Drama at the end of the Sydney Hobart race.

We went down to Battery Point to watch a few of the Sydney Hobart yachts finish.

We were at the finish line. One boat successfully crossed. There were two others nearing the line. One had full main and genoa up in a strengthening wind.

The other had a well reefed mainsail and her orange storm jib.

Someone told us there was a severe wind warning. As we watched a thunderstorm was developing and suddenly the air in the Derwent river was filled with flying spray. It must have been blowing about 50 KN!

The first boat's headsail and mainsail were  immediately shredded. Quite a sight! She eventually put up a storm jib and then another sail before crossing the finishing line. The other boat turned around and ran before the storm and we did not see her finish. It seemed as though she was sailing downwind at the same speed as the weather system. Within an hour the weather over Hobart had moderated to perhaps 15 KN.

We had seen the start and the line honours finishing boat (Wild Oats XI) on TV but this was really dramatic.

 Here are a few pics of boats.

Enjoying Australia

On boxing day we watched excellent sports TV along with some family visits. There was the first day of a five day test match at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Then there was a spectacular start to the Sydney Hobart yacht race. The 117 boats reached out of Sydney Harbour in 25 KN of wind. Great TV coverage. It so happens that we are going to be in Hobart for the finish. This was not actually planned. We decided to go to Tasmania for some hiking and to visit historic sites but the first boats will be arriving probably the day after we arrive.
In the afternoon Penny's niece's husband Bruce, who used to be a policeman and now is the manager of a gun shop took John and I out to do some clay shooting. I shot about 30 rounds and probably hit about 5 clays! Anyhow even the experts seem to only hit about a third of the clays. Bruce also had with him his deer rifle that he had used that morning to drop a deer for a friend of his. I had one shot at a tree target using its telescopic sight. Experiencing a different lifestyle than we normally live!
To-day - 27th December - we drove for an hour and a half to a historic winery called Tahbilk. It was originally started in 1860 and still has the underground cellars with huge wine barrels. It then fell into disrepair until in 1925 the Pubrick family took it over and Eric Stevens Purbrick took over the management in 1931. To-day it is a very relaxing and interesting tourist attraction. We went for a walk around a Billabong and then we had a family picnic in the grounds. It has continued to be developed over the years but they are still making wines from the vines that were planted in 1860!

Here are some pics of the last few days.  

A day in Melbourne

We had a memorable day on Christmas Eve here "Down Under". We took a V train taking 40 mins into the center of Melbourne (only $6 return), rode the trams, walked though the streets packed with shoppers in shorts and sleeveless shirts, went to the Immigration Museum, had lunch with Penny's nephew John Paul his wife Nancy and son of 18 months Sante, visited the Melbourne Museum and then went to a Christmas Carol service of lessons and carols at St Paul's Cathedral.
The immigration museum was recommended by Bill Bryson in "A Sunburned Country".  It gives an impressive account of how Australia has taken refugees from many countries over time and of the changes through the years from the original transportation ships of the late 18th Century, through the White Australia policies to today where Australia still struggles with how many refugees they will allow in. There were protests supporting refugees outside the Cathedral where the church has a large banner supporting them. At the museum there was also a WWI display focusing on the impact on families of those who were killed or injured 100 years ago.
The center of Melbourne had large crowds no doubt doing their Christmas Even shopping. It was a pleasure seeing some young groups "busking".
I spent about an hour at the Melbourne Museum (free to seniors even from abroad). A spacious building with wonderful wild life, science and other displays.
We had reserved seats for the Carol service at St Paul's Cathedral but we arrived early and were able to look around. The service was similar to the traditional Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Chapel Cambridge which we always listened to on the radio as children more than 50 years ago. An unusual feature was that each reading was first read in another language then in English. The languages were German, Urdu, Spanish, Arabic, Sinhala, Farsi and Mandarin. Obviously representing the many ethnic groups in Melbourne. It was a memorable day! Here are a few pics.

 

Christmas in Melbourne

The prime objective of this trip was to visit Penny's sister Liz and her family. It was a five hour flight from Fiji. Everyone landing in Australia has to fill out a detailed form related to the possibility to exposure to Ebola. Penny's sister Liz and husband live in Sunbury about 30 KM NW of Melbourne. They have recently retired. She from working in duty free at Melbourne airport and he from being a warehouse manager.

A visit to Bounty Island

On our last day at the Club Fiji Beach resort we went on a boat trip to Bounty Island. With a group of mostly young families we took a boat ride from Denarau Island Marina. We first viewed reef fish from a submarine which cruised close to the coral and fed the fish so that they were attracted to enable viewing of many spectacular colourful tropical fish. We then spent a relaxing day on a beach where lunch was provided. We met a very interesting young Indian Couple who lived in Canberra. They had both been born in India. He obtained his Bachelor degree in India but a Masters degree in Australia and worked as an IT consultant to the Australian Government. She spent most of her childhood in Dubai where her father is a Neonatologist in a Hospital there. However her father has obtained Canadian citizenship and plans to retire in Canada as it is not possible to live in retirement in Dubai. Here are a few pics from that day.

A bit of Fiji Geography and History

There are over 300 islands that make up Fiji. We are on the largest Viti Levu. The second largest is Vanua Levu. We have had a pleasant and relaxing time at the Club Fiji beach resort. I must say though that my unfulfilled dream was to visit the South Pacific as a yachie on my own boat. The accounts of many Bluewater sailors of visiting the small inhabited islands and being welcomed by villagers is quite different from this. However the staff here are very friendly and go out of their way to make one welcome. This is a  well run and well maintained fairly economic resort that was built 22 years ago.

The Fiji islands were first populated by Polynesians 1500 yrs BC then by Melanesians 500 BC.  Captain Cook visited in 1774. Indian labour was brought in for the sugar cane industry and now their descendants make up about 50% of Fijians. About 80% are Hindu and 20% Muslim. Interestingly there is very little intermarriage between Fijians of Indian descent and those of original Fijian ethnicity.
Fiji was a British colony from 1874 to 1973 when it gained independence. It has been a member of the Commonwealth but twice was expelled and only recently in 2014 readmitted to the Commonwealth.

Some Fiji data

A lot is talked about income inequality in Canada and US and other countries. Fiji's Gross National Income (in $US) is $4507 per capita compared with $42,610 for Canada. There are 45 staff employed by this resort who are paid about $US 1.75 per hour. We are happy to contribute to the local economy and the Fijians here are very friendly people.

Looking a bit further into Fijian statistics with a Public Health lens here are a few reported facts. Fiji Infant mortality 20/1000 live births. Canada 5. Fiji Birth rate 21/1000. Canada 11. Fiji health expenditure per capita ($US) $177. Canada $5741. Fiji GDP per capita ($US) $4571. Canada $51,958. Fiji population is 875,000 and they have about 660,000 tourist visitors per year.

It is amazing how one can quickly find out this information with an IPhone and Internet access thanks to a SIM card for Fiji. It is time to sample the local beer!

Club Fiji Beach Resort

This is a well run resort and we are having a relaxing time before going on to Melbourne after four nights here, The first two days were sunny. Yesterday it blew about 25KN and to-day we had some tropical rain for about an hour. The resort was built 22 years ago but has been well maintained.

Each day it has been about 30C which is nice!

One evening we had an enjoyable time while having dinner with John and Karen. They have lived all their lives in Bowen, Queensland but now are doing a fair bit of travelling in retirement.

Here are some pics.

Who owns Fiji Air?

After flying in a new Airbus A330-200 I was curious to know more about Fiji Air. The following is thanks to Wilipedia and having obtained a Fiji SIM card for my IPhone 5S. Fiji Air used to be called Air Pacific which was created in 1947 by Australian Harold Gatty. Now the Fiji government owns 51% and Quantas 46.32%. The have seven aircraft - three Airbus A330-200, one Boeing 737-700 and 3 Boeing 737-800. The company has shown a profit for the last two fiscal years. Interesting?!

May the journey begin

We leave to-morrow by bus at 7.45 am and ferry to Vancouver Airport. Then 3 hrs to Los Angeles, 11hrs and 30 mins to Nadi (Fiji) arriving 6 am on Wednesday where we will stay at Club Fiji Resort until Sunday 21st.
Its 30 C degrees in Fiji. Looking forward to some relaxation and some activities after the usual flurry of preparations.

Editorial Comment about this Blog

This Blog is an alternative for me to a Christmas newsletter. I have found that when you go travelling you get involved with a number of activities and it may be difficult to remember them all and there may not be time to tell one's friends and family! Is that something to do with the aging brain?  Maybe that or maybe we are all becoming distracted thinkers with shorter attention spans as a result of being addicted to our electronic devices. A solution to this is to keep a diary but better still to record the diary in a Blog like this one.

What have I learned about Australia over the years? My father emigrated there when I was 21. I visited him several times - in Tamborine Mountain (near Brisbane) and in Sydney. He died aged 92 in 2000. I used to manage to get funding to go to conferences either on Water Quality or Injury Prevention and then would visit him at the same time.

Some years ago I read "The Fatal Shore" by Robert Hughes, published in 1987. This is probably the most detailed account ever published of the first settlement by the British when the first voyage of those "Transported" starting in 1787. We plan to visit Port Arthur in Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) on this trip to revisit the history of this penal colony. I only recently appreciated that Britain only started the Transportation to Australia after the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Prior to this time Britain transported prisoners to the American Colonies but that destination dried up in 1776. 

Recently our men's book club read "A fortunate Life" by A.B. Facey thanks to Tony who is Australian by birth. This classic Australian story was published in 1981. It is the account of a young Australian farm boy with no formal education whose early life in Western Australia was extraordinarily tough. He was at the Anzac beaches in 1915-1916 and was injured and evacuated home for rehabilitation. He wrote this account himself of his life before he died aged 87 in 1981. 

A more recent publication (2000) by Bill Bryson, an American writer, "In a Sunburned Country" is an entertaining account of his travels in Australia. His writing seems to me similar to Paul Theroux, many of whose books I have read in the past. I am hoping this Blog will include some stories of events along the way that may have been inspired by the writings of Bryson and Theroux. 

An active year before this trip

This has been a year of much activity for me.

 It was one year ago in November that Penny had her last major bowel surgery operation. She is now almost back to normal and all follow up tests have shown no evidence that her bowel cancers have recurred or spread. As time goes on it is appearing that she has been completely cured. She (and I) are cautiously optimistic.

For me my attitude this year has been "Better get on and do all those things you might want to do!" 

In March I went on the New Zealand tramping trip that we had planned although Penny did not come so it was cut short and we did not go to Australia as previously planned. The New Zealand trip blog is at  http://shauntrampinginnewzealand.blogspot.ca/

In June/ July I sailed my boat Polyandra anti-clockwise around Vancouver Island (759 Nautical Miles). This took six weeks and included a week in Bamfield to attend "Music by the Sea". http://www.musicbythesea.ca/ I am grateful to my two friends Hugh and Keith who came for parts of the voyage. Penny and Keith's wife Arlene came for four days to Bamfield to attend some of the concerts.

In August while Penny went to Ottawa to visit the grandchildren for three weeks I went Alpine hiking for a week with the Alpine Club of Canada, Vancouver Island branch, camping at 2000 meters, above the tree line about 50 KM north of Pemberton, BC and then I spent a week in Ottawa. 

In October I went to the UK to a family get together, to spend a week in London and then to attend the Canterbury Festival with my sister.

Now we are off to spend Christmas with Penny's sister Liz in Melbourne Australia. Penny decided that she would like to stop on the way so we will spend four days in Fiji, a week in Melbourne, five days in Hobart, and another four days in Fiji before coming home again. We leave December 15th and return January 8th.