Fish and moldy cheddar

Helen: It's been a while since the last post because we've been out and about exploring remote Fijian islands - some of them are so removed from civilisation that the settlements don't even have electricity let alone internet access. One place we stopped (Kioa island) had a generator that ran on coconut oil, and they only had electricity from 6-11pm. This didn't stop them offering to turn the generator on as an exception for us so that our American friends could watch the Presidential debate betweeen McCain and Obama on TV! (Alice, the skipper's wife, keeps calling Obama 'Osama' - bit of an unfortunate slip of the tongue!) A bit further up the coast we stopped at Albert Cove which was even more remote - only a handful of thatched 'bure' (houses) and no power at all. But, the women were still enormous. Like huge beached walruses. How they manage to get, and stay, so fat is beyond me, when it seems that all they have to eat is fish, papaya, taro and banana. I guess they just don't do any exercise at all as there is nothing to do?

Now we're in Levuka, on the island of Ovalau, about 80 miles from the capital Suva. We were all excited about arriving as the guidebook waxed lyrical about historic buildings (this town used to be the capital of Fiji) and things to do. (One of the historic buildings, The Masonic Lodge, was burned to a crisp in the 2000 coup becasue the Methodist church told the locals to revolt as the Masons were in league with the devil and had tunnels from the Lodge in Levuka, through the centre of the earth to Masonic HQ in Scotland. Surprisingly, the guidebook says, these rumours turned out not to be true! (As another aside, when we were in Savu savu we heard that the only people allowed to hunt and eat turtles were Methodists so some enterprising bod had printed a load of t-shirts that said 'Save a turtle - eat a Methodist'. Unsurprisingly, these t-shirts were promptly banned)). So, where was I? Oh yes, full of excitement for arriving in Levuka... What the guidebook didn't tell us was that the whole town smelled of fish!! There is a big fish processing plant upwind of us, and, in the same way that Edinburgh smelled of hops/marmite/baked potatoes from the brewing, this place smells of fish. Reminds me of Unhygenix from Asterix...

C is causing quite a stir here with his dreads and tattoos - but everyone is v friendly. It's much more Fijian here than Indian. C said yesterday that Fijian faces are much more African looking than Polynesian - sure there's some interesting history there.

OK, that's probably enough for now. Heading out to explore Ovalau today and then setting off for Suva tomorrow night (we think). Then it's provisioning and getting ready for The Big One - we'll be watching the weather closely and could leave for NZ any time in the next couple of weeks. Exciting...and scary...

Lots of love
H&Cxx

PS. Meant to say earlier - being on Yamana is a bit like being on a Vogon spaceship at times :)

PPS. C just reminded me of something else I have to tell you about - when I first came to stay with the Panks all those years ago I never used to get the hundreds of in jokes (inspired by Blackadder, Reggie Perrin, Monty Python etc...). Well, I didn't get where I am today without making up a few of my own - Yamana is now well and truely Pankified and probably a complete mystery to the uninitiated. When we first got on Ruben had designed a 'ranking system' based on cheeses - from 'Moldy Cheddar' through 'Camel-Bear' and 'Rock-Fall' all the way to the heady heights of 'Wensildale'. After a week of promotions and demotions on this system at his whim, C created his own based on cars, with Ferrari F50 at the top and Trabantz at the bottom. A month on and we have 5 different ranking systems (for 6 people!): Cheese, Cars, Supermarket chains, Flowers and Fruit. The latest area of interest causing promotions and demotions is ability to cut slices of bread - within specifications (eg. 5mm) and with as little variation as possible. Pete is today searching for the vernier calipers so that he can adjudicate more accurately than the ruler allows.