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News – February 2009 (Suva/Fiji, February 19, 2009)
- Website statistics: In January we were able to welcome on our website 36'359 visitors who did 1'226'591 hits.
- (December = 28'762 visitors – 997'010 hits)
- The visitors are coming from about 100 to 120 different countries!
- Record day since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits
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- Fiji
- After more than five months of preparation – the first inquiry about our car's entry procedure was sent on August 3, 2008,
- to the Ministry of Tourism in Fiji – the countdown has finally arrived. On January 7, 2009, we stuffed our LandCruiser into
- its 14th container, this time from Port Vila in Vanuatu to Suva in Fiji. One day later it was lifted onto the vessel "Pacific
- Islander II" of the shipping line "Greater Bali Hai" and sailed with stops in Nouméa/New Caledonia and Lautoka in Fiji to
- its capital Suva. The following day, it was our turn to say good-bye to the charming island Efate of Vanuatu: With the
- Fijian airline "Air Pacific" we flew to Nadi. Although Suva, with its population of nearly 200'000, lies in the East of the
- island of Viti Levu and has its own airport, most of the international airlines land however at Nadi in the West that is five
- times smaller, but offers most of the beautiful tourist beaches and resorts.
- In fact, the rainy season had started already in Vanuatu – mostly it rained heavily during the afternoon hours. But what we
- saw already during our approach to Nadi, took our breath away: Everywhere lies brown water, on the lush-green
- pastures, on the roads and even in the city. This happened on Friday afternoon; and it was still raining and continued to
- rain buckets. On Sunday, the situation calmed down a bit but the emerging result was catastrophic: 10 dead, about
- 11'000 evacuees and damage of 45 millions of US-Dollars. Most of the tourists, who enjoyed the wonderful sandy
- beaches of the Yasawa- and Mamanuca Islands in the West wanted to go back home. But the small ships and planes
- couldn't operate anymore since a week – everything was on halt. Also for us the continuation to Suva was blocked. Nadi
- town was surrounded totally by high floodwater, where all traffic had to squeeze through, because the Northern ring road
- of the main island of Viti Levu – the Kings Highway – has become impassable due to some landslides. The whole situation
- remembers us to Guyana back in 2005, when we shipped from Saint Martin in the Caribbean to Georgetown and
- experienced another bad inundation.
- Monday morning, January 12, 2009, while it rained only lightly, rumors flew thick and fast: New and heavy rainfalls were
- in sight; a cyclone would take shape not far from Fiji; the road to Nadi town reopened and the water level on the further
- side of the town had decreased. Never hesitate too long but take action instead. Thus we pack together and leave to
- check ourselves. Finally, we could convince a taxi driver to bring us to the inundated bridge, although he assured again
- and again that a get though wouldn't be possible. It showed indeed that the bridge was damaged, but locals would cross
- to the other side every now and then. Unhesitatingly we follow; Emil with the baggage trolley, two bags and the computer;
- Liliana with three more bags and the cameras. In the middle of the bridge, the police tried to stop and send us back, as the
- downtown area was closed for everybody not living or working there, due to the risk of looting. Only as the officers
- realized that we tried to reach a bus for Suva departing on the opposite side of the town, they backed down and let us go
- on. Hence we crossed for more than a mile the city center of Nadi, and what we saw on the way was simply terrible: The
- head high brown floods destroyed everything – all the goods stored in the numerous shops were covered with brown mud.
- We reached a minibus set for Suva at the outskirts of the city. For a long time, we drove through flattened sugar cane and
- other devastated fields. Fiji will suffer for a long time from this disaster, said to have been the worst downpours ever. The
- damage is higher than the islands ever got from earlier cyclones passing through. Luckily the South coast of Viti Levu, like
- the capital Suva, have been spared with the deluge. Three hours and 125 miles later, we reached Suva without any other
- problem.
-
- On Tuesday morning, January 13, 2009, the container vessel arrived in Suva's harbor as scheduled with our LandCruiser.
- Immediately, we started the imminent release procedure, which – once the paper bureaucracy was done – showed to be
- just a "piece of cake", thanks to Dave Aidney of the Shipping Agency Williams & Gosling Ltd., who made the impossible
- possible. Three days later, the big moment turned up – we could relieve our Toyota from its steel cage. Once more we
- succeeded in a "pioneering action" and are allowed to explore with our car during the next two months the holiday paradise
- of Fiji as our 162nd country.
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Temples, Pagodas, Shrines | |
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| The visit of 4 Pacific Islands with our LandCruiser | Pacific February 2008 - |
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| The visit of 13 Caribbean Islands with our LandCruiser | Caribbean June 2003-Dec. 2004 |
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| + added from the United Arab Emirates: | Fairytale Wedding in Dubai (March 1999) |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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