Dad's 90th Birthday

Alleyn McCarthy b. 24/09/1918

A Yummy Black Forest Birthday Cake

From Left. Isabella, Naomi, Dad,Rowena, June (Nana) and Mary

It was very sad to see Mary's Dad looking so old and lacking in heart. He is very tired now and does not have the energy to do anything except sit in his chair. But we all had a lovely lunch which was organised by Rowena. It was great that Naomi managed to get the afternoon off work so that she could come with us. Dad was in better spirits after we had all made a big fuss of him and June had a lot of fun too. She just loves Isabella. We hated leaving them as we can not guess how long Dad will be with us. We go back to Fiji today and will not be back to see them until sometime in Nov. June is managing very well and caring for Dad really well. She has a very hard row to hoe now but does it all graciously.
Stephen, Rochella and the boys are visiting them this weekend and so they will have some other visitors. Stephen had to cancel the trip he had planned for yesterday because we had a case in the high court which could not be changed. However it may word out better that they visit seperately.
We flew up from Wellington this morning and are now in the lounge awaiting our flight to Fiji at 1PM.

Back to the garden of the sleeping Giant

Rowena

Beautiful Bella Playing with the stones.

On Wednesday Tony had to head back to NZ for work. We took the boat back to Vuda Point and Mary, Rowena and Naomi stayed for a further three days, flying out of Fiji on Saturday, Rowena and Isabella to Wellington and Mary to Auckland. We spent those days lazily doing some laundry etc, swimming in the pool at 1st Landing, shopping in Nadi and visiting the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. While at Nadi we visited the Hindi Temple. A number of years ago Rowena had spent some time in Northern India and so she was very interested in the temple. We were lucky because the priest there took a real liking to Isabella, playing with her for ages and explaining the paintings and his beliefs with Rowena. Everone there loved Rowena's dreadlocks. Aparently very religious people have them in India and so they assumed that Rowena was one of them. We then did some shopping before catching the bus back to Vuda. Poor Isabella was exhausted after that expedition. On Friday we made a picnic lunch and took it to the gardens. It was a great day because it was a little overcast and not too hot. Isabella had a great time wandering around and picking up stones and leaves. She picked up a long seed pod and chewed it and was very angry when we took it away from her. It wasn't until we were driving back to Vuda in the taxi that Abdul explained to us that the pods were tamerind and perfectly safe to eat. There are several trees at vuda and so Rowena and I tried chewing the pods. They were delicious, tasting of across between raisins and dates. No wonder Bellla loved them.
We packed up and left the boat at 7.30 on Saturday morning. Then Tony picked me up from the airport in Auckland. We stayed there until Tuesday afternoon and caught the plane to Wellington so that we could be there Dad's birthday.

Bella Visits Fiji

Rusila, Staff member at Musket Cove with the small celebrity

Isabella enjoying the freedom of Musket Cove

Walking about the deck in safety

Bath and cooling down time

Bella in the lifejacket ready for her dinghy ride

Well, as can been seen from the photos, Isabella settled in to living the cruising life. She has been on the boat many times before and so the transition was fairly easy, although she did struggle with sleeping in the heat. Tony had to install a fan above her bunk to cool her down. Fortunately he had a spare fan and it did not take long to install. Poor Rowena did not have the benefit of such a luxury in her cabin, but she did sleep the furthest from Isabella's bed and so that when she cried in the night, it was her Grandma or Oupa who got up.
Rowena and Isabella arrived on Sunday evening and were delivered to the boat by Abdul, our regular taxi driver. The next morning we all got up early and caught the 7.30 bus in to Lautoka so that we could stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables. Rowena loved the market and shopping even though it was extremely hot. She and Tony took turns at carrying Isabella in the baby back pack. We had decided to catch a taxi back to Vuda, but while walking past the bus station, we found there was a bus just leaving and so we saved several dollars and caught the bus back to the boat. After settling Isabella down for a nap, we left the marina and set off for Musket Cove. We did not want to travel too far with Isabella but planned a holiday at Musket Cove. We had a mooring booked very close to the yacht club and that one was more sheltered than most of the others. The sea can build up there quite quickly and so it was great to be in good shelter and only a short dinghy ride ashore.
Isabella quickly built up her own fan club. Whenever she went to shore she was picked up and cuddled and sometimes taken away for a while, by the staff at the marina. Before long people would say, "Oh, you are Isabella". She was certainly well cared for, even by the male staff. Fijians just love babies and make such a fuss of them.
We spent lots of time in the pool and Bella had a lot of fun. Tony and I tried to take turns of looking after her so that Rowena could have a lot of fun too.
We hired bikes and rode them around the island, went for walks, shopping and coffee breaks. One afternoon Rowena and Tony hired kayaks and went for a tiki tour while Bella and I went for a long swim and then a walk.
One day while we were in the pool, there was a huge downpour. The water in the pool was warm but not the rain. We had to stay in the pool until the rain stopped and we could then get out and dried.

Belated photos

Caleb listening to the ipod

Ethan and Tony having special time together

Pool time at the Radisson

Now that we have a decent internet connection I can finally post these photos taken while Stephen and Rochelle and the boys were visiting Fiji