nevertheless, the flowers are pretty (pity about that wanker standing in front of them…). They’re growing against that same wall along the service road…"

• • • • •

That's actually it for photos I took of my trip. The final post in this series will include a couple travelling photos, but mainly it'll have my final reflections on my trip.

Previously:
”Travelling gratitude” – After I was home.
Fiji Trip, Part One
Fiji Trip, Part Two
Fiji Trip, Part Three
Fiji Trip, Part Four

Fiji Trip, Part Four

We’re now up to Sunday, January 21, a rather significant day. It was our penultimate day in Fiji, and it was a quiet one, over all. But that doesn’t mean that nothing happened.

After breakfast that morning, I walked partway down the beach with some of the others, and then they carried on and I went toward the water to take some photos while the tide was out. Unfortunately, I quickly became overheated, so I went back to nearby family members’ room to cool down before heading back to my room. It was still only 30 (86F), but the humidity was astronomical after all the heavy rain the day before. I decided it was best too cool down, then to go back out later to join the others for lunch poolside. The photo up top shows the vew looking eastish, and here’s the view looking back toward the resort:

Both of these photos are showing what’s covered in water at high tide, so, where I wouldn’t normally be walking. The closer I got to the water’s edge, the more “squishy” the sand became. I learned to back off when I sank into the sand “too much” (which really meant more than I was comfortable with—in order to keep my shoes clean).

I walked along the beach to a spot where I could see what I presume is lava, the spot where the sea/lagoon would meet the beach at high tide. As someone who comes from the middle of a continent, and who now lives a long way from the sea, I found this endlessly fascinating.

Be that as it may, I went back to my room to further cool down, and then at lunchtime I headed toward the pool area in the older area to meet the others for lunch. I have to admit, having lunch brought to us poolside was pretty much my idea of luxury (and, as always, it was really nice).

Here’s a photo I took from my seat, where I had my lunch:

The rains moved in, as they did every afternoon, and in a break I returned to my room to relax—and cool down. From time to time, I shot video, not up to the standard of a mediocre YouTuber, but nevertheless documenting what I saw and experienced, even the, um, unusual, including video that I didn’t used for anything whatsoever—though I had great ideas at the time. I looked up at the fan above my bed, over at the view from my bed, all of which was very artsy and all that, but it didn't amount to anything (mainly because editing video is hard in an iPad… or maybe I was too lazy?). All that recording including a view from where I was laying on my bed, looking out toward the balcony and the heavy rain that was falling at the time. Here’s a still from that video:

After that, it was time for my birthday celebration.

My birthday was a good one—low key, as I’d wanted, but spent with family. My brother-in-law made a fabulous dinner for us all, and it was awesome. They even sprung a cake on me (photo at right), much to my surprise. Old graphic arts guy that I am, I was amused by the space between “birth” and “day”. We also had more kava, which went well, I suppose (I only had one—it was, um, okay…). Later on, a Canadian couple staying at the resort joined us, and then some family members went night swimming—and REM was in my ears… [See the official music video on YouTube]. I was back at my room by around 10pm.

And that was the end of my “significant birthday”, and our penultimate day in Fiji. It was a very good day.

Previously:
”Travelling gratitude” – After I was home.
Fiji Trip, Part One
Fiji Trip, Part Two
Fiji Trip, Part Three

Fiji Trip, Part Three

Saturday, January 20 was our tourist day. We were only in Fiji for four full days (and parts of two others), so there really wasn’t much time to go sightseeing, not when there was photography, snorkelling, kayaking, and swimming to do—or just relaxing. Nevertheless, on Saturday we decided to drive to Suva, the capital of Fiji, on the southeastern part of Viti Levu, the main island. It was a two hour drive from the resort.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t initially all that enthused, first, because it was a long drive there and back, but also because plenty of people had told me that it was kind of run down, poor, and so, not a place to visit. I went anyway.

Suva is the country’s largest city, with around 93,000 people, and I thought it was fascinating! While it has things in common with large cities throughout the world, it’s also very different. The central business district was extremely busy, with heavy traffic—more so than some much bigger cities I’ve been in. Even so, it was easy to walk around.

Suva was also filled with mainly Fijian people, and we were clearly in the minority. It was actually the first time in my life I’ve been in a foreign city where I could clearly see I was in the minority, and I loved the new experience (obviously I’ve been in foreign cities and been in the minority, but until that day I couldn’t necessarily see that).

We did a little shopping at a mall called Tappoo, and after that we contemplated a stroll through the open air market pretty much across the road—but the fish smell was overpowering in the heat, and it was crowded, so we drove around a bit instead, especially near the harbour.

These are two decent photos I took in Suva. The tall, oddly shaped building on the photo on the right is the Tappoo mall. The photo on the left is looking in the opposite direction.

After Suva, we headed back, stopping at one supermarket to pick up some things for Sunday night’s dinner. However, it was kind of sparse, so we drove on.

Next stop was a huge supermarket I thought was really interesting, and then had a late lunch in the sort of food hall there. It turns out, the company that owns it (and the first one we went to) is in a dispute with the Fijian government, with all sorts of allegations flying around, including that the company is a religious cult. Such intriguing drama!

I noticed that many of the prices for New Zealand food products were comparable to shops in NZ (after converting currency), but some NZ things were MUCH more expensive. Fiji-made products were usually cheaper than the expensive imported NZ things, and the less expensive NZ products didn’t seem to have any local competition—which is the opposite of what I expected.

One thing I notice about Fiji is the omnipresence of Christian religiosity. The buses in Suva seemed to all have an enormous “JESUS” painted just above the windscreen, and religious slogans on cars were quite common everywhere. Nobody pushed religion at me, but it was definitely everywhere.

On the way back, the skies opened up and we drove through torrential rain. And now we can all say we’ve driven through a tropical rainstorm—another thing checked off the bucket list!

Once we were back at the resort, we rested before heading out to dinner. Fortunately, by the time we were ready to leave, the rains eased up. I shot a silly video of me out on the balcony of my room as the rain poured down (but the thunder wasn’t thundering). I also took this photo, imitating the pretend grumpy look (I wasn't actually grumpy at all):

We decided to go to a local bar/restaurant called “The Tipsy Italian” because they had live music. Several of us had pizza (mine was really nice). It was, technically, “across the road”, but it was a little far to walk, so we drove.

After dinner, it was decided that some of us would have shots of kava, a traditional Fijian drink made from a plant. It’s nonalcoholic and non-intoxicating, but may have a kind of calming, slightly sedative effect.

Traditionally, it’s drunk in a ceremony where everyone drinks from a shared wooden bowl (totally not my scene), and I had been told it tastes like dirty water (which is what it looks like…). What the bar had was a commercial version that tasted of absolutely nothing. It may have been more diluted than usual, for all I know, but in any case, I felt nothing from it.

The deliberately silly photo at the bottom of this post is me contemplating the shot of kava—and that was actually my second, because I forgot to do a selfie for the first. Oops.

The singer was awesome, singing Fijian songs and great covers of English language pop songs (including at least one New Zealand band), which was all the more remarkable because he didn’t really speak English—but he sure could sing it!

We didn’t stay late, and, like usual, I was actually ready for bed fairly early. After all, the next day would be a big day, whether I wanted it or not.

Previously:
”Travelling gratitude” – After I was home.
Fiji Trip, Part One
Fiji Trip, Part Two

Fiji Trip, Part Two

On January 19, the first full day of the Fiji trip, I went and visited the newer building at the resort. These photos are all of the building and from the beach in front, and I’ve captioned each photo.

The new building was built during lockdown, so it’s still quite new. As with the older section, the rooms looked really nice—but if you looked closely, there were things that weren’t exactly perfect. I’ve heard that that in Pacific Island nations it’s common to have buildings built by labourers who aren’t necessarily professional builders, and while that doesn’t mean they got it wrong, it can mean a lack of attention to the finisihing details. Even so, the air conditioning was great—far better than in my room.

I thought that, ignoring finer details, the rooms looked really nice, and so did the pool on the beach side of the building. However, I was told that there were some rough edges in the pool, again indicating the finishing work may have been a bit lacking. Behind the building was a single tennis court, and whenever it rained (every day, in other words…) the surface bubbled up. There was only one time I saw anyone actually use it, and it surprised me: It was for far too hot and humid for me to have even contemplated such a thing.

Having said all of that, the newer building was what many people may think of when they think of a Pacific Island resort, and it really was nice. The older section was nice in its own way, too, and its pool was far more sheltered from the sun than the newer one was.

All in all, it seems to me that it comes down to a matter of personal preference. I liked my room, and the pool area in the older section, but I liked the air conditioning and views at the newer building. Fortunately, for me, I got to experience both.

The newer building as seen from the beach. The blue rectangles either side of the sign are lap pools.

A close up of the end of one of the lap pools.

Looking from the building end toward the sea. That round area in the middle of the pool is seating.

The pool at sunset. It has a soft blue glow at night. This was actually taken January 21.

Back on the beach in front, looking more or less easterly. It's raining at the horizon.

Looking the other way up the beach, back toward the older area. It's raining at that horizon, too.

Previously:
”Travelling gratitude” – After I was home.
Fiji Trip, Part One

Fiji Trip, Part One

I’ve now been back from Fiji for five full days, which is as long as I was there. This is as good a time as any to blog about the trip. The question I had was, how?

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do one long post, break them up by day, or maybe arrange them thematically. In the end, I decided to do a bit of both, and I’ll include in each one my observations and opinions related to that post.

Today, I begin with the stuff I posted to my personal Facebook on Day 1, the day we arrived in Fiji, January 18, 2024.

I’m, beginning ist as I did on Facebook, namely, by sharing some scenery photos first, even though I took the photos of my room first. As it happens, there’s more to say about my room, anyway.

The resort is located on the Coral Coast, along the southern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island. It’s on a road almost halfway between Nadi (pronounced “Nandy” and rhymes with “Brandy”) and the capital, Suva. We arrived and departed from Nadi. The beach by the resort faces a lagoon protected by a coral reef—what gives the Coral Coast its name. The waves break on the reef, but the lagoon is calm, even placid and glasslike, depending on the time of day, the tide, and the weather. Folks in our group went snorkelling and kayaking in the lagoon.

The temperatures were pretty warm—around 30-32 degrees (mid 80s F), however, the humidity was at least 90% every day. Some days it was so bad I felt like I couldn't breathe properly. It rained every afternoon, as it tends to do in the tropics. Sometimes the rain was heavy and with lightning and thunder, and other times it was just steady. Whichever we got, it stopped by evening.

The resort has two distinct sections: The older, original part (where my room and some of the others were—half of us, in fact) and the newer building where the other half of us were, and that has its own pool. I’ll talk about the newer section in a different post.

The photo up top is from the beach right by the resort, just down from where the pool in the older section of the resort is. Here are a couple more photos from the same general area:

This is looking the other way from the same area as the photo up to.

The older pool has a covered area, and we had our lunch there twice, which was really nice. The rooms—called “villas” were very similar, as near as I could tell (I only saw two). My room was on the second floor of the main building, where reception and the restaurant were. And my room is a topic in itself.

This is the view from the pool area in the older section. 

My Room

When I first saw my room, I thought it looked pretty nice, and the air conditioner made it feel especially nice. Before I went outside and took the photos above, I took some photos of my room:

The view from the front door toward the balcony.

Looking along the right wall from the door, there's what appears to be a futon-like sofa with a wardrobe beyond it. The fridge and TV (which I never used) is at the back on the left.

The photo at left is looking the other way, including the strange loft-like space above the bed. I put my phone on the selfie stick to find out what was up there: Nothing but some extra flooring for the room. The top of the bed was very high—roughly hip-height from the floor, so my feet dangled when I sat on the edge. I haven't experienced that since I was a little kid.

When I first looked at the bathroom, I thought it was stacked-stone tile work. It was only later that I realised it was a kind of 3D wall panel made to look like that, however, it was very well done and installed and grouted in such a way that it was really convincing. In the photo above, the thing on the floor by the toilet is a door stop, because the door to the bathroom swings into that space.

The bathroom was quite nice, even though I wasn't going to take a bath, nor do I like bowl-type basins. It looked really nice, which I'm sure was the point.

Aesthetics aside, the shower wasn't great. I started thinking of it as my "morning dribble" because the pressure was so low. There also wasn't any hot water, though it was a cool-warm temperature (staff suggested to others that they let the shower run for fifteen minutes to get hot water). I didn't mind the temperature because it cooled me right down before heading out into the high heat/humidity to meet the others for breakfast. Family members who originally had the room right next to mine were moved because their shower sprayed out on all directions. I didn't have that, but the valve to direct water to either the rainshower head or the handheld thing on a hose didn't work: Turning it to the hand-held one left the rain head still going, but at less power. I left it on the rain head all the time.

In the room itself, I noticed things had become a bit neglected. There was laminate flooring in the room, and it had begun to curl at the seams, possibly because of the very high humidity, but it could also have been because of people coming into the room wet from swimming. At any rate, either porcelain tile or else luxury vinyl flooring would've been a better option, in my opinion.

Despite all that, I had no real complaints about the room. I was quite removed from all the others, though, which was fine for sleeping, obviously, but it meant I had no idea if folks were at the pool or whatever. Still, when we selected rooms, we didn't have a feel for the layout of the place, so we had no way of knowing I'd be off in the edge of the resort.

The food in the restaurant was excellent—no complaints at all (well, apart from poached eggs—they were overcooked). Staff were really nice and friendly, and made an effort to learn our names.

We wanted a mostly relaxing holiday, and we got that. The place was nice enough, and even if it needed a bit of attention, we still enjoyed our time there. I could've done with less humidity, though.

Six months hence

Six months from today, I’ll turn 65—and I can officially say that now that it’s also July 21 in the place I was born. I’m not exactly looking forward to it, any more than I looked forward to 60, however, as I’ve often said, there’s only one way to stop having birthdays. Given the alternative, then, I’d rather have one than not.

Well, sort of. My perspective has changed a lot, given everything that’s happened—of course. Nigel always made my birthdays very special, and he told me more than once that he enjoyed mine more than his own. At the time, I thought it was because he hated being the centre of attention, to be made a fuss of, but he enjoyed making a fuss of someone else. I’ll never know for sure if I was right, but I think so.

So, it was in character for Nigel to make my 60th so awesome—he made sure it would be. I wish more than anything he could do that again. Actually, the fact he’s not been part of four of my birthdays since has made them less awesome than any had been when he was alive. I guess that’s to be expected, too.

All of which meant I didn’t know what to do about my 65th. In many ways, it’s an even bigger birthday than 60 was, not the least because I’ll start collecting superannuation, New Zealand’s retirement payment. That’s said to be the start of “the third age” of one’s life, though what that looks like is absolutely neither standard nor certain.

I considered having a party, like for my 60th, but I simply couldn’t face doing that because that one was so special, thanks to Nigel. I knew that if I had a party for my 65th, I’d constantly think about how it could never be as good because Nigel wasn’t there. And that’s where I got stuck.

Some time ago, some members of the family were talking about going on an overseas trip in January, and they asked me if I wanted to go. Even though the talk was that we’d be back in time for my birthday, I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about it simply because I’m still not keen on travelling anywhere.

Even so, I said yes. In the end, plans evolved, and we’re now going to Fiji and we’ll be there for my birthday. This actually changed everything for me: It’s a way for me to observe and celebrate my significant birthday in a way that’s unlike any other birthday I’ve had before—and completely different from my 60th. Of course, I’ll be keenly aware Nigel isn’t there—and should be—but experiencing something so completely different, and something that I’ve wanted to do for decades, makes it the perfect thing.

There’s a bit of a backstory to that, too. One of my first Christmases in New Zealand, maybe even my first, Nigel and I were visiting his parents and we were all talking about places we’d like to visit, and I said I’d like to go to a South Pacific island because I’d never been to one. Nigel’s mum said, very matter-of-factly, “you live on one,” and we all laughed. Obviously I meant a tropical island, but that was just so funny that it’s stuck with me all these years.

To be clear, this isn’t a birthday trip, it’s a trip that will include my birthday. To me, a holiday to a tropical island that also happens to include my birthday in it makes it a low-key, an interesting, and different experience all rolled into one.

For so many reasons, then, this is a great way for me to observe/celebrate my 65th. It also gives me something to look forward to rather than the complicated birthday itself. I know that Nigel would be very pleased, too. I am.

One Planet Summit Keynote Address

In the video above, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivers the keynote address at the One Planet Summit in New York. The Summit was co-hosted by French President Macron and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

The approaching storm

Cyclone Pam is headed for New Zealand this evening/tonight, and while it was deadly in the Pacific, it’s unlikely to be too bad once it reaches us. Even so, it’s a good reminder for New Zealanders to be prepared.

Cyclone Pam, which was a Category 5 cyclone, the most severe category, hit Pacific Island nations, devastating Vanuatu, where at least 8 are confirmed dead, though the actual number of fatalities is expected to be five or six times that. The cyclone is in a three-way tie for the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.

The storm is now headed for New Zealand, which it should reach this evening or later tonight (there’s a site with live animated tracking, which is where the screenshot, above, is from), with the worst of it expected in the morning. Auckland is expected to have heavy rain and strong winds, but the eastern parts of the country are expected to get the worst of it, with storm surges and potential for 8 metre waves.

Despite the somewhat hysterical reporting by the New Zealand Herald, the actual impact of the storm on New Zealand is likely to be relatively minor. That has to do with our latitude as much as anything.

Tropical cyclones (also sometimes called depressions because of the low atmospheric pressure) are storm systems that form in the tropics where the oceans are warmest. They’re called “cyclones” because of their cyclonic winds. If the storms become intense enough, they’re called hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere, while in the Southern Hemisphere they’re called cyclones, and in the northwest Pacific Ocean they’re called typhoons.

The cyclones in our region usually mostly affect the Pacific, which is why the death toll and damage may seem relatively low, compared with hurricanes that hit the USA. That’s because of lower population in the region, of course, as well as the less developed nature of many of the affected Pacific Islands. Those factors also mean that when a cyclone does hit them, it can be more devastating for them, relatively speaking, than a hurricane is for the USA.

When the cyclones start moving south, they start to weaken as the move over cooler water. By the time they reach New Zealand, they’re usually dramatically downgraded, sometimes being only a tropical storm. However, even a weakened storm can be deadly. In 1988, Cyclone Bola hit New Zealand, and even though it had been deeply downgraded by then, it nevertheless “created some of the heaviest rainfall totals for a single storm in the history of New Zealand, with some locations receiving more than half of their annual rainfall totals from the storm.” It killed three New Zealanders.

The fact that even greatly weakened cyclones can still be dangerous when they reach us means it was prudent for authorities to urge New Zealanders in the storm’s path to stock up so they have three days of food on hand—but we should all have that already, anyway, as part of our Get Ready, Get Thru preparations: Earthquakes and volcanoes are constant threats, after all. Storms like this one are just another threat.

Because cyclones rarely affect New Zealand as anything more than, maybe, a bad rainstorm, people become complacent. It’s the old, “because a thing has never happened, it never will happen” way of thinking. Still, if one is prepared for disaster as we should all be all the time, anyway, then that complacency might not be as risky as it otherwise might be. There’s no need for panic—just ordinary, run-of-the-mill, prudent precautions.

Making sure we all "Get Ready, Get Thru"—regardless of the threat—is always wise.

Some observations at our house (updated periodically): At 7:30 this morning, there was still some sunshine, through broken clouds, with the occasional gust of wind. By 9am, the skies had clouded over, though it was still bright. The winds were already picking up. By 10:30am, it was overcast like a normal rainy day, though with more constant winds, some of them quite gusty. By 11:30am, the clouds had thickened and the winds became somewhat stronger. The rains started around 3:30pm, spits and sprinkles at first, but full-on rain soon after. At 7:30pm, the rains and wind eased, which apparently happens when the wind switches direction. By 7:45pm it was back to how it had been for the previous few hours. Around 8:45pm, it was all quiet. Forecasts at 9pm were unchanged, with the worst for Auckland expected between midnight and 6am, and for East Cape and Gisborne probably after that. At about 9:45pm, Bella went outside, and when she came back a short time later, she was wet, but by no means soaked. Same for Sunny when she went outside around 10:20pm. It was still quiet. By midnight, the rain had returned and was steady and reasonably heavy, though there was little wind. I heard it for hours whenever I woke up, until 4am, when all was silent, and I thought the storm was over. But at around 7am when I got up, it was again raining steadily. By 9am, it was mere sprinkles and by 10am, the deck was already starting to dry out. And that concludes this particular list of observations at our house.

NZMM Day 20 – OMC

If I'm talking about BIG New Zealand acts, I have to mention OMC, the first New Zealand act to reach the Number One spot on a Billboard chart.

The name “OMC” is short for “Otara Millionaires Club” which is a pisstake: Otara is one of the poorest suburbs in Auckland. The group was originally formed in 1993 by Phil Fuemana who basically gave the band to his younger brother, Pauly. He, in turn, suggested shortening the name to OMC. The Fuemana brothers had grown up in Otara.

The video above is their big hit, “How Bizarre” (1995), from the album of the same name (which wasn’t released until 1997). It was Number One in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA, and Number 5 in the UK. It went Platinum in Australia and 3x Platinum in New Zealand. The album hit Humber 5 in New Zealand, 44 in Canada and 40 in the USA.

Their next single, “Right On” (1996, below) was from the same album and reached Number 11 in New Zealand, but didn’t chart in any of the countries I write about. Nevertheless, it went Platinum in New Zealand.



The following year, 1997, they released the last single to chart, “Land of Plenty” (below). It reached Number 4 in New Zealand, but didn’t chart anywhere else. This song was very New Zealand-centric, which may have limited its appeal, but that’s also what made it popular here. I liked it and the video, with its iconic New Zealand scenery. It was released in my second year in New Zealand, which meant I was especially drawn to it.



Pauly Fuemana died of respiratory failure on January 31, 2010, following a long battle with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. He was eight days shy of his 41st birthday. Older brother Phil died of a heart attack in 2005.

And that’s where this particular story ends. Unlike most of the acts I’ve written about, there’s no chance there’ll be any new music from OMC. Still, they live on through the history they made, and that’s kind of the point of these posts.

NZMM Day 10 – Nesian Mystik

In the early 2000s, it was almost impossible to NOT hear Nesian Mystik, particularly when Coca-Cola used their 2002 hit “For The People” (above) as the music in a commercial. They were one of my favourite NZ bands, so I’m including four of their songs in this post.

Nesian Mysitk was a Pacific-influenced Hiphop band, taking catchy melodies and meshing them with strong, often message-driven lyrics about the Polynesian experience in New Zealand. The band was made up of members from many Polynesian backgrounds (“Nesian” is a nickname for Polynesians), including Cook Islands, Tongan, Samoan and Maori.

Between their debut single, “Nesian Style” (2001) and when they broke up in 2011, they had ten Number One hits—a record. Seven of the songs went Gold, and three went Platinum.

The group’s debut album, Polysaturated (2002), went to Number One and went four times Platinum. It was one of those albums it seemed everyone had and was talking about (including us). 2006’s Freshmen peaked at Number Eight (and went Gold), 2008’s Elevator Musiq reached Number 12 (also Gold) and their final album, 99 A.D. (2010) went to Number 4 and was Platinum. I mention all this to give some idea of how big they were.

There were quite a few really strong tacks on their debut album, but many of those don’t have music videos. One of the other ones I always liked was “Unity” (below), which was released in 2003. It reached Number 7 on the NZ chart and went Gold. It was also the follow-up single to "For The People".



A song from the their second album, Freshmen, that I particularly liked was “If It’s Cool” (below), released in 2006. It reached Number 5 on the NZ chart and went Gold. It featured a sample from "Gonna Shout to the Top", the 1984 Style Council song that was a Top Ten hit in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.



Next up, a song from Elevator Musiq, “Mr. Mista”. It reached Number 3 and went Gold. The song features Che Fu (the artist from Day 4) and also Kimbra, who was the female vocalist on the international Gotye hit, “Somebody That I Used To Know”.



Finally, appropriately, is Nesian Mystik’s last top ten single, “Sun Goes Down” (below), from their final album, 99A.D. It reached Number 3 and went Platinum. The final two singles from the album didn’t chart.



And that’s a quick overview of one my favourite NZ bands. There are other songs of theirs on YouTube, but I’ve included some that I particularly liked. Sometimes, it IS hard to narrow things down.

Stories of LGBT Pasifika youth

The video above is a segment from the NZ TV programme Tagata Pasifika, and profiles a show put together by Pasifika youth to talk about gay and trans* issues for youth in Pacific Island communities. It’s challenging for some, and not just because of the title, but because of its honesty.

One of the important things about this is that it’s youth telling their own stories, rather than people talking about them. I also think it’s good for Palagi/Pakeha to hear these stories as a way of learning how things for Pasifika LGBT youth can be completely different than for youth of European ancestry.

With a little luck, there will be more shows like “Teen Faggot”, more opportunities for youth to tell their own stories. That’s a good thing whenever that happens.

Good in social media

There was some good news I saw today that rode along with some common Internet debunking. And, the evening news had a good news social media story. Both of which show that that it’s possible to be surprised by good news in the most unexpected places.

The first thing originally came up because of the Tweet pictured above (Source). Thomas Lumley, Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland, saw the image and knew something was wrong with it. He detailed them on the StatsChat blog.

All of that is fine, and many bloggers, me included, debunk things we find on the Internet. But then he added this:

“…the StatsChat-relevant aspect of the picture is the dramatic fall in the price of flying over the years. In the 1960s Pan Am used to charge about US$500 for a round-trip from New York to London. Adjusted for inflation, that’s nearly US$4000 now, which would get you a much nicer business-class ticket. In terms of median income the fall in price is even greater, and much greater in terms of the income of the sort of people who used to fly in the 1960s.”

Oddly enough, recently we were talking about what a terrific value for money air travel is these days, despite the well-known hassles. That’s important to a lot of people, but maybe especially to expats. So, what started out as a routine debunking of something on the Internet ended up providing a clear case of how good we have it with relatively inexpensive air travel.

The other story was on TVNZ’s One News tonight (the video may not be viewable outside New Zealand, but the NZ Herald also covered the story). Welsh skydiver Ben Cornick was in an accident at the end of a jump in Fiji and was injured so badly that the doctors there couldn’t help him. He needed to be medevac’d to New Zealand, but his travel insurance didn’t cover accidents.

Enter social media: A Facebook page was set up by his cousin and they raised some $39,000 to help to pay for his care. He faces weeks of recovery and rehab, but he’s intact, and Facebook helped that.

We so often hear about bad things on the Internet, and it can certainly be a place for incredibly bad and boorish (or worse) behaviour, but sometimes there’s still good news—like today’s two completely different examples.

I like that good news can be found in unexpected places.

NZ’s craziest MP?

So, then this happened today during Question Time: A Member of Parliament asked a minister about blowjobs. Seriously. The minister answered it was not her responsibility (video above).

The List MP from the rightwing NZ First Party, Asenati Lole-Taylor, was asking Police Minister Anne Tolley about street prostitution in South Auckland, a subject with which the MP seems particularly obsessed.

Asenati makes frequent use of Twitter, where she ducks even reasonable questions put to her and instead tends to attack people who disagree with her. She’s also an anti-gay bigot, among other things. She’s done nothing at all for Pasifika people in South Auckland, and is known only for mounting, so to speak, her sex-centred quixotic campaign against prostitution (prostitution carried out by adults is legal in New Zealand, though street prostitution isn’t).

She’s not necessarily really the craziest MP in the NZ Parliament—particularly because she has so much competition within her party’s caucus, which is made up of bigots, crackpots and tossers (figuratively speaking, of course).

Still, even though I have such a low opinion of her, she nevertheless made me feel sorry for National’s Anne Tolley. I’ve always thought Tolley was incompetent and out of her depth in every portfolio she’s held, but today, for the first time ever, I actually felt some sympathy for her. Who says a NZ First MP, no matter how crazy, can’t do something positive?

I think that’s quite enough sarcasm and snark for one day think. Okay, just one more: Question Time is actually called—ahem!—"Questions for Oral Answer". And today Asenati really put the "oral" into it.

Draggin’ the line

It’s not every day a country can say this: Later this year, Samoa will jump a day. On December 29, the Pacific Island nation will move to the west side of the International Date Line—well, IT won’t move, of course, it’ll just put the date line on the other side.

The reason is the same as why Samoa went the other way 119 years ago: Trade. Then, it was to facilitate trade with the US and Europe, now it’s to facilitate trade with Australia and New Zealand.

At the moment, Samoa is 21 hours behind Sydney. After the switch, it will be three hours ahead of Sydney and an hour ahead of New Zealand.

The BBC quoted Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi as saying: "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week. While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand and when we're at church Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane."

The map above (by TUBBS) shows Samoa’s location, about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. The map at left is of the International Date Line (click to embiggen).

New US Ambassador to New Zealand sworn in

In the official video above, US Vice President Joe Biden swears in the new US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, David Huebner (pronounced HEEB-ner). Huebner is the third gay person to be appointed a US Ambassador, but he is the first to be confirmed and sworn in as an openly gay person.

President Bill Clinton appointed James Hormel US Ambassador to Luxemburg, the first time an openly gay person had ever been nominated, but that was blocked by the now-dead arch-bigot US Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), so Clinton appointed Hormel while Congress was in recess, bypassing the Senate confirmation process. This made Hormel the first openly-gay US Ambassador.

President George W. Bush appointed Michael Guest as ambassador to Romania, but his sexual orientation didn’t become public until after the Senate had confirmed him. Afterward, right-wingers in the US, as well as some in Romania, attacked Guest and he left the post after only two years. The Bush State Department claimed that the two-year term had been their plan all along.

So, David Huebner is the first openly-gay person nominated, confirmed by the US Senate and sworn in as US Ambassador. It’s a very big deal for America, and gay Americans in particular, but, quite frankly, a non-event in New Zealand. Openly-gay people have been part of two New Zealand governments and are just another part of society. In fact, the term “openly gay” is even kind of odd for New Zealand; here it’s generally assumed that if one is gay, one has the same opportunities as anyone else.

With his experience and background, particularly with China, Ambassador Huebner should help to advance the relationship between New Zealand and the United States—which is, after all, the whole point. Ambassador Huebner and his partner are scheduled to arrive next week.

Update 9 December 2009: It turns out they arrived today. The story made the national TV news, as the arrival of a new US Ambassador usually does, but they also featured a soundbite of Ambassador Huebner saying some nice things about New Zealand.

Also, I noticed that on YouTube the video has brought out the typical anti-gay bigoted comments as well as anti-Obama lunatics. Probably for both reasons, the video is being rated down—it has only around four stars. Seriously? How can someone be so filled with hatred for gay people, President Obama or both that they give the video a one-star rating, when, if we're honest, most rational people can't be bothered to give it any rating at all?

Thanks to online buddy John Q. Public for steering me to the video.

Burning ring of fire

When it comes to the spectre of potential natural disaster, the developed world is roughly divided into two parts: Those who worry about their possible dramatic demise, and those who like to make fun of and belittle those who worry. They’re both extremes, the first worried about what may never happen, and the latter who blithely dismiss the existence of even real threats.

The truth, as it so often is, lies somewhere in the middle. Here in New Zealand, the entire country is potentially at risk for something: Earthquakes and tsunamis pretty much everywhere, volcanoes in most of the North Island, plus routine dangers of cyclones, floods and even snowstorms in parts of the country. It makes simple, prudent sense to be prepared for such events, and that’s what the Get Thru website and campaign are all about.

It’s easy to make fun of those who worry obsessively about potential natural disasters, but some people make fun of even prudent preparations. Here’s the thing: New Zealand is a geologically-active land in the midst of a very geologically active region—the Pacific Ring of Fire. The two most recent South Pacific earthquakes happened in the same region, geographically, as New Zealand.

The threats to New Zealand and the South Pacific are real and potentially lethal. That’s a fact, though there’s also no reason to obsess about it. But neither is it anything to make light of. After all, sooner or later, some day, the doomsayers may be right.

It seemed so innocent

When the morning radio news reported there’d been an earthquake near American Samoa, it didn’t seem all that worrying, even when it triggered an automated tsunami warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. After all, such things usually amount to nothing.

But as the morning wore on, things began to look more serious, and it began to look like New Zealand’s Ministry of Civil Defence had no idea what was going on. Colin Feslier, a spokesperson for the ministry, was grilled by Paul Henry, co-host of TVNZ’s morning programme, Breakfast. Henry asked Feslier specific questions, but got vague answers at best, despite the fact that it was by then known that the tsunami would hit New Zealand.

Feslier said he’d have some information “in an hour”—the same time it was due to hit East Cape. Henry was having none of it and told Feslier that simply wasn’t good enough, and Feslier finally said that it would be a good idea for people in the affected coastal areas to move to higher ground (meanwhile, ships were leaving ports in the affected areas and putting to sea for safety).

I often don’t care for Henry’s combative style, but he said what most New Zealanders would’ve. In fact, he badgered out of Feslier that he should’ve said unprompted. The ministry needs to have people who are trained to give information clearly, directly and quickly—none of which Feslier could do, so I think he was filling in. Breakfast was broadcasting live to the entire nation at that moment—a direct way to get official emergency information to people who needed it, especially people who might be in the tsunami’s path. TVNZ did the best it could, but got better information from Hawaii (which had no idea what NZ Civil Defence was doing—do these people communicate in an emergency?). Ultimately, the Minister for Civil Defence came on and provided useful information—finally.

Auckland radio wasn’t any better: The music stations largely had normal programming. The local talkback station, NewstalkZB, had the insufferably pompous and self-righteous windbag Leighton Smith on air at that time, and Radio Live had NZ's biggest dickhead, Michael Laws. Radio New Zealand National was, well, impossibly boring—I wondered if the hosts were even awake. So I relied on TVNZ to keep me informed, and they did a reasonable job, with updates every 30 minutes after 9am (they usually broadcast a news bulletin every hour between 9am and 12 noon).

It turned out that there wasn’t much to it in New Zealand—this time. People went down to the beaches to watch the tsunami arrive, as photos by the New Zealand Herald documented. Police tried to keep people away, but some people are stupid through to the bone. This could easily have been much worse if the earthquake had been even stronger, or in a different spot. Next time, New Zealand may not be so lucky.

And that’s something to worry about: If people were so blasé about this tsunami, even after the news became more serious, what will they be like next time, even if it’s a bad one? And if most of the media didn’t take this event very seriously, why would ordinary people?

Living on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” means that an earthquake, volcano and/or tsunami is always a risk—every hour of every day of every year. No one can afford to take things lightly or assume their own invincibility. One day, nature may prove them wrong.

The loss of life and property damage was in the Pacific Island nations of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. The New Zealand Red Cross is collecting donations for disaster relief.

Pacific solution

One year ago, the Pacific Forum failed to put any pressure on Fiji’s dictator, leaving New Zealand and Australia alone in demanding that Fiji return to democracy. A year passed, a year filled with repression of freedom for the people of Fiji, but worse, a complete deterioration in things like healthcare. The people of Fiji suffered while most of the leaders in the Pacific did nothing.

Now, however, the Pacific leaders have given Fiji a final warning that it must return to democracy or face suspension from the Forum at a special meeting of the leaders at the end of this year. If that happens, Fiji will lose pretty much all foreign aid. TV One News reported that the decision was unanimous.

What changed? Mainly, it was the fact that the Fiji dictator decided to stay in power and cancelled plans for elections in March. I suspect that Pacific leaders will now insist on concrete proof of a return to democracy, because the Fiji dictator’s word is obviously worthless.

The Fiji dictator is reported to be furious. I could not possibly care less what he thinks or feels about anything—he must go. The suffering of the people of Fiji is there for anyone who cares to look, and he’s directly responsible. If he has even a gram of humanity in his huffing and puffing body, he should do the right thing and resign now. He won’t. The Pacific leaders will be forced to suspend Fiji.

And the people of Fiji will continue to suffer.

AmeriNZ 105 is now available

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