[password] radioactiv?[position] 17 11.201S 179 00.050W?[weather] blue skies, warm calm lagoon waters
[speed] anchored
[heading] anchored?[status] On Sunday the 25th of June, we up?d anchor and headed away from Daliconi village, after a wonderful feast, and not after we headed into shore in the morning to give Simeti (who we met up the hill) a little thank you parcel for giving us a drinking coconut and showing us around his property. Simeti was so lovely, that he went down and got another coconut for us - Sasha was a little worried that we were taking a limited supply of food from Simeti and his family because cyclone Winston from 2015 had wiped out most of the coconut trees. Here?s some facts we have learnt? it takes 3 years for a coconut tree to fruit, and a coconut tree apparently grows one frond for each of it?s years of lift, so a 12 year old coconut tree has 12 fronds, if (of course) it doesn?t get them all blow off by a cyclone. Any way we said our goodbyes, and Sasha asked Simeji?s wife how they cooked the taro leaf dish, as it was sooo delicious, apparently you just take the taro leaf, cover it with the juice of the coconut, then boil it, and then take your canned corn beef, and chopped onion and wrap up the beef and onion in the boiled coconut leaf and then bake it. Just delicious!
Anyway, we headed out of the anchorage, and motored past most of the rally fleet all heading to the Bay of Islands. We plan to do that later, once the crowds have gone. We instead motored around the point and headed to Bavatu Harbour, where Colin from the sailing yacht Lulu introduced himself by heading over in his tender. Turns out Colin and his wife Glenys berth their boat in the same marina as Pete and Margo (the parental units we are still trying to adopt) and they also know our mates Clive and Jill! It?s one small world that?s for sure! Colin was coming over to let us know they were heading up the hill (nay MOUNTAIN) for a walk, and wondered if we would like to join, as they had been here before and could show us a great lookout spot over the Lau?s bay of islands. We accepted the invite, and shortly after headed into the tiny little bay, with a very small jetty and met them all in there, Mike and Marcia (friends and crew on Lulu) were there as well, so the six of us set off, up a dirt road, that soon became two narrow concrete paths, (driveway-esk). We all thought the place looked like something out of Jurassic Park, and walking (Nay climbing) up the road it felt like again we had wandered into some botanical gardens, with purple and green flax type shrubs looking too perfect, and too placed to be natural. Eventually the road gave way to a large clearing, that reminded Sasha of some type of apocalyptic battlefield. Large coconut trees lay strewn around like a game of pick up sticks, we later found out that most of these victims were over 100 years old. Cyclone Winston had wiped out over three quarters of the plantation. A derelict virgin coconut oil processing plant looked more like something out of a zombie movie, the only thing that moved was the hundreds of geckos (not sure of spelling sorry - tiny lizards), those and the ANTS! As soon as you stopped moving they were straight onto your feet, and right up your legs. We all took a few more sprays of the insect repellent that Team Lulu had cleverly brought with them.
We walked on, through very healthy looking cows, horses and funny looking orange sheep, which we later found out were a hybrid ?goat-sheep?. When we reached the small village, surrounded by a volcanic stone wall (reminiscent of Cornwall Park in Auckland), Colin shouted out a few ?Bula?s!? and we were greeted by Filipo a tall, slender Fijian man with a neat bunch of short dresdlocks situated at the back of his short shaved head. Filipo okay?s us to walk up to the lookout that overlooked the Bay of islands (photos to follow on Facebook and Instagram) but said if we wanted to walk around the houses on the edge of the cliff he would need to take us. A great days walk, with some epic look out photos taken, a real adventure. Team Lulu were super organised, and had brought with them a pile of neatly folded t-shirts and a cap, which they gave to Filipo after he said his goodbyes and pointed in the direction of the staircase that would lead us back down to the jetty. The staircase (photo also to follow) was like something out of a salvado dali painting, dotted with all sorts of tropical plants, it felt like we were walking through a massive bird aviary sanctuary.
That evening we invited the Lulu team aboard to check out MOONFISH and have a few sundowners. Sasha made yet another great recipe from the Boat Galley Cookbook, this time one of the three refried bean dips, it?s a warm dip, with cheese, onion and some spices, and it went down a treat, and reminded Marcia and Glenys of them time in Mexico and Las Vegas, which led to a number of great travel stories, and made Sasha extra proud, because it sounds like the dip tasted just as it should have.
Well, we have to cut this short, as Mike is staring at Sasha right now, wondering why she is not ready to head over to Sharpe Focus for drinks and dinner.
Catch ya! Team Moonfish out.
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