We made it!

We made it to the island...
Please mark these words, and if you ever hear me coming close to agreeing to do it again, please scream this to my face, I WILL NEVER EVER EVER DO THAT BOAT RIDE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a F****ING night mare, I still cant believe that I actually did it! But I did, and we arrived in Rotuma on Thursday, 24 hours later than what we were supposed to.
The journey started off with a 4 hour bus ride from Suva to Lautoka in a bus that back home would never pass the rego test, the fumes the noise the heat, but worst of all the squashyness... they stuffed in as many people as possible, and loads of luggage and we sat there, crammed in like squashed sardines, kids on our lap or on the floor, with nowhere to move for 4 hours. I felt sorry for Carl coz there is much more of him to be squashed, he didn’t enjoy the ride very much...
We arrived in Lautoka to the warf where the boat was waiting, and at first sight of the boat I actually felt a bit relieved, as it looked like it was in much better shape than the last one I took, (which, by the way, had sunk at the warf in Rotuma) and when we got onto it, it was much bigger and cleaner than the last one. It had one level that was quite large and airconditioned, then the deck level and then another little room above the deck level which had just booth like tables and benches, and wasn’t aircon freezing , so we claimed that room, together with a bunch of Fijian tradesmen who were going to Rotuma to build some government buildings at the warf. It was hot and not much air flowing thru, but it was close to the deck so we could hop out whenever we needed fresh air. We got onto the boat, and settled in and waited for our departure. And waited and waited and waited for 12 bloody hours!!! We were scheduled to leave at 2pm, but apparently they forgot some parts in Suva and they had to wait for them to be brought over (4 hour drive) and/or they were fixing something on the steering (why the hell do they board the passengers if the boat isn’t fit for sailing?!?!?!) and then they had to wait for the tides to be right for departure, so we waited and waited, put the kids to sleep on the manky bench seat cushions on the floor, Saulei was waking every hour or so, and every time he woke I checked the time and looked out the window to see if we had left, and even when we did leave, it looked like we hadn’t, but at around 6am when we woke finally, I realized we had left and very soon after that, it hit me....

                                                               Boat at Lautoka

Thank Goddess I am not the spewing type, so I wasn’t hanging overboard vomiting the whole time, but I felt so sick, so nauseous, that I couldn’t lift myself from the ground without feeling dizzy and wanting to die. I just wanted to die. Thinking that I still had at least another 36 hours of feeling like this to go... at times, I looked at Carl thinking “I hate you for putting me thru this, I am a princess and deserve luxury- what were you thinking?!?!?!?!?!”, luckily Carl felt sorry for me, and took on the job of looking after the kids, coz I was in no shape to do anything for them. The boat was so filthy and the kids were rolling around getting absolutely trashed, they stank so bad that every time they came near me I had to push them away coz I couldn’t bear the stench of my own children... I brought some snacks to take on the boat, biscuits, apples, carrots and mandarins, which we finished quite quick, and the food on the boat was not at all appealing, especially to me in my state. Disgusting looking baked beans and what was supposed to be scrambled eggs but looked more like a blob of semolina or something, and of course the fluffy white bread. I couldn’t touch it, and felt awful trying to make my kids eat it coz thats all there was. The dinners were either chicken in oyster sauce or lamb in oyster sauce with a few canned carrots and peas in it, and rice, and even when I tried eating it, I could take a few bites and had to run away from it before I would’ve spewed. I felt much better not eating than having to eat that stuff, not to mention having to smell it...

                                                                    Breakfast on boat

                                                                        Our Glamorous quaters

                                                              Peep from our "Cabin"
At some stage I discovered the floor on the deck at the front of the boat, just outside the captains room, and that spot became my best friend. I sat there for hours, without moving, just breathing the fresh ocean air, listening to an audio book on my ipod to take my mind off my tragic state. Carl kept telling me to stare at the horizon which will make me feel less dizzy and nauseous. Whoever made up that theory must have been drunk, coz it didn’t work for me. Just sitting in my silence, with no one disturbing me, was the only way I felt mildly ok.
The toilets were another experience in itself, they used some kind of chemical, probably to disinfect, which smelt SO AWFULL, so deathly, that for hours after leaving the toilets I could still smell it in my nostrils. I went to one other toilet, which was in a level beneath, which had to be above there with the Chinese public toilets, in the worst ever public toilets I have ever been in. It was hotter than a sauna, with no airflow in it, stank of decades of shit, infested with cockroaches and smelt also of a dead cockroach dungeon for war crime cockroaches tortured in there before their death. Whatever that would smell like. After that experience, I kept my water intake to a minimum.
At nights, the Fijian men would have “Grog parties” out on the deck, Grog being Cava, not the delicious Spanish Champagne I drank so much of in Israel (wishful thinking...), but the national high, the Cava root which they dry and grind into a powder, mix with water and drink it in turn. Its a muscle relaxant, so basically makes you feel a bit stoned and jelly body like. They would come back into the cabin and crash, and while everyone was asleep, only I was awake to hear all these strange men’s sleeping sounds, snoring, farting, groaning... lovely! JUST WHAT I NEEDED TO FEEL BETTER...
No matter how much I tried to imagine I was Julie on the Love boat, or Kate Winslet on the Titanic with Leonardo hugging me from behind on the bow of the boat, nothing stopped me feeling like I wanted to die.
Did I mention that the place was infested with cockroaches? So every time I saw one crawling on the mattress where the kids were sleeping, I had to pretend I didn’t see it, which made me feel better about not seeing the ones that I really didn’t see, which Im sure were there anyway.
The kids were having a ball, between running around the deck, playing with and jumping on any stranger that would play with them (and they all did!), and watching movies on the laptop, they were happy. I couldn’t understand how they didn’t feel the way I was feeling. They would be literally running across the boat every time it rocked, leaning forward and back while watching movies, and weren’t bothered in the least. For about 2 days after we arrived, Noah kept telling me he is still rocking from the boat. And so was I . I think I still am, 3 days later.
Because the boat departed 12 hours late, the ETA was obviously 12 hours later that the original ETA, but at some point Carl came to me and hesitantly told me to prepare myself for an extra 12 hours on the boat, because if we arrive in Rotuma at dark, we wont be able to dock at the warf so will have to wait until morning light to be able to dock. I tried deep in my heart to be strong, and decided that well, I feel like death already, so in that case, once Im dead, I will still be dead for another 12 hours, so I will just stick with my deadness and be dead in silence...
So towards sunset on day 3 of the journey, we saw Rotuma island in the distance and we arrived close to the island after dark and anchored somewhere far enough but close enough to see the light at the warf. We kept rocking for another night and at dawn the next morning we sailed toward the warf and anchored.
Rotumas warf is at Oinafa, and it is the most beautiful beach in Rotuma. It is the picture perfect of tropical island cliché, snow white sands, turquoise waters and coconut trees on the beach. Absolutely divine. It almost makes the boat ride worth it, but not...

                                                                Rotuma from a distance

                                                               Boat at Oinafa Warf
We arrived at about 6am, and for the next 6 hours waited on the beach for all our cargo to clear, and to find out that some of it was missing, apparently forgotten in Suva. (to be expected really...). In the mean time, the kids and I jumped into the beautiful clear water to cool off and wash away what we could of the FILTH we were coated in from the boat. I loved seeing my two little nudie rudies running around on that beautiful beach playing in that beautiful water. For the first time in 4 days, I could smile...
Carls cousin Mua met us at the warf, and immediately offered us young coconut to drink, and Fikei, the local sweet treat made of Cassava starch, coconut cream, banana and sugar, wrapped in banana leaf and baked in the underground oven. Yum.
                                                                        Oinafa beach

                                                                 Arrival refreshments
Eventually we were picked up by a truck and taken to Itumuta, Carls familys village, and our home for the next 8 months...
To be continued...

p.s its looking like photo's are  mission to uploads with this internet connection, i will try again later...