i love you fiji. the sunset and the crop burning fires on shore were competing that night.

wahooooo!

this is everywhere we have sailed since entering fiji on june 11.

so i shot this coney (much the same as a grouper) and bam! literally 10 seconds later a white tip reef shark is on the scene. he circles me and the fish for about 20 minutes before andy finally comes to rescue me in the dinghy. for those 2o minutes i retreated a little to the shallows of the reef as i watched the shark hone in on the speared fish. he made a few very close passes but was apparently too taken aback by the spear sticking out of it to take the fish. so when andy got there, i quickly made a dive down, grabbed the spear with the fish, swam up and threw the gun to andy as i jumped aboard. we then pulled in the fish before the shark munched. so we munched instead, and ate the fish for dinner. i am proud of this one for sure.

quote of the day:

"...I loved that sea, and once or twice,

I touched at Isles of Paradise..."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

to andy de freitas.

fbc for life my man.

barracuda: the wolf of the sea. andy turned this guy into sushi the first night and then curry with roti the second. i doubt i'll ever have a chance to eat barracuda sushi again.

andy had a hell of a time gutting this guy. it was a tad rough on the ocean that morning.

the intense look of an elevated fruit hunter.

ripening papayas.

yadua is pretty magical.

stro's succulent skip-jack simmer

1 pineapple (and mango if you wish)
8 cloves garlic
equal amount ginger to garlic
2 onions
1 chili pepper
(all finely diced)

2 cassavas (fijiian potato)
any other fresh veggies your heart desires
(cut into small chunks)

take these ingredients and sautee for 10 minutes.
next, add coconut cream (1 can, or, preferably the fresh stuff) and sweet chili sauce to taste. simmer all of this for another 20 minutes.

next add skip-jack tuna filets. simmer another 30 minutes. just after this last simmer sprinkle a generous amount of fresh coriander into the pan.

serve over a bed of rice (with generous helping of cream sauce). garnish with pinapple ring, lemon and lime wedges, and perhaps a tropical flower or two.

eat and enjoy!

sagas in hitchin' (new zealand)

1. a mom on her way to pick up the kids from school picks me up because she "feared for my life" whilst i hitched on the expressway.

2. a very rough looking guy in a beat up pink muscle car stops for me. "where you headed?" i ask. "get in" he says, "be hard for me to be a criminal in this thing, eh!" okayyy then, i think to myself as i climb in. soon, i learn the man is a pig hunter and he has just killed a pig he'd been tracking for nine years. just like captain ahab me thinks (via lauren robel's insight).

3. a junior church minister picks me up whilst spreading the good word.

6. a one-legged geezer in a tiny pick-up truck takes me a few miles.

31. a small sports car with an older woman inside pulls up next to me. "my husband tells me not to pick up hitchers, but what the hell, get in!"...later she admits that i "didn't look so scary". we cruise for an hour or so with the top down, the wind in our faces, and the mountains rushing by.

33. A thirty-something-year-old gives me a lift in his big pick-up truck (or,ute in new zealand). he's a builder but also spends weekends training with new zealand's military. what's amazing to me is that he wants to go to iraq before the troops are pulled out. "yeah man, i just wanna blow some shit up. there ain't no repurcusions there." um, in all due respect mister, that's not really how it works...

38. an elderly aussie couple offer me a lift after having passed me 3 different times the day before. they were slightly skeptical, even scared to stop for a hitchhiker they eventually admitted. by the end, after a long flowing conversation, they were well pleased to have met me and couldn't wait to brag to their daughter of their "adventurous spirit" in picking me up.

40. an aussie financier travelling solo gives me a lift. first he asks, "get in, as long as you aren't a mass murderer or something..." "um no i'm not," i say " are you??"

55. a young guy in a terribly unfit car pulls up. over the course of the ride i learn he has no liscence ("very suspended," i think he said), registration, etc. he quickly veers into pull-offs anytime he spots a white car (potential police car) in the distance.

60. an older guy stops and says "get in!" i get in. soon after he leers my way and shouts "hope you don't mind a drinkin' driver!" as he takes a big gulp from a beer can. oookay then, i mutter to myself.

61. an irish man named paddy takes me a ways. later i learn he is known as "mad paddy" and that the word is that he is an ex-ira informant who lives in new zealand as part of a sort of witness protection program. he adamantly encourages me to have a whistle when ever i go tramping. "don't laugh, i'm not fockin' jokin', it could save your life!!" he insists

65. an old man offers me a ride and the chance to spend the afternoon goldmining with him. i gladly accept.

77 rides in all. this is just a mere taste. not one the same. all unique in their own way. the best way to travel hands down.

on the outside looking in or vice-versa:

so i was hitching once (well this happened more than once for sure) and a japanese tourism bus (there are many such companies that cater only to the japanese in new zealand) passes me in fiordland national park. with all of their faces glued to the windows, in unison, each person generates a gaping smile and vigourously waves a hand or two at me. it's funny, but in that moment, i felt like a wild animal being viewed from a jeep-safari window. i had become a part of their tour, as it were. i could imagine them scrolling through pictures of their trip with friends back home. "and this one here is when we drove by the hitchhiker!!" "wow!!" their friends might say. this memory always makes me laugh.


finally, here is a poem i found in my journal...

hitchin'
with a thumb as my sail
i let the winds take hold.
for chance shall do what it may
but fate, well fate has the final say -
in the who and the how and the what and the when,
of the where-ever-where i may find myself in.

it took seventy seven cars, two boats, and my feet,
to happen upon who i've happened to meet.
there were pig hunters and preachers and technicians and teachers
old salty sailors and swedes with good features.
and "what," you may ask, did i find down that line,
perspectives a plenty that's to be sure, but more often than not, a damn good time!

ruminations on new zealand ramblings

distinctly kiwi sayings


good/well on ya!
heaps (as in they say heaps heaps of times)
ta (for thanks)
no worries
eh
good as gold!
sweet as
mate
bro (said like brew almost)
isn't it
reckon'
how you going?
choice (that track is choice! ie: nice, good, etc)
fuck all (nothing)
flash (that car is so flash)
keen
cheers (for thanks)
on the piss (getting drunk)
smoko (break from work)
i can't be bothered
i'm not fussed

cruising in the dinghy. we're thrilled despite the faces.

vines on goat island. no people here, only goats.

instructing us how to cook fijian style. one of my favorite parts of traveling - learning local cuisine.

school kids on yasawa.

this cave is a dream. it has heaps of underwater tunnels to explore.

just off yasawa on bat cave island.

a big' n. i'm aware that this photo is beyond creepy by the way.

we catch quite a few of these skip jack tunas.

you best be a book worm if you live on a boat. i devour books these days.

oh just one of our anchorages.

this is a temporary (low tide only) sand bar island that we took the dinghy to.

andy looking like a badass at sunset.

view from atop yasawa island looking down at our most magical mooring.

ze plane.

wwII plane wreck (american plane). we talked to a fijiian woman in the nearby village who was four when the plane went down in '44. she said the american got picked up by a floating plane about an hour after he crashed this one.

walking through the middle of naviti to do some snorkeling on the far shore.

this little guy followed lauren and i around for half an hour saying "bula!" over and over again.

the kids of somosomo are awesome! they run to the beach and help pull up the dinghy everytime we go ashore.

this is adi (pronounced like andy), the woman chief of somosomo. we presented kava (a root that is pounded into a powder and then turned into a drink that tases not unlike muddy water and is a mild narcotic with a numbing effect on the mouth) to her in the form of a sevusevu ceremony which is traditionally given to the village when crews go ashore.

somosomo.

anchorage near somosomo looking in on a totally secluded beach.

this is my favorite area so far. the island of naviti near the village of somosomo has got the goods. really really nice people, gorgeous beaches, coral in abundance. you name it.

the impressive rocks of waya island.

dolphins! lots of 'em!

fresh caught skip-jack tuna.

aw yeah!

my take from a night of spear fishing. puppet show anyone?

so the other night i went spear fishing with tui, my new fijian friend. before getting in the water tui recites a lengthy prayer in fijian (fiji is very religious. the missionaries did a number on the pacific islands. it's sad to see indigenous religions go by the wayside). soon afterwards i ask tui "so is there anything i should worry about down there"? "we've already said our prayer, He must take care of the rest" comes his reply.....

it's not long after we've speared a couple of lobsters when we cross paths with a 4 meter (12 foot) white tip reef shark. I think back to our discussion on sharks..."yes we have lots of sharks in fiji but only friendly ones. if we see one just say 'bula' (fijian greeting). with this in mind i say "bula" to the shark with the hope that he won't become curious about the lobsters and fish that dangle from a wire around my wrist. interestingly enough, all of the shark descriptions i've read mention that certain sharks are "quite dangerous especially in the vicinity of spear fishing". the white tip happens to be such a shark. this shark, however, merely swam by and even appeared magnanimous. i'd like to think that we're on friendly terms after our little encounter...

so you see, it's good to be in the tropics again. i love fiji. pineapple? yes please. papaya with lime? of course. coconut anyone? don't mind if i do (i'm also perfecting my coconut tree climbing methods over here).

so my plan, as it stands now, is to cruise these islands on the boat for the next month or two (so much left to discover - people, fish, hundreds of tropical isles with sun swept white sand beaches and copious amounts of coral). then, i'd like to get my scuba liscense (if not sooner). then head elsewhere. more specifically sail elsewhere if i can manage that. thailand, malaysia, india, china (as my mom suggests), eventually africa to see my bro and the fam (can't wait for that)...any suggestions people? i feel like i'm on a roll here and i don't want to lose my momentum anytime soon...

also more pictures are coming it's just that internet connection is really slow here, especially considering that i am usually on a boat in the ocean where getting a wireless signal is hit or miss to say the least.

a typical fijian vista.

lautoka market. fresh fruit and veg abound after the passage.

sometimes the captain gets angry, so i made him this card on his birthday to cheer him up (nod to ayla for the inspiration).

sometimes, if you're lucky, the boat is balanced perfectly and you can just lay back whilst "steering." i realized this one night around 3 am. shortly afterwards i was dancing to madonna "holiday" and celebrating my newfound freedom. seriously, dancing in the moonlight on a boat in the pacific to classic madonna.

a full moon is on the rise...

more of that wahoo...

we had some strong winds and big waves to sail through coming into fiji. as the rest of the crew would later tell me, i could be heard singing and talking to myself (with the occassional scream) for the duration of this shift. bursting with wahoo all the while (as switters might put it).

this is the baby's momma that i'm reeling in: ie a big motha mahi as you can tell from the tension on the line. we lost her off the gaff inches from my fingertips. NOOO. earlier i also caught an albatross (distant cousin of the pterodactyl) that was about the size of me. this experience was terrible for both the bird and myself.

this is a baby mahi mahi that i caught and we ate for lunch soon after. delish.

fresh mussels with garlic butter cream sauce. damn we're good.

we's going on a mussel hunt!

and just like that, i become a deckhand, a sailor soon to be. although still a young rook, i do have two sails under my belt -- having accrued a grand total of 140 nautical sailing miles up and down the new zealand coast line. indeed, i still have much to learn but am keen as can be. my enthusiasm to learn, in fact, is bursting at the seams. good thing, as we shall soon set sail aboard the good ship ferdinand bound for fiji and warmer climes.

ps, i received a note from my mother the other day that read as follows: "why did i let you watch treasure island so much when you were a kid?" HAHA, indeed, once upon a time in my youth i used to watch the movie an average of oh, say, two times a day. tis also my favorite book. so mom, you might say this was bound to happen eventually.

bring on the tropics!

the ferdinand!

dinner prep down in the galley.

we got our cap'n a roomie!

no luck thus far. however i just bought a deep sea rod and reel and a spear gun! YES!

rob and cap'n dave on the sail up to whangarei.