So, 30 years later, I’ve finally started editing the 6.5 hours of video from our Dec1992 trip to Fiji, Vanuatu and (as it was called then) Western Samoa. Len and Lynette and I went there via Los Angeles and Honolulu, and Rob was already working in Vanuatu, so he hosted us there and traveled with us the rest of the way. (I remember Qantas was a pretty luxo airline back in the day, but we don’t really get into that because boring.)
This whole editing process will take some time, and I have a weekly upload limit of 5 GB on this Vimeo thing, so I thought I’d upload a quick edit of the first little bit — Len and Lynette and I arriving in Nadi, Fiji, and then flying on to Vanuatu. In this, Part 1, you will see the orchid gardens called Garden of the Sleeping Giant, which displays what had previously been the private collection of the (Canadian) actor Raymond Burr (known from Perry Mason and Ironside on telly, as well as some film work with dudes like Alfred Hitchcock) and his “domestic partner” Robert Benevides (remember when gays couldn’t get married, and famous ones had to be seen in public with single women? Yeahhhh.).
But really, enough about flowers and closeted gay men living together. The real stars of this footage are us voyagers, ourselves, simply because GOSH DARN IT WE WERE SO YOUNG BACK THEN. Just LOOK at how young we all are!
This footage is from before they invented (or popularized?) hi-def video, so this is standard definition, and I’ve done what I can with my limited video editing skills to try and make it mostly watchable, but it’s definitely a little fuzzy looking. Therefore, I didn’t bother doing a very thorough edit. I took out some of the awfullest bits, and tried to do some minimal colour correcting and sound tweaking, but there’s really only so much you can do. I didn’t even bother trying to scan old still photographs to drop them in, although I might ask Len to do some of that for some later parts of the trip.. Dunno. Anyway, FWIW, here is Part 1.
