Før avreise
Reisebrev
English texts
Rasket sin side
Mat og tog
Prosjektarbeid
Bildeindeks
 
Tekstarkiv
Bildearkiv
From Oakland to Auckland (updated nov. 16th)
Well, not exactly Oakland, but I like the similarity in the names. And it is close enough.
We arrived at San Fransisco Intl sept.28, where cousin Glenn and his wife Peggy were waiting. They took us to their home in Walnut Creek, which has now got a roof! And a brand new main door. They have made a big effort renovating their house, and are now seeing an end to the work. We saw drawings of the new kitchen, which will be finished early next year. It will be great!

The very next morning we set course for Jamestown, an old western / train town. Glenn had reserved 6 of 11 rooms in the cosy, old Jamestown Hotel. We met Karina, Andrea and Greg at a restaurant on our way to Jamestown, and Rob, Marily, Bob & Carolyn later. We had a great time at the train show, including a tour with a steam train on the Sierra line, and a barbeque.

Sunday morning we had a long breakfast at the hotel, and afterwards we had to say godbye to the others. Peggy, Glenn, Snorre and I continued to Yosemite. On our way, we stopped in the village Columbia, in an old mining area. Snorre found gold! Not the fake gold you can find in amusement parks around, but REAL gold.

Yosemite was very interesting. Flora, fauna and geological formations are very different from Norway. We managed to see the big Sequoias, which especially Rusket has always wanted to see. The one often pictured with a car going thorugh it, had fallen, but there was another one we could walk through. We spent the night in Camp Curry, right under the Half Dome. In the evening, we heard rumbling from the waste bins, and went outside to see if there were bears. But it was only people :-( But we saw deer family and other, smaller animals.

On our way back to Walnut Creek, we stopped at Sorensens Restaurant, where we also stopped on our way back from Disneyland, february 1997. I just had to have that green pee soup again! Nostalgia :-) The last couple of days in California, we were able to relax, play the train simulator game that Rasket bought in Canada, and to do some updating of this diary. 04 oct we had to get up at five o'clock to get to the airport in time for our flight to Hawaii..

We spent 3 1/2 relaxing days in Hawaii. We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel. Even though they gave us a special price on the room, we managed to spend a LOT of money. We soon learned that only a street or two behind the beach area, everything, including meals, were a lot cheaper. We found a favorite lunch cafe, as well as a favorite dinner restaurant, frequented by local people, and with resonable prices. 07 oct we celebrated Rasket's birthday, and concluded the evening by going to the airport. Our next flight was due right after midnight 08 oct. But when we landed in Fiji a few hours later, the date was 09 oct. A little confusing :-)

Fiji was a weird experience. We were captured at the airport by one of the many "travelling agents" waiting at the gate. She "sold" us two nights at a backpackers place on the island Mana + one night in "her" hotel, with air conditioning and all meals included. After we had accepted, she told us that boat fare to Mana was 50 Fiji dollars each way for adults, 35 for children. And she forgot to give us our change back. Well, we had two nights on Mana, with a fan in our room, and three meals served on a plate on the basis "eat it or leave it". The room on Mana was 10 dollars more than the agent had promised, and the facilities were shared with all the other guests, not only one other room. Although the standard was very low, we liked it there. The hosts were friendly, Susie, the boss, was like a mother and remembered everybody by name. There were fresh flowers in the rooms and on the tables every day. We met a lot of young backpackers, some of them travelling around the world like us. People tend to speak with eachother in places like that. Not like in hotels, where you never get to know anybody. We met some norwegian students on vacation from Australia, and we met Pam who is working in Korea, on her way home to New Zealand for a holiday. Back on the main island, we were met by our agent, and taken to the hotel. We again had a room with only a fan, not air conditioning. But that døsn't matter, I tend to get a cold from air conditioning anyway. But we discovered that the room rate was actually 10 dollars less than what we had paid. Offcourse, at the time we discovered, the agent was long gone. Oh, well. All in all, we had three cheap days in Fiji, a nice time on Mana and we met a lot of nice people from all over the world.

On 12 oct we got to Kiribati, a 3 hour's flight right north from Fiji, and Rusket's main goal for the journey! Kiribati consists of three groups of islands; the Gilberts, Phønix and the Line Islands. The are spread on both sides of equator and on both sides of the date line. From Tarawa to Christmas Island, it is more than 3000 km. The islands are atolls, none of them reaching more than 3 meters over sea level. There is no mass tourism, but there is a comfortable hotel on Tarawa, the main island, and nice guest houses more or less with local standard, on some of the outer islands. People in Kiribati are friendly, peaceful and helpful. A big minus is the fact that the sewage gøs right into the lagunes. But there are nice beaches and reefs, with a lot of possibilities for snorkling, scuba diving and fishing. This is not the place to go if you want full, modern comfort, but a paradise for those who are satisfied with a more primitive standard.

Tarawa is the most populated island, with a busy road along the atoll, several towns and a more "modern" style of life. We simply loved the bus system! The buses are privately operated, minibuses intended for 10 - 12 people. Very often a family owns a bus, the husband is driving while the wife is collecting the fare. They stop wherever you want them to, and it seems like the main goal is to squeeze as many people as possible into the bus. We always counted, and the record was 24! The traffic between the islands is taken care of by Air Kiribati, who operates a 17 passanger plane. We are not quite used to passangers sitting in each others laps on planes, but they got us where we wanted to go :-) And they managed to land on the shortest, grassiest airfields we have ever seen. There are ferries between some of the islands, but the sea might be rough, and you never know exactly when the boat will departure. Another alternative is to hire a private boat, but that is more expensive than flying. We heard rumors that Air Kiribati are acquiring a larger plane, which will make it possible to fly to Christmas Island. The only possibility today, is waiting for a freight ship, and the journey would take a couple of weeks. Or one could go by Air Nauru from Tarawa to Fiji, then to Hawaii and with Aloha Air from Hawaii to Christmas Island.

Our main base in Kiribati was the Otintåi Hotel on Tarawa. We went hiking on Bikatawa, a smaller island on the Tarawa atoll, we spent a week in Pearl Shell guest House on Butaritari, and five days in Nei Nikuao Hotel on Abaiang. We got a glimpse of everyday life. We experienced watching american movies on video, together with "half the village", sitting on mats under a pandanus leaf roof. We walked on beaches in bright moonshine. We saw beautiful sunsets. We had a terrible tour by boat, and another one on a hired motor bike. We learned how to make rope. We made new friends both with local people and people from other countries. We ... It seems impossible to describe everything. But one thing is sure: We want to go back to Kiribati!

After 3 1/2 lovely weeks, we returned to Fiji for one night. This time we chose to stay at the Raffles Hotel, right at the airport. The Raffles gives a good value for the price. And who all of a sudden strolled into the hotel, other than our agent from last time! She gave me a hug and pretended like everything was OK! :-) We had a nice evening, Rasket spent most of it in the pool eventhough it was raining, and the next morning we travelled on to Auckland, New Zealand.
(12.11.01, kl. 09:50) « Tilbake
Relaterte lenker Relaterte tekster Relaterte bilder
California
Jamestown Hotel