Untraveller

We stayed at the hotel the following morning. We were both tired from the late night last night, and with our work done, we checked-out and just rested in the outdoor patio area, just enjoying the view and waiting for our flight back. Eventually we heard the siren to announce that our plane was approaching, and made our way back to the airport for our flight home. Much like our trip to Tuvalu, we had to travel through Suva again.

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Next day was a little more typical. We worked the day and then afterwards asked whether it was possible to hire a car to look around a little. I can’t remember if it was someone at the met service or someone at the hotel, but they had a car that he could lend us. It has seen better days — the steering wheel was installed 90° from it’s normal position — but it served us well.

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Due to the available flights, we were only in Tuvalu for one full day, so after we checked in and had some lunch, we immediately headed off to the met service for work. We walked back to the airport, and after crossing the runway, the met service was right there. Crossing the runway to get to the met office. It was a condensed version of what we did at each of the other countries, but by now we were pros in going through our respective spiels, so it was relatively easy to trim the fat.

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We left for Tuvalu that morning on a turbo-prop. Tuvalu is a bit like Kiribati: a small atoll in the middle of the ocean. It is a fair bit smaller though, and the airport dominates the available land. Being so central the runway is not fenced and is completely open to foot and road traffic. People cross it as part of their daily routine. The airport sounds a siren when a plane is inbound in order to clear the runway, but sometimes there are stragglers and go-arounds are actually quite common.

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Tuvalu

We left Auckland around mid-morning on our way to Fiji to get to our final country we were to visit, Tuvalu. Tuvalu was probably the hardest country to get to (there was talk of us travelling to Tokelau as well, which would’ve been even harder. There’s no airport and the only way to get there would be to travel to Samoa and take a boat. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t thrilled at the prospects of that.

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We travelled back to New Zealand after Niue for a three day layover, waiting for our flight to Fiji and Tuvalu. We stayed at the President Hotel in Auckland CBD. It wasn’t the flashiest, and I do remember having to go through the fire stairwell to get to my room (the room did have a kitchenette with a microwave and sink, which was nice). I was hoping to tour around a bit, maybe go to Coromandel for the day, but by that time I was feeling awful.

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Fortunately (or unfortunately) we were on our way the next day. The flight was in the afternoon so we did a bit more sightseeing in the morning and spent about an hour in the visitor centre trying to pay for our lodging with a credit card (we did have cash but we were saving it for our final destination, plus it was in Australian Dollars and Niue uses the New Zealand Dollar as their currency).

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Next day was much of the same, except we join those installing the tide gauge for lunch at a cafe in Alofi, a few doors down from the pizza and sushi place. I didn’t know any of those that were working there — I don’t think my boss knew any of them either — but it was good to catchup with fellow work-mates, particularly in an unfamiliar country far from home.

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We went into town for lunch. I can’t remember if we went back to the pizza and sushi place but something tells me we did. We then had a bit of a walk and actually met up with some compatriots from the Bureau and Australia Marine services. They were in Niue installing a new tide gauge, to measure sea-levels. The work was quite extensive and we spent around 15 minutes watching them prepare the mounting point on the dock.

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For breakfast the next day, we went to the Scenic Matavai Resort Niue, a hotel nearby, which offered a buffet breakfast for guests and visitors. I do remember the breakfast being quite nice — I think I had a craving for the vanilla muffins they offered — and the view was breathtaking. Our breakfast spot. We then headed back to the airport where the met service was located for work. Not much to say about that: by now our jobs were pretty well refined.

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