Christchurch Dorset needs a political revamp - here's why

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK in order to reduce our impact on climate change. My husband and I always try to have a weekend away in December and this time we went to Christchurch, Dorset... and yes it did make us think about what Christchurch NZ might be like this time of year. Words by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

That's Christchurch Castle behind us. Rain above us
(but we didn't mind!).

I've just spent a weekend in Christchurch. That's Dorset, not New Zealand. But these two towns, Christchurch, the largest city in New Zealand's South Island, and the Georgian coastal town packed with holiday homes and retirees are twinned. In fact they've only been twinned since 1911, and the reason seems to be because NZ troops during WW1 were stationed in nearby Brockenhurst which is the heart of the New Forest.

Christchurch NZ is on an earthquake fault line. Christchurch in the UK has created a different rumpus - until 1974 it was Hampshire. It doesn't quite feel like Dorset even if scones and cream teas are available. But then again visiting any British seaside town in winter has a danger of it not living up to expectations, especially if there is a great deal of icy rain...

More sensibly, both Christchurch also have two rivers...

A couple of nights in Christchurch, Dorset was really a treat though. There is a ruined Norman castle and a Norman Manor House, built in 1160, both juxtaposed by a very splendid bowling green. And of course there's the beautiful church, the original The Priory, which appeared super busy in the Christmas run-up - on the Saturday holding the Messiah and then on Sunday a Christingle service.

Pete by the ducking stool (it's a model for tourists and anyway
was exclusively used for women) on the mill race beside
the River Avon.

We stayed at the King's Arms which is proper posh, but friendly - though slightly worryingly described by a Daily Mail review as "a jewel on the Dorset coastline". We also had a cup of tea at the modish Captain's Club on the banks of the River Stour, down by Christchurch Quay and were able to enjoy seeing it crammed with people lunching in family get-togethers and also listening to live jazz.

Getting to know you
In the evening there were many places to eat, including quite a few gastro pubs, e.g., The Ship at 48 High Street, where you can eat fantastic pies and listen to a band. Wondering down Bridge Street and the High Street on a Saturday it was amazing to see the amount of places that have security guards outside them.

Snapshot from Daily Echo which covers news in Christchurch
- death, crashes, burglaries, attacks: not so nice after all.

It feels so affluent... but clearly there are problems as the local paper reveals. By day there was a Big Issue seller standing under an umbrella, and in the evening one homeless man curled into a sleeping bag. And over at the nice Druitt Hall where craft and jams are sold the ladies told me this was the very last Monday sale - done in tandem with the town market - for them as the rent was going up and they just couldn't afford it.

How many of these tongue-in-cheek
Jeremy Corbyn unofficial albums will
be gifted in Christchurch (with or without irony)?

Clearly the problems are here in this Christchurch, but what we didn't see was a sense of the solutions. In Archway, London, near my home, one of the local gift shops has got in a dozen of the Jeremy Corbyn unofficial albums (a lot of silliness in this with masks, crossword, stories, comic strip etc) which no doubt will sell well because people think they can influence change.. and aren't Tory by instinct. In fact Christchurch has been represented since 1997 by Christopher Chope, MP, who is a Tory. I wonder if people in Christchurch think he's done a good job or not? Looking at his Wikipedia page it's clear he's an old Thatcherite; a pioneer of selling off local housing stock (and for a while known as Chopper Chope because no council house was safe during his stint on Wandsworth council). He was predictably also one of the greedy ones during the expenses scandal.  Wikipedia may not be a fan... but he's also 70, tried to stop a debate about Hillsborough and in 2010 hosted a meeting for climate science sceptics.  I don't think he's done a good job for this constituency, never mind the country. If I can tell that from a two night stopover, what on earth are the locals thinking of him? Come on guys, especially anyone under 70, your town deserves better.

For starters he can help those ladies running the craft market in Druitt Hall keep going... If I was them I'd be asking!

Visitors to Christchurch, Dorset will see people shop, and dress up beautifully to go out but it's not clear how well the locals are coping with austerity. It's as if it hasn't quite hit them yet - or at any rate they haven't yet felt the injustice or developed the power to take a stand. I know you think I'm judging that simply by an absence of Jeremy Corbyn! Annual 2018 copies on sale (£9.99), which is quite a unusual yardstick. Don't judge this either: I came home with delicious cheese scones from that last sale at Druitt Hall, plus some Belgian chocolates and a bottle of Mermaid gin both bought as a gift at friendly The Christchurch Confectioner, 72 High Street.

We also stopped at Ye Old George, 2a Castle Street, for a drink. Here we found a plaque explaining that this was where a barred cell used to house convicts due to be transported to Australia. Right now it looks into a courtyard covered in fairy lights where hardy drinkers warm up with mulled wine. It's a happy place, but was obviously a site of real misery. And in an interesting twist The George is also a super flash hotel in New Zealand - not to be mixed up.

I'm pleased I've been here. For starters it was new to me - it had plenty of history, heaps of dramatic ruins, an incredible coastline, lots of moored boats to enjoy and the biggest collection of swans I've come across. Tourism and politics don't go well together but it would have been good to find out more about how this once vital town is preparing for climate change, flooding and the challenges that higher interest rates and chain stores bring. People kept saying to us, sadly, everyone's in Bournemouth, shopping. I wonder if they were? They could just as easily be worn out by poor leadership.

Over to you
When you take a visit do you try and find out about the political situation too?

7 things to inspire you to take a Hastings day trip - beach launching NZ style

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. Here's a look at the joys of Hastings which includes being outside, plenty of fish and the chance to watch boats beach launching -just like you might in New Zealand. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Cliffs, beach, oyster pots... family bonding at Hastings.

It's just 90 mins from Charing Cross to Hastings by train, and then a 15 minute downhill walk to Hastings Old Town where if the sky is blue it's very easy to pick up the holiday vibe.  Hastings is on all the trend setters' radar at the moment. In the Old Town there are organic shops, local provenance shops, loads of antique and bric-a-brac shops as well as delicious places to eat. We found Eat@TheStade - part of a new low black shed complex near the new Jerwood Foundation gallery. We had three sandwiches - all came with salad and crisps - and a coffee, which cost £12.15. But we could have spent a lot less with a bit of planning. Here's how.

I'm still not sure what fish this is.

1) TAKE A PICNIC and enjoy the stoney beach. This is the British seaside so it's quite windy. There's often a strong on-shore wind so bring a fleece, or a windbreak... or just dig into the stones. At some point you may be tempted to eat fish and chips so add plenty of fruit and veg to your picnic. And when you've eaten go exploring. We were surprised by what we found...

The Hastings fishing fleet are working boats. You can even buy freshly landed fish from beach sheds.

2) HASTINGS IS ALL ABOUT FISHING - not just being arty. Watch the famous RX boats (R for Rye, X for Sussex) being launched, or landing, directly on to the beach. There's a real skill to landing a heavy boat on to a beach - plus you need serious kit (eg, a caterpillar tractor) to then drag the boat up the beach above the high tide mark.

Stunning Hastings scene - and it's very easy to photo as there's a pub opposite.

3) TAKE PHOTOS of the the huts built to dry fishing nets. The black huts look like three-storey garden sheds but they add a huge amount of atmosphere to Hastings. Find them just where the busy main road that runs along the seafront past the pier is obliged to swing inland because of the cliffs.

4) GO TO THE MUSEUM OF FISHING which is in the Old Town and free to enter. It's full of photos of fishing characters and dominated by a large fishing boat which you can climb on to.  My party enjoyed seeing the vast wingspan of a stuffed albatross and a film about a ship in trouble created by the RNLI.

5) THE MUSEUM OF SHIPWRECKS is next door and it's another winner, also free, and probably less crowded. The sea hides so many secrets - even when divers bring up a wreck there is plenty of mystery about which ship sank, when and where it was heading.

Ye Olde Pumphouse - irresisitable

6) POTTER AROUND THE OLD TOWN - the chic and interesting places are obvious.

The Old Town Fryer - a prize winning chippy.

7) YOU'RE BY THE SEA. Hastings had a bad reputation as a rundown seaside town where London boroughs would "dump" their homeless during the 1980s. The years seem to have soothed that injury. And like any seaside place there is plenty going on - loads of end-of-the-pier amusement arcades, fish and chip shops and little stores selling beach rubbish. There's also an aquarium, a mini train that runs along the front and a restored pier.

OVER TO YOU: Have you been to Hastings - or to anywhere else in the world where boats get beach launched? If so do share some thoughts...

Famous spits: Ukraine, NZ or Devon

Mother's day 2013 - me and Lola spit
visiting in the rain.

Lola with my friend Sally. Count those boats.

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post takes a look at the world's best spits - thanks to a trip to Dawlish Warren in Devon. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Dawlish Warren is famous for its spit. Well famous if you are doing a GCSE in geography.  The rest of us know it's got a world-reknowned SSSI bird reserve and lots of sandy beach space. Two long beaches actually back-to-back, thanks to being a spit...

It takes about an hour to walk the length of the spit - although this shouldn't be done in bird nesting season, or with a dog on a lead longer than 2m, or possibly when a severe gale is blowing in spear-sharp hail (see pix right).  But if you do have a go the reward is seeing a spit (land eroding on one side and forming on the other, see more here) and as many as 8,000 resting birds at high tide - depending on the season.

• Spits can be huge - the longest in the world is Arabat Spit, in the Ukraine, around 110km. It's easily visible from space claims this group of spit-afficanados.
• New Zealand's Farewell Spit is 32km. It's often described as the "fish hook pinned to the top of NZ's South Island". 
• Other famous UK spits are Chesil Beach (which is 189 miles long) and Spurn Point on the Humber, Yorkshire which is 4.8miles long.

Read more posts about Devon, here

Over to you
Where else can I go in the UK that offers a taste of  the Ukraine or NZ?

Reading the Pacific edge from Japan & NZ

Two novels that don't let you forget the swish of the sea.

As part of my family's attempt to keep our world outlook broad and carbon footprint narrow books can't be beaten. The challenge was to read a book (translated!) from every country in the world, see this post. Obviously I can cheat a bit as I read around 60 books a year and as I haven't just stuck to books from the UK over the years I can revisit old "friends". Let me know if you have any ideas for books you reckon are a must read (PS I prefer novels!).. The collection below are books with a particular Pacific ocean perspective that I've read recently and enjoyed. My local library has been a godsend, your nearest may well be too.

• Japan - The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
• New Zealand - The Whale Rider

JAPAN: The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
My cousin lives in Japan - she's tall, slim and gorgeous, but has immense trouble finding clothes to fit her. In a recent Facebook moan she complained "Amongst my peers back home [Canada], I think I am of average weight, not fat and certainly no longer thin but here in Japan, I am "queen" sized. I spent several hours at the mall looking for trousers, and often the biggest in the shop were not big enough. And Queen sized are not long enough. Ahhhhh."

The sympathies this illicited from her Facebook friends (some who also know Japan well), made me realise how little I know about Asia generally (from politics to landscape). Japan is one of those oriental mystery destinations - and it doesn't promote itself in the way, say, Singapore and Hong Kong are desperate for you to visit them and go shopping (whatever your size!). I was also reading The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, by Yukio Mishima. I'd never heard of this famous Japanese writer before I picked this up from the library, but this book, written in 1963, is stunning. Ostensibly it's about a young widow and her son Noboru and how their life changes when mum falls in love with a sailor. It's also a debate about the need to follow your passion, which forces the reader to endure a terrible - Nietzschean style - conclusion. Mishima is a masterful writer and it turns out he has a huge cult following. My husband knew of him thanks to the Stranglers' Jean-Jacques Burnel's apparently off-quoted admiration for him. I was left in a state of shock by the book at just how unpleasant adults can write teenagers, and how vile groups can be.  Researching his life story makes these positions seem barely surprising - his father was a dreadful man. But who cares if Mishima is bleak, he writes beautifully about ports, storms or a new kimono and is a master of suspense. What's more when he'd completed his four novel series The Sea of Fertility, in 1970 he committed ritual suicide (seppuku) - as he said he would (though i'm not sure he mentioned he would do this during a failed coup attempt). He was 45.
Readability: 10/10 (I was so gripped that 2/3 of the way through I had to read the ending in a bid to cope with what I feared was coming).
Should you read it? It's grim but yes. It would make an amazing film - is this the story Sir Alan Parker is working on?
Worth finding more Yukio Mishima books? Definitely (he had Nobel nominations in his lifetime) and wrote 34 novels, 50 plays, 25 short stories and 35 books of essays.

NEW ZEALAND The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
A tale about Maori culture saving itself, and the world. The plot switches between what the whales are up to and the hunt for a new Maori chief in Whangara - a tribe that is descended from the legendary whale rider. Unfortunately the next in line for the title is a girl whose many gifts are completely missed by her great grandfather. The Whale Rider, written in 1987, offers fascinating insights into other people's lives - the way generations can mix well, and badly; the rights of passage we all make but seem so unique to us (schooling, running away, coming home). Best of all the book makes the case for equality, which is why I tried to persuade my 14 year old daughter to read it, but she found it too dull and domestic (clearly skipping the sections about the whales as they swim the oceans...).  I will try and pass it to her again!

Readability: 7/10 - and easy to read too, you could finish it in one sitting.
Should you read it? Yes, it offers insights into Maori culture (without the misery endured in Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors, 1995). Apparently it's a great film too
Worth finding more Witi Ihimaera books? Yes. It seems incredible but he was the first Maori writer to publish a novel, Tangi, back in 1973. Ihimaera has worked as a diplomat and a uni lecturer - plus written collections of short stories and novels. He another look at New Zealand culture, one which should not be missed.

Other posts about books with a strong sense of place in Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, see here.

Not refuge but sanctuary

Brain twister: She searches for sanctuary on the seashore.

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post sees our family living it up at a Pacific party in the Holiday Inn, London (£15 a ticket, bargain for dinner, quiz and Pacific chat). Nell was allowed to give a garland to the Fijian high commissioner and won a raffle prize, so results all round.  But the take home message for our family was all about how to offer a safe home for those whose homes will be destroyed by climate change. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).  

Left to right: Chris and Agnes.

Words matter - everyone knows that. But at a fantastic Pacific Islands party at the end of September 2012 - run by Agnes Benson from Kiribati (via the Herts/Bucks co-ordinating committee) and Chris Luxton, who used to live in Papua New Guinea and is the leading light, well chairwoman, of Pacific Islands Society UK and Ireland (PISUKI) -  I found out just how much words matter.

The talk at our table turned to climate change and the impacts this will have on Pacific islanders who are in line to lose their homes. Those in Tuvalu and Kiribati are at the front line of sea level rise, but of course that's the drama. Earlier problems are changes to the water table - which makes drinking water harder to find and salinates the soil. If you can't grow food, or get water (other than from rainwater), you're starting to be on an island that's not fit for human habitation.

So what will happen to those nations?

The Pacific has some experience of resettlement. In 1946 the Banabans were forced off their island (in Kiribati) and resettled in Rabi island, Fiji (many also live near the airport at Nadi) so the phosphate could be strip-mined by the British (who only years later paid compensation for this piece of mineral terrorism).

Kiribati has enshrined in its constitution minority rights for Banabans. How long can that last if  more Kirbati people are obliged to upsticks? It is after all a very flat place, one where there is nowhere to go if the unthinkable happens. Ditto Tuvalu.

Can you imagine a generous country like New Zealand allowing a state within a state? Could part of Auckland be turned into Tuvalu, say? Will Tuvalu be allowed a UN vote (it only became a member in 2000)? Or an Olympic team (they first competed in 2008 at Beijing, and here is a video of their proud weightlifter at London 2012)? Will Tuvalu still be allowed a government? And what will those exiled Tuvalu people be known as, "climate refugees" perhaps?

Absolutely wrong word say several people at the event. The countries that have caused these problems, predominantly those that developed their industries the earliest, have to learn to offer "sanctuary". It is simply an accident of geography that the disastrous impacts of climate change on nations happens to them, rather than us.

Over to you
I'm going to be thinking about this for a while, sanctuary not refugee, but wondered what readers of this blog thought?

Oceania at Greenwich

Festival vibe: rug, snacks, anticipation.

Greenwich is a spider trap for tourists and day-trippers. But so well-deserved, and with the DLR taking you into Cutty Sark, where this famously fleet tea clipper (ship) has been quite beautifully repaired after the burning incident, Greenwich is a treat. Even more so on 21-22 July 2012 - the first weekend when the sun shone all day for what seems like months.

Best of all the BT River of Music has one of its six free stages, all along the River Thames here - which look set to entertain half a million people. The Americas and Europe stages were fully booked instantly; the Africa, Asia and Oceania were a bit slower to "sell" out. Nowadays even free concerts seem to involve buying a ticket - for a £3 booking fee.

Narasirato from Solomon Islands in London.

Tangio tumas
Show stealers for Lola and Nell's first festival were -of course - the bamboo pipe band from Solomon Islands. The group are from 'Are 'Are lagoon, a wonderful place in Malaita (it's where I learnt to speak Pijin, paddle a canoe, etc). It's also where Gary Barlow thought erroneously he was going to be eaten, but enough of that. The band, Narasirato, have two albums and a history of touring big music festivals (including New Zealand and Japan. The pan pipes are made from bamboo, it's all very traditional but the extra oomph comes from the Solomon Islanders' staggering energy on stage - they just keep on dancing; and the drums (also made from bamboo pipes but whacked with rubber similar to a flip-flop) seem to give it a rocky sound. If you missed this, you can see them at Womad 2012.

Get this party started
We heard George Telek from Papua New Guinea, then bands from Milne Bay, also PNG, the Marshall Islands, Guam, East Timor and the Aborigine musician Frank Yamma sedately from a picnic rug (the same place for New Zealand's Hollie Smith). It was like being in an issue of the world music magazine, Songlines. But when Narasirato picked up their pan pipes half the audience rushed to the front or got up and danced. It was marvellous, and later we had a quick chat with the band while they munched on chicken and chips.


Pete actually stayed on our picnic rug so watched -with some incredulity - his family at the front of the stage dancing along when focus-on-the-crazy-members-of-the-audience were flashed on to the big screens. In 2011 during our long stint in Solomon Islands I insisted we went to several hotel "tourist" dances in the hopes that we'd see the famous pan pipe entertainers. We never did - it was mostly Kiribati sashaying of the hips or Belonna stomping (although the latter was fab). As the proverb says, "good things come to those who wait". There's never any reason to rush off around the world, nearly always the world comes to you... so it was with BT's River of Music festival at the Oceania stage.

Pete and Nell try a Greenwich sofa.

Go see Greenwich
On the way home, we were distracted by more of the things Greenwich has to offer - a street market of delicious food (flat white coffee, vegetarian burgers brazenly named after their ingredients (carrot, greens), Scotch eggs served with a runny egg and a sprinkle of celery salt, at bearable prices, located just by the Old Royal Naval College. We then ate these on a vast atro-turf covered sofa surely designed to give you an Alice-in-Wonderland feel.


Over to you
Have you discovered free events thanks to the Olympics? Or has the Olympics tempted to you to find out about another country's cultural heritage? And have you seen a Gamesmaker yet in their bright purple jackets?

Is it ok to be nervous in boats?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This time a quick look at reasons to be seasick This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs)   

As a child I would scream if you put me into a boat. Obviously I blame my parents for this - they'd taken me to Strangford Loch, in Northern Ireland and wanted me to play by the shore. In a bid to stop me wading into the water they put the fear of God (and a lifelong terror of water) into me by talking about the whirlpool that killed. You see,

Boats gets swallowed by whirlpools...

Even though I'm grown up and know all about life drills and the Plimsoll Line, I'm still a bit nervous of water. That's why I've made sure my daughters can swim, kayak and row. I know the difference between a life jacket and a life protector - and use them.

But the terrible stories of shipwrecks over the past few months - an oil tanker off New Zealand, the cruiser off Italy and now a ferry in Papua New Guinea (see story here) - freak me out.

Titanic fears
Last summer,on the way back to the UK after a three-month break in the Solomons and Australia, we saw a vast cruise liner squeezing under the huge Sydney Harbour Bridge. It must have been one of the ships that take 4,000 passengers. I probably never would consider going on a ship that big, but once you've seen a tower block floating past (see pic above & below) it is hard to imagine how you would cope in a crisis situation. Or indeed what it would be like with lights out in an overturned boat, a rough sea and all staircases turned into cliffs.

Boats seem to attract accidents, bad weather and poor seamanship. They also dump crap in the sea, not just sewage, but waste oil and loose cargo.

Consider this post a thumbs down to motor boats, however big.

Over to you?
Is boat travel still the way to go in the 21st century? What would you do to improve ship safety and sustainability?

Sport binds us?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK.

In a series of lighthearted emails back in January 2010 the excellent head at Woodford International School in Honiara, Solomon Islands said my little Brit daughters could only attend his school (for a week) if our whole family promised not to support New Zealand's 2011 Rugby World Cup bid.

Well, that seemed like a nobrainer.

I've never enjoyed rugby (or to be honest understood the scoring). If he wanted me to cheer for Oz's side (the one that hasn't won the rugby world cup for years...) then I was happy to do so.

But it's 9 September 2011 today and the Rugby World Cup has started - with New Zealand the hosts until 23 October. The host nation are apparently favourites, and haven't won top honours) (the Webb Ellis trophy since the inaugural game in 1987. This seems to be an advantage, they've certainly played the first half of their first game rather finely. But don't worry Greg, I was just looking at the Tonga team's red strip, and then couldn't resist watching both teams doing their fierce Polynesian war dances before the game kicked off.

And thanks to Greg I've realised that there are seven weeks of sport to enjoy and lots of the teams are from a long, long way away. I'm especially looking forward to the Fiji v Namibia game on Saturday (watch it on ITV 1, 4.30pm).

The picture above is more relevant than it might seem, it's a Pijin-language slogan Tshirt meaning we can do it together (tugetha iumi save duim) - which I took at Honiara's Lime Lounge during an annual award ceremony for Courageous Women. The Solomon Islands award was won by a woman who'd done a huge amount of surveying to discover that more than 60 per cent of women aged 15-49 had experienced domestic violence. This is a very high rate, and besides Papua New Guinea, one of the highest in the Pacific region. It's also shocking - it's dads, uncles, step fathers, grandparents, brothers and cousins who are hurting their wantoks (relations).

Scary jobs
I've been sniffing around the internet finding out more about this and discovered a just published Amnesty International report that surveyed Solomon Islands women collecting water in an area of Honiara that is off-grid (actually it's off-grid for about 90 per cent of houses). During the day only two men went to the water pipe, everyone else was female. When the women were asked why the men weren't helping the answer was "They are playing sport or drinking kwaso (a potent homebrew)." Here is the Solomon Star link.

I guess seven weeks of sport is good for nation building and bad for a lot of non-sport mad partners. Especially the ones collecting water (and in my London home that probably includes washing up duty).

Anyway, enjoy the games. And if you have to collect water, do so safely...

Mr Pip's rebellion

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell love to travel - sometimes this can be done by staying put and just reading... This post takes you to the South Pacific with the help of two writers - Charles Dickens and Lloyd Jones. It is by Nicola Baird (although the video isn't)

What a classic choice. Hugh Lawrie looks set to be Mr Pip in the film version of Lloyd Jones' amazing book of the same name - a modern retelling of Dickens' Great Expectations set in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea with a couple of moments in the Solomons and New Zealand. Filming is near Arawa (in Kieta village) from May - July.

I loved the book - in fact have just re-read it - and tried to tell the author this at a meet and greet author session organised by Borders before it closed down. But poor Lloyd Jones was unwell from the long New Zealand flight and failed to show. But here's a warning: it's not for sensitive souls - the Bougainville blockade of the 1990s and the cruelty meted out be the government's forces (redskins in the book) and the rebels was appalling. At least a generation of children lost their chance of education, many people died unnecessarily, not just from conflict but malaria.

Here's a short video of a young girl canoeing in a lookalike PNG village to the one Lloyd Jones imagined. I borrowed this from a blog called My Amazing Paradise.  Here's the video.

Pacific pleasures

Pete, Nicola, Lola, 9, and Nell, 6, spent three happy months during summer 2007 traveling around Britain. Now we’re home but the travel bug is still there. Join us for the occasional sightseeing plus tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint. This post is from Nicola (with pic of Lola and Nell strictly come dancing the Pacific way)

Aloha! It’s not all dancing in the Pacific, but at this year’s Pacific Island Society we were treated to a taste of Oceania with dancing from Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Cook Islands. There was a particularly energetic and expert show from Kiribati which has set up the Beats of the Pacific group to delight the UK. It’s a big group which has drummers, MC, mothers, single women and children as young as three swirling their grass skirts and lavalavas (hips left to right and round and round) in the most astonishing displays of dexterity. There were three blokes dancing who stole the show with their warrior poses, paddle action and proud Polynesian energy. They tried to get some of the crowd to join in, but with the average age of the audience at over 60 I think some people’s hips may need replacing sooner than anticipated. Not mine though as I was too chicken (and coldy) to go for it. In contrast Lola and Nell took to the dance floor happily.

Despite such a happy event it is not easy to forget that the people of Tuvalu – 11,000 of them – are facing enormous change in the next few years thanks to climate change which is causing sea levels to rise. Because their homeland islands just don’t have hills the Tuvaluans are likely to be the first climate change environmental refugees of an anticipated 1-3 million. New Zealand has agreed to take 75 per cent of all Tuvaluan migrants each year, which may be generous but switching from island life to Kiwi consumerism is hardly to be looked forward to – unless there’s no other alternative.