• Former Deputy Prime Minister visited to mark 35 years of diplomatic ties.
• He was exhausted and spent 14 hours in the hospital.

Australian former Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack was travelling the Pacific with a group when he was offered sakau, a form of Micronesian kava, as a ceremonial drink while on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia to commemorate 35 years of diplomatic relations.

One Australian politician’s visit of the Pacific region took a turn for the worst after he gulped a cup of a local beverage in one go.

Traditional kava, a non-alcoholic beverage made from the kava kava plant, promotes calm.

“In a bid to show my respect to local traditions I drank the whole bowl of sakau,” McCormack tweeted Thursday.

A bowl of kava is frequently consumed in one sitting in various regions of the Pacific. But McCormack quickly realized the strong, Pohnpei-only kava was a very different animal.

The politician appears to have vomited into a black trash bag in a video of the ceremony that local media shared, at which point he is seen sitting down, putting his head in his palm, and receiving fanning.

He was then treated in hospital for dehydration, according to Media.

McCormack told the Media that he went “cross-eyed” after drinking it and slept for 14 hours following his visit to the hospital.

“I haven’t slept like that in my entire parliamentary career. I don’t think I have slept like that since I was a teenager,” he told the outlet on Friday.

McCormack added in his tweet that he was feeling much better now, and saw the trip as a “great chance to connect with our Pacific family.”

Sakau, according to Pohnpeian folklore, was formerly solely drank by men and the affluent classes. Although it is now more generally accessible, the root is still pounded on a particular stone, mixed with water and hibiscus sap, and served in a coconut shell.

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