Rotary Engagements since July 1
No apologies folks - second week of our travelogue and yes, three countries this week and not a Rotary meeting
or engagement in sight. Although perhaps
I should add one or two to the count for the emails answered? OK, let’s make that 313 then! Oh and another
couple for the Rotarians we met.
Started the week in Hawai’i, on the island of O’ahu, in
Honolulu. Time to get out of the city
& see something, well, real. There’s
no mistaking the fact that Waikiki, resort playground, is a bit of a cultural
and reality desert. It’s actually really
quite regrettable that in the 120 years since the US added and abetted (mostly
American) commercial interests to overthrow the Hawaiian Royal family it set on
Hawai’i on the path to statehood in 1960 and a probably terminal decline in the
indigenous culture, language and traditions.
However, we went on an excellent tour of O’ahu, home to
the state capital Honolulu, got into the countryside, saw the beach where “From
Here to Eternity” was filmed and stepped back in some ways to a time when life
was slower. Shame it’s been spoiled by
over-commercialisation. We visited a
Dole pineapple plantation (and commercial tourism opportunity of course). Dole and his fellow farmers were responsible
for the immigration of thousands of Chinese and Japanese workers, brought in to
swell the labour force (and unwittingly help in the dilution of the Hawaiian
culture). At the time of the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbour 40% of the Hawaiian population was of Japanese descent
– somewhat of a cause for concern at the time!
All of the islands are volcanic in origin and have
contrasts between the lava-based mountains and the very fertile plains below
and between. On the Leeward side of the
mountains the average rainfall is around 20 inches per year – in the mountains
and on the Windward side it goes up to 230 inches per year. Agriculture is probably second to tourism as
the major industry – and the fruit is great!
So, then, glad to have seen Hawai’I but not sad to leave
it and haven’t brought the guidebook with us – we won’t be back. Wouldn’t want you to think that we didn’t
enjoy it because we did, very interesting to see aspects of history and culture
that we haven’t experienced before, it’s just, well there are just so many
other places to go. (But it has
increased the number of US states visited to 35 – just 15 to go!).
And on to Tuesday or was it Wednesday? Well actually it was both!! Having lost 11 hours between London and
Honolulu we departed for Fiji in the knowledge that it would be Wednesday when
we arrived. We had a bit of a hard time
understanding how this works so let me go through it slowly for you. We left Honolulu at midday Tuesday and flew
just over three hours to Christmas Island (Kirimati) where it was now 3:15 pm,
Wednesday afternoon. Yes, Wednesday
afternoon - we’d crossed the International Date Line, that imaginary opposite
to the Greenwich Meridian! (Actually if
the dateline was a straight line we wouldn’t have done by then, but it isn’t,
it does a big kink and has a timezone of GMT +14 here! And it's one of the first
places in the world to celebrate each new day).
On Christmas Island we were the one flight of the week, and yes there
were about 20 passengers getting off and a similar number getting on –
apparently “bone-fishing” is the big attraction, but from the look of the
passengers luggage, camping gear is also required – no hotels here. Delayed departure after refuelling due to the
internet connection being down! - big
reliance on satellites here – no fibre optics in the tropics.
And so to Fiji.
And a confession to make – we managed to survive 36 hours here without
ever changing any money. Picked up at
the airport by our resort (thank you to First Landing Resort) we had an
extremely lazy Thursday whiling away the hours we’ll pretty much nothing, which
we felt we’d deserved given a fairly hectic schedule in Honolulu (and all the
months that preceded it!). So we can’t
express much of a view on the culture, but the people seemed very friendly and
genuine.
Next we made our way to Auckland, way up in the North
Island of New Zealand. Just a stopover
for us changing planes to go on to Christchurch but very green and looking
well, like Kent really. Lots of nice
friendly native English speakers – cars driving on the left (as they do in Fiji
to be fair) – very, well, familiar, and strangely comforting. And finally to Christchurch where we were met
at the airport by our friends Doug & Barbie Holborow, who we were seeing
for the first time since, well quite a while ago really, actually the last time
we saw them neither of us had children and now our children have children, so
let’s just say it’s been a while. Just a
brief taxi stop for them – they took us into the centre of Christchurch, to our
hotel next to the Cathedral, in the heart of the devastated centre of the city,
of which more in a minute.
Recommended
stopping point here, the Heritage Christchurch – super apartment style
accommodation – frankly we could have lived there with our fully kitchen and
laundry quite happily for several days.
Saturday saw us with our friends on a leisurely stroll
around Christchurch on a gorgeous autumn day – temperatures nudging 20 degrees
C. But, oh, poor city – the heart just
ripped out of it in February 2011 and now still the scene of resultant
devastation in so many ways – the shattered cathedral, the empty shells of
buildings with an uncertain future, will they be repaired or will they be demolished,
the endless empty areas where buildings once stood. 
For those of us old enough
to remember London in the 50’s & early 60’s and the endless numbers of bomb
sites turned into car parks – there’s echoes of that here. 
But the centre is being slowly reborn – a
shopping mall of containers, a cardboard cathedral – be interesting to see how
long these temporary structures remain – again harking back to the post WWII
period, the ‘prefabs’ lasted well beyond their expected lifespan. And then out into the Port Hills for
magnificent views over the Canterbury plains and over to Lyttleton, the port
for Christchurch with views that rival anything the Scotland or the Lake
District can display. A privilege to see
how a city can dust itself off and keep going!!
Sunday and the start of our adventure over to the West
Coast of the South Island with frankly no idea how this will end up – our
intention is to drive down the coast and then through the Haast pass to
Queenstown. Except there’s the little matter
of major earth & rock slides that have closed both that and Arthur’s
pass. We hope they’ll be cleared before
midweek. We’ll let you know how we get
on! But we got over to the coast on the
excellent Tranz-Alpine Scenic train – modern rolling stock on a venture built
over hazardous terrain more than 100 years ago.
Such a treat to see all the scenery going by with someone else doing the
driving! (Met a Rotarian from San
Francisco also on his way to the Convention as well – count another
meeting!) And all four seasons in one
day.
We left Christchurch with the
temperature barely above freezing but beautiful sunshine but low cloud and mist
as we climbed across High Station country, to sleet and snow on the top at
Arthur’s Pass, then down through driving rain to Greymouth, where we were
greeted by hail, and on by car to Hokitika in a gale strong enough to take out
the power – our hotelkeeper doing the rounds with candles and matches! Met another Rotarian couple from Florida over dinner - all of us with our coats on because of the howling gale making it impossible for the restauarnt to heat the room!
Tomorrow we’re supposed to be taking a scenic flight over
Mount Cook, the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers and down to the fjords and Milford
Sound – the forecast is good, but after today it just seems a little
unlikely! You’ll have to wait until next
week to find out won’t you!!
