JUSTIN WALLEY
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
Search

Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand

And adventures in the South Pacific

Meeting my first South Pacific chief

27/10/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Friday, October 21 (Day 51)
Barefoot Lodge, Drawaqa Island

I look up at the night sky and a flaming fireball breaks up in the atmosphere, sending half a dozen individual pieces of the meteor hurtling towards the ocean in as many different directions. It is terrifying but at the same time a truly mind blowing sight. I don’t know whether I should run for the interior of the island in case this fallen space debris causes a tsunami to rush in from the south and drive a huge wall of water across this island.

Suddenly, I can hear noise coming from the right of me and, just like that, a pack of six snarling dogs are attacking me, biting at my wrists. They are driving me back into the water. Maybe I should try to swim away from shore. Shit, this is mental.

Uuuuuuuhhhhhh.  I wake up and find myself sat bolt upright in my beachside bure with the pre-dawn horizon painted with a Walt Disney cartoon blood red and orange glow, straight in front of my open window. My God, that was some dream, and this view from my bed is off the scale.

I get up to snap a quick image and trip over the bottle of urine I carelessly left by the door last night. It took me hours to get to sleep with the whirring noise of my fan, the crashing waves, rustling palm trees, incessant gecko noises and a tree branch banging against my bure. (I’m certainly not complaining by the way). Next thing, I badly needed the toilet but with no electricity and no mobile or torch to guide me I wasn’t going to try and find my way through the jungle undergrowth to the communal toilet (where I was sure a spider the size of a plate was bound to be waiting for me anyhow). And I wasn’t about to take a leak outside in the bushes either, in case one of the villagers came by and I inadvertently insulted them by urinating on their land. So, the only other option was to gulp down the remainder of my water bottle and to pee into that. Well, it is never easy at the best of times to pee into a bottle. I’m not saying I do this often but I could well be into double figures over the course of the past 15 years. The added problem in this particular Pacific island paradise is no light to see what you are doing during the hours of darkness and large open windows through which anybody can see in. So I stood naked in my bure peeing into this bottle, trying my utmost not to let any urine spill onto the floor, and suddenly two of the ship’s crew come past shining torches that light up the huts and cast shadows over anything in their path. Clown that I am, naked, I hid behind the frame of my front door, trying for the life of me not to pee on the floor.

After snoozing again and falling into a deep sleep I wake for a second time with a start. Damn, I’ve probably overslept, missed breakfast and the trip to the local Fiji island community. I throw on last night’s clothes and leg it to the communal bure. Steph and Jamie are sat there alone.

“What time is it?”

“Quarter past six.”

Roar.

“You look all over the shop!”

“Yeah, I’m a bit disoriented. Did you get caught short in the night?”

“Oh yeah, I weren’t about to try’n find the bogs so I pissed behind the hut.”

Last night, chief guide Lee told me the chief of this community wanted to have a chat with me this morning. God, how I hate authority. My mind has been ticking over since last night as to what I might have done wrong. I reckon I am probably the most culturally sensitive person out of our whole group. I even offered to wear a Sulu (surrong) instead of my jeans last night in consideration of local customs.

Jay slowly strolls over with a coffee and cigarette and sits down on what seems to be a special chatting bench, looking quite stern.

“Morning, Justin. Did you sleep well?”

Oh, shite, they saw me peeing in the bottle last night.  

“The thing is that the others have paid full price to come on this trip and you are doing the special with the free ride here. They should have told you when you booked that you need to pay 50 dollars extra for today’s trip.”

Money. Why was I getting all worked up, wondering what I might have done to insult the locals when, as usual, it’s just about money?

I like the fact though that Jay won’t be bribed off by me or knocked down on his asking price. He knows that if the other Fijians find out he will lose respect, and that’s not something he’s willing to risk. And that’s a good principle in my view. What the hell. I know I’ve got a very good deal with this trip. I agree to pay the fifty (18 quid), especially as Annika is complaining that she’s lost her dance partner when I tell her I’m not coming on the trip.

We get the support boat out to the Pride of the Pacific and set sail for the small island community.

Picture
There’s no goat or three-legged dog to greet us here. We enjoy a quick walk around the village (population 300), and visit the Pentecostal church which looks exactly how a decaying missionary church on a far flung Pacific or Caribbean island should look. Then it’s the kava ceremony with the village chief, his ‘spokesman’ and ‘bodyguard’. They are covered in what look like dried grass and palms. And this doesn’t feel like a tourist show. Part of me wants to burst out laughing at the intense feeling of the surreal; part of me is in awe of this ritual and the genuine importance with which it is held by the locals. It is something from the long distant past so untypical of our world today. Pagan, if I might use that word.

Our American chief has taken to his high ranking post like a duck to water. It seems to have mellowed him and made him cut out his ex-military sternness. I am wearing my Fidel Castro Cuba t-shirt today just to test his military discipline and he’s been fine with me. Him and I knock back 3 bowls and, let me tell you, this stuff is about twice as pungent as what I had last night. Even my bottom lip gives off a small 3.4 tremor.

The entertainment has been cancelled as the villagers have some important social function today. I bling up with South Pacific props such as a shark’s tooth necklace, buy some Christmas presents for my family, take a few photos, including one of a beautiful kid and a particularly photogenic washing line, and we jump in our speed boat back to the tall ship. Bloody hell, the sea is rough today. The boat rides a couple of big waves and tumbles down the other side, sending sea water over all of us. I nearly throw up on the way back. Five cups of coffee, three bowls of kava and a rough sea really don’t mix.


Picture
Back at my bure I rest on my bed admiring the view out my windows. Even here, where time has little consequence – Fiji time, as they call it – the hours are flying by. I want the hands of the clock to slow down. More teeeeeek toooooook than tick tock, if you like. May I never return to the world of 20 days annual leave ever again.
0 Comments

Postcards from heaven

25/10/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
Thursday, October 20 (Day 50)
Nadi Bay – Denarau – Drawaqa island

Breakfast at 6.45 and it must be 24 degrees. You’d never get me up at this ungodly hour at home, but here I do it with pleasure. The morning bird song chorus is an absolute joy to experience.

Today should be very special. I’ve found my way to Denarau Port, just north of the capital, where I’m joining the Tall ship, Spirit of the Pacific, for a three-night Captain Cook Tours cruise to the Yasawa islands archipelago. There are only 18 of us booked on this sailing and everybody, I believe, with the exception of myself and one German lad, Jan, booked this tour from abroad at great expense many months ago. I struck gold yesterday when I discovered that during October it is possible to jump on this beautiful ship and enjoy three days of tall ship cruising free-of-charge if I book three nights’ accommodation at the resort of choice. The package comes in at 375 Fijian dollars (around 140 pounds), and also includes three days of full board meals and my own beach-side bure once we get to the island.

I can’t help it, but this feels like an episode of Survivor or Castaway, or one of those other numerous reality TV shows which involve being marooned on islands or cast out to sea on a ship.

There are eight crew and 2 Yanks (elderly couple), 3 British (me plus a young honeymoon couple), 3 Aussies (a couple plus the sheila’s sister), 10 Germans (2 couples, 1 lad, 6 girls).

The journey through the Yasawas takes six hours, including a thirty-minute snorkel off a reef that we pass. I spot a huge school of colourful Clownfish. When the trade winds die we have no choice but to cut the motor and sit and wait for the winds to return. This gives this experience a very special authenticity.  When the winds return several of the lads, including myself, help the crew hoist the huge sails.

Six hours of sailing behind us the ship manoeuvres its way around a peninsula and drops anchor close to our final destination. My god, not only does this ship look like my imaginings of HMS Bounty, but this could quite easily pass as Botany Bay or some far flung corner of Polynesia.

Very occasionally, when I am travelling, I experience something I’ve always called ‘one-of-those-all-coming-together-at-the-same-time-moment’ feelings. It’s almost as if time stops, the universe stops turning and I am consumed by a rush of euphoria; goose bumps breaking out all over my arms and necks. For a moment or two it’s like I’ve been transported to a higher place. This is one of those moments.

The castaways alight onto the support vessel and we motor our way into shore. The water is as warm as a bath; as clear as crystal. The song Postcards from Heaven slips into my head and I begin to very quietly sing the words to myself. And as if this perfect, this one-of-those-all-coming-together-at-the-same -moment feelings, couldn’t get any better, we are greeted on the shoreline of this paradise by what appears to be the Bremen Stadt Musikants. Get this: our welcoming party is a three-legged dog, a pet baby goat, a bloke in a surrong strumming a guitar, and a Fijian lady, who places a beaded necklace over each and every one of our necks. Surreal wouldn’t do justice as a word. It is like the goat and the dog are cartoon characters, who can talk. I half expect them to shake paws with us.

Somebody is sending me postcards from heaven.

Thank you.   

Picture
1 Comment



    Photos, stories and videos from the New Zealand 2011 Rugby World Cup & the sunny paradises of Fiji and Samoa


    Picture

     

    Picture
    Picture


    Archives
    Access all the blogs from New Zealand, Fiji & Samoa by clicking on the archived months below:

    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011

      Contact 
      ​More Than a Game:

    Submit

    Key word search 

    All
    100 Pig Fine
    2000 Fiji Coup
    2003 Rugby World Cup
    2009 Tsunami
    200 Billion Galaxies
    2010 Fifa World Cup
    2011 Copa America
    2011 Rugby World Cup
    2014 Fifa World Cup Play Offssamoan Football Team
    2014 Fifa World Cup Qualifiers
    23 December Earthquake New Zealand
    30 December 2011
    4 July 1892
    8.1 Magnitude Earthquake
    Abel Tasman
    Aborigines
    Accents On The Park
    A Clockwork Orange
    Adam Neate
    Afu-A-Au Waterfalls
    Agadoo
    Aganoa
    Aganoa Beach Retreat
    Aggie Grey's
    'aiga
    Air Pacific
    Alduous Huxley
    Alofaaga Blowholes
    American Iguana
    Americanization
    American Samoa
    American Samoan Football Team
    Anarchist
    Anglo-saxon
    Antarctica
    Anthony Burgess
    Antony Micaleff
    Apia
    Apolima Strait
    Argentina
    Argentina Rugby
    Argentina V Scotland
    Armistice Day
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    Asau
    Auckland
    Auckland Airport Motel
    Auckland Horse Racing
    Auckland International Airport
    Australia
    Australia V Usa
    Avalanche City
    Ayia Napa
    Azuri
    Bahai Religion
    Bangkok
    Banksy
    Banyan Tree
    Barefoot Lodge
    Base Hostel
    Bath
    Bbc
    Beachcomber
    Beijing
    Bill And Ted
    Bjorn Heidenstrom
    Black Brown White
    Blowholes
    Bournemouth
    Brazil Carnival
    Bread Fruit
    Bring Back The Sun
    British Empire
    Bros
    Buenos Aires
    Buffalo Bar
    Bula
    Bure
    California
    Canal 4
    Captain Cook Cruises
    Captain James Cook
    Caqalai Island
    Castaways
    Cathay Pacific
    Catholic
    Catlins
    Cayman Islands
    Cemeteries Of London
    Central Bank Of Samoa
    Chemtrails
    Chicago
    Chickpea Curry
    Chris Ashton
    Christchurch
    Christchurch Earthquake
    Christian Congregational Church
    Christmas 2011
    Coldplay
    Conde Nast Magazine
    Contepomi
    Cook Islands
    Cook Straits
    Copa America Blog
    Coral Coast
    Coral Reef
    Coral View Resort
    Cork
    Cornwall
    Coventry
    Crab Racing
    Cricket
    Croydon
    Curio Bay
    Daily Mail
    David Choe
    Daweqa
    Da World Famous Craterman
    December 21 2012
    Denarau Port
    Desenchantee
    Dodgy Birds
    Dolphins
    Dormitories
    Drawaqa Island
    Dunedin
    Dusky Lodge
    Dusky Lodge Backpackers
    Earthquakes
    Easter Island
    Eat Pray Love
    Eden Park
    Ends In The Ocean
    England 67 Romania 3
    England Rugby Team
    England V Argentina
    England V France
    England V Georgia
    England V Romania
    England V Scotland
    Environmental Disaster
    Estonia
    Eugenics
    Euro Breakup
    European Championships
    European Football Championships
    Existence
    Fa'afafine
    Faafaine
    Fa'a-samoa
    Fa’a-Samoa – The Samoan Way Of Life
    Face Paint
    Faile
    Falealupo
    Faroe Islands
    Fast Show Sketch
    Female Sex Tourism
    Fiafia
    Fidel Castro
    Fifa World Cup Blog
    Fijee Experience
    Fiji
    Fijian Military Coups
    Fiji Gold
    Fiji Independence
    Fiji Time
    Fiji V Samoa
    Finland
    Fireball
    Fjordland National Park
    Fluoride
    Fox Glacier
    Fractional Reserve Banking Bomb
    France 17 New Zealand 37
    France V New Zealand
    Franz Josef Glacier
    Franz Josef Yha
    Franz Jozef Yha
    French Polynesia
    Fruit Bats
    Ft
    Galway
    Gary Speed
    Geckos
    George Orwell
    Georgia V Romania
    Ghost Town
    Global Pharmaceutical Industry
    Gobi Desert
    Greymouth
    Guam
    Guatemala
    Haka
    Hamilton
    Hammerhead Shark
    Harry Enfield
    Hawaii
    Heart Disease
    Hillary Clinton
    Hindu
    Hornets
    Hotel California
    Huntsman Spider
    Hyatt Regency
    Iceland
    Incheon
    Indiana Jones
    Indian Food
    Indonesia
    Inter City
    International Dateline
    International Date Line
    International Federation Of Netball
    Into The Wild
    Into The Wild Movie Trailer
    Iran
    Irb
    Ireland V Russia
    Italy V Usa
    Jack Daniels
    Jane's Fales
    J D Salinger
    Jersey
    Jet Star
    John O'callaghan
    Jonny Wilkinson
    Kaikoura
    Kaikoura Beach
    Kaikoura Peninsula
    Kaliningrad
    Kate Ryan
    Kava
    Kea
    Kiev
    Kirikiti
    Kiwi Experience
    Ko Pha Ngan
    Korean Air
    Ko Samui
    Lady Boy
    Lady Samoa Ii
    Lake Baikal
    Lake Taupo
    Lano
    Leauva
    Lebanon
    Leicester
    Leonardo Dicaprio
    Levuka
    Levuka Masonic Lodge
    Lighthouse Family
    Lomaiviti
    Lonely Planet
    Lord Of The Rings
    Los Pumas
    Lost World
    M25
    Machete
    Manase
    Mango Bay
    Mango Trees
    Maninoa
    Mantaray Island
    Manu Bay
    Maori
    Mark Cueto
    Marlon Brando
    Matai
    Mathew Vaea
    Maverick
    Max Keiser
    Mcdonalds
    Megabus
    Melbourne
    Merchandise
    Meteor
    Mexican Standoff
    Mike Tindall
    Milford Sound
    Mitre Peak
    Money Laundering
    Mongol Rally
    Monty Python
    More Than A Game
    Morethanagame.info
    Morris Hedstrom Trading Store
    Moscow
    Mount Fuji
    Mount Matavanu
    Mount Silisili
    Muslim
    Mylene Farmer
    Nadi
    Nadi Bay
    Nanuya Lailai
    National Express
    National Geographic
    Naviti Islands
    Navoti Landing
    Neil Diamond
    Nelson
    Neo-liberals
    New Caledonia
    New Zealand
    New Zealand Bands
    New Zealand General Election 2011
    New Zealand Sheep
    New Zealand Wine
    Ngarunui Beach
    Ngauruhoe
    Niue
    Nomads
    Nomads Hostel
    North Island
    North Korea
    Nuggets Point
    Obesity
    Occupy Detroit
    Occupy Movement
    Oi You! Collection
    Otago Stadium
    Pacific Ocean
    Pagan
    Papua New Guinea
    Paradise Islands
    Patterson's Shipping
    Paul Insect
    Perito Moreno
    Philippines
    Picton
    Poland
    Polynesia
    Population Reduction
    Postcards From Heaven
    Pride Of The Pacific
    Prince Charles
    Projects We Like
    Pukekura
    Pulemelei Mound
    Punakaiki
    Punakaiki Beach Hostel
    Queenstown
    Queen Street
    Raffles Hotel Singapore
    Rafting
    Raglan
    Rainforest
    Reality
    Rebuilding Christchurch
    Reef Sharks
    Rena
    Robert Louis Stevenson
    Romanian Rugby Team
    Rotorua
    Royal Hotel
    Ruapehu
    Rugby World Cup
    Rugby World Cup Blog
    Russ Abbott
    Russia V Italy
    Rwc Daily September 10
    Rwc Daily September 13
    Rwc Daily September 14
    Rwc Daily September 15
    Rwc Daily September 16
    Rwc Daily September 17
    Rwc Daily September 18
    Rwc Daily September 19
    Rwc Daily September 20
    Rwc Daily September 21
    Rwc Daily September 22
    Rwc Daily September 23
    Rwc Daily September 24
    Rwc Daily September 25
    Rwc Daily September 26
    Rwc Daily September 27
    Rwc Daily September 28
    Rwc Daily September 8
    Rwc Daily September 9
    Sacred Heart Church
    Salelologa
    Samoa
    Samoa Loses A Day
    Samoan Bank Notes
    Samoan Pyramid
    Samoan Reggae Christmas Rap
    Samoan Rugby Team
    Samoans
    Samoan Slap Dancing
    Sangatoka
    Satan
    Savaii
    Scotland V Georgia
    Sea Breeze Resort
    Sea Lions
    Seals
    Sea Stacks
    Self Sufficient
    Seoul
    Sex Tourism
    Shanghai
    Sheep Shearing
    Silvio Berlusconi
    Sipi Tau
    Siva
    Skiing
    Slap Dancing
    Smugglers
    Snowboard
    Solidarnosc
    South Africa
    South Africa 87 Namibia 0
    South African Shanty Town
    South Africa V Samoa
    South America
    South Island
    South Pacific
    South Pacific Chief
    South Pacific Clams
    Soviet 5-year Plans
    Speights
    Spirit Of The Pacific
    Ss Mauritania
    Stanley Kubrick
    Star Mounds
    State Propaganda
    St. Helen's Rugby
    Stopwaroniran.org
    Submarine
    Sulu
    Surf
    Surfing
    Surviving A Tsunami
    Suva
    Svalbard
    Switzerland
    Sydney
    Tajikistan
    Tanu
    Tasmania
    Tasman Sea
    Tatiana Motel
    Taufua
    Taupou
    Tavewa Island
    Te Anau
    Teletubby
    Te Papa National Museum
    Texas
    Thailand
    The All Blacks
    The Beach
    The Catcher In The Rye
    The Catlins
    The Cook Islands
    The Guardian
    The Kennedy Regime
    The Maori
    The Mayans
    The North Sea
    The Pentecostal Church
    The Philippines
    The Shirt 2010
    The Solomon Islands
    The Specials
    Tierra Del Fuego
    Tim Nice But Dim
    Toby Flood
    Tokelau
    Tonga
    Tongariro
    Tongariro Crossing
    Tonga V Japan
    To Sua Ocean Trench
    Touch Rugby
    Trafalgar Park
    Travellers International Airport Motel
    Turangi
    Tuvalu
    Uefa Euro 2012
    Uk Public Sector Strike
    Ukraine
    Ukraine 2012 Blog
    Ulan Bator
    Upolu
    Usa
    U S Turkey
    Uzbekistan
    Vailima
    Vancouver
    Vanuatu
    V-bar
    Vietnam
    Viti Levu
    Wales V Fiji
    Wales V France
    Wales V Namibia
    Wallis & Futuna
    Walt Disney Cartoon
    Wanaka
    Wanaka Yha
    Waterfalls
    Website Optimization
    Wellington
    Welsh World Cup Squad
    Wer Wenn Nicht Wir
    Whale
    When Will I Be Famous?
    Wi-fi
    Wish Lists
    World
    World Trade Organisation
    W T O
    Yellow-eyed Penguins
    Yellow Sea
    Y-not Bar

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages