Hard at work

Our neighbours, Dean, Fernez and Fasair live on 14 acres of sugar lease land in the name of their mother. The sugar is being cut by big machetes(cane knife) at present, the company buys the sugar, the farmers get paid in installments. but the price is low, and now the governnent is saying, "You should diversify." Which means there is no money in sugar for the farmers...
Fernez cleans at the place we stay n Rakiraki, she probably gets paid $2 or maybe $2.20 an hour. She has started to sell roti and curry at her gate on Saturdays to make extra money. We made her a sign the same color as the boat, black and yellow. " Tasty Food"


Gary is "Folding up" That is the part where the two flat sides and the bulkheads are joined, so the curve of the hull is there... quite exciting.
You notice I am nowhere to be seen, he did most of the work on the main hull without me, I was off gardening or just sitting around with my embroidery.

Here she is.... The main hull was finished a few days before we headed to Suva on the bus. Gary has very sore hands and wrists from all the screwing and painting, so ten days away will heal him so that he is able to work hard on the outrigger and cross-arms. That's a fish mouth you can see on the bow end, hope will entice fish onto our lines.

After ten days

Bulla, Room 7, and others...Our bure is the same distance from the sea as our house in Coromandel.
Mangroves here are bigger. There are crab mounds and holes in the grass. I think the crabs come out at night. I will find out.

We were 7 kilos overweight for the flight to Fiji. Cost us $70. Most of it was materials for the waka Gary has already started building. In my suitcase was a life jacket, bronze boat nails and stainless screws (very heavy) an electric drill, saw, box of small tools, two wheels for the hand trolley....I had lots of plasters and sunscreen too. Oh, and three big bars of Whittakers chocolate!

Our outboard motor crate was waiting at the shipping agents in Lautoka. It took two hours, a ride to Customs with a Customs agent, Gary, the taxi driver and the quarantine guy to get the $450, second-hand 2hp Yamaha out. $140 import duty and $67 to the shipping company. Finally four guys stamped four copies of the paperwork with two different stamps. We were off!

Davend, our taxi driver and a soccer referee, drove us to our new home,Seganaleqa (Singanalinga) with our two big suitcases, the wooden crate with the outboard, groceries, and our hand-carry luggage. My fishing rods rested between the seats, safe in their 6” PVC drainpipe.
. We had decided against the bus after the customs man pried the outboard crate open with a crow-bar and mashed the plywood. The top was screwed on, and they had no screwdriver. Too hard to tape it up for a long bus ride! The taxi cost $110 for all the running around Lautoka, and the two hour ride to our home. That's NZ $88.

The northern part where we are is dry at present, today it's a comfortable 27 degrees. There are lots of sugarcane farmers harvesting right now. Cane is cut with a machete if there is no tractor. I saw two bullocks pulling a plough yesterday. We passed trucks loaded with cane, on the way to the crushing plant at Rakiraki. There are narrow gauge train tracks everywhere, the cane trains stop and pick up cars full of cane and pull them to the crushing plant.

There are many small stores along the road. Most are built of tin, people hang out there out of the sun.


We also passed lots of mangroves, much bigger than ours in New Zealand. Women hunt crabs in the mangroves and sell them on the side of the road. There was one spot where pigs were kept in pens in the mangroves.


You may be surprised to find out that I do cook a bit when out of the Coromandel Kitchen. We have a one burner gas cooker. Last night I cooked our favorite Chow noodles (instant ) with long beans ( they are at least 30cm long ) cabbage and onion Yum! I like to make banana pancakes for breakfast sometimes, the flour is milled in Fiji, it makes light and fluffy pancakes that are delicious with golden syrup. Right now, as I sit by the open window, listening to the breeze and the waves, there is a pot of beans on cooking. Actually I will pass them on to Gary to finish off as a tasty bean dish to take to a party at the owners this Saturday. We eat lots of chicken, so Gary bought a Fijian cooking pot today. It's made of aluminium, you can buy all sizes so they stack on top of each other – really great for the loads of families who cook on a one burner cooker, or woodfire. We needed a pot to fit a chicken in!

Yesterday we stocked up on food. Gary looked for a skillsaw. The cheapest Chinese one was $189, so he made a deal with the owner who said “Use mine.” Gary will buy him a new blade- $30. That's Gary heading for the hardware store...

July 17th We are off to the resort where there is a wireless internet connection, so I can finally post this... I was going to add 7 pictures, but the connection is so slow that Gary said, "Only one picture."

We are a few days from having a finished waka. That is, without the mast and rigging. I have been helping by making cups of tea, and taking the sweaty builder iced water. There are no fish out there right now, says all the fishermen. They will be there when we launch the waka.

Room 7- remember the Key Competencies...managing self, and relating to others when you face your lovelt new teacher on Monday morning. It is all new for her too, you know. On Monday morning...Let me see... I will be eating papaya and banana with my weetbix. I wll be wearing shorts and a thin shirt. I will be at the end of a paintbrush, probably being ordered around by Gary.

Three Weeks to Go

July 6th Gary and I leave for Viti Levu Fiji for three months.

A continuing development of outrigger canoe designing, building, fishing and sailing.
I am indispensible, as I whinge and moan about aspects of design, construction and deployment, make the iced tea, and help with the building process - when I can be found.

We caught this Spanish Mackerel in theTamanu Gary built in the garden, under the Bower's giant lime tree back in Savusavu two years ago.

That's Gary, heading back from the chook and duck house at Sega na Leqa last December. Seqa na Leqa means "no worries." Gary wears his favorite lava lava. (sulu in Fiji)


It's 8 degrees, South-westerly at 20 knots outside right now, here in Coromandel.. We have the fire lit. Three more weeks of school before the term finishes.

Tuesday I will show my class my blog, and they will find out my plans.