REPICORE ecologists Amanda and Sonia with heaps of luggage upon arrival in Suva after 46h of travel
BULA!
After 46 hours of travel, four flights, 150 kg of luggage between us, 2/3 of us missing a connecting flight, and several panic stricken airport staff as they regarded our tank of emergency oxygen, the REPICORE ecologists have arrived in Fiji successfully! Needless to say the trip has really made us all appreciate those rare times you travel for fun with a simple backpack and small hand luggage…
Upon arrival we were warmly welcomed into Suva by the REPICORE social scientists (Akuila and Janne), and the REPICORE team was re-united again for the first time in over a year. Our “tropical paradise” home for the coming months is currently colder than Bremen and significantly wetter, but thankfully our days have been jam packed full of meetings, hardware store trips, research permit finalisations etc., so we have not been too affected.
Our plan for the next two weeks is to visit a number of sites and villages that our local partners of the Fiji Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) are working in. We hope to find areas of different water quality and management for Amanda, Sonia and our two MSc students Ryan and Andi, who will arrive in the following week. Janne will head out to her research site Ovalau on Monday, where the ecologists will meet up with her later.