IMAGINE the joy of meeting someone who had been your pen pal for 22 years straight.
On February 9, 1983, The Fiji Times reported that a Canadian and Fijian met for the first time in Suva — and the story they told would have equaled the famous Kon-Tiki expedition.
As a young 18-year-old naval seaman, in 1959 Jerry Leake threw a rum bottle with his address in it into the North Pacific Ocean.
He was about three days out of Yokohoma, Japan.
It was found 7200km away at Viwa Island, near Bau, by Akuila Matai on July 1961.
He made contact and since then the two men wrote to each other.
On February 8, 1983 they met at the Travelodge Hotel in Suva for the first time.
No one would have mapped the trans-ocean journey of the bottle — the ships and islands it passed on its trip to the south.
No one would have also believed that such a sea event could have happened.
But it did, and Jerry had kept the message he had put into the bottle to show non-believers, along with the tattered first letter from Akuila and other letters that were passed between them.
“The odds against the bottle ever being found by someone so far away was phenomenal,” said Jerry.
At the time he threw the bottle into the ocean, he was on board the Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) New Glasgow and was steaming towards Juneau, Alaska.
Drinking on board the ship, Jerry scribbled his name on a piece of corn flakes carton and put it in the bottle with little thought of it ever being found. However, 20-year-old Akuila was given the bottle by a woman, and he immediately wrote to the seaport address in Victoria, Canada.
“Hallow Jerry! Today is Monday and a very nice pleasant day,” was the opening sentence of the first letter Jerry received.
It was dated July 17, 1961. Jerry, who was involved in the construction supply business, was able to spare a few weeks with his wife so they decided to travel to see Akuila, who was a builder as well.
When he arrived in Fiji, he sent a message to Akuila through Radio Fiji. Two days later they met and prepared to visit Akuila’s home on Viwa Island.
- Compiled by Pekai Kotoisuva
