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Pacific
Triple Decker by Martin Snow Fiji was the first port of call, which nicely broke up the long flight to New Zealand and offered an opportunity to acclimatize and adjust to the time zone, as it is the same as NZ. As the stay was for less than 5 days we stayed on the main large island that contains the International airport in Nadi (pronounced Nan-di). It is where lots of short stopover travelers stay, however it is inland, very busy, noisy and mostly Asian Indian culture, so I was glad I had not chosen to stay here. It was difficult to find traditional native cooking, most of the restaurants selling Indian food in Nandi, which I can buy easily enough at home. Indeed throughout the island, virtually every business and shop in the tourist areas is Indian owned, the native Fijians being generally laid-back and not very businesslike. This disproportionate dominance was supposedly behind the armed protest of a small group of indigenous natives three months earlier. The uprising was covered by the world press and resulted in tourism being 70% down, mainly due to the normal hoards of American tourists getting cold feet. Those who were brave enough to chance a repeat uprising could get stay at any hotel they wanted, and most of the higher priced hotels and island resorts were virtually empty. Hey, what the heck, living and working in London we have been under threat of being blown up over the last few decades, and were probably safer in Fiji. Easily found a good value for money beach side hotel a few miles away from the airport, but quiet. For 3 days, I went scuba diving taking advantage of the excellent conditions, with lovely warm clear water, an abundance of tropical fish and a variety of corals. I had dived all round the world but the dive site called the Fishmarket had more fish concentrated in one place than I had ever seen before, with shoals swimming within shoals of other fish. Maybe it was because the dive group was small and there were few other dive boats in operation, that the fish were not scared away. I can recommend the Inner Space Adventures dive company run by Frank, a friendly British ex-pat, who was keen to hear news from the UK. The dive boat went to the best dive areas that were about fifteen miles off the coast within a group of small islands called the Mamanuca islands. The dive sites were the same ones used by the luxury resorts on these islands. The difference being these luxury resorts were charging predominantly American travelers premium prices between 200 and 1000 US dollars a night to stay cosseted in splendid isolation. They can best be described as an expensive version of the Maldives. Went on a cruise to one of these islands, which was good value, including lots of Fijian singing and entertainment, a snorkeling trip and a kava ceremony. This ceremony involves drinking a potion made from ground-up roots of a local plant, that is a mild drug with a numbing and relaxing effect. On the last day I hired a car, and traveled along the entire west of the island. I saw no sign of unrest at all, apart from the occasional precautionary military roadblock. There was nothing exceptional to see apart from the best beach on the island at Natadola, the sand dune park at Sagatoga and some scenic views along the Coral Coast. To get to Natadola Beach you have to drive on the rail-track over a narrow railway bridge and I just managed to get off the other end before the sugar-cane laddened train came in the other direction. There were no barriers or lights. Tourists were warned against going to the capital Suva because of the unrest, but people who did go said it was safe but not much to see. The natives are mostly poor and unemployment is high, so most of the sights along the road are not pretty. The price you have to pay for the tropical climate are the bugs and plentiful mosquitoes, which were large and biting hard. Most guests stayed in the hotel in the evenings to avoid them, but every point of refuge has its price. Landed in Auckland and spent a couple of days seeing the new city sights opened since my last visit, some 12 years previously. I had been to both North and South Islands before, and my objective this time was to see the parts of the North Island I missed before, as well as revisiting the best places. To relive a previous highlight, I took the ferry across the harbour to Devonport, which was the original naval settlement, full of early 19th century brightly painted wooden Victorian bungalows, with intricate woodwork. These were some of the oldest surviving New Zealand buildings, as the Maori forts and dwellings were made of wood and have long since perished. Space City is an excellent way to orient yourself with superb aerial views of the whole of Auckland from the top of the tall tower. Hired a car and headed north, snorkelling on the way in the very cold water at Goat Island, an underwater conservation area. Watch out for poisonous shells on the beach, which if you tread on can result in 2 weeks of discomfort. Passing many gloriously sandy beaches, I went through the riverside town of Whangarei with its glorious waterfall. Then on to a harbour called Tutukaka, where dive boats depart to the Poor Knights islands, which is one of Jacques Cousteau's top ten dive spots of the world. The weather had been bad before I arrived, so I intended to get my scuba diving done now while the weather was good. The 2 hour boat journey was reasonably calm with fifteen dolphins following the best-equipped dive boat I have ever been on. The dive equipment was new and you needed to wear a thick 7mm suit with a hood as the water had not had a chance to warm up, even though the air temperature was warm. This dive was to one of the best in the Poor Knights Islands, diving through the Northern Arch, which was a hole in the rock, mostly underwater. It had tons of stingrays patrolling the entrance and exit, shoals of blue Mao Mao, silver Trevally and varieties of bright coloured fish hiding in the long hole through the rock. There is always a strong current flowing through the hole, so this dive is only for the experienced diver. By chance I was buddied up with a dive-boat crew member taking a day off, and as we were both "good with air" the dive was one of my longest and most enjoyable ever. This area is a Marine Reserve with no fishing for miles around, and boy do the fish know it, swimming in shoals at the surface and ignoring divers and boats. Next stop was the seaside town of Pahia, the center for exploring the Bay of Islands area. Although Pahia is the main tourist resort for the area, it only consists of two blocks of shops and a mile of small hotels and guesthouses strung along the coast. The charming seaside town of Russell is a ferry ride away and it holds some of the most historic buildings in NZ, being the site of the oldest European settlement. Nearby is the must see Waitangi National Reserve containing the Treaty house built in 1832 and the largest Maori war canoe. The peace treaty with the Maori was signed here. I booked a dive to the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior, which after being sunk in Auckland harbour by French special agents, was buoyed up and towed about 100 miles north and sunk off the Cavalli Islands, to be used as a wreck dive site. This dive has been recommended for the bright pink and purple soft corals growing on its hull. The boat took an hour from Pahia in choppy waters, so all the passengers were relieved when we finally reach the site. Visibility was restricted to about 15 meters by the churning of the waves, but it was still pleasant to see such a famous and now pretty coloured wreck. Lucky I went that day as there were storms out to sea preventing diving for the next few days. Drove north to Ninety Mile Beach, which is in fact (only) 90 km long. This long sandy beach can be used as a road, but I only drove part of it, as hire cars are not insured on it due to the indistinguishable areas of soft sand waiting to trap you. There are rusted hulks of cars on the beach as a reminder of the risk. Motor-bike riders have been killed when traveling too fast and hitting soft sand. Turned south and through the tropical forests, full of tree ferns, and a few remaining pockets of huge 30m high Kauri trees. Then started the long drive to visit relatives in Wanganui, with stops in Raglan with its good surfing beaches, and New Plymouth near the giant Mount Egmont volcanic mountain. New Plymouth has a novel Christmas tradition of decorating its main park with a very imaginative coloured lighting, which looked very pleasing during an evening stroll in shorts. Wanganui is close to the sea, but its beach is not used very much as it consists of grey pebbles and offshore there are strong rip-tides and currents. It is used by surfers when wave conditions are right. Wanganui is a pleasant place to spend a few days. Its attractions include a cruise up the muddy Wanganui river on a paddleboat steamer (built on the Clyde 100 years ago and sent to NZ in kit form), a climb up Durie hill for views of the whole town and miles around, the regional museum containing an excellent Maori culture section. In addition there were all types of Maori war weapons, Moa bird skeletons (now extinct), settlers photographs and an 8 feet high stuffed sunfish. Wanganui national park is one of NZ's many national parks, famous for what they call tramping, which is another name for hard multi-day treks through breath-taking scenery, in extremely remote areas. If you go midweek you may not see another human for days. They also run jetboat trips up the river to the innermost reaches. After revisiting Auckland our next stop was the Coromandel Peninsula, which is like Cornwall and is a favorite holiday destination of the New Zealanders. The eastern side of the peninsula is stunningly beautiful. Whitianga is the main resort with its idyllic setting, but the best beach is along the coast at Hahei. Unfortunately it is a small town with little accommodation, so this is one place you must book ahead. Near here there is a scenic lookout from which you can walk to the arched cavern of Cathedral cove, and snorkeling spots. The whole offshore area and islands is a marine park, which allows scuba diving. Not far away is Hot Water Beach, where around low tide you can dig a hole in the beach sand and it will fill with natural hot-water, so you can bathe in your own free spa pool. If you don't have a shovel you can hire one here. Rotorua, nicknamed "Sulphur City", is a another must for visitors as its has the most energetic thermal activity in the country. It is full of gushing geysers, gurgling hot springs, bubbling mud pools and evil sulphur smells. Supposedly the earth crust is thinnest here, so the whole town is steaming. The traditional Maori hangi meal is well worth trying. This is a basket of meat and veg wrapped in leaves and steamed by burying it in a hole in the ground. In this area no artificial heat is needed. Steam even comes out of the street drains. Napier was my highlight of NZ as it is the art deco capital of the world. Most of the original coastal town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. It was rebuilt within three years in the style of the times using American and local architects. On Christmas Day we accepted a dinner invitation from local relatives, and realized an ambition by spending Christmas afternoon on the beach in the stifling 34 degrees centigrade heat. The nearby inland town of Hastings suffered a similar fate, and its art deco buildings are just as good, additionally having some Spanish Mission style buildings. During the drive through the wine growing district of Hawkes Bay, it became too tempting not to stop and sample the excellent produce. Gisborne in the Bay of Poverty has a good swimming beach and scenic Captain Cook monument and observation point. Here we turned inland through another national park towards Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. The dolphin swim trip was very popular and the sight of them jumping out of the water whilst hunting and feeding was entertaining but they were fast moving and swam off when the boat stopped. They are attracted to the engine noise, so I expect this is a common occurrence, and rarely do unfed wild dolphins stick around to swim with tourists when there are fish around to catch. Luckily I had swum with semi-tame dolphins close up in Bermuda, so was not as disappointed as the others. A walk along the neighbouring 7 mile long Ohope sandy beach, collecting shells, was a good way of working up an appetite for fresh seafood. Our final port of call was Mout Maunganui, a popular seaside peninsula with hot pools and beaches full of surfers due to high waves produced by the strong wind blowing that day. Finally back to Auckland airport to fly to the Hawaiian Islands, landing the day before due to crossing the International Date Line. We stayed in motels in NZ, as they are excellent value, costing between £10 and £30 for a double room with TV, fridge, all facilities and usually a kitchen. The higher prices are in Auckland and the more exclusive beach resorts at high season. Backpackers hostels although plentiful are usually basic and cost about £5 per night. They have a grading system derived from hosteller's surveys, and there are 2 excellent websites giving their details along with their grading. There is coach transport arranged between the hostels, so it is a cheap way to travel if you don't mind roughing it. I tried a couple of times to stay in the better ones to see what they were like, but they were already full on both occasions, so book ahead. Backpackers I met were mainly overseas students, and they didn't rate them too highly, but you get what you pay for. Two people traveling together could stay in the comparative luxury of a motel for the same price if they shop around. Campervans are common but are rather expensive, and although initially are appealing, they have lots of disadvantages. You have to pay to stay overnight in camping sites where you can plug in the electricity and fill up with water, as they are banned from staying overnight in picturesque viewpoints, seafronts and most car parks (in fact most places you would want to stay). They cost more to run in petrol, are harder to get around the undulating and constantly twisting roads, and are targets for break-ins or theft. There were cases while I was there where the poor tourists had lost everything, apart from the cloths they had on, when their campervan was stolen. Consequently we decided to hire a car and after shopping around found one for the unbelievably low price of £8 per day, for a hire period of more than 21 days. It was a comfortable medium size 3 year-old Japanese model with air-con. The daily hire charge reduces the longer the rental. New hire cars cost double or treble this price for the equivalent car. NZ has been flooded with older Japanese cars as Japan introduced a large increase in car tax for cars over 3 years, making them not worth keeping. This has sent car prices in NZ tumbling, and has had a knock on effect on new car prices, which are less than half ours. With petrol almost a third of our price, and so few cars and people around, it was a motorist's paradise. Their TV is very similar to ours with lots of UK programs, but less of the dross we have here, and the kids TV is a lot less violent. Yes they were showing Tellytubbies. The stronger NZ accents took a lot of getting used to. They pronounce 56 as "fuffty-sex" which we found amusing. There is just as much to see in the South Island especially the Southern Alps, Milford Sound and the adventure capital of Queenstown where bungy jumping was invented. To do justice to visiting both islands you need a month minimum, ideally 2 or more. Hawaii is
commonly believed to be a paradise island. However it is state consisting
of 6 main large islands separated by hundreds of miles, the only means
of tourist transport between them being air. The largest island is about
100 miles in diameter. Most international flights are to Honolulu on Oahu
Island, and many tourists stay in Honolulu with its attractions such as
Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbour and the Iolani Palace. Indeed most don't
stray far from the over-priced high-rise hotels of Waikiki (a suburb of
Honolulu), which has 90% of the accommodation on the island. An evening
spent at a Luau is a must, although some are very commercialized they
give an insight to the old traditional ways. It is a Hawaiian celebration
with local food, cocktails, lei (flower garlands worn round the neck),
hula dancing and mock ceremonies. We were planning to stay here for a
week at the end of our visit to relax, but my main reason for coming here
was to visit the active volcanoes on Hawaii Island, which is nicknamed
the Big island or Orchid island to avoid confusion with the other islands
that make up Hawaii State. Initially
I visited the town of Kailua-Kona, commonly abbreviated to just Kona as
it's the main town in the region. Although it's a good shopping area,
you can see all you want to see in half a day, so next stop was a drive
south along the coast to Keauhou Bay for snorkeling. Leaving the 3 mile
strip of hotels behind, all the beaches along this coast were popular,
but this one especially so, with car parking spaces at a premium. The
other beaches were full of body surfers and proper surfers on the big
waves, but this bay is sheltered and good for swimming and snorkeling.
When I got in the water I soon found out why it is so popular, as not
only was it full of varieties of brightly coloured tropical fish, but
also 3 turtles about 3 foot long, were swimming amongst the bathers. They
were unafraid of humans who couldn't resist staying near them. One turtle
spent every morning sleeping in the same place on the beach, surrounded
by jabbering tourists. Only people there for the first time took more
than a passing interest in the turtle, who was mainly left to slumber
undisturbed. The range and number of fish, along with the turtles, made
it the best snorkeling spot I have been to. I took some great underwater
photos. Most of the island is covered with volcanic lava of various ages, and apart from the west coast the roads skirt around the island but unfortunately doesn't offer many sea views, as it is normally at least a mile or two inland. My aim was to head south and get to the Volcanoes National Park, about a hundred miles from Kona by road, before nightfall. The south is a desolate desert with little rain, and consists of old barren lava, and dead trees killed by the sulphuric acid in the air blown by the prevailing winds from the volcanic vents. It became obvious that I wasn't going to make it by dark, so looked for one of the few motels on the island to overnight. Early next day I hit the National park, where there are hundreds of craters, the main one Kilauea Crater being 10miles in diameter with a road around it along which the tourist coaches cruised. This has other craters within it, the most recent one forming in 1982. There was an excellent Visitors Center, an Observatory, lava tubes to climb through, steam vents, devastation trails and smoking craters to walk across, but the active volcanic area is 15 miles from here along the windy Chain of Craters Road built over recent lava flows. No tour buses go along this route so you hardly see any other traffic. The road ends abruptly near the coast where a lava flow covered it about 10 years ago. The same lava flow also covered villages for the next 10 miles along the road. Here you can walk up onto the lava but there are Park Rangers stationed at the top. They attempt to deter all but the most determined adventurers from walking the 4 miles over jagged, razor sharp, pot-holed fresh lava with no marked route in the searing heat to get to the active lava flow. If they can't deter the adventurers they at least make them aware of what is in store and advise them about what provisions to take. I wouldn't recommend doing this trek unless you are very sure-footed, fit and take lots of drinking water and a torch (or flash-light as the Americans call them). After starting,
I felt uneasy for the first hour as I saw no-one else on the trek, but
then soon caught up with a few others, and saw a few more the in the distance
ahead. It was just that I had left it a bit late to set off, and there
were several likeminded trekkers I later caught up with who wanted to
see the best natural New Years Eve firework display on offer. Being anxious
to get there before nightfall, I went as fast as I could, but it still
took 2 hours of exhausting walking over the rough terrain. The drinking
water came in handy, as it was very hot and sweaty on the exposed landscape.
Some lava gave way or cracked off underfoot and trenches and holes were
everywhere waiting to trap the ankle of the unwary. Eventually the smoke
from the lava became close, then the noisy crackling of solidifying rock
loud, and then the wall of heat hit you. The Park Ranger warned that the
edge of the molten lava was hard to distinguish by the daylight, so you
had to listen for crackles coming from the fresh stuff. It was much easier
as it became darker as the molten lava glowed bright fiery red. Sunset
takes only 10 minutes here, as it is so near the equator. I wasn't sure
how much battery power I had left in my torch, and the worse possible
scenario would be spending the night stuck halfway back on the lava having
to wait for daylight because my battery was flat, so I joined a family
of mainland Americans for the return journey. The parents were working
as nurses in a local hospital for a year and their teenage daughters raced
each other over the rugged solidified lava as surefooted as mountain goats.
They knew there was a satellite due to cross the sky at a certain time
and we could see it quite clearly. By moonlight the recent lava shone
silvery, and when the moon went behind a small cloud the sky was full
of bright stars, I had never seen so many with the naked eye. The descent
was done slowly on sidelights as headlights are banned near the summit.
The trip included some stargazing of our own through high-powered telescopes
set up at the visitors center a short way down the mountain. We were mostly
amateur astronomers on the trip and went into raptures at the clarity
of what we saw. Distant stars, the rings of Saturn and Jupiter, and the
craters of the moon were visible in fine detail. What a unique couple
of days, and they made the next days traveling up the east coast seeing
rainforests, wild orchid gardens, waterfalls and stunning sea views, seem
a bit ordinary in comparison. Waimea to the center north of the island
is the headquarters of the Parker Ranch, the biggest cattle ranch in the
USA according to the guide book. Here the cooler, fresher climate has
made this the latest upmarket area attracting wealthy new settlers. The
very north is hardly occupied and there is not much to attract visitors
unless they want to go on wilderness walks not seeing other beings for
days through rainforest vegetation. In general
throughout the islands, outside the small concentrated hotel areas buoyed
up by the tourist dollars, the few sparse small natives settlements are
of poor standard as there is no work, no good agricultural land and high
prices. Everything is about twice as expensive as the U.S mainland, because
everything except some fruit and veg is shipped in. There is no real low
season as it is near the equator and the temperature is stable throughout
the year. Accommodation is very expensive, and the few Bed & Breakfast
places are just as expensive as hotels. There are strict regulations controlling
the number of B&B's and on Oahu no new ones are allowed. Hawaii is
the surf Mecca of the world with huge waves, and consequently many exposed
beaches are windy and don't allow swimming. There were a few horrific
injuries to be seen in the airport lounge when flying back, so leave the
big surf to the experts. First published in VISA issues 42-43 (autumn-winter 2001). |