After a day at sea, Suva, Fiji, and a Canadian connection. This clock tower and bandstand commemorate Suva mayor Gabriel Marks and his wife. In 1914, they drowned when ...
... the Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River. More than a thousand died, a maritime disaster on the scale of the Titanic and German sinking of the Lusitania. But, with the Great War starting just two months later, the tragedy was largely forgotten.
However, in Toronto, I remember when in the historic Mount Pleasant Cemetery near my home. Steps from the main gates is a Salvation Army memorial with a sea bird poignantly skimming the waves.
167 army members from Canada died in the sinking, plus twenty-four people from Toronto.
In Fiji, one might mildly quibble with the memorial plaque. The unfortunate Mr. Marks is mentioned; his wife is not. And the sinking's date is incorrect. It was May 29, 1914, not May 23.
A few years later, where cricketers are practising, a field near the bandstand witnessed history.
In 1928, Charles Kingsford Smith became the first airman to cross the Pacific, flying The Southern Cross, a Fokker trimotor, from California to Australia.
With the splendid Grand Pacific Hotel at one end and hill at the other, Albert Park became a temporary landing strip. Trees were still being cleared after Smith had left Hawaii on a thirty-four hour flight to Fiji.
From one pinprick in the ocean to another with no GPS, simply celestial navigation. If forced to ditch, little possibility of rescue or even wreckage and bodies eventually being found.
I watch the police guard (in a country with four coups since independence) at the president’s residence putting up with yet more tourists ...
... then pass the Fiji Times. The dateline may make it 'The first newspaper in the world published every day', but the paper's suffered from government censorship and self-censorship.
A look at the town's cheerful deco architecture and back to the ship.
Next day, Dravuni Island, Fiji, with a population little over a hundred. For an hour or so, I'm one of the few ashore, bar this chap and a friendly dog.
I poke about ...
… and much admire the primary school fence.
Eventually I come across Lai having his hair cut by the village barber, Atu.
Kids are playing billiards ...
... and taro being prepared.
I, so to speak, inspect an outhouse (note name) ...
... say ‘goodbye' to the dog, recovering from his walk, and depart before the delightful solitude is broken.
Another stop, Mystery Island, Vanuatu, will remain a mystery - for me, at least. Poor weather means no landing where the Queen picnicked in 1974.
Nor will I witness the tasteful diversions offered visitors.
‘Great photo ops with make believe cannibals’.
‘We put our head up through a hole in the table where the plate would normally be. The cannibal then put a chilli in our mouth and held up his knife and fork while our friends took a photo. It looked great and it was a great memory to take home’. (TripAdvisor reviews)
Presumably the Queen did not pose with the 'cannibals'.
