The last week or so...
Tuesday 26th
its freakin pouring rain, my disposable glad-wrap poncho has a whole in the hood part, and i'm at the University of the South Pacific outpost here on the (FREE) internet access.
Its a bit much to ask me to upload photos so everyone will have to wait till i get back.So we've been pretty bloody slack so far, and are probably way behind the others in terms of resolving this design.
Its been raining for the last couple of days, and we're hoping it will clear up so we can go exploring. Ill continue this at a later time guys, we have work to do :)
See everyone soon
k.
Saturday 23rd
The days are just flying by at an alarming rate, this really is not the place for a study trip! After breakfast on the verandah we caught the bus (too buggered to ride!) into town for the famed Saturday market. Another group member pointed out that local markets such as these seem to always be a great place to get within a culture, and this one didn’t disappoint.
Ann entered a raffle, where the major prizes were a cow calf, a goat and a pig (really is too bad she didn’t win, we could have had a local for the flight back!). I finally got to try ika mata, a local specialty of raw fish and vegetables (cucumber, tomato, capsicum) in coconut milk, it was so great. I ended up losing the girls and it gave me a chance to check out “MeatCo” (its really just a supermarket even though it sounds like it could be a butcher the size of bunnings or something), and a small gallery.
Back in town I bumped into Ted at The Café and he was with a few friends whom he was kind enough to intro me to. Since everyone was too busy lazing in the sun around the pool (and because of some other minor frustrations which ill keep private), I decided to ride solo around to Muri Lagoon which I’d been itching to do since we got here.
The ride took a bit longer than some others said (about half an hour, but that was cos I was going quite slow and taking in my surrounds). The ‘main’ access road to the beach was well tucked away, so much so that I missed it and had to ride back for a couple of minutes. Beautiful beaches indeed, a sparse scattering of people, me myself and i. by this time it was about 5 so I didn’t spend that much time there, but I will be back.
I stopped to talk to a girl with a nice dog, turns out she’s from Sydney - an ex music journalist and now primary school teacher who was trying to get a few books published, and was looking after a couple of dogs for a friend for a few months on the island (some friend). She was cool so I grabbed her number and I’ll give her a call if we do anything during the week since she seemed a bit lonely maybe.Along the way I stopped to buy a couple of bananas from a street stall (theres a scattering of these along the main road – mostly fruit and veg) and got back just in time to go to dinner at the game fishing bar.
It just hit me that the only people not going on a trip to the outer islands are the architects. does this say something about our workload or organizational skills?
Dominique Hes is a nerd.
Martin Fowler really loves his Papua New Guinea and its getting kind of annoying.
Sebastian keeps stealing my food.
By all :)
Wednesday 20th
After a breakfast of Skippy corn flakes (new zealand’s favourite corn flake!) Went looking for bikes to hire with Lauren and Ann.
After walking the wrong way into town (last time either of the girls will ask me to lead or give directions) and finding a nice street stall with some fruit veggies and…..home made donuts (ill take 6 thanks, breakfast wasn’t enough) we caught the bus to the other side of town where there were a few bike hire places.
We realized that one place only had two bikes with baskets (v. handy for carrying groceries back home despite looking a bit girly) so I did the gentlemanly thing and got a bike from another place – without a basket but hey, what kind of man needs a basket?So it was great to finally be able to zip around the island on a 12 speed, walking was becoming a bit tedious. On the way home post bike hire we decided to pop into a ‘gallery of contemporary pacific art’ in town…it turned out that the guy who owned the gallery was there, and he invited us in…we started having a bit of a chat: he was keen to redevelop his building but keep a gallery since there was a decided lack of places for locals to exhibit their work…he was also very keenly interested in our project – but was kind of skeptical about the whole thing since the actual schools are in pretty bad states and heres us giving the workers some plush offices. He was a pretty cool guy and v enthusiastic about what we were doing.
I ended up asking him if we could maybe use the gallery space and he was really keen on the idea so we’ll see what happens with that. Its so great that people are so willing to give up their time to tell you their opinion, share their knowledge and culture, and help you in any way they can.After biking back home, biked back out and found an internet café…thumb drive didn’t work..and it was expensive (11 minutes for 1.80)
Managed to finally call home and speak to mum for a minute or so due to crazy calling rates. We then met up with David again to do a bit of a walk up into the heart of the islands away from the coast. What a great guy: this guy’s just giving up his time to teach us all about as much as he can relating to cook islands people and culture.The tour took in buildings, various interesting plants, memorials etc. Highlights included:being invited by an elder to walk all over and photograph his family’s marae (sacred resting place) which is generally considered pretty bad formterraced taro plantationsother assorted nice stuff.
Peter ashford lectured us by the sea at Trader Jack’s and i scabbed some pizza off those who payed for it for some dinner Freeloaded some pasta off the girls as second course (its amazing what you can get in return for a bit of charm and a 400g block of Cadbury dairy milk).Rather than cook up my planned risotto I had some Maggi noodles for third course and boy were they good.Arg 2am, tomorrow we’ll try and do a bit of work?
K.
thursday 21st.
Rang Romani the only trained Architect on the island, but both numbers rang out. I was to later find out he can be elusive as he likes a bit of a paddle, but got his address off David so I can hound him tomorrow. Even later than this, I found out he’s modeling for New Zealand fashion week! The girls are suddenly keen to meet him.
Every thing seems to be Raro here: Raro cars, raro club, raro bins etc..
We headed to USP for our first feedback session, we had a few diagrams.
After a Chicken Panini lunch we listened in on the other group's crit. The second group was lucky enough to have Ian George sit in on their crit, but we listened in and picked up some pointers. As it turns out the other architecture group is taking a totally different approach to us, which is perfect.
We started off the night at Ted’s gallery: we had planned to go a bit earlier but the bus was late…we had to grab a bottle of wine…and so we got there by about 5.30 or so. Much to Ted’s surprise some others from our group rocked up at 4.30 and he was like ‘who are you?’ but he was more than welcoming.
We sat around drinking wine out of beer glasses (and the bottle), talking about nothing in particular, but he did show us the amazing work of a tongan artist (sculpture) whose work he thought would be of interest to us – his sculptures were of timber battens, and were translations of weaving patterns into form.
After quite a bit of wine we headed to Whatever! (yes, that’s whatever, exclamation mark) bar for the night. It started off pretty quiet, but got really packed towards the end of the night, with locals, tourists, and even some Chinese construction workers.
I recommend the nachos, We all had quite a bit to drink, and I think I may have made quite a disgrace of myself by way of Michael Jackson dance moves, but hey an awesome time was had by all so it’s a small price to pay :)
We then drunkenly trudged back to Kii kii in the dark and hit the sack after a great night.And a pretty big one at that.
Tuesday 19th
Woken at about 6.30 - Nat and his bright idea of going for a jog. Great.Realise fridge not really functioning as a fridge: more like a cupboard with a light. Liquid margarine.Morning walk: thought I was in control of the island, turned out NOT!
On way back guy stops by me in his ute. Turns out to work for government, and is in charge of Environmental services or something.
Invites us to see his dance group on Thursday at “staircase”Get talking to this Italian dude Michaela that’s been hanging round at Kii Kii. Turns out he’s been here 5 months cos his partner is an islander and former miss cook islands finalist.
Asks if we had pizza last night and I say yes. Turns out he’s the one who made them: he works at the shop down the road about 10 minutes walk called portofino, and works at kii kii during the day. No wonder the pizzas were so good, fancy having an Italian making pizzas in the cook islands. One thing I have been disappointed with to date is the lack of traditional food around, most in town is homogenous café style food.
Talk by David an architect engineer who has worked on some pretty huge project in Melbourne, china etc for big eng. Firms, but has now come back home, and is very passionate about his home. A genuinely great guy: you can see some regret about the current state of the islands: population decline, ….etc.. but he keeps a happy face.Get in the minibus to head to the site for the first time, to be briefed by Ian George – arts advisor to the govt and an artist himself ( we’ll go to his gallery opening on thurs night) and Peter who gave us the nuts and bolts of the project. The site overlooks the airport runway and sea beyond facing north.
We then headed to the outpost of the university of the south pacific, where we’ve been given access to classrooms and facilities. We also had a talk from a conservationist. Overall a very informative day and we’re starting to kick into gear in terms of getting some work done other than “work”ing on our tans :) everything so expensive!But bbq so much food. Everyone cooked up a feast, while my lousy offerings were a six pack and some frozen sausages :S .
Watched lost in translation and we all concluded we want to go to japan.Back home watched the Steve Irwin tribute thing..how strange…the blue Wiggle as compere? Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake sending their condolences?so relaxed will we pay the price!
Monday 18th 7.30pm
Just watching some local tv – theres only one channel, and the news is on: a classy affair indeed, sponsored by wattyl and taubmans. I love the ads for the supermarkets: quaint indeed: we’re talking an ad for champagne ham where the guys show “champagne” and then “ham”Ah what a relaxing day, today was just a day to scope out the island, so it was a pretty relaxing day..
After being woken up by the reception’s call for breakfast (bloody others in my room managed to sleep through it!) we headed outside our room. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the place we’re staying is about…oh, 10 metres from the water? I wouldn’t call it beach but very picturesque nonetheless…and turn 180 degrees to be treated to pretty awesome mountain scapes they look so lush…we’ll have to head up one day for sure.
We lounged around the pool for a bit then realized we didn’t really have anything for breakfast, so me and Nat decided to head into town, or at least in that direction…Scooters are the main form of transport on the roads and we both concluded would probably be good to have one..The main road sort of cuts through between the mountains and the beach: such different landscapes on the left and right..It was interesting to see the amount of gravestones lining the road...you’d have a restaurant then a couple of graves and a house, then a petrol station..etc… this comes down to the land ownership traditions, where land essentially can only be passed down through family and not sold off…so everyone stays “on the land” if you know what I mean.
So the main road gradually grows in activity into the town centre. We found a “food-mart” and did a bit of shopping…I picked up some corn flakes and headed to the milk fridge..er ok….SEVEN dollars for a litre of milk? Maybe not…So I remembered an old trick I picked up (thanks jesse) and grabbed some juice to have with the cornflakes..We headed back and had my first liedown in the sun next to the pool….who would have thought it was September! Also had a nice quick dip in the pool.
I then actually had to use my brain for about 10 minutes in a conversation with Martin (subject coordinator) and a couple of others…we then headed back into town seeing as though everyone else in the group hadn’t done so…its about a 20-25 minute walk.
Upon getting back we headed to the girls’ room – 7 or so of us all up – and just had a good ol chinwag about nothing in particular. Eventually everyone got hungry and after some deliberation (mostly concerning budgetary food allowances) we decided on sampling some of the authentic cook islands food…pizza chips and garlic bread! To our disappointment they didn’t deliver
I'm short on cash, some drank a lot and told bad jokes..we discovered hidden musical talents: Nat did a great rock-pop rendition of Britney Spears Baby One More Time which I’m sure the Islanders would love to see though they may not get the chance. I cursed my lefthandedness :) .
And so our forty four hour Monday comes to an end.I hope everyone else’s Mondays were just as enjoyable, just without the palm trees.k.
5.30am, monday kiikii motel
So I read on the air new Zealand website that the 2nd leg of our flight (aukland - rarotonga) had no meals. So being the honest citizen I am, I tell everyone in our group: consequently a lot of beer and burger king (about the only food open at auk airport) was consumed (the beer probably not my doing)…we get on the plane and are glad to find out we actually do have meals which was great; theres just something about plane food…ive always dreamt of a plane food restaurant…then again Ive also dreamt of marketing warm ice cream..Crossing the date line is indeed a surreal experience:
its now 5.30am Monday, and technically I have a plane to catch in 6.5 hours, which ive already caught. Rarotonga time is melb minus 20 hours, But hey I no complain about a bonus day.Rarotonga airport is a quaint lil thing…the highlight being a local ukulele player who greets ALL incoming passengers in the airport, a great arrival. Some of us were slightly disappointed we didn’t get the whole garland / wreath around the neck treatment, but hey all our bags came, and the quarantine inspection consisted of “what you got?” “oh nuts and stuff” “yeah no problem” so no complaints there.So after a 5 minute minibus trip, complete with a fellow traveller’s laptop mishap (the happy picture from the bus tells the story) We’re now just about to hit the sack in our quad rooms, im sharing with Sebastian an engineer and Nat a planner, So far the accommodation is great but you just get that feeling something will break along the way.
There’s a superb breeze coming through, lots of coconut trees around, and a nice pool, and a kitten who likes to sit at the door. And very gracious hosts to show us to our rooms at 4am.We have no idea how this is going to turn into a study trip, we really are in the wrong place for that sort of thing….i wonder what it will take to fail this subject!Oh there a rooster crowing and we all want to strangle it, and are considering chicken for breakfast…and that’s in 4 hours so GOOD NIGHT!
k.
6.15pm Monday aukland airport
Well this four hour break is proving a great chance to get to know everyone in our group (or be a recluse and type out this blog), everyone’s grabbed a drink or two and we’re all just chilling out. We stopped by the duty free shop and had a few free sample shots too :)
Just a note that I cant see myself keeping up the sort of word count averages that some other travel bloggers do (you know who you are) but I will be taking a lot of photos.
Air New Zealand did a great job on the flight, I did find the grey host uniforms a bit boring though…maybe they need to get peter Morrissey in a la Qantas…
(apologies in advance for bad grammar (eg. ending sentences is BUT)
Well after getting to Melbourne airport to my surprise I discovered that there were a lot more people from the group on my flight: probably about 18 of us here at the moment.
One thing I did discover: I really do overpack! One fellow cookite did not check in a thing, and here I am with 18kg checked in plus a full backpack and laptop (thanks Jason)
Pre flight entertainment included waiting for last minute arrivals in our group and complaining about the quality of 7-11 bottled water...but everything got going without a hitch…..i picked up my ticket, and was happy to see the “a” next to my seat number – window seat! No leaning over others to get my photos :)
Alas my joy at the window seat was quashed when discovering it was RIGHT over the wing.. how do I always end up on the wing?
So 1 and a half hours into the flight I’d wasted one set of batteries in my camera..some addictions cant be beat.
Watched jack black’s new film “nacho libre” on the flight over – what a crack up, how can you go wrong with a premise for the movie as follows: A Mexican monastery worker dreams of becoming a star wrestler to feed orphans. Solid gold!
Take care all.
posted by Kelami @ 4:50 PM
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