Paradise or Bust BLOG - Programme One

Tonight it begins. The edits are complete. The first year of Tribewanted is documented. The ups, the downs, the near misses, the tears, the smiles and the life we began to live on Vorovoro.

‘Pick of the day’ across the board its time to hear what you think of the show, starting today with Programme One.

Read more about the summary for Episode 1 and add your comments online!

Watch Paradise or Bust with the Tribe!

The first episode of ‘Paradise or Bust; will be large screened at Sway Bar, Covent Garden, in Central London.

If your nearby make sure you come along and bring your mates. What else are you going to do on a Monday in January, stay in and watch the telly?

Tribe members, Shine, friends etc… we’ll be there from 7pm. ‘Paradise or Bust’ 9-10pm. Free entry, big screen, tribal scene.

Niki Maston's Vorovoro Experience

Tribe member Niki Matson writes about her recent trip to Vorovoro:

"Here I am sitting in this internet cafe in Labasa Fiji passing time until our plane comes to take us closer to home. Home? So many people have said that Vorovoro becomes like a second home to them. I now understand this. When Walter first signed up to become part of Tribewanted I honestly thought he was crazy. I didn’t understand why he would do it, really I couldn’t understand it. Then he went to the island for his week and I expected it to end there but lucky for me it didn’t. Instead he came home and didn’t stop talking about Vorovoro and Tribewanted for months. Then he decided to sign me and his mom up and give us the gift of a lifetime – a trip to Vorovoro. One hell of a graduation/Christmas/birthday gift huh?! I went into this whole thing with an open mind and no idea that it could be opened even more. When we landed in Fiji from LA, even at the Airport my eyes were popping out of my head. Once we made it to Labasa (the plane ride was amazing, never been in such a small plane before!) I knew there was something special about Fiji!"

Read and comment on the whole article online!

How the web is shaping the paradise island of Vorovoro

Matt Warman of the Daily Telegraph writes about how the internet is empowering Tribewanted to do things that have never been done before in his piece, Web Shaped Paradise.

The article writes, "[Ben Keene's] experiment is a rare example of something that could never have happened as it has without the web. Amazon’s just a big bookshop; eBay, in truth, is just a really big auction; but Tribewanted.com is very different. It is using the power of social networking to garner the financial support of thousands in a bid to revolutionise a part of Vorovoro, off Fiji; it also, crucially, gives that online community a say in how the place is built and managed."

Read and comment on the article on the Tribewanted.com website!

New Reed Bed - planning and feedback

Walt Flood just completed his second visit to Vorovoro, where he was involved with the planning for the construction of a second reed bed for water filtration.  He writes:

"Hoy mates – I wanted to get this out ASAP before construction on the new reed bed is begun… while the current vertical flow reed bed is pretty cool, it is designed as just a small insitu mechanical treatment system. This is actually what most water treatment plants use on a larger scale – the one biggest problem with mechanical purification is clogging of the filtration media (the rocks). In large-scale applications, this is solved by providing a backflow device – water is forced up backwards to clean everything out every so often. It is also important to realize that the water will undergo very little – if any – chemical treatment. The main reason to use a reed bed – or more commonly called – constructed wetland treatment system, is because of the incredible mechanical and chemical treatment from the water. I am familiar with the first system ever built on an island, and the outflow at the end of the system is actually cleaner than tap water! In our current design, we might as well plant poupou or pineapple underneath the outflows because it isn’t actually getting any real benefit from the plants – it’s really just watering them. Enough with the problems, on to the basic design."

Read about the reed bed and share your comments online!

Plenty More Fish in the Sea

After returning home for the holidays, on-island project manager Giles Dawnay comments on the thrill of providing food for one's self with his expose on learning to fish in Vorovoro.  He writes:

"The highlight of the week for me has to have been the reef trip on Thursday. Taking the tribeys out to one of the most pristine reefs in the world and hang out with all the dazzling coral, rainbow coloured fish and the occasional magnificent reef shark is something too good to be passed.

However there was an added buzz to the trip as Marau (our own local handyman who seem to have no limit to what he can make or do) takes his spear gun down to go fishing. Feeling brave I asked if I could take my own spear (puny by comparison) and watch him/try and catch my own."

Read the rest of his adventure and share your own online!

Tribewanted.com - new layout and free membership!

The development of the new Tribewanted layout is finally complete! Work on this layout has spanned three hemispheres, involved dozens of tribe members, taken up the bulk of my time over the past month, and been rolling around in the back of Ben’s head since last year. If you’ve helped us with the release, then a big think you! If not, then I hope you enjoy the new layout!

There are a few features that are also being released alongside the new layout. Without further ado, they are:

Free membership – you’ve debated it, voted for it, and now you’ve got it! Tribewanted.com now features free memberships. A free membership entitles you to your own blog and profile. You’re also able to view other member profiles, as well as comment on blogs. Free members are restricted from voting, reading the forums, and booking time on Vorovoro, though upgrading at any time is easy! You can sign up for a free membership at the Join page.

Read about all of the other new features and check out the new layout online!