Friday March 15, 2013 - RABAUL, Papua New Guinea
VOLCANO ADVENTURE- Mt TAVURVUR
Well the clocks went back 1 hour last night so we were awake quite early - the stars were brilliant so I was hopeful for a sunny day! By 6am we were dressed and on the deck since the approach to Rabaul through the massive caldera from the first eruption from the volcano in 540 AD is massive and the other volcanoes which have formed around the rim of the caldera should make for some great viewing as we cruise into Rabaul.
We were joined by many on the bow on Deck 6, everyone interested in taking photos and seeing the sights. Simpson Harbour is a large harbour from the caldera, and quite a few large container ships were anchored since Simpson harbour handles many small islands supply from here. We were on deck for at least an hour enjoying the volcanoes and the views as we got closer to Rabaul. Rabaul played a significant role in WWII and was occupied by Japan in 1942, who built over 500km of tunnels underneath the town and the Gazelle peninsula as protection against constant allied bombing raids. At one point during the war these tunnels housed 15 hospitals (one was 4km long!) and could handle 2500 patients. The labour used to dig the tunnels were Indian POW's who had been captured in Singapore, along with local inhabitants from Rabaul.
Rabaul was converted into a virtual fortress and was the major supply base for the planned expansion into mainland Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia. There were many battles supplied from Rabaul including the Kokoda Trail, Milne Bay, Coral Sea Battle, Lae, Guadalcanal and Bougainville. When you realise that the most Northern part of Australia is only 6 miles from the most Southern part of Papua New Guinea - you understand just how close and connected Australia is to all the islands.
At one point Rabaul had 5 air strips, a float plane base, a submarine base, a huge number of navy ships, and up to 200,000 Japanese armed forces. Over the next 3 days in Rabaul we saw many tunnels and remnants of WWII but really interestingly, we didn't see a single Japanese person, or of Japanese heritage while we were there. But today we are off to see the other fascinating side of Rabaul which sits on the ring of fire with a vengeance and is surrounded by volcanoes, and that is the active volcano Tavurvur.
At 845 we were off the Orion, into mini buses and headed from the dock around to the other side of Simpson Harbour to get onto long boats and head over to Tavurvur. We drove through the part of Rabaul that was absolutely covered in up to 6 metres of ash when Tavurvur erupted in 1994 at the same time as Mt Vulcan erupted n the other side of Simpson Harbour. The ash blew over Rabaul and buried the major part of the town and it has never been dug out. This part of the town was on Mango Avenue, with large mango trees each side, government and residential buildings both sides of the street and today there is just thick black ash with the occasional tree poking out of the top, and the buildings are ruins. Of course, this volcanic ash is very fertile, and here there is so much hot sun and rain that when anything is planted it grows very quickly. But the Papua New Guinea government is not spending on rebuilding the infrastructure here since they know it is only time until the volcanoes erupt again.
On top of the ridge of hills behind Rabaul is the seismic observatory for all of Papua New Guinea and every day on the radio here they comment on what is happening with the volcanoes. Mt Tavurvur smoked the entire time that we were in Rabaul (3 days) and you can see the steaming vents on the outside and inside of the volcano. We loaded into the long boats to cross over to the base of Mt Tavurvur and suddenly there was a boom which travels through your entire body and a huge plume of smoke out of the top of Tavurvur - it was an eruption as we are crossing the harbour to see it!
We immediately took photos and were amazed, excited and somewhat hesitant! But we continued the boat ride over and exited onto the black sandy beach at the bottom to get out and explore! We actually walked through the deep black ash and climbed through an area that looks like it has been bombed, but this is where the megapod birds come and lay their eggs - they dig a deep hole and lay their egg (one at a time) which hatches two weeks later. However, in Rabaul there is very little protein available (just a few chickens and pigs) and so the local villagers come and dig up these eggs (which are quite large, much larger than a chicken's egg) and then take them to the market to sell them.
After the somewhat careful hike up through the megapod field of holes, we stood and viewed Tavurvur and the lava flows while listening to vivid descriptions of what had happened (and does happen) from David Scott Silverberg. Also, we listened to the Australian lady who owns the Rabaul Hotel - her father owned the hotel and during 1994 saved it from collapse by standing on the roof shovelling the ash off several times each day until the ash had stopped falling (about 3 months later). It is one of the only buildings (if not the only building) still on Mango Avenue that is not buried, rusted or collapsed. Later in the afternoon we enjoyed an ice cold coke and beer in the bar at the hotel listening to some great local music by GEORGE TELEK and looking at old photos on the wall - there is a huge pool table here in the bar, and the masks and carved drums decorating the reception area are fabulous.
Also on Mango Avenue is the old "New Guinea Club" which used to be THE place to go during the Colonial Times for dancing, eating and drinking but today is a museum with lots of interesting papers and relics from before WWI with the German Colonials, through Japanese occupation, and Australian government. We spent quite awhile there in the afternoon (Orion ran a shuttle bus every 30 minutes all day) and even though much of what is displayed is old and faded it was very interesting. We also stopped in Rabaul town and tried unsuccessfully to buy a George TELEK music CD from one of the local stores but they had none, and in fact like most islands and countries in Asia and the South Pacific all they have are Video CD's (and they all appear to be pirated copies).
Our time on the road and in town was quite an event. The locals do not get very many white tourists - there are only 4 cruise ships a year that come here and some tourists mostly from Aussie or Japan who fly here. As a result they all stare at us and wave, and most say Hi or Hello. They all speak English here so it is quite easy to talk to them although many are quite shy. It was truly a very interesting day and incredibly hot! By the time we came back from our shuttle bus adventures in the afternoon, and walk back from town, which was only about a 20 minute walk to the pier - we were soaking wet and red faced - the shower was so welcome! Our shoes and feet were black from all the dust that we had walked through! The Orion left us a bowl full of water and scrubbing brushes for us to wash our shoes and feet before climbing the gangway onto the ship - and there are towels on the gangway and all through the ship on the carpets to try and protect the ship from the dust! Even the water jugs (that we refill our bottles from) have been brought inside along with all the furniture from outside to try and protect them from the ash.
It was the last night for the majority of the guests, only 18 of us were staying on for the next leg through Papua New Guinea - the rest are flying back to Cairns on the charter flight tomorrow. Joan will be arriving on the same flight from Cairns so we are looking forward to seeing Joan again. For tomorrow the 18 of us will be on a bus tour to Kokopo (the new capital city) so some sight seeing will be in order. It was great evening - Helen (Expedition Team) had made a wonderful DVD which covered much of the last 10 days and we all enjoyed watching that in the lounge before our last supper together.
SATURDAY MARCH 16, 2013
KOKOPO TOUR & AUSTRALIAN CEMETERY
This morning was all the frantic activity that comes with a change over - gusts coming and going, everyone saying their goodbyes - but at 9am the ship went quiet as the departing guests left. The remaining 18 of us all headed out onto our 2 buses at 10am and were off for 5 hours. Orion had provided us all with a large packed lunch with an ice pack in the bottom - just like on our Borneo Camp Leakey day out they had given us enough in case we got lost on the return! Cheese and ham sandwich, fried chicken on a bun, orange, apple, orange juice, walnut cake, 2 large cookies and chocolate bar! No - we didn't eat it all!
We drove through Rabaul and headed left (South) around Simpson Harbour and past Mt Vulcan and the village that was buried underneath the ash here during the 1994 eruption. I probably mentioned this before but there was warning that an eruption would happen and everyone had been evacuated so there were only 5 killed during these massive eruptions. The roads are not in great condition, some really big pot holes along the way so everyone crosses from side to side to find the smoothest part of the road.
Our first stop was at the Japanese Barge Tunnels where there are 5 rusty barges still in the tunnel that were pulled along rails to the shore and back by prisoners of war during WWII, carrying supplies and keeping them hidden from the allied forces. As we walked into the tunnel (which was very dark) Terry spotted a snake curled up in a hole in the roof hanging on to a vine that was growing along the roof! Glad that didn't drop on me while we were inside looking! Outside this tunnel several men, women and children arrived within minutes of our arrival setting up their sarong (lap lap) on the ground and then displaying their baskets, shell necklaces, shells and "shell money" - what they still use here to buy goods from each other and in the markets (but not in the stores). Unfortunately they all sell the same things so there is not a lot of buying that goes on from the tourists. Dozens of sunken aircraft and ships dot Simpson Harbour and to the North are sea caves used as a drop-off point by Japanese submarines. Along the road at one point we passed a rusty old tank that has been by the side of the road since the end of WWII.
Our next stop was the Australian War Memorial, from WWI and WWII with rows and rows of headstones for the soldiers killed. It also has Indian soldiers who were brought as POW's by the Japanese from Singapore to Papua New Guinea to do the hard work. Our tour guide also told us that the Japanese were pretty wicked and they kidnapped young Korean women and brought them down to provide sex for the Japanese during the war. We read that there were over 2000 of these unfortunate women.
One of the Australian Ladies on our cruise (Alison) had a cousin who's husband had been killed here during WWII. She had a piece of paper with the exact row and grave number of her buried husband - so Alison looked for it and found it immediately - so she added a few flowers and took a photo for her cousin back in Australia who is now in her 90's. Alison's husband, Newell, was born in New Guinea and amazingly enough he spent time in the logging industry in Prince George, B.C. - small world eh?
We spent about an hour at the Kokopo Beach Resort (who works with Orion each time the ship visits) and enjoyed eating our lunch there - they had a wonderful gift store with fabulous artifacts, masks etc (mostly from the Sepik area of the mainland). Of interest perhaps is that the Managing Director was sitting eating lunch with 8 Chinese business men - we can only imagine what the Chinese are doing here and what PNG resources they are after now! But another note on that later!
After lunch we had a short walk through the very busy Kokopo Market (there is a population of about 20,000 in Kokopo). The amount of fresh fruit and vegetables for sale is amazing, and each lady is selling something, so you see bench after bench of peanuts, betel nuts, green vegetables, fruit, smoked fish, cooked fish wrapped in banana leaves ready to eat, fried banana, fresh banana, live fresh crabs stacked 6 high and tied together with string - and a few benches of ladies' dresses, earrings and shell necklaces. We were the main attraction for the locals! There are also cigarettes for sale, mostly individual since they are about 40 cents each which is very expensive for PNG locals. Of interest is that the cigarettes (factory produced) are in cigarette paper that looks like newspaper. Apparently the home made cigarettes always used to be rolled in newspaper and when they started being factory produced in white cigarette paper the PNG locals would not buy them - so the factory fixed that problem by printing the cigarette paper to look like newspaper - so now the PNG locals will buy them!
We were back at the Orion by 3pm and the orientation was on in the Leda Lounge for the new arrivals including Joan. After the orientation we all got together - Joan said her plane ride up on the Fokker had not been too bumpy so she didn't have a rough time with Cyclone Tim! We all joined in the optional 3pm walk back into Rabaul to have a walk through the market - the market is closed on Sunday, so today being Saturday was the last chance for the new arrivals to see the town and market. Fortunately today was quite cloudy so even though it was very warm and humid it was not broiling like our walk yesterday afternoon. We walked with Justin - his experience, relationships, past PNG history, and knowledge of the local customs is invaluable - he was just so interesting to walk through the market with.
Back on the Orion we washed all the black volcanic ash off ourselves and were soon enjoying G&T's and in the Cosmos Theatre listening to Mick Fogg's presentation "In Vulcan's Shadow" telling us all about the volcanos in this area - it was our second time for this lecture but there was so much in it that we enjoyed it second time around! I did leave when I had a coughing spell, and outside Liz and Gray were just getting out of the hot tub on deck 6 - they had been sharing a bottle of champagne and Tavurvur has erupted and given them 3 small puffs. As Mick says, they are expecting some significant activity in the short term from Tavurvur!
After a lovely dinner with a couple from the States, we were all ready for an early night - but we did make it to the Leda Lounge for a glass of Tio pepe sherry (Joan) and Tawny port (Jan) before crashing! A good night's sleep is needed to be ready to enjoy tomorrow!
SUNDAY MARCH 17, 2013
RABAUL HIGHLIGHTS, OVERLOOK, HOT SPRINGS
Joan headed off at 845am for the Volcano Adventure (which we did 2 days ago) and we waited for the vans to arrive half an hour late, for the Highlights of Rabaul. Unfortunately Terry was not well this morning (some stomach bug) so I was off with the other half of the Orion passengers. Because of our extra day here for turnaround of the Orion - we had seen many of the highlights, but there were still a couple of new experiences.
Our mini buses were late - today is Sunday and everyone is at Church - the majority of PNG folk are Catholic but there are also some Methodist and 7th Day Adventist. Along the roads there were lots of people walking to Church, and most of the girls and ladies were wearing loose white dresses with a frill around the sleeves, hem and bodice.
The new stops were for the overlook and seismic monitoring centre - unfortunately the chap with the key for the office with all the gear in was at Church so we couldn't see inside! But the views of Simpson Harbour were spectacular. Then we were off to the Hot Springs at 75C down at the shore towards the Tavurvur volcano - we drove several KM over the black sand / ash and it was really warm - again the children and women come running with goods to sell as soon as they see our vans arriving!
After lunch, Joan and Jan took the shuttle to the Rabaul Hotel to look around and see the underground bunker (which was a WWII museum untilit was filled with ash from the 1994 eruption) but unfortunately the pub was closed for Sunday! so afterwards we walked to the New Guinea Club (a current Rabaul museum with photos and history since the late 1800's when the German's first arrived until the present day) and Yamamoto's Bunker. That walk definitely earned a cold shower on our return, especially since I took the long way round so we walked a couple of extra blocks through the black sand!!
Soon it was time for the mandatory lifeboat drill and our sailaway with complimentary champagne on deck 6 at 5pm. The sunset was perfect as we sailed past Mt Tavurvur, still steaming, and waiting anxiously for it to puff some ash (which it didn't) followed by
a presentation by Mick Fogg about the activities for the coming week starting with a delicious seafood extravaganza on the rear outdoor deck, which Terry missed because he was still in bed, but fortunately by the following morning after 40 hours bed rest and sleep he was ready to go once again!
MONDAY MARCH 18, 2013
At Sea on the way to SEPIK River & WATAM Village
I woke up at 4am and looked out to see sheet lightning on the horizon - and drinking our early morning coffee at 7am in the Galaxy Lounge we cruised through a quick rain cloud but apart from lots of cloud everywhere, that's all the rain we've had so far for this second part of the cruise from Rabaul. The sea has been calm so that is great.
There are so many new faces everywhere but we're starting to get used to them now, and so many from the USA and also lots of single ladies on this cruise, although I think there were 5 singles on the last cruise. Today is a full itinerary of lectures and presentations and we're getting ready for our first at 930am in the Leda Lounge with Justin Friend - An Introduction to the History of Papua New Guinea. We know this will be fun and informative since Justin is a great presenter and actually lived in Papua and married a Papua lady many years ago.
We are currently on the Bismarck Sea heading to the Sepik River and tomorrow we will be visiting the WATAM village, after leaving Rabaul PNG yesterday which used to be the capital until it was moved to KOKOPA after the eruptions in 1994 almost completely wiped out Rabaul.
Justin did another grand job - he is such a storyteller! An hour and a half seems like just 15 minutes. The history of Papua New Guinea is very complicated, especially because it began its colonial life under three different powers (Dutch in the west, German in the north and British in the south) and still today is part of Indonesia in the west and an independent territory in the east but still part of the Commonwealth. Justin did a good job of trying to simplify it for us with a lot of humour along the way. Already we'd love to come back on a trip if he was a major part of it. Anyway, one of his main points was that PNG has very significant resources and is attracting huge interest from (you guessed it) China!! He described PNG as "An island Of Gold floating on a sea of oil". The island of Bougainville (between PNG and the Solomons) has the world's largest copper mine and Justin's dad was a civil engineer that helped get it operational. Well, The government of PNG was using all the revenue from Bougainville to fund the development of the infrastructure & resources in central PNG but there was no benefit to the people of Bougainville. So that lead to a civil war in Bougainville in the 90's and the closure of the mine (and it is still closed). The civil war is now over, and Bougainville is scheduled to become independent in 2017. But guess what - the Bougainville government is favoring having the Chinese reopen the copper mine rather that the original operator. We are really starting to see that China is going to become a very powerful economic powerhouse very soon with it tentacles everywhere (not just Africa but here too in Melanesia). Seems an offer of any Chinese funded activity gets them preferred access to resources and food around the 3rd world these days. And with the rest of the world in economic decline and in debt, they seem to have us but good!
Next was a presentation by Guest lecturer Pieter De Vries (was director of photography for the TV series "Discovery Atlas"). He showed some interesting footage of his work but we were not very impressed with his presentation and the footage he showed was not very relevant to either helping you take better video or learning about PNG.
This afternoon David Silverberg presented Geography in Deep Time (long ago) but this time oriented more to Papua New Guinea instead of the Solomon Islands like his last presentation. We enjoyed it just as much as last time and David is so passionate about his topics and a great presenter.
Mick and Justin talked to us during cocktail hour in the leda Lounge about our visit tomorrow to Watam Village, Justin is just too interesting and funny - we really enjoy his talks. Tonight we learned that Justin is actually an 8th chief of Watam Village and has a house there, but all the houses in Watam are on stilts and he has fallen through the floor in one house and broken the stairs up another house - he is such a big fellow and much too heavy for the way that they build their straw and bamboo huts on stilts here! .
Later on at 645pm was Captain Vincent Taillard's "meet and greet" cocktail event to introduce the management team followed by the captain's dinner in the main Constellation Restaurant on deck 3.
Kathy and Terry were doing their Andrew Lloyd Webber musical tonight, but none of us had the energy to stay awake past 9 - and we wanted to be ready for our day at Watam Village which will be very special due to Justin and Orion's very special relationship with this village since 2006.
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
SECHELT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
WINTER IS ON IT'S WAY
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
20130314 from SOLOMON ISLANDS TO RABAUL, PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Thursday March 14, 2013 at sea on the way from SOLOMON ISLANDS to RABAUL, Papua New Guinea
We love days at sea but certainly this wasn't to be a relaxing day on the ORION it turned out to be very busy with wonderful lectures and presentations by the Expedition Leader Mick Fogg, the Guest Lecturer David Silverberg and Justin Friend, the destination Manager from Orion Head Office who we are lucky enough to have on board with us. We woke to mostly blue skies and large rolling seas, so we thoroughly enjoyed our latte up in the Galaxy Lounge at the very front of the Orion on deck 6 - looking ahead to where our day would take us today. We were the only folks enjoying coffee inside this morning and enjoyed the quiet time to relax and look around.
Rabaul was established in 1896 with the arrival of Albert Hahl who was Governor from 1901 -1914 when it (known as German New Guinea) was taken by the Australians at the start of WWI because of the shipping menace (close proximity to St George's Channel) to Australia and New Zealand. After the war, the territory of New Britain and Rabaul became part of Australia as a mandated Territory. The Japanese were not happy about this system of mandates since Japan had been an ally of Britain and USA during WWI. Later, during WWII the Japanese had 96,000 troops stationed on Papua New Guinea! Yes, this part of the world has a huge history that many of us now know a little about.
After breakfast outdoors in the Delphinus Cafe (it was very warm already) we headed upstairs to the COSMOS theatre and enjoyed a lecture by David, all about statistics in Melanesia showing facts and figures about the health & welfare versus Gross Domestic product of the populations of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. In almost every case, Melanesia is not being very successful in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals of improving life in 7 categories in these countries, with Papua New Guinea inevitably being at the bottom of the pile and Fiji at the top for progress and improvements. (download gapminder software and data for these facts and figures). David continued talking about the types of volcanoes that there are around the world and specifically as it relates to Rabaul and Papua New Guinea.
There was a scheduled routine crew drill to prepare and train for an emergency on board (we hope that there are none!), then we were back into the COSMOS theatre to listen to Mick Fogg teach us all about Rabaul and the many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions "In Vulcan's Shadow". The last eruption in Rabaul on Mt Vulcan was less than 2 months ago on January 22, 2013 but that was not as big as many in their past, especially Sept 1994 when the city was destroyed! Many times parts of Rabaul have disappeared underwater temporarily, then raised above sea level, and also the city being completely covered in ash. The local language is called Tolai - and there is an old Tolai saying " once in your lifetime you will experience a volcanic eruption" (Tikana pakana takaum kilala na niluan - una gire ra kaia na vuvuai). Mick's lecture was fascinating and especially his photos. Back in 2009 Mick has footage from when they climbed to the top of the volcano and it was throwing out huge clouds of smoke and ash, and 15 minutes after they were standing taking photos, that spot had completely disappeared as the eruption suddenly consumed it.
In September 1994 there was a huge eruption and 30,000 people were evacuated from Rabaul but since the eruption had been expected only 4 or 5 people died. Rabaul is built on this extremely active caldera from the first major eruption in 54AD, known by scientists to be the 2nd or 3rd biggest volcanic eruption ever anywhere in the world. What doesn't make sense today is why Rabaul is still in existence and why people are still living there! Mick explained this as being due to this being no man's land so essentially it is squatters who are living there today although the government is no longer handling infrastructure in Rabaul in its' efforts to move people away from this very dangerous area.
Lunch was outdoors at Delphinus and was a BBQ of sausage, beef burgers, ribs and steak with all the salads and fixings. They also had wonderful large shrimp which Terry enjoyed followed by ice cream and several cakes and tarts. Justin presented a wonderful slide show of his marriage to a lady from Papua New Guinea back in 1999 and the complicated traditions he had to follow to make this happen! We howled with laughter at the ups and downs of the processes and the many difficulties he faced along the way. We hope he does this again when Joan joins us in Rabaul - Justin is simply so educational and entertaining to listen to.
Following Justin was the raffle for the Solomon Islands map which has been artfully illustrated by one of the crew - what amazing artwork he drew on the map! Unfortunately we weren't the lucky winner but it was fun to hope that we might be for awhile! The crew handle this raffle and use the funds for the crew Welfare Fund. They also run a Bingo game afterwards with prizes for the first and second place winners, with proceeds going to the Crew Welfare fund. Tonight they will do their crew show after dinner, and if it's anywhere near as good as what we saw on Orion II in Borneo last year it will be excellent and a lot of fun!
Back in our cabin, we watched "First Contact The Highlands Trilogy" with original footage from 1937 about when Australian brothers Michael, Daniel and James Leahy went into PNG to look for gold. In 1930 1 million people lived in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, their existence unknown to the outside world. When the brothers went into the Highlands, the indigenous natives and the Aussies talked in sign language to each other - recounting many years later, some of the PNG indigenous eye witnesses said "we thought we were the only people in the world and we thought that our spirits returned as white men. We thought they carried their wives in their backpacks and that they had huge penises around their waists under their lap laps (trousers)". The natives had no concept of human life beyond their valleys. Leahy, an old man when the movie was released more than 20 years ago, says "they did think we were more than ordinary human beings" especially when they took in axes and food and told the natives that the big bird would be coming - this would be the plane that they had arranged to come and pick them up. This scared all the natives who ran away and hid in the bushes when the plan came in. The locals worked for the Leahy brothers and gave their daughters and wives to them and their crew, in order to be given shells and such which were considered to be money to the locals at that time. When the movie was made 20+ years ago the locals said "we worked for them and helped them (Leahy Brothers) then and didn't know what they were doing - but they washed the sand and took away our gold. When our relatives died we would eat the flesh and throw the bones into the water and we thought this was the spirits returning and looking for their own bones in the water".
Well we were so pleased to have managed to squeeze First Contact in - so interesting and we arrive in Rabaul tomorrow morning! First we have our orientation for tomorrow in the lounge tonight at 7, then at 7:30 we have our South Seas BBQ on the back deck in the Delphinus Cafe. The sun is still shining under blue skies, due to set at 5:58pm - it's still very warm outside so it should be a lovely evening!
Mick gave the orientation and it sounds like a great day in Rabaul - we are doing the Volcano Adventure which will be the T? volcano, departing at 845am in the morning for half the ship, and the other half will be doing the Highlights of Rabaul. We were so thirtsy I can tell you that our G&T at the bar tonight was very welcome then we headed on to the back deck for the South Seas BBQ. We were under the stars at the Delphinus Cafe and the BBQ was set up in the middle of the deck, the breezes were very warm and Susan and Peter joined us for dinner. There were all sorts of seafood salads, a whole roast pig with cracklin', and on the barbie there were grilled lamb chops (highly recommended by those who ate them), tiger prawns and lime and chilli mahi mahi - and I recommend both of them highly!
The cold white Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc warmed up very quickly but it washed down the seafood in superb style! We did miss the crew show, and headed to bed after dinner, but we figure that we'll catch the crew show next week! Sorry boys!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
We love days at sea but certainly this wasn't to be a relaxing day on the ORION it turned out to be very busy with wonderful lectures and presentations by the Expedition Leader Mick Fogg, the Guest Lecturer David Silverberg and Justin Friend, the destination Manager from Orion Head Office who we are lucky enough to have on board with us. We woke to mostly blue skies and large rolling seas, so we thoroughly enjoyed our latte up in the Galaxy Lounge at the very front of the Orion on deck 6 - looking ahead to where our day would take us today. We were the only folks enjoying coffee inside this morning and enjoyed the quiet time to relax and look around.
Rabaul was established in 1896 with the arrival of Albert Hahl who was Governor from 1901 -1914 when it (known as German New Guinea) was taken by the Australians at the start of WWI because of the shipping menace (close proximity to St George's Channel) to Australia and New Zealand. After the war, the territory of New Britain and Rabaul became part of Australia as a mandated Territory. The Japanese were not happy about this system of mandates since Japan had been an ally of Britain and USA during WWI. Later, during WWII the Japanese had 96,000 troops stationed on Papua New Guinea! Yes, this part of the world has a huge history that many of us now know a little about.
After breakfast outdoors in the Delphinus Cafe (it was very warm already) we headed upstairs to the COSMOS theatre and enjoyed a lecture by David, all about statistics in Melanesia showing facts and figures about the health & welfare versus Gross Domestic product of the populations of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. In almost every case, Melanesia is not being very successful in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals of improving life in 7 categories in these countries, with Papua New Guinea inevitably being at the bottom of the pile and Fiji at the top for progress and improvements. (download gapminder software and data for these facts and figures). David continued talking about the types of volcanoes that there are around the world and specifically as it relates to Rabaul and Papua New Guinea.
There was a scheduled routine crew drill to prepare and train for an emergency on board (we hope that there are none!), then we were back into the COSMOS theatre to listen to Mick Fogg teach us all about Rabaul and the many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions "In Vulcan's Shadow". The last eruption in Rabaul on Mt Vulcan was less than 2 months ago on January 22, 2013 but that was not as big as many in their past, especially Sept 1994 when the city was destroyed! Many times parts of Rabaul have disappeared underwater temporarily, then raised above sea level, and also the city being completely covered in ash. The local language is called Tolai - and there is an old Tolai saying " once in your lifetime you will experience a volcanic eruption" (Tikana pakana takaum kilala na niluan - una gire ra kaia na vuvuai). Mick's lecture was fascinating and especially his photos. Back in 2009 Mick has footage from when they climbed to the top of the volcano and it was throwing out huge clouds of smoke and ash, and 15 minutes after they were standing taking photos, that spot had completely disappeared as the eruption suddenly consumed it.
In September 1994 there was a huge eruption and 30,000 people were evacuated from Rabaul but since the eruption had been expected only 4 or 5 people died. Rabaul is built on this extremely active caldera from the first major eruption in 54AD, known by scientists to be the 2nd or 3rd biggest volcanic eruption ever anywhere in the world. What doesn't make sense today is why Rabaul is still in existence and why people are still living there! Mick explained this as being due to this being no man's land so essentially it is squatters who are living there today although the government is no longer handling infrastructure in Rabaul in its' efforts to move people away from this very dangerous area.
Lunch was outdoors at Delphinus and was a BBQ of sausage, beef burgers, ribs and steak with all the salads and fixings. They also had wonderful large shrimp which Terry enjoyed followed by ice cream and several cakes and tarts. Justin presented a wonderful slide show of his marriage to a lady from Papua New Guinea back in 1999 and the complicated traditions he had to follow to make this happen! We howled with laughter at the ups and downs of the processes and the many difficulties he faced along the way. We hope he does this again when Joan joins us in Rabaul - Justin is simply so educational and entertaining to listen to.
Following Justin was the raffle for the Solomon Islands map which has been artfully illustrated by one of the crew - what amazing artwork he drew on the map! Unfortunately we weren't the lucky winner but it was fun to hope that we might be for awhile! The crew handle this raffle and use the funds for the crew Welfare Fund. They also run a Bingo game afterwards with prizes for the first and second place winners, with proceeds going to the Crew Welfare fund. Tonight they will do their crew show after dinner, and if it's anywhere near as good as what we saw on Orion II in Borneo last year it will be excellent and a lot of fun!
Back in our cabin, we watched "First Contact The Highlands Trilogy" with original footage from 1937 about when Australian brothers Michael, Daniel and James Leahy went into PNG to look for gold. In 1930 1 million people lived in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, their existence unknown to the outside world. When the brothers went into the Highlands, the indigenous natives and the Aussies talked in sign language to each other - recounting many years later, some of the PNG indigenous eye witnesses said "we thought we were the only people in the world and we thought that our spirits returned as white men. We thought they carried their wives in their backpacks and that they had huge penises around their waists under their lap laps (trousers)". The natives had no concept of human life beyond their valleys. Leahy, an old man when the movie was released more than 20 years ago, says "they did think we were more than ordinary human beings" especially when they took in axes and food and told the natives that the big bird would be coming - this would be the plane that they had arranged to come and pick them up. This scared all the natives who ran away and hid in the bushes when the plan came in. The locals worked for the Leahy brothers and gave their daughters and wives to them and their crew, in order to be given shells and such which were considered to be money to the locals at that time. When the movie was made 20+ years ago the locals said "we worked for them and helped them (Leahy Brothers) then and didn't know what they were doing - but they washed the sand and took away our gold. When our relatives died we would eat the flesh and throw the bones into the water and we thought this was the spirits returning and looking for their own bones in the water".
Well we were so pleased to have managed to squeeze First Contact in - so interesting and we arrive in Rabaul tomorrow morning! First we have our orientation for tomorrow in the lounge tonight at 7, then at 7:30 we have our South Seas BBQ on the back deck in the Delphinus Cafe. The sun is still shining under blue skies, due to set at 5:58pm - it's still very warm outside so it should be a lovely evening!
Mick gave the orientation and it sounds like a great day in Rabaul - we are doing the Volcano Adventure which will be the T? volcano, departing at 845am in the morning for half the ship, and the other half will be doing the Highlights of Rabaul. We were so thirtsy I can tell you that our G&T at the bar tonight was very welcome then we headed on to the back deck for the South Seas BBQ. We were under the stars at the Delphinus Cafe and the BBQ was set up in the middle of the deck, the breezes were very warm and Susan and Peter joined us for dinner. There were all sorts of seafood salads, a whole roast pig with cracklin', and on the barbie there were grilled lamb chops (highly recommended by those who ate them), tiger prawns and lime and chilli mahi mahi - and I recommend both of them highly!
The cold white Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc warmed up very quickly but it washed down the seafood in superb style! We did miss the crew show, and headed to bed after dinner, but we figure that we'll catch the crew show next week! Sorry boys!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
20130313 MAROVO LAGOON, UEPI & MATEANA ISLANDS & TELINA VILLAGE TOUR - SOLOMON ISLANDS
Wed March 3, 2013 MAROVO LAGOON, UEPI & MATEANA ISLANDS & TELINA Village Tour
WOW - today is going to be packed tight with activities! We started with the most amazing sight ..... a blue sky and beautiful sunrise as we arrived at Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Breakfast was on the back deck in the Delphinus Cafe where the short order eggs cook was complaining about the sun in his eyes, which of course meant he was then subjected to jeers and shouts from everyone since we had hardly seen the sun since Port Vila, Vanuatu!
We were barely stopped before the zodiacs were being taken down from deck 6 and into the water - all of the 12 zodiacs will be in action today since there are so many activities: the market at Uepi Village, shark feeding, snorkelling from the beach over a double barrier reef, and the Telina Village Experience. I am so glad to say that after an early night last night and passing up on the dinner in the Constellation restaurant I am feeling much better today and ready for action!
Marovo Lagoon is in the middle of the New Georgia Islands, Solomon Islands and was described by James Michener as the eighth wonder of the world. This isolated spot has a double barrier reef enclosed lagoon and has been proposed for World Heritage listing. because it is both geographically and ecologically isolated it has an incredible diversity and richness of life both above and below the surface of the water. It is world known for its' coral reef eco systems teeming tropical fish and exceptional dive sites. The wood carvers of Marovo are reported to be the best in the Pacific so today we will get chance to explore the market at Uepi.
There are 12,000 people living in the lagoon in 70 villages scattered along the coast line, this is pretty much how all the 500,000 Solomon Islanders live - each in their own village or community along the coastline of the islands. Approximately 85% of all land and maine areas are held under the "traditional" or "custom" tenure systems as the villagers rely mainly on fishing, trade and subsistence agriculture for their food security and livelihoods. Solomon Islanders have one of the highest per capita seafood consumption rate in the world with 80% deriving their protein from the seafood and the marine environment.
We were ready for the first zodiac over to Uepi resort at 8am and we arrived at the small dock under the beautiful sunny blue skies. The villagers from around the Marovo Lagoon were all there with their beautiful carvings and baskets displayed for sale. To give you an idea, these men had all come by boat from their villages across the lagoon, travelling from 30 to 60 minutes - the last time that they had held a craft market next to the Uepi dive resort was 6 months ago when the last cruise ship came. So this was a very important day for them. Their carvings were simply beautiful and Mick Fogg had told us that at Uepi we would see some of the best carvings in the Solomon Islands. There were tables, carvings and bowls, most inlaid with the nautilus shell in a very fine pattern - each piece of the silver pearl being cut and sanded to the perfect pattern - such amazing fine work. The woods that they carve include ebony, rosewood and karosin? There were also the most beautiful baskets, again very fine work and great attention to detail.
At 8:45 we met Mick at the jetty for the shark feeding - the water was very shallow and clear, and there were maybe a couple of dozen sharks, mostly black & white tip reef sharks. Mick was feeding them with seafood scraps from the Orion. It was fun to watch before we raced back to the Orin to pick up snorkelling gear from the cabin and head over to the beach for snorkelling. The ride over was fairly long and slow due to the swells that were building as the morning progressed. Darren helped us, and we jumped out and the tide was so high that there really was no beach at all, so we were soon geared up and into the water which again was clear and warm.
The Orion Expedition staff set up a snorkel area each time and it has several buoys so you know where to stay within, they have 1 zodiac out there keeping a lookout for everyone, and especially anyone who might be tired or in difficulty, and they also have a zodiac with the ladder down at the furthest point it from the beach so that you can climb in and take a rest should you want to, before returning to the beach. The reef was beautiful - amazing varieties and colours of coral, all extremely healthy and loaded with small fish, again amazing varieties and colours. We put our heads down and swam without lifting our heads up once just loving what we could see - more varieties and healthier than we have seen in most places. The reef was very shallow on top (you felt like you had to hold your stomach in although there really was enough distance between you and the coral) and towards the outer edge there was a drop off into the blue with lots of underground channels and caves going back into the reef - we even saw 3 humpback wrasse swim by as we hit the blue.
All too soon we caught the zodiac heading back to the Orion where after a quick shower and change we were ready for a bite to eat for an early lunch before our afternoon cultural tour to the Telina Village. It was Mexican today with salads, enchiladas, soft tacos and churros! Chef Lothar does a grand job of keeping the food interesting and different for each meal. While eating lunch we could see these huge black clouds appearing from the other side of the lagoon, yup - rain was on its way! We weren't sure where the Telina Village was located inside the lagoon but we were pretty sure we would be getting wet at some point!
At 1230pm we were in the zodiac back to Uepi resort where we changed to a fast motor powered long boat with Captain Rex who sped across the lagoon for 30 minutes to Telina Village. This lagoon is huge, and is surrounded with incredibly dense foliage - so even though you see very little in the way of houses or villages along the shore - you understand that it truly is big enough to sustain the 12,000 villagers in the 70 villages! As we arrived, a large decorated war canoe came out to visit us, with all the men inside chanting and welcoming us to the village! They turned around and led us into their wharf where just a few feet away there were half a dozen small boys playing on a wooden framework, jumping into the water and having a wonderful time - completely naked and oblivious to the white folk arriving!
As we walked up the uneven coral pathway, a couple of dozen boys painted in their white war paint (a mix of ground coral and shell) came running at us with spears and palm leaves hung around their heads, arms, and waists - generally having a wonderful time laughing as they tried to be fierce with us! This was followed by about 20 young girls, with a couple of mothers, singing a lovely welcome song to us - all in beautiful harmony while one young girl held up a board with the words all written on there for them to sing. This was so unexpected and then they all walked over to us and gave each of the 20 of us a hand made lei garland of threaded leaves and flowers. It was at this point that we felt a couple of rain drops which very quickly became a huge tropical downpour! By the time we put our rain jackets on we were soaked - but we continued our walk with the local chief who was acting as the guide. We walked through Telina village, their homes being a large platform built on stilts, with openings for windows in the woven straw mats which were the walls, and palm thatching for the roofs. All the men and women were very welcoming as we passed, smiling and greeting us.
We started climbing up a hill through the foliage, again with all the young warriors pretending to attack us around each corner - all of us by now soaked through to the skin! At the top was their sacred mound, where they used to prepare for wars with other villages - they made a sacrifice here in order to ensure their success in the next battle. Certainly we have heard of the cannibalism that used to exist in Papua New Guinea, and how skulls were displayed by the villages, especially if they had killed a chief from another village.
Coming down from this walk where the guide also talked about the natural medicines that they use, we were treated to a display of basket weaving (used in fans, handbags, mats etc) and carving, including wood carving and also the nautilus cutting for decorating the bowls and carvings. One lady was making tapa cloth from a tree, this is very expensive these days when you do find it - the last time we saw beautiful printed tapa cloth was in the Marquesas Islands. We also saw tapioca wrapped and placed in an underground oven to cook - which took about one hour after which we were treated to sample later in the day. it was very hot and some what like a sweet potato! There was a display of the traditional "shell money" made from various shells including large shell money made from clam shells. By this time we had about 3 tropical downpours and we were taking great efforts to take photos and not get the camera wet!
We made our departure around 330pm and many of the villagers came out to wave us farewell. It was a really special and interesting afternoon - our guide at the village told us that Orion first came last year and arranged to tour the village and that next March 2014 there is another ship (the Bremen) scheduled to come and visit. So we are the second group to ever visit the Telina Village - how lucky are we? The small kids were playing in the dug out canoes as we left - one little girl probably 3 years or younger quite happily paddling herself around with no one taking any notice of her, or looking after her! We headed out at full speed - no cover on the longboat - and almost made it back to Uepi before the tropical downpour started, but not quite - we were drowned once more!
At Uepi the market was finishing packing all their beautiful unsold goods back into their long boats under protective tarps, and we said more farewells and arranged to gather same place, same time, next year!! We were the last zodiac back on the Orion and looking like drowned rats we turned the last 2 tags back to ONBOARD and dripped all the way through the Leda Lounge on our way to our stateroom which looked like a Chinese Laundry by the time we had hung up every dripping piece of clothing, backpacks and shoes to dry!
After donning dry clothes we were soon enjoying a welcome gin & tonic in the lounge as we departed from Uepi and watched a recap of the day's adventures with Richard showing us all the photos he had taken during the day - it's always such a great way to end the afternoon. Then Mick talked us through what to expect tomorrow on our day at sea as we head to Rabaul Papua New Guinea. Dinner in the Constellation restaurant we shared a table with MD from Ohio and David from Townesville, Aussie - a really interesting conversation - they are both travelling as singles and had met before on previous Orion cruises to Sub Antarctic.
Another day full of amazing adventures and new experiences in Solomon Islands.
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
WOW - today is going to be packed tight with activities! We started with the most amazing sight ..... a blue sky and beautiful sunrise as we arrived at Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Breakfast was on the back deck in the Delphinus Cafe where the short order eggs cook was complaining about the sun in his eyes, which of course meant he was then subjected to jeers and shouts from everyone since we had hardly seen the sun since Port Vila, Vanuatu!
We were barely stopped before the zodiacs were being taken down from deck 6 and into the water - all of the 12 zodiacs will be in action today since there are so many activities: the market at Uepi Village, shark feeding, snorkelling from the beach over a double barrier reef, and the Telina Village Experience. I am so glad to say that after an early night last night and passing up on the dinner in the Constellation restaurant I am feeling much better today and ready for action!
Marovo Lagoon is in the middle of the New Georgia Islands, Solomon Islands and was described by James Michener as the eighth wonder of the world. This isolated spot has a double barrier reef enclosed lagoon and has been proposed for World Heritage listing. because it is both geographically and ecologically isolated it has an incredible diversity and richness of life both above and below the surface of the water. It is world known for its' coral reef eco systems teeming tropical fish and exceptional dive sites. The wood carvers of Marovo are reported to be the best in the Pacific so today we will get chance to explore the market at Uepi.
There are 12,000 people living in the lagoon in 70 villages scattered along the coast line, this is pretty much how all the 500,000 Solomon Islanders live - each in their own village or community along the coastline of the islands. Approximately 85% of all land and maine areas are held under the "traditional" or "custom" tenure systems as the villagers rely mainly on fishing, trade and subsistence agriculture for their food security and livelihoods. Solomon Islanders have one of the highest per capita seafood consumption rate in the world with 80% deriving their protein from the seafood and the marine environment.
We were ready for the first zodiac over to Uepi resort at 8am and we arrived at the small dock under the beautiful sunny blue skies. The villagers from around the Marovo Lagoon were all there with their beautiful carvings and baskets displayed for sale. To give you an idea, these men had all come by boat from their villages across the lagoon, travelling from 30 to 60 minutes - the last time that they had held a craft market next to the Uepi dive resort was 6 months ago when the last cruise ship came. So this was a very important day for them. Their carvings were simply beautiful and Mick Fogg had told us that at Uepi we would see some of the best carvings in the Solomon Islands. There were tables, carvings and bowls, most inlaid with the nautilus shell in a very fine pattern - each piece of the silver pearl being cut and sanded to the perfect pattern - such amazing fine work. The woods that they carve include ebony, rosewood and karosin? There were also the most beautiful baskets, again very fine work and great attention to detail.
At 8:45 we met Mick at the jetty for the shark feeding - the water was very shallow and clear, and there were maybe a couple of dozen sharks, mostly black & white tip reef sharks. Mick was feeding them with seafood scraps from the Orion. It was fun to watch before we raced back to the Orin to pick up snorkelling gear from the cabin and head over to the beach for snorkelling. The ride over was fairly long and slow due to the swells that were building as the morning progressed. Darren helped us, and we jumped out and the tide was so high that there really was no beach at all, so we were soon geared up and into the water which again was clear and warm.
The Orion Expedition staff set up a snorkel area each time and it has several buoys so you know where to stay within, they have 1 zodiac out there keeping a lookout for everyone, and especially anyone who might be tired or in difficulty, and they also have a zodiac with the ladder down at the furthest point it from the beach so that you can climb in and take a rest should you want to, before returning to the beach. The reef was beautiful - amazing varieties and colours of coral, all extremely healthy and loaded with small fish, again amazing varieties and colours. We put our heads down and swam without lifting our heads up once just loving what we could see - more varieties and healthier than we have seen in most places. The reef was very shallow on top (you felt like you had to hold your stomach in although there really was enough distance between you and the coral) and towards the outer edge there was a drop off into the blue with lots of underground channels and caves going back into the reef - we even saw 3 humpback wrasse swim by as we hit the blue.
All too soon we caught the zodiac heading back to the Orion where after a quick shower and change we were ready for a bite to eat for an early lunch before our afternoon cultural tour to the Telina Village. It was Mexican today with salads, enchiladas, soft tacos and churros! Chef Lothar does a grand job of keeping the food interesting and different for each meal. While eating lunch we could see these huge black clouds appearing from the other side of the lagoon, yup - rain was on its way! We weren't sure where the Telina Village was located inside the lagoon but we were pretty sure we would be getting wet at some point!
At 1230pm we were in the zodiac back to Uepi resort where we changed to a fast motor powered long boat with Captain Rex who sped across the lagoon for 30 minutes to Telina Village. This lagoon is huge, and is surrounded with incredibly dense foliage - so even though you see very little in the way of houses or villages along the shore - you understand that it truly is big enough to sustain the 12,000 villagers in the 70 villages! As we arrived, a large decorated war canoe came out to visit us, with all the men inside chanting and welcoming us to the village! They turned around and led us into their wharf where just a few feet away there were half a dozen small boys playing on a wooden framework, jumping into the water and having a wonderful time - completely naked and oblivious to the white folk arriving!
As we walked up the uneven coral pathway, a couple of dozen boys painted in their white war paint (a mix of ground coral and shell) came running at us with spears and palm leaves hung around their heads, arms, and waists - generally having a wonderful time laughing as they tried to be fierce with us! This was followed by about 20 young girls, with a couple of mothers, singing a lovely welcome song to us - all in beautiful harmony while one young girl held up a board with the words all written on there for them to sing. This was so unexpected and then they all walked over to us and gave each of the 20 of us a hand made lei garland of threaded leaves and flowers. It was at this point that we felt a couple of rain drops which very quickly became a huge tropical downpour! By the time we put our rain jackets on we were soaked - but we continued our walk with the local chief who was acting as the guide. We walked through Telina village, their homes being a large platform built on stilts, with openings for windows in the woven straw mats which were the walls, and palm thatching for the roofs. All the men and women were very welcoming as we passed, smiling and greeting us.
We started climbing up a hill through the foliage, again with all the young warriors pretending to attack us around each corner - all of us by now soaked through to the skin! At the top was their sacred mound, where they used to prepare for wars with other villages - they made a sacrifice here in order to ensure their success in the next battle. Certainly we have heard of the cannibalism that used to exist in Papua New Guinea, and how skulls were displayed by the villages, especially if they had killed a chief from another village.
Coming down from this walk where the guide also talked about the natural medicines that they use, we were treated to a display of basket weaving (used in fans, handbags, mats etc) and carving, including wood carving and also the nautilus cutting for decorating the bowls and carvings. One lady was making tapa cloth from a tree, this is very expensive these days when you do find it - the last time we saw beautiful printed tapa cloth was in the Marquesas Islands. We also saw tapioca wrapped and placed in an underground oven to cook - which took about one hour after which we were treated to sample later in the day. it was very hot and some what like a sweet potato! There was a display of the traditional "shell money" made from various shells including large shell money made from clam shells. By this time we had about 3 tropical downpours and we were taking great efforts to take photos and not get the camera wet!
We made our departure around 330pm and many of the villagers came out to wave us farewell. It was a really special and interesting afternoon - our guide at the village told us that Orion first came last year and arranged to tour the village and that next March 2014 there is another ship (the Bremen) scheduled to come and visit. So we are the second group to ever visit the Telina Village - how lucky are we? The small kids were playing in the dug out canoes as we left - one little girl probably 3 years or younger quite happily paddling herself around with no one taking any notice of her, or looking after her! We headed out at full speed - no cover on the longboat - and almost made it back to Uepi before the tropical downpour started, but not quite - we were drowned once more!
At Uepi the market was finishing packing all their beautiful unsold goods back into their long boats under protective tarps, and we said more farewells and arranged to gather same place, same time, next year!! We were the last zodiac back on the Orion and looking like drowned rats we turned the last 2 tags back to ONBOARD and dripped all the way through the Leda Lounge on our way to our stateroom which looked like a Chinese Laundry by the time we had hung up every dripping piece of clothing, backpacks and shoes to dry!
After donning dry clothes we were soon enjoying a welcome gin & tonic in the lounge as we departed from Uepi and watched a recap of the day's adventures with Richard showing us all the photos he had taken during the day - it's always such a great way to end the afternoon. Then Mick talked us through what to expect tomorrow on our day at sea as we head to Rabaul Papua New Guinea. Dinner in the Constellation restaurant we shared a table with MD from Ohio and David from Townesville, Aussie - a really interesting conversation - they are both travelling as singles and had met before on previous Orion cruises to Sub Antarctic.
Another day full of amazing adventures and new experiences in Solomon Islands.
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
20130312 HONIARA, GUADALCANAL
Tuesday March 12, 2013 HONIARA, GUADALCANAL, Solomon Islands
Well today is a bonus to make up for our 2 lost islands in the Solomons (Utupua and Santa Ana due to Cyclone Sandra which sent us scurrying North as fast as we could go to get out of Sandra's path - we did have lots of rain (and I mean LOTS) as well as rough seas and many folks taking sea sickness prevention medication or being sea sick! But as a result today we get to go to the capital city of the Solomon islands, HONIARA, on the northwest coast of the island of Guadalcanal since we are now 1 day ahead of schedule. From 1952 Honiara became the new capital of the British Protectorate of the Solomon Islands and the island started to grow after this.
However, in the late 1990's Honiara has suffered a turbulent history of ethnic violence and political unrest, scarred by rioting. In June 2000 a coup attempt resulted in violent rebellions and flighting between the Guadalcanal natives (Istabu Freedom Movement IFM) and the Malays (Malaita Eagle Force MEF). The Australian Military and police units moved in to Guadalcanal in July 2003 to restore order. There was another brief political uprising in 2006 but at the present time is looking optimistically towards the future. One of the big issues is due to traditional land ownership (more customs). As Honiara grows more people come from elsewhere and squat on land owned by the traditional Guadi people - which they do not like at all. Just another example of why we on the ship have been so carefully instructed just exactly where we can and cannot walk whenever we are taken ashore.
WWII HISTORY -- This island played a massive part in WWII and the first major offensive by the Allies against Japan took place on Guadalcanal from August 7, 1942 to February 9, 1943. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec 7, 1941 the Japanese had advanced towards the South Pacific threatening the Allies' South Pacific ferry route connecting Australia and the USA. The Japanese invaded Guadalcanal in July 1942, had 8,400 men on the island by August with an airfield at Lunga Point, and the island became a major Japanese stronghold due to its' proximity to Australia. When you cruise around these islands you realise very quickly how close they all are to Australia's Northern Coastline.
Starting August 7, 1942 the US Marines landed on the Guadalcanal's Northern Beaches and over the next 3 months the Marines secured the airfield and a 6 mile stretch of beach. In October a USA Army unit arrived and together they continued pushing the Japanese further out. In the 4 day Battle of Guadalcanal in November the US Navy foiled Japan's Tokyo Express, which involved a reinforcement of the Japanese troops overnight onto the island by supply laden destroyers, and only 4,000 of the 10,000 Japanese Troops reached land.
After this battle the USA pushed on thrashing through the jungle in an effort to take Mount Austen facing heavy fire from the Japanese Troops. On January 1 & 2, 1943 the USA succeeded in securing most of the Gifu area and the West slopes of Mt Austen.
Our arrival into Honiara was unexpected and we were thrilled to be greeted by a large dancing group on the dock in their traditional thongs, banana leaves and skin decorations playing the huge drums, extra long pan pipes and dancers playing the smaller pan pipes - they played for an hour in the light rain and were wonderful to listen to, and watch, from the ship as we waited to be cleared by customs and immigration.
Then we all disembarked and loaded into small mini buses to tour the major sites in Honiara. This included the USA Memorial site, followed by the Japanese Memorial site a couple of hills away where it started to rain. We stopped at Bloody Ridge where the fighting was stalled for a long while, and were shown the fox holes still quite obvious there although they are now filled with long grass. The hills and fields were lush and green, and we could hear children playing and shouting all over - it is said that many Solomon Island Families have 8 children! Heading back to the ship we hit a traffic jam with an amazing number of mini vans on the road!
After lunch we had a shuttle service taking us back into town where we visited a wonderful arts and crafts centre with a wonderful large central building similar in my mind to a New Zealand marae with beautiful carved pillars. Here there was another wonderful local group playing - you guessed it - fabulous huge drums and pan pipes! As soon as we arrived the skies opened and rain poured down again. The market itself had several booths (we paddled in the puddles from one to another) with amazing, and I mean truly beautiful carvings and decorated with the pieces of nautilus shell that they are known for - oh I could have spent thousands here no problem at all!
Back onboard Orion we enjoyed afternoon tea - each afternoon at 4pm there is tea and small sandwiches & cakes in the front of the ship Galaxy Lounge and they play Aussie Trivia (with some questions about the Orion ship or lectures too) in teams (Cathy who also sings each night with Terry in the Leda Lounge asks all the questions). We don't join in the trivia teams but if we're in the lounge enjoying tea or coffee we enjoy listening to the questions and the hilarity at various answers!
Before dinner as always we had our cocktail watching the slide show prepared each day by the Expedition Team - it is such a great way to end each day and start the evening! Tomorrow we are off to Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands - a busy day with craft market, snorkelling & swimming, shark feeding and a village cultural visit - we need a good night's sleep!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
Well today is a bonus to make up for our 2 lost islands in the Solomons (Utupua and Santa Ana due to Cyclone Sandra which sent us scurrying North as fast as we could go to get out of Sandra's path - we did have lots of rain (and I mean LOTS) as well as rough seas and many folks taking sea sickness prevention medication or being sea sick! But as a result today we get to go to the capital city of the Solomon islands, HONIARA, on the northwest coast of the island of Guadalcanal since we are now 1 day ahead of schedule. From 1952 Honiara became the new capital of the British Protectorate of the Solomon Islands and the island started to grow after this.
However, in the late 1990's Honiara has suffered a turbulent history of ethnic violence and political unrest, scarred by rioting. In June 2000 a coup attempt resulted in violent rebellions and flighting between the Guadalcanal natives (Istabu Freedom Movement IFM) and the Malays (Malaita Eagle Force MEF). The Australian Military and police units moved in to Guadalcanal in July 2003 to restore order. There was another brief political uprising in 2006 but at the present time is looking optimistically towards the future. One of the big issues is due to traditional land ownership (more customs). As Honiara grows more people come from elsewhere and squat on land owned by the traditional Guadi people - which they do not like at all. Just another example of why we on the ship have been so carefully instructed just exactly where we can and cannot walk whenever we are taken ashore.
WWII HISTORY -- This island played a massive part in WWII and the first major offensive by the Allies against Japan took place on Guadalcanal from August 7, 1942 to February 9, 1943. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on Dec 7, 1941 the Japanese had advanced towards the South Pacific threatening the Allies' South Pacific ferry route connecting Australia and the USA. The Japanese invaded Guadalcanal in July 1942, had 8,400 men on the island by August with an airfield at Lunga Point, and the island became a major Japanese stronghold due to its' proximity to Australia. When you cruise around these islands you realise very quickly how close they all are to Australia's Northern Coastline.
Starting August 7, 1942 the US Marines landed on the Guadalcanal's Northern Beaches and over the next 3 months the Marines secured the airfield and a 6 mile stretch of beach. In October a USA Army unit arrived and together they continued pushing the Japanese further out. In the 4 day Battle of Guadalcanal in November the US Navy foiled Japan's Tokyo Express, which involved a reinforcement of the Japanese troops overnight onto the island by supply laden destroyers, and only 4,000 of the 10,000 Japanese Troops reached land.
After this battle the USA pushed on thrashing through the jungle in an effort to take Mount Austen facing heavy fire from the Japanese Troops. On January 1 & 2, 1943 the USA succeeded in securing most of the Gifu area and the West slopes of Mt Austen.
Our arrival into Honiara was unexpected and we were thrilled to be greeted by a large dancing group on the dock in their traditional thongs, banana leaves and skin decorations playing the huge drums, extra long pan pipes and dancers playing the smaller pan pipes - they played for an hour in the light rain and were wonderful to listen to, and watch, from the ship as we waited to be cleared by customs and immigration.
Then we all disembarked and loaded into small mini buses to tour the major sites in Honiara. This included the USA Memorial site, followed by the Japanese Memorial site a couple of hills away where it started to rain. We stopped at Bloody Ridge where the fighting was stalled for a long while, and were shown the fox holes still quite obvious there although they are now filled with long grass. The hills and fields were lush and green, and we could hear children playing and shouting all over - it is said that many Solomon Island Families have 8 children! Heading back to the ship we hit a traffic jam with an amazing number of mini vans on the road!
After lunch we had a shuttle service taking us back into town where we visited a wonderful arts and crafts centre with a wonderful large central building similar in my mind to a New Zealand marae with beautiful carved pillars. Here there was another wonderful local group playing - you guessed it - fabulous huge drums and pan pipes! As soon as we arrived the skies opened and rain poured down again. The market itself had several booths (we paddled in the puddles from one to another) with amazing, and I mean truly beautiful carvings and decorated with the pieces of nautilus shell that they are known for - oh I could have spent thousands here no problem at all!
Back onboard Orion we enjoyed afternoon tea - each afternoon at 4pm there is tea and small sandwiches & cakes in the front of the ship Galaxy Lounge and they play Aussie Trivia (with some questions about the Orion ship or lectures too) in teams (Cathy who also sings each night with Terry in the Leda Lounge asks all the questions). We don't join in the trivia teams but if we're in the lounge enjoying tea or coffee we enjoy listening to the questions and the hilarity at various answers!
Before dinner as always we had our cocktail watching the slide show prepared each day by the Expedition Team - it is such a great way to end each day and start the evening! Tomorrow we are off to Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands - a busy day with craft market, snorkelling & swimming, shark feeding and a village cultural visit - we need a good night's sleep!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
20130311 NGGELLA ISLAND, SOLOMON ISLANDS
Monday March 11, 2013 - Roderick Bay, NGGELLA ISLAND, Solomon Islands
We have arrived in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands into Nggella (or Florida) group. Savo & Russell islands (with huge coconut plantations owned by Ripel's) are also in Central Province. Before we head to the beach for swimming and snorkelling it was breakfast on deck in Delphinus - we so enjoy the wide variety of fresh fruits each morning! The huge clouds were very dark & heavy with rain - it looks like this might be a wet day and it is a whole day on the beach!
There are around 18,500 people in the Central Province and most live by subsistence farming. The bay that we pull into has a wreck from 2000 of the World Discoverer shipwreck - the Captain missed a very well marked rock when exiting the bay and then beached the ship to prevent it sinking. It looks eerie as we pull in to anchor for the day as sheets of rain obscure it at times. Apparently the local islanders stripped the vessel completely of anything that they could use, and this was a time of unrest in the islands. So apparently the rebels robbed all the passengers of their valuables before they left! It was a very similar size to the Orion so talk about food for thought!
We are soon loading on to the zodiacs with our snorkel gear ready and landing on Nggella island, very close to the World Discoverer, where the Expedition Staff have everything ready to go, including all the bright red kayaks. As we exit we take a walk along the beach to look at the wreck - it is such an eye sore but when it was suggested that it be salvaged and taken away, the villagers demanded 1 million dollars compensation since they felt that it has become a tourist attraction! Apart from a couple of photos I think I would disagree with that. We hadn't brought the camera with us because of the rain (note to self: buy a new waterproof camera before the next trip) but really enjoyed the short walk. There are very few folks here and there are very narrow trails disappearing back into the jungle.
An older couple walks by with bright red lips and mouth - they have been chewing the betel nut which is addictive and tastes dreadful according to Justin Friend - the Destination Manager on board. The betel nut is chewed with pepper leaf and ground lime - NOT the small green fruit, but made from coral, shell or (human?) bone ground into a powder and this is what gives the high when chewed with the betel nut. Apparently betel nut is chewed by 10% of the world's population - all through India, South East Asia, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The state of the teeth of the folks here who chew betel nut is dreadful, and that is from the lime not the actual betel nut. The growing and selling of betel nut is a major part of the economy in Solomon Islands.
We are only allowed to walk to a certain point along the shore in each direction, again according to the arrangements made by Orion with specific families or communities - everything being privately owned is fiercely protected (not that it ever caused us the slightest problem but was certainly of interest in how important every piece of land is when you only can eat and live by subsistence farming on your own piece of land).
We decided to head back to the Orion and get the camera since there were so many photo opportunities and it was very damp but not raining. As we returned the rain started and it absolutely poured - we wrapped the camera in a plastic bag inside the camera bag (were it has spent much time this trip) and huddled under the large sun umbrella with Kevin, one of the boys from Orion - but the rain continued on and on and on......... The Orion looked ghostly in the distance and one by one the snorkelers came back in and headed back to the Orion. The puddles grew all around us and eventually we gave up, paddled BACK to the zodiac! then jumped in and went back to Orion for lunch!
Because of the weather, Orion brought on board the men, women and children to entertain us - this had originally been planned for on shore in their village - I think the villagers loved that they could all be brought out to the Orion in the zodiacs and do their entertaining on the ship! They had the men play their drums and their bamboo pan pipes - never did we realise how big pan pipes are in the Solomon Islands, they are everywhere and are played all the time. They go from the huge 6 feet tall pan pipes which are rested on a trestle to the small pipes that a little more than half of each group plays. These guys danced synchronously at the same time that they played! They were all beautiful bodies with just a small loin cloth or banana leaf and some white painting decorations on their bodies (using the same white lime for the body decorations that they chew along with the betel nut). Then the young ladies danced, about 8 or 10 of them, with grass skirts, headdresses and banana leaf bras - all very much in sync with each other and singing at the same time while the men played the pipes and the drums.
Lastly came the very young boys (maybe 5 to 8 years old) who danced a contemporary dance with their instructor - they all had body decorations painted everywhere and really enjoyed themselves tremendously - it was wonderful entertainment even it was a shame that it was on the Orion versus under the palm trees on shore. This was their first time on the Orion (probably their first time on any ship) and they were all chattering excitedly and had big grins. Orion is very community minded and every stop that we made on the cruise they would bring locals on board (from the village or resort or dance group that they were working with) and take them through the ship and talk to them - trying very hard for the locals to learn and exchange our culture with theirs. These villagers left in the zodiacs all very excited and shouting and singing as they sped back to the shore in the high speed zodiacs.
We did return one more time to the shore, in the afternoon when the sun came out briefly, and managed a few photos including the huge puddle around the base of the very large communal hut that this family lived in. To have been able to take photos in the rain would have been wonderful so there was so many interesting shots and laughable events! It was a great day all around and lots more to come.
The recap of the events of the day that evening in the Leda Lounge was excellent, superb photos, and everyone had enjoyed a wonderful day whatever they had chosen to do
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
We have arrived in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands into Nggella (or Florida) group. Savo & Russell islands (with huge coconut plantations owned by Ripel's) are also in Central Province. Before we head to the beach for swimming and snorkelling it was breakfast on deck in Delphinus - we so enjoy the wide variety of fresh fruits each morning! The huge clouds were very dark & heavy with rain - it looks like this might be a wet day and it is a whole day on the beach!
There are around 18,500 people in the Central Province and most live by subsistence farming. The bay that we pull into has a wreck from 2000 of the World Discoverer shipwreck - the Captain missed a very well marked rock when exiting the bay and then beached the ship to prevent it sinking. It looks eerie as we pull in to anchor for the day as sheets of rain obscure it at times. Apparently the local islanders stripped the vessel completely of anything that they could use, and this was a time of unrest in the islands. So apparently the rebels robbed all the passengers of their valuables before they left! It was a very similar size to the Orion so talk about food for thought!
We are soon loading on to the zodiacs with our snorkel gear ready and landing on Nggella island, very close to the World Discoverer, where the Expedition Staff have everything ready to go, including all the bright red kayaks. As we exit we take a walk along the beach to look at the wreck - it is such an eye sore but when it was suggested that it be salvaged and taken away, the villagers demanded 1 million dollars compensation since they felt that it has become a tourist attraction! Apart from a couple of photos I think I would disagree with that. We hadn't brought the camera with us because of the rain (note to self: buy a new waterproof camera before the next trip) but really enjoyed the short walk. There are very few folks here and there are very narrow trails disappearing back into the jungle.
An older couple walks by with bright red lips and mouth - they have been chewing the betel nut which is addictive and tastes dreadful according to Justin Friend - the Destination Manager on board. The betel nut is chewed with pepper leaf and ground lime - NOT the small green fruit, but made from coral, shell or (human?) bone ground into a powder and this is what gives the high when chewed with the betel nut. Apparently betel nut is chewed by 10% of the world's population - all through India, South East Asia, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The state of the teeth of the folks here who chew betel nut is dreadful, and that is from the lime not the actual betel nut. The growing and selling of betel nut is a major part of the economy in Solomon Islands.
We are only allowed to walk to a certain point along the shore in each direction, again according to the arrangements made by Orion with specific families or communities - everything being privately owned is fiercely protected (not that it ever caused us the slightest problem but was certainly of interest in how important every piece of land is when you only can eat and live by subsistence farming on your own piece of land).
We decided to head back to the Orion and get the camera since there were so many photo opportunities and it was very damp but not raining. As we returned the rain started and it absolutely poured - we wrapped the camera in a plastic bag inside the camera bag (were it has spent much time this trip) and huddled under the large sun umbrella with Kevin, one of the boys from Orion - but the rain continued on and on and on......... The Orion looked ghostly in the distance and one by one the snorkelers came back in and headed back to the Orion. The puddles grew all around us and eventually we gave up, paddled BACK to the zodiac! then jumped in and went back to Orion for lunch!
Because of the weather, Orion brought on board the men, women and children to entertain us - this had originally been planned for on shore in their village - I think the villagers loved that they could all be brought out to the Orion in the zodiacs and do their entertaining on the ship! They had the men play their drums and their bamboo pan pipes - never did we realise how big pan pipes are in the Solomon Islands, they are everywhere and are played all the time. They go from the huge 6 feet tall pan pipes which are rested on a trestle to the small pipes that a little more than half of each group plays. These guys danced synchronously at the same time that they played! They were all beautiful bodies with just a small loin cloth or banana leaf and some white painting decorations on their bodies (using the same white lime for the body decorations that they chew along with the betel nut). Then the young ladies danced, about 8 or 10 of them, with grass skirts, headdresses and banana leaf bras - all very much in sync with each other and singing at the same time while the men played the pipes and the drums.
Lastly came the very young boys (maybe 5 to 8 years old) who danced a contemporary dance with their instructor - they all had body decorations painted everywhere and really enjoyed themselves tremendously - it was wonderful entertainment even it was a shame that it was on the Orion versus under the palm trees on shore. This was their first time on the Orion (probably their first time on any ship) and they were all chattering excitedly and had big grins. Orion is very community minded and every stop that we made on the cruise they would bring locals on board (from the village or resort or dance group that they were working with) and take them through the ship and talk to them - trying very hard for the locals to learn and exchange our culture with theirs. These villagers left in the zodiacs all very excited and shouting and singing as they sped back to the shore in the high speed zodiacs.
We did return one more time to the shore, in the afternoon when the sun came out briefly, and managed a few photos including the huge puddle around the base of the very large communal hut that this family lived in. To have been able to take photos in the rain would have been wonderful so there was so many interesting shots and laughable events! It was a great day all around and lots more to come.
The recap of the events of the day that evening in the Leda Lounge was excellent, superb photos, and everyone had enjoyed a wonderful day whatever they had chosen to do
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
20130310 AT SEA IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
20130310 AT SEA IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
We were glad to get up and head for an early coffee since the middle of the ship is not rocking and banging so much in the middle - even the continental breakfast was moved down to deck 4 in the Leda Lounge from its' usual location on deck 6 at the front in the Galaxy Lounge due to the weather, and the Stretch class at 730am with Eva was aso cancelled due to the weather. We were thrilled to look out of our stateroom window and see a sky that had some blue in it - the clouds appear to be breaking up! Sunrise was at 5:59am this morning and perhaps we will see some sunshine today!
HISTORY
So even though we can't see any land at all at the moment, here's some history of the Solomon Islands. It was around 30,000 BC when the first settlers arrived, the Pupuan speaking, followed around 4,000 BC by the Austronesia speakers who also brought with them the outrigger canoe. The Lapita people arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago between 800 and 1200 BC and were ancestors of the Polynesians - also bringing ceramics. The first European explorer was in 1568, Spanish Navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neira, the nephew of the Viceroy of Peru who sailed West in search of the legendary Terra Australis. There was little interest in his fidings, until Mendana gave the islands the name of the Solomons and it was supposed that King Solomon had obtained the gold from here with which he had adorned the temple at Jerusalem.
The reports of the gold wealth initiated a second expedition to the Solomon Islands by Mendana in 1595 and several island groups were "discovered" this time including the Marquesas Islands which Mandana named in honour of the wife of Garcia de Mendoza the Marquis de Canete, who was Viceroy of Peru at the time. Mendana died during this voyage and delegated his authority to his wife Isabel Barreto who took charge and led the fleet into Manila, Spain in February 1956 and has become known as the only Lady Admiral of the Ocean Seas to ever command the Spanish Navy!
The first missionaries arrived in the middle of the 19th century, but made little headway because of the existing labor trade known as "blackbirding" the brutal recruitment of laborers to work on the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji. This led to reprisals and massacres. In 1893 the UK declared a protectorate over the Southern Solomon Islands which was the basis for the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. More islands were added in 1898 and 1899 and in return for British withdrawal from Western Samoa, the remainder of the archipelago was added in 1900, with the exception of Buka and Bougainville islands which remained under German Administration as part of New Guinea - until 1914 when they were occupied by Australia after the commencement of World War I, and in 1920 were placed under Australian mandate by the League of Nations.
Under the protectorate, missionaries settled and most of the Solomons converted to Christianity. Large scale coconut planting was started in the early 20th century by the Australians and British, and still exists today, but economic growth has been very slow and the islanders benefitted little. Cocoa beans, coconuts, palm kernels, rice potatoes, vegetables and fruit are grown, and industry is limited to fish processing, mining, and lumbering (forestry). So talking about colonization, we have had the Spanish, Germans, British and Australians in the Solomon Islands so far. Most inhabitants are of Melanesian decent although some Polynesians live in the outlying atolls. English is the official language although the lingua franca is the pidgin language, and there are about 120 indigenous languages in all.
So we were very sorry to have missed Utupua island due to cyclone Sandy, because it was Polynesian based and quite different to some of the islands. But this morning we continued on our northwest course getting out of the way of Cyclone Sandra which is still heading more East than South East so we are having to work hard to get away from it. Breakfast was downstairs in the Constellation DiningRoom - much too wet and windy outside at the Delphinis Cafe. We did go outside at the front on deck 6 to take a look at the huge splashes being sent up as the bow crashed into the 5 metre swells. I had jst turned round to walk back towards the door - Terry was facing me and yelled "watch ot" and I was immediately soaked from head to foot by a huge bow wave that came all the wy up to deck 6, the top deck, and the deck that we were walking on! Fortunately I did have the camera in front of me and away from the wave behind me, so a few drops of water on it but mostly it stayed dry, which is more than can be said for my clothes!
A quick change was in order since we were on our way to the theatre to listen to David talk about the coral reefs and ecology - all really very depressing when you realise how all of our oceans have just about been fished out. By the time we came out of the 2 hour lecture , we came out into bright hot sunshine! We had arrived at the back of Santa Ana Island which is where the itinerary was to spend the day tomorrow, but of course we had missed Utupua Island so were here a day early. It was wonderful to be in calmer waters on the Eastern side of the island away from the wind and seas rushing at us from the West, however, Mick Fogg Expedition Leader then called us all into the Leda Lounge!
They had tried to anchor the Orion but it it is too deep for anchoring and the current was running at 4 knots so the ship could not just hang out in this spot. So we will NOT be visiting Santa Ana, the second spot on our itinerary that we are going to miss, so this is now very disappointing. But the Captain has to have safety as his first priority so we are continuing our cruise North to the next stop on our itinerary which will be Nggella in the Solomon Islands - so we continued cruising, enjoying lunch in the sun on the back deck Delphinus Cafe watching the islands pass by. By 2pm we were out from behind the islands and hitting good swells again and loud bangs from the bow of the ship when in our cabin.
Santa Ana,where we did NOT embark today, is also known as Owa Rafa or Owa Raha - a small fertile island which is a raised coral atoll. We should have anchored at Mary's Bay on the West side but of course could not because of the wind and weather. Santa Ana is known for its' carved wooden bowls which are shaped like sharks. The locals here physically resemble Melanesians but their culture has some Polynesian features - the mixing bowl of the South Pacific
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
We were glad to get up and head for an early coffee since the middle of the ship is not rocking and banging so much in the middle - even the continental breakfast was moved down to deck 4 in the Leda Lounge from its' usual location on deck 6 at the front in the Galaxy Lounge due to the weather, and the Stretch class at 730am with Eva was aso cancelled due to the weather. We were thrilled to look out of our stateroom window and see a sky that had some blue in it - the clouds appear to be breaking up! Sunrise was at 5:59am this morning and perhaps we will see some sunshine today!
HISTORY
So even though we can't see any land at all at the moment, here's some history of the Solomon Islands. It was around 30,000 BC when the first settlers arrived, the Pupuan speaking, followed around 4,000 BC by the Austronesia speakers who also brought with them the outrigger canoe. The Lapita people arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago between 800 and 1200 BC and were ancestors of the Polynesians - also bringing ceramics. The first European explorer was in 1568, Spanish Navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neira, the nephew of the Viceroy of Peru who sailed West in search of the legendary Terra Australis. There was little interest in his fidings, until Mendana gave the islands the name of the Solomons and it was supposed that King Solomon had obtained the gold from here with which he had adorned the temple at Jerusalem.
The reports of the gold wealth initiated a second expedition to the Solomon Islands by Mendana in 1595 and several island groups were "discovered" this time including the Marquesas Islands which Mandana named in honour of the wife of Garcia de Mendoza the Marquis de Canete, who was Viceroy of Peru at the time. Mendana died during this voyage and delegated his authority to his wife Isabel Barreto who took charge and led the fleet into Manila, Spain in February 1956 and has become known as the only Lady Admiral of the Ocean Seas to ever command the Spanish Navy!
The first missionaries arrived in the middle of the 19th century, but made little headway because of the existing labor trade known as "blackbirding" the brutal recruitment of laborers to work on the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji. This led to reprisals and massacres. In 1893 the UK declared a protectorate over the Southern Solomon Islands which was the basis for the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. More islands were added in 1898 and 1899 and in return for British withdrawal from Western Samoa, the remainder of the archipelago was added in 1900, with the exception of Buka and Bougainville islands which remained under German Administration as part of New Guinea - until 1914 when they were occupied by Australia after the commencement of World War I, and in 1920 were placed under Australian mandate by the League of Nations.
Under the protectorate, missionaries settled and most of the Solomons converted to Christianity. Large scale coconut planting was started in the early 20th century by the Australians and British, and still exists today, but economic growth has been very slow and the islanders benefitted little. Cocoa beans, coconuts, palm kernels, rice potatoes, vegetables and fruit are grown, and industry is limited to fish processing, mining, and lumbering (forestry). So talking about colonization, we have had the Spanish, Germans, British and Australians in the Solomon Islands so far. Most inhabitants are of Melanesian decent although some Polynesians live in the outlying atolls. English is the official language although the lingua franca is the pidgin language, and there are about 120 indigenous languages in all.
So we were very sorry to have missed Utupua island due to cyclone Sandy, because it was Polynesian based and quite different to some of the islands. But this morning we continued on our northwest course getting out of the way of Cyclone Sandra which is still heading more East than South East so we are having to work hard to get away from it. Breakfast was downstairs in the Constellation DiningRoom - much too wet and windy outside at the Delphinis Cafe. We did go outside at the front on deck 6 to take a look at the huge splashes being sent up as the bow crashed into the 5 metre swells. I had jst turned round to walk back towards the door - Terry was facing me and yelled "watch ot" and I was immediately soaked from head to foot by a huge bow wave that came all the wy up to deck 6, the top deck, and the deck that we were walking on! Fortunately I did have the camera in front of me and away from the wave behind me, so a few drops of water on it but mostly it stayed dry, which is more than can be said for my clothes!
A quick change was in order since we were on our way to the theatre to listen to David talk about the coral reefs and ecology - all really very depressing when you realise how all of our oceans have just about been fished out. By the time we came out of the 2 hour lecture , we came out into bright hot sunshine! We had arrived at the back of Santa Ana Island which is where the itinerary was to spend the day tomorrow, but of course we had missed Utupua Island so were here a day early. It was wonderful to be in calmer waters on the Eastern side of the island away from the wind and seas rushing at us from the West, however, Mick Fogg Expedition Leader then called us all into the Leda Lounge!
They had tried to anchor the Orion but it it is too deep for anchoring and the current was running at 4 knots so the ship could not just hang out in this spot. So we will NOT be visiting Santa Ana, the second spot on our itinerary that we are going to miss, so this is now very disappointing. But the Captain has to have safety as his first priority so we are continuing our cruise North to the next stop on our itinerary which will be Nggella in the Solomon Islands - so we continued cruising, enjoying lunch in the sun on the back deck Delphinus Cafe watching the islands pass by. By 2pm we were out from behind the islands and hitting good swells again and loud bangs from the bow of the ship when in our cabin.
Santa Ana,where we did NOT embark today, is also known as Owa Rafa or Owa Raha - a small fertile island which is a raised coral atoll. We should have anchored at Mary's Bay on the West side but of course could not because of the wind and weather. Santa Ana is known for its' carved wooden bowls which are shaped like sharks. The locals here physically resemble Melanesians but their culture has some Polynesian features - the mixing bowl of the South Pacific
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
Saturday, March 9, 2013
MARCH 9, 2013 RUNNING FROM CYCLONE SANDRA, SOLOMON ISLANDS
20130309 AT SEA on the way to Santa Ana , Solomon Islands
currently running from Cyclone Sandra!
It's 730am on Sunday morning and we're enjoying a latte in the Leda Lounge on board Orion. The sun is trying to break through and we're hoping that we've left Cyclone Sandra behind us! Sandra was heading south east - East and for the last 38 hours we have been running as fast as the Orion can go in a North West direction to avoid Cyclone Sandra. It made for a very (and I mean VERY ) bumpy ride but it appears that Captain Vincent has got us away from the worst of the weather! There is also a tropical low (may yet become a cyclone to the East of where we were so we were running against this huge wind tunnel (they called it the perfect storm) as we raced away. We also had to miss a very special island visit to UTUPUA which is such a shame but there was no protection for the ORION to anchor anywhere near this coral atoll, so the Captain and Mick Fogg Expedition Leader said we just couldn't risk it.
Yesterday was very rough, damp and windy but we're hoping today will allow us to get close towards our next destination of Santa Ana in the Solomon Islands, although the entry is going to be renegotiated when we arrive since the planned anchorage is in North West Bay which is exactly the direction where the wind is coming from - the excitement continues!!
We still have sea sickness pills left and yes, we have been using them! Outside the swells are 3 to 4 metres and every now and then we crash and the massive amounts of white spray go flying past the windows! The ship's bow goes up and comes crashing down about every 5 seconds, sometimes making the whole ship shudder. The ocean is pretty grey with lots of white caps and white spray rolling down the sides of the waves. As soon as I stood up this morning, after a very disturbed night, I felt quite sick so took a sea sick pill and the whole day I took it very steady - by the end of the day and pill number two I felt pretty good!
We attended several talks today with guest lecturer David Silkenberg (from Norway, originally from USA) and Expedition staff member Harry. There is a lecture theatre on deck 6 of the Orion with enough seats to accommodate everyone and excellent facilities. Needless to say being right up front and on the top deck we did some rocking and rolling when we were there! David's lecture was all about geography and the tectonic plates, the moving and shifting, how volcanoes erupt - very interesting for sure and he was interesting and easy to listen to. Harry's lecture was about coral - when these animals started to first live and how they have changed and developed over time, and he showed us many photos of various types of coral and fish. Justin (from Orion head office staff but an Expedition member on this cruise) also gave a lecture about the government on the Solomon Islands, and corruption, and civil wars and how the islands were divided up after WWII.
In addition Terry slept for a couple of hours on the back deck where we could get fresh air and stay out of the wind and rain which was really fierce at times. I slept a couple of hours in the cabin in the afternoon, either the sleeping pills and / or the rocking and rolling making its' effect known! Certainly being at the front of the Orion we really feel the up and down motion of the ship in these huge swells, but it is so much more stable than the Tere Moana that we were on in January- I would not enjoy being on the Tere Moana in the seas that we are riding today! We enjoyed scones with strawberry jam and fresh cream in the Leda lounge at 4pm, accompanied by Terry (not Umbach) plating soft Spanish guitar while we ate - so very pleasant!
Before dinner Mick Fogg gave us an update on the weather - Cyclone Sandra is still heading East and not as South East as forecast so we are still feeling the effects as well as of the low depression just East of us. Then we watched a slide show which was the recap of our time on board so far - some great photos that theExpedition Staff have taken during the first four days. We sat with a couple,John and Jo, in their 40's from Chester, England at dinner, along with Rick and Helene from Noosa Heads in Aussie. It was an enjoyable dinner and lots of interesting conversation from these very well travelled passengers. In fact, the clients on this cruise are amazing in regard to their travels - they have been to so many places in the world, many have travelled on many Orion cruise itineraries, and without fail they all have at least one or two more trips already booked and planned! For dinner it is a la carte each evening, and tonight I started with cauliflower soup (I guess for those of you who know me well you will be quite impressed that I ate white soup!) and Terry started with nasi goreng and we both followed with lamb shank (excellent) followed by ice cream - presentation was amazing! Most definitely we were not going to do justice to the 5 course gustation menu tonight!
We were back in our stateroom before 10pm - the fact that there are empty sick bags tucked in behind all the railings along the corridors as we walked to the stateroom confirming just how rough the ocean outside really is! We fell into bed and all the crashing and banging behind our heads confirmed our expectations that it would be a very restless night!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
Sent from my iPad
currently running from Cyclone Sandra!
It's 730am on Sunday morning and we're enjoying a latte in the Leda Lounge on board Orion. The sun is trying to break through and we're hoping that we've left Cyclone Sandra behind us! Sandra was heading south east - East and for the last 38 hours we have been running as fast as the Orion can go in a North West direction to avoid Cyclone Sandra. It made for a very (and I mean VERY ) bumpy ride but it appears that Captain Vincent has got us away from the worst of the weather! There is also a tropical low (may yet become a cyclone to the East of where we were so we were running against this huge wind tunnel (they called it the perfect storm) as we raced away. We also had to miss a very special island visit to UTUPUA which is such a shame but there was no protection for the ORION to anchor anywhere near this coral atoll, so the Captain and Mick Fogg Expedition Leader said we just couldn't risk it.
Yesterday was very rough, damp and windy but we're hoping today will allow us to get close towards our next destination of Santa Ana in the Solomon Islands, although the entry is going to be renegotiated when we arrive since the planned anchorage is in North West Bay which is exactly the direction where the wind is coming from - the excitement continues!!
We still have sea sickness pills left and yes, we have been using them! Outside the swells are 3 to 4 metres and every now and then we crash and the massive amounts of white spray go flying past the windows! The ship's bow goes up and comes crashing down about every 5 seconds, sometimes making the whole ship shudder. The ocean is pretty grey with lots of white caps and white spray rolling down the sides of the waves. As soon as I stood up this morning, after a very disturbed night, I felt quite sick so took a sea sick pill and the whole day I took it very steady - by the end of the day and pill number two I felt pretty good!
We attended several talks today with guest lecturer David Silkenberg (from Norway, originally from USA) and Expedition staff member Harry. There is a lecture theatre on deck 6 of the Orion with enough seats to accommodate everyone and excellent facilities. Needless to say being right up front and on the top deck we did some rocking and rolling when we were there! David's lecture was all about geography and the tectonic plates, the moving and shifting, how volcanoes erupt - very interesting for sure and he was interesting and easy to listen to. Harry's lecture was about coral - when these animals started to first live and how they have changed and developed over time, and he showed us many photos of various types of coral and fish. Justin (from Orion head office staff but an Expedition member on this cruise) also gave a lecture about the government on the Solomon Islands, and corruption, and civil wars and how the islands were divided up after WWII.
In addition Terry slept for a couple of hours on the back deck where we could get fresh air and stay out of the wind and rain which was really fierce at times. I slept a couple of hours in the cabin in the afternoon, either the sleeping pills and / or the rocking and rolling making its' effect known! Certainly being at the front of the Orion we really feel the up and down motion of the ship in these huge swells, but it is so much more stable than the Tere Moana that we were on in January- I would not enjoy being on the Tere Moana in the seas that we are riding today! We enjoyed scones with strawberry jam and fresh cream in the Leda lounge at 4pm, accompanied by Terry (not Umbach) plating soft Spanish guitar while we ate - so very pleasant!
Before dinner Mick Fogg gave us an update on the weather - Cyclone Sandra is still heading East and not as South East as forecast so we are still feeling the effects as well as of the low depression just East of us. Then we watched a slide show which was the recap of our time on board so far - some great photos that theExpedition Staff have taken during the first four days. We sat with a couple,John and Jo, in their 40's from Chester, England at dinner, along with Rick and Helene from Noosa Heads in Aussie. It was an enjoyable dinner and lots of interesting conversation from these very well travelled passengers. In fact, the clients on this cruise are amazing in regard to their travels - they have been to so many places in the world, many have travelled on many Orion cruise itineraries, and without fail they all have at least one or two more trips already booked and planned! For dinner it is a la carte each evening, and tonight I started with cauliflower soup (I guess for those of you who know me well you will be quite impressed that I ate white soup!) and Terry started with nasi goreng and we both followed with lamb shank (excellent) followed by ice cream - presentation was amazing! Most definitely we were not going to do justice to the 5 course gustation menu tonight!
We were back in our stateroom before 10pm - the fact that there are empty sick bags tucked in behind all the railings along the corridors as we walked to the stateroom confirming just how rough the ocean outside really is! We fell into bed and all the crashing and banging behind our heads confirmed our expectations that it would be a very restless night!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
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