Hello again,
Well...Julia left us off just before we spent our day with Jen and Andrew! WOW...first, it was amazing seeing friends from home, reminding us how lucky we are to have friends that we love to be with so much. The boat they were on was said to be a smaller cruise line...only 200 feet long or something with a measly 13 decks (above water) or so. We boarded the Tahitian Pricess cruise line after a quick jaunt through the Rarotongan market place...glad that Andrew and Jen weren't sick of the boat but rather quite the opposite. It was best being there while everyone was on shore as we had the whole boat to ourselves, and lounged in the pool with the waves sloshing us back and forth as the boat rolled with the ocean. As Jen is the step-daughter of the captain (Fabio Amaretto...something like that), we had a nice tour of the ship followed by a good meal, a visit to the captains quarters and the main bridge! I sort of felt like I was on the enterprise...if even just for a moment! Grabbing a few fruits on our way out (that would have cost about 100$ on shore haha), we had to say an early goodbye. It was hard not to become stow-aways and stay a little longer.
We went to local church that night and were mesmorized by the local voices singing familiar x-mas carols. They had an interesting interpretive dance of the stroy of Christ (or something like that), and all in all, it was a very different church experience than I've had in the past. The priest was a little negative towards humans...but, easily forgotten, and a neat experience. Christmas day was spent relaxing by the pool, a few prezies came for usin the night which was good to know that Santa doesn't even forget about you when you're on the move! We had a communal meal of lamb and chicken, along with many local root vegetables, and other good things that we all helped prepare. The crew that we had staying at our hostel was a VERY friendly and fun one for sure. The night ended with our new Aussie friends doing donuts on their mopeds...rumour has it, they did them with no clothes on too...but we didn't look to see ;). Very funny!
A BBQ the next day...not really a highlight, but nice. We did the island walk another day, which was a 3 hour hike across the island, through the jungles and high hills, filled with excellent views, VERY steep inclines, and a rooster perched at the highest peak on the mountain, waiting to greet hikers and hoping to get food. We had none. We hiked with an american friend (Kevin Neiling....someday to be a famous author I'm sure) who has had a very busy and exciting life...including being on the 13th floor of the 1st tower when the planes of 9/11 hit the world trade centre. Nice guy...who had an unfortunate slip along the hike that brought him crotch to stump with a thin tree...that although it raised his voice an octave, it may have saved his life as the path skirted along a steep cliff. We had a refreshing swim in the river both during and after the hike, where Kevin and I also jumped off the local 'cliff' into the shallow water. Julia and I spent the rest of our time shopping, snorkeling, and generally relaxing. One night...our good friend (also an american!!) Gordie and us decided to go into town to try a famous seafood platter. As Gordie had no ride, we offered to triple him on our scooter...something we had done a few nights prior with another friend Carina...anyway...long story short, we were pulled over by the only police we had seen in the whole 2 weeks...somehow able to sniff out my wrong-doing. The two cops were NOT impressed...and despite being women...Julia was able to flutter her eyelids enough for them to pity us stupid Canadians...and they let us off with a warning, and a STRONG suggestion to go and get our licence the next day. We did indeed. The seafood platter tasted even better as a free-man...including sashimi, smoked marlin, raw tuna salad with lime and coconut milk, scallops, fish, crawfish (like lobster), shrip, sushi...etc.!
We finished off our stay with a local performance of island dancing and drumming. Not bad...one of the female dancers was recently crowned Miss SOUTH Pacific! Entertaining...and another odity happened when I WASN'T selected to go up on stange and make a fool of myself trying to dance like the locals (all other times in my life...the police charge me, and I get picked to be the fool!). The cooks were good to us, and we'll miss them and ALWAYS remember them!
Figi...missing new years in the air crossing that funny line...we arrived LATE, and somewhat unprepared. We had booked a room for the 1st, but not until 1pm...we arrived at 3am. After a little hassle...we found a cheap-ish place to stay, and here we are. 2 days in Figi...it's a strange place that we'll have to tell more about when our stay here is finished. We JUST got off the local bus, and were led by a very friendly man named Mike to his shop in Nadi. I thought he was going to show us an information desk, which is what we asked for...but instead, we were taken to the back of his shop where he prepared us the local drink called Kava. It's a drink made with the powder of a root...no booze or anything...but it's supposed to numb your mouth, and give you a sense of euphoria. We experienced the numbing...maybe we got ripped off haha. Indeed, we sort of did. After being repeatedly invited to his village where he no longer lives, but for which his shops profits supposedly go towards supporting the youth...and after being offered as much marajuanna as we'd like to buy (grown in his village along with the Kava root)...we were somewhat on edge about this man's intentions. He seemed very nice, but as Julia accurately points out...they're all out for a buck. ANyway...his little indian friend (Mike was black...a descendant of a cannibalistic tribe who ate a man named Thomas something...and has gained quite the attention in the media after they finally 'apologized' to his family) tied cheap trinkets around our neck, asked for a contribution to their village (apparently 7$ wasn't enough...they needed 12)...we left, educated, but not euphoric.
SO...here we are. We'll update things again soon...and I hope you've all had a wonderful NY, are thinking of us frequently. We'd love to get some individual e-mails from all our friends and family along the way...so important towards making home seem much closer than it is.
Until we write again...
Tyler
