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Here is an anouncement from our flight attendant on Pacific Blue Airlines:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls,
this is a non smoking flight.If you feel the urge to smoke during our flight, we ask you to please step outside and contemplate what you have done wrong!”
And after landing in Port Vila :
” Please remain seated, until the fasten seatbelt sign goes off.
If you should decide to get up sooner, my coworker will be more than happy to come charging down the aisle and tackle you”.
A little humor goes a long way. We actually like this much better, compared to our culture of fear at home.

Yeah, it’s a take-off of a book, written by a guy that lived here on Vanuatu and in Fiji. The getting stoned, that he did, was on Kava, which I tried last night for the first time in my life.
After a relaxing day, we were up for some culture for the evening. We decided to go over to the Iririki Resort, which can only be reached with their own water taxi, that takes guests across the bay, from downtown Port Villa. Even though we don’t like the big touristy places, they often put on good evening shows. This evening started with a Kava tasting in one of James Michener’s Bali Hai bars. Kava is a substance made from the root of the pepper plant and drunk throughout Melanesia.It was often used for ceremonial purposes, but now can be enjoyed at any Nakamal (Kava bar) throughout Vanuatu. In the past, Pre- puberty boys, would chew the root and spit out the saliva mixture into a bowl. This would be pressed through some cloths and would be consumed by the male elders. Nowadays, there is a machine, that does the pressing. Native women here still do not often partake in Kava drinking, but foreigners are exempt from such kustoms (they speak Bislama here, a mix of English and French) and can do what they like. The Kava substance is served in a half coconut shell, looks like old slimy dish water, smells real earthy and tastes like diluted motor oil. Why drink it? It is supposed to put you in a real tranquil state and let you experience your surroundings to the full extend. According to the author of the book,it is like strong weed or mild LSD. Since I missed trying weed or LSD, I thought I’d give this a try. Hey, I’m not getting any younger!
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We flew on Monday, July 23 from Brisbane, Australia to Port Vila, capital of the Republic of Vanuatu.
From the air, we see a very green island, with cattle on the pastures between coconut trees. ( We will find out that they have the best tasting beef in this world!)
Captain Cook had named these islands the ” New Hebrides”, and from the air, Efate island looks as green as Ireland or Scotland. A Melanesian ( we are in Melanesia now) band plays for us in the airport’s tiny arrival hall, while we line up to get our passports stamped.
The transfer to our hotel does not show up and we take a taxi to our new home: the “Fatumaru Lodge”.
The Ni-Vanuatu are getting ready to celebrate the 27th Anniversary (1980) of Independence Day on July 30th, and are building huts alongside the highway between the airport and town. It looks to me like the vendors are getting ready for a big bake- sale.
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Pigs mean wealth in this country. A boy undergoes initiation into adulthood with a ritual circumcision at the age of 10 to 11, and only afterwards, is allowed to start buying pigs.
Now he has the status and duties of a man and can wear a “nambas” ( penis wrapper). In the islands, there are different tribes: the Big Nambas and the Little Nambas, wearing a different size of penis wrapper. The government(the council of chiefs, to be exact) actually has put a limit on the price of a wife: about 1000 USD ( for the most part in the form of pigs). Before buying a wife, the young man has to build a “house”.
Incidentally, according to our guide book, they don’t break out the front teeth of the bride any more ( to show that she is married).
I like the Polynesian custom better : a gardenia flower behind the right ear for available girls, behind the left ear for married ones.

We are on the island of Efate, Republic of Vanuatu. Today, we had a very relaxing day in the South Pacific. The sun finally came out and we had breakfast on our porch at the Fatumaru Lodge, overlooking the Bay of Port Vila. The most strenuous activity of the day was the packing of our books and snorkel gear, before we flagged down a minibus to take us to Hideaway Island.
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We are spending our 30th Wedding Anniversary “down under”.We checked into the Novotel Brisbane in the evening of July 21, after a 20-hour journey from Tahiti.We started to celebrate the big day on our flight from Auckland to Brisbane, sitting in 1A and 1B, and having a nice Roast Beef Salad, accompanied by a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
The next morning, we wake up before sunrise, having a 4 hour time difference from Tahiti. We are taking pictures of the Brisbane sunrise, having a nice view of the city from our Vista Room #1310. We are still jet-lagged and I make us a coffee in our room, trying to figure out what to do about breakfast. Fortunately, Gabi reminds me that I had booked a room rate with breakfast included. We almost missed the best breakfast on this whole anniversary trip. A big buffet with all the trimmings, cappucino and the most delicious pineapple, kiwi and grapefruit I ever tasted. The fruit must be grown locally, it was so fresh and juicy.
Our anniversary day is blessed with a sunny, blue sky and we are enjoying the day, exploring Brisbane. We walk down to the riverfront and take the CityCat ferry to the SouthBank Parklands. This is the site of the 1988 World Expo and we admire the Nepal Peace Pagoda. 160 villagers from the Kathmandu Valley created this beautiful,wooden Pagoda in 1 Million work-hours. It has carved figures, depicting themes, ranging from Buddhist and Hindu religion to Kama Sutra love scenes. It never hurts to learn new things.
We have our anniversary “dinner” at 2PM outdoors at “Amici”, along the Brisbane river. It is sunny and warm, and the pasta and wine make us drowsy. We are so tired that we are back in bed and sleeping by 4 PM.
The last 30 years have been like a dream. “Dream Time” for the Aboriginals was the period when their ancestors came out of the dark night and created their World. I feel very lucky to be here with Gabi to celebrate our Dream Time of the last 30 years together!

We are “on holiday” and don’t have “to throw a sicky” (call in sick) in these islands. It is a different English down under.
The New Zealand weather report is mostly one word long. It is “fine”!
In Auckland we had “cool Southerlies”, but otherwise it was “fine”.
In Bora Bora the forecast was: “Beautiful Breaks and Scattered Downpours”. The first day at the Club Med those downpours were pretty much continuous, and we only saw the next island, “Raiatea”, the following day.
The Samoa government was “shouting a dinner” (paying for dinner) for a New Zealand couple, who had all their belongings stolen from their beach Fale.
Road signs in Samoa: “Do Not Overspeed”, or if that is not obeyed: “Do Not Speed, Heaven Is Full”.
” How you’re walking, Mate?” is Aussie for “How are you”.
In Brisbane airport : “as you shoot through…” and they offer a “Tax Free Scheme” here!
According to an opinion poll, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, is “past his use-by date”.
When I asked in Australia, where I could recycle a coke can, the answer was: “Just bin it, mate!”
Back at the Auckland Airport, we heard a familiar( and not very politically correct) announcement at the departure gate:
“Mr., Mrs. Smith, please go to your gate immediately. Your flight is ready for departure, all the other passengers are on board and are waiting for you”.
It is nice when you can say what you really feel!!

To continue the cliffhanger….
After disembarking the ferry in Vaitape on Bora Bora, we figured we’d have to somehow manage our way to the other end of the island, where the Club Med was located. As we were searching for taxis or some other mode of transport, like trucks, which they often use for this purpose on many islands, we saw a man holding a lovely blue and white Club Med emblemed sign. They were there to pick us up, even though, the US office said there would not be a transfer. Since the taxis on the islands have monopolies and they only allowed the people with package deals to Club Med, including ALL transfers, meaning flights, to be picked up by the GO’s(Gentile Organisator, as the Club Med employees are called). We didn’t care how or why it worked for us, we were just happy it did.
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We have been in our Fare ( bungalow) at the Pension Fare Maeva ( meaning “house of welcome”) for 3 days now, and we had very little sleep. The roosters ( at least three) start their crowing competition between 3:30 and 4 AM, and there is no getting away from them. Chicken and roosters are roaming free all over the place, including right around our house!
It poured buckets for 2 nights and the deluge hitting our corrugated tin roof kept us awake for a good part of the nights! We also have a “spirit” in our bathroom!
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Today is July 21 in Auckland, and this is the 4th time on this journey, that we are in the airport here in New Zealand.
Today we flew from Papeete,Tahiti to Auckland, crossing the International Date Line again. We only had the morning of July 20. For us, this date did not have an afternoon or evening. This might be a way to save on hotel and restaurant bills, by traveling always in a westerly direction!
The check-in with Air New Zealand in Tahiti took 45 minutes, just for us at the counter, holding up the other Business Class passengers behind us.
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