Following the Footsteps: December 2009

South Pacific Polynesian Island have always fascinated me and a place which I always wanted to visit. The intention was to visit a number of island in the South Pacific like Samoa , Tonga and a few others but apparently they all look similar to one another.
Fiji islands comprises of 300 palm fringed beaches and corals with exotic sea life. Also the islands just happen to be a place where I knew a friend with whom I played cricket about 40 years ago. Fiji is also a country of great cultural diversity in which Indians, Chinese and local Fijians have created a distinct South Pacific flavour. Fiji became a British colony in the mid 1800 and thousands of Indian labourers were brought to work in sugar plantations. Not sure but the local Fijians at the time were cannibals who preferred to eat the British rather than work for them.
Nadi is the second largest town where we landed in the island of Viti Levu, which has the popular resorts and also where my friend lives. Meeting him and spending some time with him after all these years was a great pleasure and good fun to talk about the old times.
The resort we stayed was a fantastic place with a private beach and huge tropical gardens, very much in the style of the Kenyan and other S.E Asian resorts. Visiting other island which were completely uninhabited is also very strange. The interior of the islands are very much rain forest mountains and water falls. Towns and villages are very much like the African towns that we are used too.One of the island we went to , South Sea Island , had about 20 people living there and was so Small that one could walk from one end to the other in less than 2 minutes and can go round the island in less than 10 minutes. If you get into trouble there is no where to run. All one does in such a place is rest and relax and drink beer. The temperature is 33 degrees and there is cool sea breeze blowing across.
Returning and leaving the island is exactly like you see in the old movies, where the islanders turn out in their grass skirts, as you board the canoes, and sing the local songs . Except now they are not in grass skirts but in the uniform of the tour company.

singing goodby songs

queen of the island

castaway island

south sea island

my little island

catch of the day

war drums ship approching

my own little island (king Taank)

sun setting on the island

SYDNEY.

After 7 days of driving along the coast and 5 different motels, we are now in Sydney at my friend Mahendra`s house in Castle cove, a suburb of Sydney. A hugh house overlooking the inlet and the marina and very comfortable for a good rest.

We met up with my old mate Ellis David , still looking very good, and went for short tours with him around Sydney.

The life style of what we have observed so far, here is great. Everyone seems so relaxed and cheerful and all have a smile on their faces. I guess the weather has something to do with this. Also there are not many people around in this hugh country. I think they could do with 30 million more people.

In the evening and weekends almost the whole of Sydney is either on the beach swimming and surfing or playing outdoor sports. Good weather always helps and I thing the good weather here has a lot to do with the attitude and friendly nature of the people.

Old favourite the opera house

Would have loved to climb, but was told to act my age.

with Ellis David

HUNTER VALLEY.

Hunter Valley is Australia`s oldest wine producing region and is set in a beautiful lush green surroundings with characteristic landscape. Along the way through the valley you visit the various vineyards and taste the wines produced by them, at no charge . In our case the tasting had to be restricted as we were driving and did not want fall foul of the law.

As it turned out one of the very beautiful vine yards we visited was owned by and Englishman who had emigrated from the UK 35 years ago and happened to live in Pinner , not too far from us. He was very keen to know about Harrow and Pinner and talked quite a lot about what he did in the area. He spent over an hour explaining to us the different types of grapes and the different processes of making different wines. A very interesting couple of hours.

Also interestingly along the Wine trail, in the vineyards there are various sculptures in contemporary style dotted in the vineyards and one can simply wander through the vineyards and observe the sculptures set up in specific places along the picturesque valley. There are quite a few pictures posted on the blog.

Also many of the buildings in the region were built well before 1900. The general store where we had coffee was built in 1860 during the construction of the road in the valley by convicts shipped from the UK.

a cottage in the vineyard for the night stay

with the man from Harrow

more statues,found them interesting

tell the difference

Hunter valley

statues in the vineyard

BRISBANE & THE GOLD COAST

South of Brisbane, a stretch of coast line , know as the Gold Coast is very much like any other sea side resort except the coast line, the beaches and off course the weather makes for a completely new experience.

Driving down from Brisbane along the coastal road we spent a week at different resorts. Most Gold Coast beaches are great for a dip. The area has the best selection of surfing beaches with huge waves. One can spend hours on the beach watching people surfing.

Whilst we were there Australia`s equivalent of O level exams had just finished and about 20,000 teenagers ,what they called the schoolies, descended on the area. Every hotel and motel rooms were fully booked. At night time , the area known as the Surfers paradise became a no go area and some people advised us to be careful and be on the guard. There is lot of drunkenness, fighting and vandalism. We off course quickly moved on.

Australia`s most easterly point is called the Byron Bay with beautiful beaches and high cliff coast line. Perched right at the top is Byron Bay Light house. The walk along the coast line to the light house and back through the rain forest, about 3 hours, is spectacular with great views. In the evening , to avoid the hot sun , the walk should be attempted anti clockwise so that you can see the sun set in the sea, we off course not knowing did it clockwise, which seemed the logical thing to do and ended up in the forest after sunset and got lost along the way with no one in site. It was a little scary in the dark and all alone, so we were so glad to hear the car noise in the distance that we literally ran across the forest toward the car noise and were very very relieved to be on the road.