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| I talked Tom into posing in front of this beautiful palm frond. We hadn’t seen this type of frond since we’d been in Belize in early 2013, taking a similar photo of me at that time. |
It was a fitful night after the hottest day and night we’ve had in a long time. The humidity was at 94% making otherwise moderate temperatures in the high 80F’s, 30C’s, feel somewhat uncomfortable.
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| Lipstick plant, commonly seen in tropical climates. |
With no AC, we cranked up the one ceiling fan in the main area of the house, stripped down to the skimpiest of clothing and distracted ourselves. When the wifi went out, we played Gin. Tom’s on a winning streak again. He beat me in Australia and is ahead already in Fiji.
When the WiFI returned I spent a few hours searching for vacation homes in other parts of the South Pacific with little luck. I went as far as inquiring to a few properties both writing back explaining they weren’t interested in long term rentals during the peak season.
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| Palm trees produce a variety of colorful seed pods in tropical climates. |
Our open dates of December 3, 2016 to March 1, 2017, are considered peak season, not so much due to the Christmas season, as it is to it being summer in the southern hemisphere. Property owners can get higher rates for short term rentals than we’re willing to pay for the long term.
Finding a house in any area in Australia is entirely out of the question. The prices are even higher than any of the surrounding islands. They’re some of the highest prices we’ve seen anywhere in the world. We’re lucky to have stayed in the great property in Trinity Beach at a reasonable rate to at least ensure we had the experience of living on the vast continent.
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| The verandas for two of the units in the large house behind us. |
It appears that now we’ll have no choice but to expand our horizons and find other locations in the South Pacific to fill this and the other gap, prior to our last cruise in Australia ending up in the US where we’ll be visiting family and then be back on to other adventures outside the US.
In communicating with another world traveler Tom met on cruise critic with plans to travel for a total of two years, she wrote “I find myself working on the booking details in the middle of the night.” We know that booking multiple locations, one after another is a daunting task, nothing we take lightly.
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| We can use this pool if we’d like, but with no lounge chairs on the edges, we have little interest. |
Luckily, we’ve been able to gradually add new locations, mostly filling in various gaps from time to time. It’s easy to recall before we left the US, when I worked on my laptop 12 hours a day for many months booking two years into the future.
Planning even a single two week holiday/vacation is a huge task, ensuring visas, hotels, transfers and transportation are in order, even when using a travel agent.
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| View from the veranda of the upper unit in the house behind us. |
Only once, in these past years have we used a travel agent, when we booked the flights to Fiji with an agent in Trinity Beach when our connection was too slow to book online. We’ve become fairly adept at booking vacation homes as long as we have a good wifi connection which right now, holding our breath, is working well.
Over these next months in Savusavu, we’ll continue to conduct more research, hoping to fill this first gap. If we can accomplish filling the second gap from March 13, 2017, to April 22, 2017, it will be a bonus.
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| A type of rose at the end of the season. |
Today is a busy day. Ratnesh is coming to pick us up at 11 am to take us to the ATM, then to the post office to pick up the package we shipped from Australia with supplies.
Then, we’re off to purchase more data for my phone (which I accidentally burned up leaving a call online), the farmer’s market, the grocery store and the meat market. Food shopping requires these three stops when there’s little choice of produce and only frozen meat at the tiny grocery store.
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| None of these berries are edible. |
On Wednesday, Ratnesh will return to take us sightseeing and when done we’ll stop to pick up two cooked chickens at the meat market which we’ll reserve. The chickens we purchased and cooked had little meat and were dry and tough. The cooked chickens made fresh daily at the meat market, are moist, meaty, and delicious.
Also, in this warm weather, it makes no sense to have the counter top oven on anymore than is absolutely necessary. If we purchase two cooked chickens each week, we only have to cook five more dinners.The less we cook, the less ants come to call. Plain and simple.
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| These orange pods contain the seeds for future palm trees of this variety. |
This morning Mario stopped by with the post office receipt for the package and to check on how well the wifi is working. His care for his guests is beyond reproach. How fortunate we’ve been to have quality landlords in the majority of the vacation homes we’ve rented these past years.
Have a fabulous Sunday or Monday, depending on which side you’re located on the International Dateline!
Photo from one year ago today, September 21, 2014:
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| The Sheraton Club Intrawest located in the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre was a great place to stay for six days while awaiting the upcoming cruise to Hawaii. For more details and photos, please click here. |