chase the light

Two days after getting home from New Zealand, Imageworks called and said they were having a 10th Anniversary/Spider-Man/Stuart Little 2 Wrap Party. It was the closest thing they were going to have to a wrap party for those films. Only 6 months late. Almost no one that currently works at Sony was actually there. The party was mainly comprised of former employees, or those that they’re recruiting or recently hired. Got a hat, a pen, and a copy of “Variety” that told us how great “Imageworks” is after 10 years.

Back in Wellington and my last day before heading home. A group of us headed up to Paraparaumu to do some quadbiking. The day would end tragically, but it would be the funnest thing I do in my whole time in Wellington. It had poured rain the day before and during a break in the weather today we had an awesome ride through the forests, hills, rivers, and roads. We weren’t stuck in mud nearly as much as the pictures show. It’s just he only time I could get the camera out while we took turns going through the deep spots. During my turn through this part of the trip I got stuck and tried to unlodge my bike. As I was doing this my camera flipped out of my front pocket and it plopped itself into the mud. I jumped off the bike and eventually found it stuck under the wheel. I pounced on it and quickly pulled the memory card out of it. Hopefully I had saved the card from any damage, but I wouldn’t find out until I could check it later. Two years and thousands of photos later, here’s the last photo my camera ever took. Mud’s a bitch. So long New Zealand, eater of cameras.

I touched it. She photographed it. The day out on the barrier reef was spectacular. It’s quite a bit larger than it looks and it was one of three seen during the day. One of the cooler things I’ve ever seen in the ocean.

I ran out of time last year to go to these lava tubes, and I almost balked at it again this year, but we made it out there. 3 hour drive out, two hour tour, three hour drive back. Plus or minus a few hours somehow. So, like 200,000 years ago a volcano erupted, then lava flowed down a creek bed, the lava cooled, the tubes emptied out, parts of it collapsed, vegetation grew back, people inhabited Australia, brochures were printed up, a van picked us up, I shot this photo, and that’s the history of the lava tubes. The cicada’s were huge and so deafeningly loud they kind of made me dizzy after awhile. You could barely hear the guide talking. On the way home I asked the driver if we could stop and check out some of the termite mounds that were all over the place. We passed thousands and thousands of these things.

Zoos are much easier to see animals at so we went and checked out Wild World. My second time going there because I like to feed the slobbery kangaroos. We walked into the aviary and they were feeding the Lorikeets. What a racket. Flying here, flying there, dive bombing your head, noisy buggers. A little brown bird landed on my head. I won the cane toad race and received a koala clippy at the souvenir shop. Eat the toad and die. Or hallucinate. He’s poisonous. Not feeling well… One of the shows had this beautiful white eagle there, and I can’t remember what it was but it was quite tame as it ate meat in front of everybody.

Argh bats!!! Giant flying mammals that will suck the very life blood out of you! Run away! Ok, they’re frugivores, but still. Eh hem, fruit eaters. Pteropus Scapulatus. Wingspans up to 6 feet. Largest bats in the world. Yikes. Rainforests have cool shit.

Friday in Cairns was a day of rest. Only left the apartment once for some food. Watched all 5 channels of TV all day. It’s easy to channel surf with only 5 stations. This morning we got up and caught the train up to Kuranda, Skyrailed it down, and then a trip to Hartley’s Creek Crocodile Farm. Lot’s of croc’s doing croc kind of things. They like to eat and become belts or handbags.

We woke up at 4:00am this morning to catch the sunrise at Uluru. Turned into a bust as the sun never really came out behind the clouds. Jill’s face pretty much says it all. “I got up at what hour for this?” I laughed. We were also headed over to the Olgas. The “other” rocks. Not a lot of people realize there are lots of other rocks, besides Uluru, in the area. We headed over to the Olgas for a morning hike. In some ways they’re more beautiful. Not as sacred to the Aborigines, but that’s their history. We walked through a place called the valley of the winds and to a hilltop between two of the heads. We got out of there just before it started to get hot and stopped at a lookout to view the the whole formation. Next stop, Cairns.

If I have to drag my ass out of bed before the sun rises it better be good. Riding a camel falls under that category. 4:45am to hop on a smelly animal and look at a sun that comes up everyday…? Where do I pay? Ok, so it was really fun and really beautiful. There’s like 200,000 wild camels in Australia or something. Not that we were riding wild camels, but who’d of thought? Uluru, although not brighly lit up, was silouettey. After the ride we grabbed a few camel portraits.

We arrived in Ayer’s Rock/Uluru today on this cool ass plane. It’s painted in aboriginal designs. First on the list was the Sounds of Silence dinner out in the desert. We checked into the hotel and rested a bit before catching the bus out to the “restaurant”. At least that’s what they call it. We watched the sunset and then sat down for dinner and ate barramundi, crocodile, kangaroo, and other assorted critters. It was pretty tasty after a day of travel, and then they blew out all the torches and candles. Then a women came out and gave a star talk under the the biggest dome of stars I’ve ever seen. The tracking telescopes that were set up weren’t quite tracking, but looking at the andromeda galaxy was damn cool. Lot’s of information was thrown out there in a half an hour, but none of it of which I can recall accurately. The Magellanic clouds, The Pleadies, Aurora Australis, etc. Stuff like that. Look ’em up.

On our flight out of Fiji at 3:00AM or something we were greeted by a spectacular sunrise behind the wing of the plane. We had a bit of a layover in Auckland where we slept, then hopped our flight to Sydney. Since we were only going to be in Sydney for a day we hopped a cab down to the harbor and took a cruise. Eiffel Tower, check. Golden Gate Bridge, check. St. Louis Arch, check. Sydney Opera House, check. Yeah yeah, I know, but you can’t help it when you’re here. We took a water taxi around the harbor and got off at the extremely touristy Darling Harbor. For dinner I had some prawns that were so big I think they were actually lobsters. The Gay Games were also going on in Sydney, so the only hotel available was right by the airport. The Hotel Ibis also has a serious problem with the fire alarm going off at some ungodly time in the morning. I did come to the conclusion that if you participated in the Gay Games, you got a medal. I overheard a 5’2 woman at the airport talk about the medal she won with her basketball team! The two guys she was talking to won medals in some track event. One was kinda overweight. Even George’s neighbours in New Zealand won medals for some other event. Ok, the competition was probably lacking, but I heard it was fab-u-lous time for all.

Finally a real day of rest. At this point I was so tired I just hung out in the room and drank a lot of Fiji water. Hey, when in Fiji… Yes they really do get the water from here. Oh, and of course ate some more Pringle’s. I’m kinda sick of Pringle’s. Some of the other’s went shark diving, I slept. We have to leave at two in the morning and I’m not looking forward to the drive. I’m the only one insured for the van, so I have to drive. Gonna be a long night. Seeing how this was going to be the last night some of us will be together we all went to dinner. We also met up with some other Lord Of The Ringers that happened to be at the same resort and drank the night away.

After a long night of sleep without mozzies buzzing about, we settled in slowly at the Shangri-La Resort. We finally got a tropical sunset over the water. Somesthing we never got while out kayaking. That night we drove back into Nadi to meet up with Tony, or kayaking guide, for dinner and then hang out with the next kayaking group. Another group from Weta was arriving later that night. There is 14 of them, but I’m glad our group was only eight as it was probably a much more personal experience. Smartly no one drank the water at dinner tonight. The previous night everybody who drank the water at the restaurant felt sick. You try once, but learn quick. Obviously this is some sorta Beni-Hana we’re eating at.

Kadavu airport. Now offically the smallest airport I’ve ever seen. I thought one in Tahiti was small, but this one takes it. It’s a field with a large shed. We said goodbye to George and Waise back at Matava, and Petero, one of the other guides rode with us to the airport to say goodbye. Tony told us it’s the first time he’s ever come to the airport to see a group off. We built a really great friendship with him and it was really nice that he saw us off. The boat dropped us off at the other side of the isthmus and we had to walk over to the airport. It’s pretty much the only road on Kadavu. Lot’s of people were walking about and smiling as we walked by. We’re off to the main island now to the Shangri-La resort for a bit of reverse culture shock. A warm shower too.

On our last day of kayaking we all ended up in the village of Kadavu Koro. I rode the support boat into the village and it was straight out of “Apocalypse Now”. People were standing on the banks watching us motor slowly by, smoke was pouring out of some of the huts, etc. I just didn’t have a gun and we weren’t blasting the Rolling Stones or Hendrix. One of our guides was from this village and since I arrived by boat I got to meet his family. Four beautiful kids and one on the way. After a short time in the village Tony, George the guide, and I met up with the others at the waterfall. They had hiked from another nearby village and were already jumping into the water by the time I arrived. The time we spent at this waterfall is something I think we will never forget. Behind the village, a tiny crevice in a sandstone bluff, hides the ultimate bathing experience. Hundered’s of years of mountain runoff has gouged a huge chamber with a deep black pool and a 90 ft waterfall that cascades out of the jungle. Only one of us managed to get a camera up to the waterfall, but I have yet to see those. Jill captured the village better than anything I got, so that’s her photo below.

Yesterday we left Naqara village and kayaked along the south eastern shore of Ono and headed to Albert’s Place. We made a quick stop at Jona’s Paradise before heading across the channel to the main island of Kadavu. With a lack of sleep, I skipped the channel crossing and rode the support boat. The other 7 made it, but I was feeling exhausted and sunburnt and completely happy to enjoy the ride. I also got to take pictures of the crew paddling across the channel. Ono can be seen in the distance, and the dark area on the island is where the crossing started, and here is where it ended.

After last night’s arrival into the village we awoke this morning to the sound of rooster’s crowing, kid’s yelling, and a dogfight. I slept about 2 hours, if that. I’m going to be a wreck in the kayak’s today. We ate breakfast with about a 1000 flies. Not sure why there weren’t that many flies at dinner the night before, but wow. We were taken over to the school and got to meet the kids. They were totally amazing and they sang for us. They sang some traditional songs, and sang a version of “This Land is Your Land”. They sang the first half in fijian and the second half in english. They also reworked the lyrics to refer to things in Fiji rather than “redwood forests” and “gulf stream waters”. We all introduced ourselves and told them where we’re from and what we do. They do have access to DVD’s, so they had all seen movies, but I’m sure they didn’t really grasp what we really do. I told them I was from Los Angeles and geographically I think that went right over them. A map would have been handy about then. After about half an hour, we waved goodbye and I couldn’t help but think their school is probably like any school around the world. There’s probably a bully, a bookworm, an outcast, a jock, etc. A whole Fijian “Breakfast Club” sitting right in front of me. A real highlight of the trip.

This morning we set out in the kayaks. The coastline was spectacular with many beautiful sand beaches, green and blue bays, and picture perfect palm trees. That’s my kayak the “Screaming Yellow Zonker” at our midday stop about a quarter of the way around Ono. For lunch we had carbs. Carb salad, carbs on ice, fresh cut carbs, liquid carbs, and carbs in the shape of Pringles. Tonight we’re staying in the village of Naqara. I think we’re all excited yet anxious about what’s going to go on there. Lot’s of customs to follow. George was voted our “Ratu”, or Chief, as he’s the oldest and will represent us at the ceremonies.

Relaxed around Jona’s today. It’s Sunday, and all the Fijian’s left for church this morning so I grabbed my camera for a walk along the beach. I came across this huge crab. It was about 8 inches across and I kept taking photos of it. Getting closer and closer, I thought it would eventually run away. It never did. It was dead. So I erased about 10 photos and got one real good closeup. I took it back and put it in Jill’s bure to scare her. That didn’t work out so well, as she looked at it and ignored it. Dork, I probably could have predicted that. We got to end the day with a beautiful pink and purple sunset.

We flew down to Kadavu today, pronounced Kandavu (see the pattern?), and took a squirrely boat ride to Jona’s Paradise. Jona was a popular musician around Fiji and now lives here with his family. This is an island called Ono which is off the north eastern shore of Kadavu. The beach was beautiful and our bure’s were really nice. We relaxed here for two days playing in the kayaks and enjoying the layed back experience. The moment we arrived the mozzies started their relentless attack which would continue until the day we left. I somehow avoided the mosquitos for a few days until they all turned on me and ate me alive. I quickly caught up with rest of the group in number of bites.