I'll Follow the Sun

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Gravelle settled in PNG, working for a while as an overseer for a local copper mine and cocoa plantation. It was around then that relations between the laborers and a fellow manager of Gravelle's, a harsh man known for his quick backhand and cruel tongue, reached the breaking point. 'It was fairly intense. They finally burned his house down and cut him up into bits when he came out,' Gravelle explains, in a tone no more agitated than if he were talking about his favorite coconut recipe.

His coworker's untimely demise did not faze Gravelle, who remained in Papua New Guinea for years, eventually acquiring a taste-or at least a tolerance-for barbecued crocodile skewers ('a firm white meat with a rich, sweet taste'). But as the country gained independence from Australia in the mid-1970s, expats were no longer welcome. In 1974, Gravelle was sent packing, sure of only one thing: His next home would be surrounded by water.

'It's a love of warm, tropical, green places and lush vegetation,' he allows. 'I've always sought a simpler lifestyle, without traffic and taxicabs and crowds. I'm totally happy in a village, sitting cross-legged on a mat and having a bowl of grog.'

That same year, a help-wanted sign requesting an editor at the brand new Fiji Sun persuaded him to go Melanesian. Since then, he's operated from his hub in Suva, Fiji's capital, where he lives with his wife Sisilia, a champion cyclist and triathlete, and their 17-year-old son Gabriel. The Gravelle home has been likened to a mini-museum of the South Pacific, full of keepsakes from the patriarch's island hopscotch.

But all the cool knickknacks in the world don't always make up for the shortcomings of living in the middle of the ocean, far removed from a decent Pavarotti selection or crackers smothered with Camembert. 'Never mind Disneyland,' says Gravelle about his infrequent trips back to the mainland. 'Just walking through a huge supermarket and seeing all the produce and the candies-wow.'

What Fiji lacks in groceries, however, it makes up for in people. 'We simply can't walk on a little dirt road without having villagers come dashing out saying, 'Come have a cup of tea,'' Gravelle boasts. 'That's why I like going to Vanua Levu or Taveuni. There, the roads are still dirt, they don't get TV and they don't have a McDonald's yet.'

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