A Taste of the Real Fiji

Wild Pineapple! 

       Today I intended to go to the Sabeto Natural Hot Springs (read mud pool) but when I ran out to catch the bus (turns out it left at 1:45 rather than 2 as I thought) I realized I forgot my money so I ran back to get it but then the bus went by… No matter, I walked along the road intending to hitch a ride to the main road, and luckily the first truck to go by picks me us as I stuck my thumb out. Lucky the driver was American because apparently sticking your thumb out doesn’t mean anything. (People kinda wave their hand in a limp fish kinda way instead). Anyway, I told the guy that I wanted to go to the hot springs, but he said I should go to a beautiful waterfall that he is building a zip line trek around instead. So I said yes. We went out there and it was a short drive through sugar cane, a ramshackle village, across a bridge that he was building since the old one got washed out, and over a little river. People were washing their clothes and swimming in the river. It was a lovely walk through the jungle on a thin cement walkway, up some stairs, at the base of the sleeping giant mountain range. The land was an old banana and coffee plantation, so there are plants everywhere, and wild pineapples and grapefruit! We got to the waterfalls and the water was so clear and warm! The waterfall was strong because of all the rain they had, but I was still able to sit under it for a photo (and nearly drowned. Not really). There was also a smaller waterfall right next door to the big one that had 3 levels of pools. It was so pretty! And I saw a giant fruit bat! It was the biggest bat I’ve ever seen!!! We walked back and I went on a rope swing for a blurry photo. He gave me a ride right back to my hostel, turns out he's good friends with the owners. It was a very adventurous day and I got a taste of the real Fiji- for free!

Eating pawpaw...

Jungle vines

Mini waterfall. 

The big waterfall

Coolest vines ever! 

Bananas

Fijian Adventures

The patio of the resort. 

Feb 25:

            I went grocery shopping today. I got dropped off on a road in Nadi that had several sketchy shops along one side. There were two supermarkets, one a little sketchier and less full than the other. I went to the least sketchy one eventually and got a pile of food. I wanted to buy a coconut but I wouldn’t be able to crack it open… Instead I got a bunch of cute little bananas and some oranges and a pawpaw, etc. They only had avocadoes from Italy, and they had nasty peaches for $4 each. There were a couple people selling vegetables I’ve never seen before out of their cars on tarps by the road but they were far out and I couldn’t stop at them. I’ve seen a couple coconut trees though, so my fruit scenario may vastly improve shortly once I climb one of those…

            I also went to an op shop in the back of a bootlegged DVD store and got a beautiful Indian shirt thing that I can wear as a dress. It also came with a pair of my very own diapy pants! The people were really nice and I also got some bindis while I was there.

            I waited for the bus across the street and asked some nice ladies to tell me which one to get on. It cost one Fijian dollar, which is about 60 cents. It was a rickety bus that drove along with the doors open and had a bike bell and rope stop indicator (very cool). I got off at my stop and then walked along the puddly gravel road towards Stoney Creek. It would have been quite a long walk, but I was happy because I had lots of food and I could look at the misty mountains around, the ramshackle houses, feral dogs, and sugar cane growing beside the road. Everyone yells “Bula!” when you walk by, which means hello/welcome and you have to yell it back. I feel like a local! Just as I was worrying about getting sunburnt and had to put my rain jacket on my shoulders, a truck pulled over and 2 brothers and their son gave me a ride right up to my hostel. So kind!

            When I got home I was as sweaty as a politician hooked up to a lie detector. I tried the yogurt that I bought, and it tastes like it has been left on a shelf for 4 days in the heat, aka EXTRA tangy. Oh well, fermented foods are healthy! The watermelon thingy I bought tastes like water… Oh well, I’ll get better at this!  What a fun adventure!

Feb 26. Fiji Observations and Notes.

People love plastic bags here. I was buying produce and a nice lady came up to me and weighed it all, after putting every single piece of fruit I had into bags (sometimes even double). You can imagine how delighted I was. I don’t understand this. You’d think that bags would be an extra cost that people want to avoid. All the bags end up on the street amongst all the other garbage around here too. It’s sad. There is no compost at my resort so I’m going to sneak all me fruit and veg peels somewhere.

I think the owner expects me to buy dinner from her everyday. I told her that I am poor after all my travels, but she doesn’t really understand. “What are you going to eat?!” she says, and keeps asking what I want for dinner. It’s too hot here to eat much anyway, and I have my extra tangy yogurt for sustenance, which seems to have improved since a time-out in the fridge.

The people LOVE mosquito coils here. The owner practically follows me around with them. I sit at my laptop with plumes of smoke on each side of me. I feel like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. The lady and her husband were outside my room this morning strategically lighting mosquito coils in plant pots and garden beds outside my door. At the store they have an entire aisle devoted to mosquito coils, across from the potato chips. There is also a little vapour thing in my room to keep the mosquitos away. I think I’ll have lung cancer by the time I leave. I won’t ask them to stop since they are trying to be so nice, and I have lots of mosquito bites anyway (which I think fuels their dedication to following me around).

Men sometimes wear skirts.

There are lots of miniscule ants that mill around everywhere. I like them.

There was a gecko on my window yesterday. Too fast to take a photo of.

There was a cyclone here in December that damaged a lot of buildings. One of the local school’s roof is all torn up, and there are several tents outside that they are using now. Michelle says it’s taking them a very long time to fix it, but it’s partly the fault of the school since they aren’t complaining to the government enough to fix it.

Michelle will make me a free egg breakfast today! Yay! 

Rainy day...

The frog I caught. 

The pool. 

Little Pebbles! What a suck. 

Frog in the crack. 

Pebbles. 

At the bus stop. 

The rickety bus. 

Walking home along the road. Bula! 

Goodbye to Laura and off to Fiji

Some last farm photos... Picking beautiful kuri squash in the garden. 

Feb 24:

            As per usual, Laura and I stumbled across a food festival in Auckland…. Well this was actually the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival (in our favourite park!) but it was heavily food-oriented, aka trillions of stalls along the street by the park. I got some stir fry and a pork bun and we shared some pan fried dumplings. The place was packed; it would take half an hour to walk a block! There were beautiful floating lanterns strung up among the big gnarled trees, and there were giant fabric lanterns dotted around the park too. There was a main stage with entertainment. First there was teeny bop kids dancing to mashups of hit songs-including gangam style. Then there was an acrobatic group and a magician! Then there was an amazing girl band that played all types of cool instruments. They were kinda like asian musician rockettes. Last was my favourite, a Chinese rock band. They played kinda lame poppy-rock, but they had a trumpet and a sax so I approved. They reminde me of Brasstronaut for that reason, so I suggest they change their band name to Brasstrasianaut, or more simply Asianaut. My mandarin is a little rusty, but from what I could tell the lyrics were going on about the guy losing his dog, so he went to buy a cat, etc. Laura didn’t believe I could understand and she got mad at me. I also realized that as much as I love awkward in-between-songs banter, it is at least 20 times as better in a language you can’t understand. I just shouted Ni hao ma (Hello) and Gong hai fa choy (happy new year: rough translations) after everything (did I mention I was completely sober?).

            The next morning we met up for breakfast at an organic fair trade café. Then I went off on my lonesome to fathom the jungles of Fiji. Bonus Travel Tip: there is absolutely no problem bringing biohazards into Fiji. I don’t think they even looked at my sketchy declaration saying I brought feathers, teeth, shells, used camping equipment, and had been on a farm and forest and around farm animals… I’m not really sure what they are looking for if they don’t care about those things they listed… So feel comfortable on your next trip to Fiji knowing that any dead animals, diseases or other biohazardous paraphernalia you bring over will be safe!

            I just got to my hostel/resort and it’s lovely! I got upgraded to a private room since there is no one else here (except a bunch of the sweetest rescue dogs and the friendliest rescue cat with 3 legs named Pebbles!). Turns out it's the rainy/off season here (who knew??). This place is out in the country/jungle, and it’s one of the top rated hostels in Nadi. The downside it was POURING rain when I arrived. And windy. So my dreams of biking though the jungle to the hot springs and orchid gardens may have been dashed. The rain is warm at least so if I decide to go and get soaked it won’t matter much. I’ll write my touchstone reading summaries and just hang out with Pebbles! She followed me into my room (she kinda wobble-walk-jumps due to lack of leg) and onto my lap for some scritches before dinner. She’s too cute! Michelle (the owner) made me chicken enchiladas for dinner! She is too kind! This place is ridiculous! There are also a TON of big-eyed frogs that hang out on just outside my room. I almost stepped on one. They are really easy to catch. Maybe I will smuggle one home if I’m already smuggling Pebbles home… 

Today is a bit overcast but still sunny and hot and not rainy! The owner will give me a ride to the store later where I can get some groceries, and I'll probably swim in the pool later tonight. It reminds me of Mexico a lot here. Very fun! I'll pretend to be Frida Kahlo and do some art in my sketchbook. 

We made fennel and herb fritters for dinner with a tomato salsa and minty yogurt sauce. Accompanying home brew in the corner..

Harvesting kuri. 

Natural swimming pool at the neighbour's. 

A woven willow hut. 

The neighbour's beautiful straw bale home. It's been featured in home magazines! 

Scruffy and Bear. 

Children playing in the water in giant bubbles at the lantern festival. It was weird. laura liked it because the children were confined. 

Fish lanterns. 

In the glow of some pink lotus lanterns. 

Acrobatic troop. 

My favourite band! 

Eating a bbq pork bun while listening to my favourite band. I was so happy!! 

My room in Fiji! 

The view from my window. 

The most magical ecovillage experience

Laura hanging out (literally) on the patio. 

Feb 15

            This morning we arrived at Otamatea ecovillage with Sabine and Wolfgang for our last wwoofing stay. We’ll be here for 9 days until I fly off to Fiji on the 24^th. Ahh!! It’s a beautiful place so far, full of loaded peach, pear, and apple trees! We will be eating a lot of peaches and pears in the next week… They have 3 ducks (that patrol the gardens for slugs and snails), chickens, 2 cows (for meat), and 2 lovely dogs (named Jesse and Lily, aka bucket head since she’s been biting herself lately, poor thing. Jesse dug in the garden with us and munched on 2 baby mice. Yum!). We broke up the potato bed today after a delicious lunch of fresh fluffy bread, AMAZING cheese, AMAZING home kill sausage, garden tomatoes and cucumbers and--OMG WOLFGANG JUST WALKED IN WITH TWO TALL GLASSES OF FRESHLY SQUEEZED PEAR JUICE WE ARE GOING TO DIE OF DELICIOUS HAPPINESS OVERLOAD—sorry, this place is just too magical. Ahem where was I… oh yes really good food and new fruit discoveries yet again! We tried a pepita today, which is like a melony thing: small apple-sized and round with white skin with purple stripes and light yellow flesh that tastes like a melon. In a few minutes we are going to help Wolfgang make pasta for dinner.

            We have our own wwoofer cottage, which is a tall open loft room with our own kitchen and loft bedroom. It’s so bright and sunny! And made of earth. We have our own composting toilet outside (we pee under the trees) and a shower in the workshop/garlic hanging area. Sabine and Wolfgang’s house is also beautiful! It’s made of earth as well, and has big open rooms overlooking the valley and gardens. They have a huge pantry stocked with eggs and preserves and cheese… drool… There are also lots of ponds around here. The perfect place to wrap up my New Zealand trip in paradise…

            Wolfgang taught us how to make pasta, and we had it with a delicious creamy pumpkin curry sauce. We also had white radishes and the most enchanting watermelon radishes. AND we had some beer that they made. Wolfgang suggested we make a food schedule to make German pasta and tortillas to ensure that we make all the food we want to in our short stay here.

Sunday

Today was our day off, so we had a pancake breakfast with whipped cream, honeycomb, and peaches and pears! Then we had coffee, then went on a walk around the peninsula to put out some possum bait. We found some rat skulls that I’m gonna see if I can smuggle back to Canada. My chances of all my stuff making it back to Canada are becoming slimmer and slimmer as I collect more and more feathers, skulls and teeth… I’ll see what I can do.

Then we went to a beautiful sandy beach with huge sand dunes and cool shells. We stopped to get some local ice cream on the way. It was a lovely drive through farmland. Sabine and Wolfgang are TOO NICE!! We are already plotting how we are going to come back and live here.

We are haymaking tomorrow, which should be interesting since I’m a weakling and it involves 200-300 lb hay bales. Hopefully I will come back with lots of muscles. In any case, we will celebrate with home brew after it’s done!

Feb 21.  Thursday

Haymaking wasn’t as hard as we thought. We lifted bales of hay onto trucks all day in the sweltering sun. We had a view of the river and the hillside across it, and there was the added excitement of picking up bits of the tractor that had fallen off, and removing old cow bones from the field so they didn’t jam the bailer (a person that used to live at the ecovillage didn’t take care of their animals and two died in that paddock…).

We’ve been picking green shield bugs/stink bugs off of the plants around here, a task that I enjoy immensely but Laura hates. There is a certain trick to it: you have to understand the bugs. I have it down to a science. They usually swing over to the underside of the leaf when they sense you coming, and then sometimes they jump off the leaf and fall. Other times they fly away. If you position the water bottle catcher contraption under them you can almost always get them (and then feed them to the chickens!). Sometimes you have to employ other various kill techniques, such as squishing with your finger, a twig, or stepping on them. Anyway, I think it’s my true calling. Laura says I can come to her garden sometimes and kill bugs in exchange for food in the future.

I also tried feeding a stink bug to a praying mantis but the mantis ran away from it. What a wuss. When Laura starts raising praying mantids I will request a special strain that is tough.

There was a community dinner here last night, and about 20 people came. It was fun getting to know everyone and trying all the food they brought! We were very stuffed at the end. There is actually a lot of tension and drama at the ecovillage because of differing interests etc. They are having trouble agreeing on what projects to do, what to spend money on, whether to become a partnership or corporation etc. Despite this, it was a nice evening without anyone strangling anyone else. And the dessert was real good.

One day Sabine sent us out to collect pears on the ground to make juice. We came back with two giant baskets we could hardly lift. (I promise I will have muscles when I get home, guys). She put some pears in the bottom of a quark cheesecake she made (omg…) and then we fed the ugly ones to the cows. (When they fire up the oven—literally, with wood—they often bake lots of things. Sabine made the cheesecake, a giant zucchini chocolate cake, and two loaves of whole wheat sourdough. Why do I have plans to leave this place again?) The peach trees are also dripping with peaches still, so we have to eat lots. We also harvested purple beans, other pole beans, sorted onions, prepared a bed and planted carrots, turnips and radishes, and will pick some beautiful pumpkins later. It’s nice to be here during harvest time!

We are having lots of fun hanging out with the dogs (minus a bucket) and playing in the garden here. There are lots of cool creatures and bugs! They also have a lot of great books to read! Especially cook books. My journal is actually full of recipes, so I guess I will have to buy the books when I get home.

Feb 23

We left the farm today. I’ll definitely be back to visit one day! Wolf and Sabine are such special people willing to share a few laughs and their practical points of view of sustainable living. I went to a singing workshop with them for the day while Laura headed for Auckland. It was so much fun! We sang songs in lots of different languages and some stuff by the “O Brother Where Art Thou” composer and some of my favourite choir songs. We went out for sushi for lunch (you got to pick single pieces for yourself). It was a great day! I got a ride to Auckland with the conductor and his wife, and they drove me straight to my hostel. Laura and I are meeting up in a little bit, we had to get different hostels because the one I booked first got full.

Yesterday we got to see one of the neighbour’s straw bale homes and went swimming in their natural pool! It was a beautiful place with a beautiful dog and huge frogs and tadpoles in the pool! 

Watermelon radish. 

Laura's favourite spot. 

Our Woofer Hilton. 

View on our possum poisoning walk up the hill. 

Looking at the before and after photos. 

Wolf, Jessie, Lily, and Laura and I on the hilltop lookout. 

Mangawhei beach with the Hen and Chicken Islands in the back. 

Eating mountains of fruit... 

The tiniest lizard in the world in our house! 

All the shells I found on the beach.... I promise I didn't take them all home. 

laura watering the tomatoes in the glass house. 

Feeding and watering the chickens in the evening. 

Our home! Made of light earth (mix of sawdust and clay in a timber frame). 

Hanging out with Jessie in our doorway. 

Otamatea Ecovillage Emblem.