Uto Ni Yalo - Update 5
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Report from Colin Philp & Carson Young - Onboard the Uto Ni Yalo
Auckland, New Zealand.
9 April 2010
 
Bula everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since our last update, but the entire crew has been very busy since our arrival into New Zealand that we have hardly had time to think!

When last I updated you on the Uto Ni Yalo progress, we were aiming to try and reach Auckland by Saturday afternoon but the winds didn’t quite get us there in time to clear customs so we had to anchor outside the harbour overnight. However, we are all elated with the fact that we made it in just over 7 days. To put this into perspective, a New Zealand crew did this trip on a similar canoe a few months earlier and they struggled to make it in 17 days, over twice as long as we took!

Anchoring overnight was a great opportunity for us to clean the canoe ready for our arrival. It was also the first chance we had to sit on deck and have a celebratory mix, which the crew relished! But our exhaustion from the crossing meant an early night for everyone, except our skipper Jonathon Smith who volunteered to keep watch during the night.

We awoke early Sunday morning and after a thorough clean-up, we meet the NZ Customs department and are told to dispose  of the leftover pumpkin, dalo, and kumala. From there we head to shore and are greeted by Mario Mausio and Jacki St Julian, part of the Fiji contingent that will be looking after us for the next week.

We are kindly greeted by the staff of Ocean Noise Production together with Mario Mausio and Jacqui St Julian as the Uto Ni Yalo finally berths at Bayswater, Auckland right alongside the Cook Island Vaka, Marumaru Atua.

We make a profound discovery while searching for our Pure Fiji gift packs intended for the Ocean Noise Production staff! The Uto Ni Yalo’s starboard bow has taken in about 300litres of water through unsealed holes made during the Uto Ni Yalo’s construction. While this might be rather alarming news, we were just glad to have made the discovery.  Unfortunately, the leak has meant that most of the Pure Fiji products are damaged but at least we now know the problem exists and it can be fixed before we depart for French Polynesia.

Of all of us, Vili is the most grateful to finally reach land and is immediately taken to Middlemore hospital, amd after a few hours of consultation, it’s clear that he will need an operation to shorten the protruding bone in his finger. Vili is admitted and we won’t see him for a few days.

The rest of the crew are billeted at friends and families and the crew is sad to be saying farewell (albeit temporarily) after having spent so many days living so closely on the Uto!

On Monday the crew was invited by a Maori tribe or Iwi called Tainui to their Marae named Kirikiriroa in Hamilton. The Tainui tribe is settled some 70 kilometers from an important historical site along the Waikato river and have a strong Vaka tradition.

We were accorded a regal reception in the true Pacific spirit of mutual respect and care for visitors and we reciprocate the Moari gesture of welcome with our own kava ceremony seeking permission to make a temporary stop on Aotearoa. Manoa and Johnathan  both speak during the exchange and Manoa aptly suggests that we are all in effect children of the canoe, which is reaffirmed by the Tainui.

Enshrined forever in spectacular wood curvings inside the Marae is the late Tainui king Tuhetea, together with other important legendary Tainui figures. The evening ends with the Tainui tribe essentially adopting the Uto Ni Yalo crew as their clan members.
After a huge feast provided by the Maori tribe, we say farewell to our new ‘family’ but not before a very heartfelt rendition of Isa Lei and head back to Auckland.

We spend most of Tuesday continuing to clean the Uto Ni Yalo and preparing for our next leg of the journey to French Polynesia, while Vili has the opration on his finger, which went very well. Tuesday ends with a crew meeting and prayer followed by a game of touch rugby in the evening. Clearly the crew is making the most of the open spaces that dry land has to offer.

The Vaka captains for Samoa, Cook Islands, New Zealand and Fiji meet at Ocean Noise Productions for a Captains Meeting and an annual Vaka sail event called the Pacific Bowl is tabled at the meeting. A tanoa is being carved and will be held by each country for a year before being passed to another. The country in possession of the tanoa will host the annual sail event.

It is becoming very evident that Team Fiji has created a very positive impression. As a reward, Fiji was selected as the inaugural country to hold custody of the Pacific Bowl tanoa and naturally to host the Pacific Bowl Race event in 2011. This means everyone back home will be able to witness all of the vakas racing around Fiji for next year’s event!

On Sunday we will be the first opportunity to test our vaka sailing skills against the other Pacific canoes with a series of races around the Harbour. This is all in good fun and an opportunity for all the crews to get to know each other before we set out on what will be the longest leg of the journey, New Zealand to Raivavae of French Polynesia, almost 2,500 miles.

We have managed to upload a bunch of photos of our trip from Fiji to New Zealand to the website – fijivoyaging.com so be sure to have a look. And we will certainly try to be much more regular with our updates everyday in the Fiji Times.

Once again, thank-you everyone for all the support and well-wishes. It does mean a lot to us and to our various sponsors who have made this voyage possible – vinaka vaka levu

For the latest updates, check www.fijivoyaging.com

For more information:
Nathan Hildebrand (nathan@razor.com.fj)
FIVS Media Officer