The week the kids didn't go back to school...

After a long summer holiday which started early December the kids were due back in school tuesday and wednesday of this week. But monday night we knew a big storm was brewing and that although it only happens once or twice a year most likely there would be no boats in the morning. Jonathan emailed that night to warn us they had wailing winds and no power over in Suva (blackberry power!), and Wendy posted quite a cautionary tale from Taveuni on Babasiga so I went outside to bring the washing in. It was completely calm. I felt a little silly as I hauled the barbeque in side (we just got it, haven't even got the gas hooked up yet), and took all the outdoor seat cushions etc in before pushing the furniture against the wall; however it did indeed start blowing about 11 pm, and checking the Fiji Met Service it looked like cyclone "Gene" a category 2 would arrive at our place sometime on tuesday morning.

Sure enough when our 6am school alarm went off in the morning it was clear there was no school that day. The wind was strong and stepping up, seas which are usually calm like the photos in the previous post (which was, lets face it only two days earlier) huge and choppy, the drop off (the ring of coral reef marking the underwater edge of the island) clearly defined with a huge surf. And here's my terrible confession... I didn't take any photos!! The wind was howling and rain hammering rendering even a camera in a plastic bag unuseable. And here's the proof. I know you may have assumed this was some groovy post processing effect. But actually its just a cat 2 cyclone attacking a Nikon dSLR in a plastic bag...

actually if you look closely at the sea you can see our landing pontoon washing away in pieces... and here's one from the pentax point and shoot of some rather buffeted trees...

And in addition to not getting any worthy pics I was worried for my good camera- even if its meant to be weather proof. But we did take the little pentax optio w30 out on movie mode- its water proof to 3m after all. We dashed about between heavy rain squalls- but still had to frequently stop and wipe the rain off the lens. I've turned it into a short movie, but it really doesn't do justice to the might of the wind. Movie making is quite a skill isn't it! The island has a mature tree canopy- luckily (and only one fell over) so a lot of areas were quite sheltered- but you can hear the wind regardless, and the buffeting wind on the little point and shoot has added an um... rather interesting shaky effect the makers of the Bourne movies will probably be very interested in ("Like its predecessor, The Bourne Supremacy, the film was criticized for its shaky camera work" "The film frame trembles, obscures the speaker with the listener's shoulder, annoys viewers and distracts them from the content of the scene")!

The movie starts at the back door of our place- I then stopped to pick up the neighbour's washing that was blowing past- and then continues in a walk from the front of our place (quite sheltered under the deck eh, lucky us) round to the restaurant and office and down to the beach on the other side. The guys are putting up the storm shutters, and water has driven in under the doors (so I did a session mopping after that). I must add that that handsome red tractor is actually running on CNO- a locally produced coconut oil derived bio diesel (someone commented that the exhaust now smells like cakes!). Note the plastic chairs are in the pool to stop them blowing away (the wooden ones are inside). And inside its breakfast as usual (its about 6:50 am). AJ still has her sense of humour and is joking that her hairstyle is ruined!! Now I msut note the quality on this photobucket upload is very degraded compared to our original, and it has cut the last 20 sec off. I must work out another way to upload it...But here it is in the meantime. **edited to add- I have changed the vid and made it shorter so it's a little better now...or *here's* the full length version as a podcast...

(nb a category 2 cyclone Gene was estimated to have winds of average speeds to 100km/hr close to the centre with momentary gusts to 150km/hr).

Cyclone Gene caused a lot of damage on a wide scale on the mainland, and Nadi is still currently flooded and looking worse than this morning back in March... Power was off on the mainland, and in many places water too- but we were very lucky with our own generators, water tanks, sturdy buildings and even for parts of the day had internet and sky TV. It is seriously a worry now to see how much stronger Gene is getting as it heads for Vanuatu -now a catergory 3. We had a feeling it was getting worse. At 6pm on Tuesday night when it had already passed over and was 240km approx away it was still just as windy as earlier in the day..

So anyway we are lucky enough to have the luxury of this being for us an experience rather than a disaster; today for the resort the cleanup begins in earnest. We appreciate how utterly lucky we are compared to many in Fiji who are facing far worse clean ups and consequences of this weather than us. This is the first major cyclonic event here in more than 10 years too, so readers from overseas (that's most of you) please don't think Fiji is just a big cyclone trap, because that simply isn't true! The irony of the whole experience is reading another different sort of storm warning on the blog "Scattered Thoughts" -BRRRRRRR!!!!

T has spent the last two days chilling out inside with his lego (especially as the internet and TV were patchy). Yesterday he came in with a rotor he had made, which turned. Pretty cool, but I was knackered from two nights of patchy sleep in the storm, so I handed him the novel "Chickenhawk", pointed to the diagram of the Huey and went back to sleep (mother of the year). Well the lego helicopter flew to bits several times doing the day. T consulted with local helicopter pilot Adrian when he landed in the squirrel around lunch time and he said unfortunately they did sometimes do that... But each rebuild improved the machine and late afternoon it was looking like this...

Although we wanted to preserve it for ever of course it was immediately dismantled and rebuilt and later in the night looked like this...a sort of gnarlier black hawk sort of look emerging now...

So anyway since all schools in the country are closed until Monday the week the kids go back to school is now... next week!

PS as I said photobucket has cut the last 29 secs off our short movie. It infact ends with our glass bottom boat bobbing around on the mooring, then this frame...

Comments

[wendy]

Thank you for the informative post and the video which amazed me because people were walking about outside in the wind and rain! Perhaps your buildings were really strong and hurricane proof and no tin was flying about. I got the email this morning also. I'm glad to hear all is well there. Our nephew worked at Treasure for many years until his death a couple of years ago - he was in his 40s I think. Weseli his name was.
w.

[meg]

Hi Wendy, thanks for your comment. Yes/no, yes we are lucky the building are very solid here and were recently checked over by engineers too, no tin flying about and luckily no coconuts either! However the maintenance boys were told to go and get their hard hats on right after I went past, which they did, along with snorkelling masks from the marine shop to keep the driving rain out of their eyes. It looked too funny.

Milika (who is in the pink sulu with the sasa broom in the video) remembers your nephew and that he was from Vanua levu. She did say he was only young, and that his wife worked here also.

[Carina]

Hey Meg!

Will link this movie of yours, well entire blog I guess, to my blog. See:http://carinafiji-english.blogspot.com/
Hope that's ok

Carina
Please write soon
All good but cold in NZ. Only 20 degrees I think and windy