26 June 2011:

Dinner. I heard in interesting story of an American who moved to one of the numerous villages on Naviti after marrying the chief's daughter and thinks he's God's gift to the village. There was also a story some disturbed guests told after seeing villagers kill a dog. Apparently a dog did something bad, so they had the children kill it by tying a noose around its neck, and pulling it as the dog struggled until the rope cut its neck, bleeding it to death.

The wind and rain picked up during the post-dinner entertainment, and I was legitimately concerned that it would blow down the flimsy sheet metal shelter. Retreating to our little wooden dorms weren't much better. After the electricity was turned off at 10:30, we all crammed into a single dorm drinking and chatting together, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the groaning, creaking, and trembling wooden room. We were quite concerned, but with nowhere else to go, we eventually retired to an uneasy sleep under the mosquito nets in our rooms, with the rain blowing through the panes on our windows. I actually had to move my bed to avoid getting wet. All in all, a very interesting night.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

26 June 2011:

View of the village church from the outside. We could hear the singing throughout dinner, even though we were quite a distance from the church. Some of the guests who skipped dinner to attend services tell me that a Fijian service is interesting to see, since there is a lot of dancing and emotions being displayed.

As for us, our post-dinner entertainment consisted of bizarre dancing that the men seemed very into. It was hilarious that we weren't sure what to make of it, so when they asked "do you want more?" to psych us up, we all looked at each other and answered a collective "um... yes?" to which the guys would immediately get back into dancing. There was also a crab that kept running into people and eventually got stepped on by one of the dancers.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

26 June 2011:

After settling in, I met up with a few people, and walked over to Korovou, another backpacker resort just besides ours. Although it was a bit more expensive, had more people staying there, and had more amenities, White Sandy seemed to be a nicer place to stay, and some people at Korovou agreed with us. There was a tiny village behind Korovou, so we walked around and visited their church.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

26 June 2011:

As the storm clouds is the distance got closer, the weather got colder and windier. Once again, I met many familiar faces, including a couple I met in Samoa, and the French guy and his travel companion I met on Kuata.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

26 June 2011:

After a long and delayed boat ride, I arrived at White Sandy on Naviti Island. On-board, the boat/tour company was making arrangements to get people with evening flights to the airport on time, since the boat was very delayed. I also encountered Bill, the head at the Kuata resort on-board, wearing a long necklace with chiefly-looking beads and travelling with a small entourage. Out of nowhere, he asked me to buy them ice-cream. Since I was running low on money, I bought Bill ice cream but not the others, and he took it without a word of thanks. I couldn't tell if this is usual behaviour for chiefs in the area...

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

26 June 2011:

The finished string of shell rings. When the pick-up time came, I was whisked away on the speedboat to the pick-up point. The day was clearing now, and we drifted among patches of bright blue ocean and dark coral between the islands with the company of a few other boats. After a long wait, the yellow boat finally lumbered into view from behind an island, and we joined the scrum of boats flocking towards the ship.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

26 June 2011:

Woke up in the morning to darkness and rain. I lazed around all morning chatting with the Australian, learning more about how being an exploration geologist involves short work and break cycles, allowing for a lot of time to explore the world or just time to spend with family. I had lunch, and discovered the boat was delayed. Apparently, the boat encountered engine trouble, and will be quite slow for the day.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44_26.html

25 June 2011:

The walk back from the Blue Lagoon turned out to be one of the most beautiful walks of the trip. As the sun was setting, everything turned warm and golden, from the lush cassava fields the path cuts through to the softly drifting palm leaves to the gently shimmering water. Sadly, I didn't bring my camera with me, but have fond memories of that beautiful moment of warmth and calm. The Australian also told me about Cambodia and Laos, and here is where I made up my mind that I had to go see Vang Vieng and what everyone describes as the worst thing they've see, but everyone has to experience once. Dinner was good, any meal with taro or cassava is a good meal for me.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44.html

25 June 2011:

A view of the dorm I stayed in. I wonder if anyone was ever accidentally locked inside since the door is locked by a padlock on the outside. I met a few new arrivals, including an Australian geologist who worked in Canada piloting a helicopter attached to a giant metal detector. Seems like exploration geologists get to go to a lot of interesting places. In the afternoon, I went for another snorkel at the Blue Lagoon with the geologist, were I dove down deeper and found some weird large pouches that closed when I fan water at them. I also sent a postcard from the resort, which looked very fancy.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44.html

25 June 2011:

Here's a picture of the string of shell rings in progress. I didn't do much today. In the morning, I went out for a snorkel near the hotel. There wasn't much to see near the shore, but farther out past the sea grass were patches of coral colonies filled with fish. They were like little islands of life surrounded with schools of fish in an otherwise barren sandy seascape. It was quite choppy out here, so I had to be careful not to be swept into the coral. There was a great variety of things, including many very large fish who were very skittish. I also saw more clown fish, some of which were protecting cute babies staring out at me in the anemones. They were still quite aggressive, and one of them swam up and bit my mask.

Rough notes: http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2011/06/2011-nz-to-sf-day-44.html