Learning...

This is me just learning...


Learning about what a blog is and how to use it, about 10 years too late, but always a perfect time.



This is going to be the beginning of our Island adventure blog, where I shall publish all the experiences of our family - Myself, Nadine AKA mummy/Nene, Carl AKA Dada, Noah and Saulei AKA lots of other names. Our adventure to the faraway remote Island of Rotuma, a dot in the middle of the South Pacific, North West of Fiji (about 480km).


We are all going over to live there for about 8 months, among the lush coconut jungles surrounded by nothing but ocean.

The plan is to build a house, or a 'glorified hut' as Carl calls it, out of local materials- timber and thatch, while transporting all the tools and bits from Australia and Fiji, as there is nowhere on the island to get it all.



This has been a long planned journey, Carl has been working hard on the planning, design and all the logistics, and I, Nadine have been working on getting my head around going to live on a very isolated island with no power or cafes for all that time. The kids are oblivious to whats going on, Noah, 3.5yrs knows we're going to 'Rotumo' and that theres lots of coconuts he can drink there, and Saulei, 1.5yrs is happy as long as he's hanging off me.



We are planned to leave Sydney for Fiji on April 27th 2010, stay in Fiji for a couple of weeks to finalize all the freight and purchase all the necessities, and head over, to my terror, by boat, on a +/-30 hour trip over to Rotuma. I say 'to my terror' because the last time i took the boat over there, was when i was 3 months pregnant with Noah, and when i saw the boat at the jetty, i burst into tears... it was a BOMB of a vessel, unfit for human transport, no life jackets, they over loaded it with about 150 more people than what it was allowed, not to mention every inch of space was packed with peoples gear, we had a wooden bench as our seat, Carl and his cousin didn't even have a seat, and I can go on and on, but I wont. All i can say is that i swore never to do that again, and here I am, 4.5 years later about to do it again with 2 little kids.... Apparently this time we're taking "the Government boat", which is supposed to be a bit better. I shall soon find out. I'm trying not to think about it until I have to board. In denial.
Usually I would have flown over there, under 2 hours on a 12 seater from Suva, but apparently they are upgrading the landing strip on the island, from grass to concrete, so no flights arriving there for who knows how long. NOT HAPPY.



SO at the mo we are in Israel, visiting my family for 2 months, Carl is joining us on the 15th of March, as he had to stay at work for 4 more weeks after we left. We're gonna be in Israel until April 19th and then head back to Sydney for a week of packing and goodbyes to all our Sydney crew, and then off on the 29th...