"Coup Survivor"

“Coup survivor”

So, for those of you who were not been informed, I spent the past three weeks in Fiji. I arrived there on Thursday, November 30th, four days before the coup took place and the military took over the government. Sounds dramatic doesn’t it? Well, it really wasn’t. Aside from feeling a little nervous before leaving, and nervous enough to decide to avoid Suva (Fiji’s capital) the day of the coup, it really did not affect me. Returning from Taveuni (where I spent most of my time), I took the ferry to Suva and a local bus from Suva to Pacific Harbour. Aside from a few roadblocks with bored soldiers, I didn’t notice a whole lot of military activity.

My first day in Fiji I decided to go shopping for some pareus (or as wrap-around skirts are locally known, sulus). I bought two for myself and one each for Annie and Joy as Christmas presents. I probably paid too much, but at least I was done with all my souvenir shopping. The store clerk was really disappointed when I refused to buy anything else, either from him or from any of the neighboring stores.

Anyway, after two mediocre (but fun) dives in the Mamanucas (the vis was poor and the coral was dead or dying, though I saw lots of fish, a stingray and a turtle), I flew from Nadi (pronounced Nandi) to Matei airport in Taveuni. I was met by Susie’s Resort driver Feroz, and we headed past the International Dateline (though there is only one time zone in Fiji for workability reasons) to the southernmost part of Taveuni. The next day I went on my two first dives. They weren’t the greatest dives of my trip, but the coral was much healthier and more fascinating than in the Mamanucas. The night dive was fun, though the lionfish decided to go into hiding and we didn’t see any. I did see lionfish on a later night dive.

The next two weeks were filled with great diving. I went diving on sites named the Incredible reef, Orgasm Reef (because it’s so AMAZING), Devil’s Cave (which was occupied by two grey reef sharks, so we didn’t go inside), Steve’s Corner, the Stairs (lots of swim throughs covered in coral), Dolphin Bay (the dolphins had gone in to hiding unfortunately), Coral Garden, Susie’s Reef.

While on those dives, I saw countless parrotfish, butterflyfish, Moorish Idols, Surgeonfish, bannerfish, Sharks (mostly white tip reef sharks), and turtles. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, look it up on a website of tropical fish. On one of my dives, I saw a few sharks sitting on the bottom getting cleaned. I was no more than 10 ft (3 m) from one of them. One day, we were dropped off after a 30 second boat ride not too far from the resort. On the way back we went over a sandy-bottom-with-seagrass that made me feel like I’d somehow beamed right back to a Minnesotan lake. However, what I saw in on that bottom would never be found in a temperate lake. I saw Nudibranchs (Gymnodoris ceylonicha) and a tube anemone (it withdrew into the sand when Zoe (a dive instructor) waved her hand over it (well, it was more of a circular motion). On Thursday, two days before I left, we went to the world famous Great White Wall and the Rainbow Reef. Those were two of the most amazing dives I’ve ever done, the only drawback being that a group from Dolphin Bay divers chased the manta ray away so we didn’t see it. The Great White wall seemed like a great wall of snow, endless downwards, in front of us and behind us. It was truly an amazing sight. After the Great White Wall (where we saw two lionfish hanging out by a branchy soft coral), we went to Rainbow Passage (where the other dive group chased away our manta ray), another amazing dive, where we saw a turtle. The amount of soft corals at Rainbow Reef is truly astounding, and they are of all colors (purple, yellow, lavender, red and whatever you can think of). I did not want to leave. Unfortunately, I had to consider the fact that I only had one source of air and staying down too long could result in DCI (decompression sickness) when I was forced to surface.

During my time in Taveuni, I also saw and touched sea snakes (well, probably the same one twice since it was in the same bay). Furthermore, I saw pacific lobsters, cleaner shrimp, Christmas tree worms and countless other invertebrates. On my last day on Taveuni I saw Pilot Whales! Te and Toto (Divemaster and divemaster-in-training) spotted them far away from the island (it took us almost five minutes to get to them by a pretty fast boat). I didn’t really believe them when they said they’d seen Pilot whales, but decided to grab my mask and camera anyway. It was too good a chance to miss. Though Te didn’t let me get in the water with them, I did get some ok shots. It is all too much to describe in a mere blog entry, which is getting too long in any case. As soon as I get the picture CD from Maria (one of my few fellow divers at Susie’s), I will upload tons of underwater pictures.

For now you will have to be satisfied by pictures of tropical islands, a kava ceremony (kava is a ceremonial drink made from a root. It tastes like you’re drinking bark), pictures of the Fiji islands taken from an airplane, and finally, amazing sunsets at Taveuni and the view from my bedroom… There are a couple of pictures from where I stayed at Pacific Harbour as well, but the weather was horrid so I did not get to go diving, which made the stay there pointless. Good thing I was only there for two nights.

Though the rainy season had begun, it did not rain all that much, only my last few days. It was a nice time to go since there were not as many tourists and I could change my plans at a whim.

You may have noticed that I titled this blog entry “Coup Survivor.” Well, I did survive the 2006 coup in Fiji. So, however, did everyone else. The coup has only managed to hurt Fijians, not physically, per se. As far as I know, no one has been murdered in the name of the “Clean-up campaign,” as Commander Banamarama (or however he spells is name, I could care less). However, all across the 320 Fijian islands people are losing their jobs because tourists are scared to go to Fiji. Fiji has also been kicked out of the British Commonwealth (if you don’t know what that is, look it up) and has lost millions of dollars in aid from other countries. That has had a significantly effect on the Fijian economy. The majority of Fijians are pretty poor to begin with (relatively at least). So, in short, all Commander Banamarama and his army have managed to do is create a huge mess, hurting all non-military Fijians, not through terror, but simply through being in power and scaring their most important source of income away.

Had all coups been as peaceful as the 2006 coup in Fiji, it would have been a blessing. Still, the coup is disrupting hundreds of thousands of lives. And as we all know, power corrupts. Who knows what Banamarama will do once the power he has gets to his head.

On a different note, the new dive instructor at Susie’s, Tiffany Wagner asked me twice if I was thinking of becoming an instructor and said she’d give me a reference if I decided to get a job in the dive industry. She also gave me the name of a guy in the British Virgin Islands who could put me through the instructor course in exchange for work. The problem is, I can only be in the BVI for 30 days, it would cost me quite a bit to get there, and I’m in New Zealand for another four months. I have a lot more I want to see here. I have thought about going to Australia, but by the time I got a visa and managed to change my ticket, it would hardly be worth it. Truth be told, I should have gone to Australia in the first place. I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to come to New Zealand. I guess all I can do is make the most of it. However, I am applying to various places in Europe for a summer job in diving. If I can apply for a grad school visa from another country, I might just be somewhere near the Mediterranean this summer (that is assuming I’ll get into grad school. Part of me hopes that I won’t).