Beasts of the Southern Wild at Sundance and the Oscars

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Melanesia Discovery on the Orion March 2013

Melanesian Discovery trip on MV Orion March 2-19, 2013 (Another name might be the Failed States of the Coral Sea Tour) 
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This trip came about at Beth's invitation because she left the US on 12/26 and planned to be gone thru April (now May). She invited us to meet her about half way thru her trip and did the research to find the Orion cruise. I figured it might be a good thing to reestablish contact with Beth in the hope of keeping her from going native and never returning home.

March 2-4 In transit
This trip also sneaked up on us, for many reasons- planning to sell Ingrid's house, making decisions about the endless pool project at our house, getting used to Rusty's increased level of care needed in light of no way to control where he goes except to keep him inside and with limited access to that, but especially because of Michael and Beasts and the buildup to the Oscars including Connie's quick trip to California for the event.
Actually the travel across the Pacific was relatively painless on Air NZ. I don't remember our switchover from Auckland to Nadi in Fiji, but we made it and had a day of rest there. (I did not realize it at the time but our stopover in Fiji, which was done to make sure we got to Port Vila in Vanuatu on time, also allowed us to say we have visited all four countries counted as Melanesia.)

March 4- Nadi, Fiji

Bula! That’s what the Fijians say for “Hello”, and they say it a lot.

Because Air NZ flight was so long and the seat/ reclining bed was so good, we had enough energy to go for a hotel recommended tour of part of the island. Our driver was Indian and told us a lot about the ethnic groups- village people (ie native Fijians), Indians (37%), and Chinese and others. The Indians came three generations ago to work the sugar cane but the cane business is dying out. Fiji is a sort of failed state (like the Solomon's and Papua New Guinea) and is currently run by the military with another election due in 2014. The problem is the native peoples own the land and can’t agree with the Indians over proper compensation for use of it.
One of our stops was in one of the villages where the guide showed us the Methodist church which holds John Wesley's shirt’s buttons- he came as a missionary and disappeared in the interior, but the native search party came back with his buttons. Hmm, was he eaten?

And Hmmm again- At Connie’s request I looked up John Wesley in Wikipedia and it says he died in London. So the Fijian Methodist Church is operating under an illusion, but it might be nearly right. Further internet research indicates that a ship called the John Wesley arrived in Fiji with some missionaries and maybe one of these is the guy who met his fate in the hills and had his buttons brought back to reside in the church.

 Another stop was a beautiful 16 acre orchid garden started and supported for many years by Raymond Burr of Perry Mason fame. Other than the orchids most of the other plants were native species.
After the tour, dinner at the Novotel and some out of sync sleep before a very early flight to Port Vila in Vanuatu.

Dominant bird seen was the Mynah.

March 5- Port Vila, Vanuatu- the Warwick Lagoon Hotel
At about this time in the trip, travel for 31 hours, more or less straight, and switching over between three countries was beginning to lead to time and currency confusion.
We arrived at the hotel and caught up with Beth who got there a day ahead of us. The hotel sits on the shore of a beautiful lagoon and has a large very curvy shaped pool. The grounds are extensive and full of well laid out paths to bungalows and buildings edged with a large variety of tropical plants. Unfortunately, at any moment there could be torrential downpours.
I tried to get on the Internet but it wasn't working so the hotel called a rep from Digicel to come over and help me. He had a hard time but while he was trying we had a good conversation- he is a Pakistani and has been stationed by the company in South Africa, Uganda, and Congo. He works 16 hour days  and climbed the local mountains during his time off. He let me have the Internet for 24 hours at a 2 dollar cost because of the problem.
Rain, a good dinner, a better buffet breakfast, more rain, and then on to the next part.

  Birds- White rumped swiftlets zooming around the hotel, and the ever present Indian Mynahs hopping around and squawking all the time. I also spotted a large dove with bright green wings to the shoulders which I still need to look up. Rainbow lorikeets flying and squawking overhead the whole trip from here on but never visible except in silhouette.

March 6- Port Vila, Vanuatu, boarding the Orion
It sure seems like it took a long time to get to the cruise part of this trip.
Our big problem this day was actually getting to the ship. The directions were to go to the main wharf off Lini Road and there would be the Orion. The taxi driver's English wasn't too good and neither my Bislama nor my Pidgin English were very good, so he started to take us to the airport. After we cleared that up, we went to the wharf and found no Orion but a huge Princess cruise liner there with 2000 passengers all checking out the multitude of stalls selling things right at the pier. We could then see Orion anchored off across the water but could not figure out how to get to it. After a couple of circuits between the wharf and a hotel with a little water taxi dock next to it, I spotted someone with an Orion shirt near a cafe and we found the zodiacs.
It felt good after three days of travel to unpack and get oriented to the boat, which has many more luxury type features than the Lindblad NatGeo ships we have been on- notably more room in the cabin, a real shop, hair salon, and a lecture room with theatre seating.

  At the welcome party, we met our Captain, who looks like a college sophomore and is actually 35 years old, but his cv indicates he has worked his way up and knows this ship very well.

March 7- Malakula, Vanuatu (named by Captain Cook)

  For this first day, we went ashore in the morning on the second largest of the Vanuatu group to a ceremonial ground which the guide said had never been visited by tourists. As we waded to shore from the zodiacs, we were greeted by the native women with hibiscus leis and were offered cocoanut drinks in the shell thru a reed straw. There were also a couple of men in grass skirts looking kind of serious (these are or were also known as the Cannibal Islands). Next we went inshore a couple of hundred yards to the dance ground. There the island populace had also gathered, old and young, men and women. The first dance was the Octopus dance, then the pig (feral pigs being a big source of protein) dance and then a combination of both.

From what I could tell this area gets about 2 cruise ships a year, and purchases of the totem head dresses and other things probably contributes a lot to the economy. One other thing to note is that natives of the Vanuatu Islands call themselves either members of the Small Nambas tribe or the Large Nambas tribe, and the word Nambas refers basically to the size of the customary banana leaf codpiece worn by the tribesmen.

These islands used to be visited by missionaries and people wanting to harvest sandalwood. Now a lot of palms are grown. After the dancing we broke up into smaller groups and walked on a short trial with a native guide teaching us about their culture, the plants they make use of, spirits etc. Back to the ship for lunch and then we split into 2 large groups with some going snorkeling from a very small beach with a beautiful coral drop off a little farther than I went and then switching to go on a zodiac ride around the lagoon and a walk through a tiny village.

Birds  spotted- Australian pelicans, which were new to the area and the natives hadn't yet decided whether it was ok to eat them yet. Reef Egret.

   Tonight we also found out that Lindblad is buying the Orion. A lot of the Aussie passengers (one couple has been on 15 or more trips on Orion) are worried about the fate of the people who work on the ship and the influx of Americans.

One more observation for now- it looks to me like the sea and land are pretty well used up in these people's attempts to eke out the means to live. I could not find a decent sized fish or a fish that looked edible in the waters on this whole trip.   

March 8- Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu (the largest island in Vanuatu)

Too much going on today- there was a scuba dive at a sunken US troop carrier (the SS President Coolidge) (hit a mine), which Beth did (down about 30 meters); a WWII tour of the island, including Million Dollar Point, where the US just dumped tons of equipment at the end of the war rather than pay to bring it home; a native dugout fishing trip; and a dugout paddle up a creek (RiRi River) with crystal clear water- this is what Connie and I did.

Espiritu Santo is the island where James A  Michener stayed and became the basis for his Tales of the South Pacific.

 March 9- At Sea heading toward the Solomon Islands

Not my best day. The Expedition Leader told us on the night of the 8th that a cyclone had formed in our area and that the Captain and he had decided that it was best to move out as best we could away from the way Cyclone Sandra was expected to go. During the day there was a lot of cloud, some rain, increasingly larger waves. There were some lectures and then an open bridge tour. I went to the first lecture, laid down during the second, tried to go on the bridge tour, but lost it pretty dramatically. On the positive side these boats feed you pretty well and so a couple of skipped meals helped keep things in balance.

Bird- lots of shearwaters but no distinguishing marks for me.

March 10- More at sea and then Nggella Island on March 11

We reached our next island but found that there was too much current to hold so we motored on all day and night to Nggella which is in the Florida group of Islands.

Rain, rain, rain. But this was an interesting stop in that we visited a sunken tour boat, looking eerily similar to the one we were on, which in 2000 had been sunk by an unnoticed coral head while the Captain was giving a bridge tour. The Captain then ran the World Discoverer ashore so he could offload the passengers safely, and all did get ashore. Coincidently and unfortunately at this time there was a rebellion going on in the Solomon Islands basically caused by the former

colonial powers sticking Bougainville which historically had been part of the Solomons into Papua New Guinea. Going back to the wreck, within hours of wrecking and the passengers going ashore, the passengers were robbed of every thing by a group of rebels who had heard about the wreck.  It is a terrifying thought to be stranded on one of these islands with the insects, the monsoon rains, the impassable jungle right down to the beach, and having to wait for help to arrive. I think about Lord of the Flies.

   The interesting follow up to the story of the wreck is that now it is a bit of a tourist attraction for the man who "owns" that little stretch of beach. Even though only 2 tour ships come through a year, he and his relatives are resisting the efforts of anyone to salvage the metal or the insurance company to recover the hulk.

   March 12- Honiara, on the Island of Guadalcanal, and capital of the Solomon Islands

    It was a short cruise of only 25 miles from Nggella to Honiara but it was very sad to think about the history we were passing over and by. Savo Island was off to our right, and it was behind the cover of this that the Japanese staged a sneak attack on US troops once established on Tilagi in the Floridas (back over near Nggella).

  During the fighting at Guadalcanal so many ships were lost in this passage that the area was called Iron Bottom Sound. 

  In 1942 the Japanese had an airfield on Guadalcanal which the Allies took pretty easily and renamed Henderson Field. It was vital to hold for both sides and the Japanese mounted a furious counterattack through the jungle.

  The Orion had never been to Honiara before but our expedition team quickly organized a tour which took us to the most famous part of the battlefield near Henderson Field (no longer in use) which is called Edson's Ridge or Bloody Ridge. Here the marines, who had the advantage of interior lines of communication, had their line bent almost to the breaking point. At one time Edson's men were starting a panicked and disorderly retreat but he stood and made the others stand with him by sheer will power. When asked by the distant command post how it was going, although stretched to the limit, he radioed back and said "we can hold" and that was the key that led the commanding officer to commit his reserves which then led to holding the field.

  We rode in very cramped wagons thru the mud and rough roads up there and could see the Field, the ridge, and from where the Japanese attacked. There is a very sad cement pyramid to mark the battle- one can't even read an inscription on it. Out of nowhere about twenty or thirty children and a few adults materialized with all sorts of battlefield artifacts for sale, such as coke bottles, bullet casings, a helmet, and old coins. Connie bought a dog tag with the intent of looking up the soldier.

The little bus seating incident, the details of which we didn’t learn from Beth until a couple of days later.

 The rest of the tour took us to the Japanese memorial (well done and very peaceful and respectful of both sides and the natives (quite possibly due to guilt about how they treated the natives in 1942, driving them onto the side of the Americans)) and then to the American memorial, with its very different tone, more honoring only Allied sacrifices. We then saw the statue of a native coast watcher loyal to the US who was captured by the Japanese, stabbed 7 times and tied up and left for dead. He chewed thru his bindings, crawled 3 miles, and gave his report to the US side before getting medical attention. He survived and was knighted by the British. After going back to the ship, we walked back into town to see the market which was mostly carved figures, exquisitely done and inlaid with nacre. In this bustling town of 50,000 people almost all of which are living at the very edge of subsistence, there is a billboard on the main street asking “Have you walked your 30 minutes today?”.

  March 13- Marovo Lagoon, Uepi, and Mateana

This was another of those busy days, with Beth going on the scuba dives, Connie going on the Telina Village tour, me going snorkeling, everyone going over to Uepi where there was a little carving market with some beautiful carvings (see our bowl at home), and everyone observing the shark feeding (all the collected sea food scraps from 7 days at sea). The tropical fish and coral on the snorkel trip were so vibrant and plentiful. I particularly like the bright electric blue little ones in the shallow water. Again, nothing edible or sporting visible.

Today’s notable lecture was by Justin on Betel (red gums, red spit and eroded teeth) and Kava (root pulp in olden days chewed by a maiden into edible form, producing a very relaxed, mellow state). Betel- 7% of population on earth uses it, in these parts children start at about 10 or 12.

March 14- another day at sea on the way to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

Luckily the seas were much calmer this day at sea. Most of the day was taken up with some just great lectures- one on the social and economic progress or regress in these 4 countries we have visited using a web tool called gapminder.org (what an amazing site for statistical data and country to country comparison in categories such as lifespan, maternal and child health measures, GDP etc). The next one was on the history of the Rabaul volcano by our leader Mick Fogg (sounds like a Dickens character, a great Aussie guy, probably about 50 something and newlywed with a one year old son, born in Scotland, now living in Indonesia). There was a massive explosion of these volcanoes (there are 4 or 5 of them) in 540 AD. Then there was another huge one in 1940. (The Japanese moved in afterwards and had 47,000 troops there during WWII, but, rather than invade, MacArthur ignored Rabaul and let it wither without supplies. However the US did drop lots of bombs into the volcano crater in an effort to get it to blow big time.) Then a gigantic one erupted in 1994 from which the city has yet to recover. The former airport is now the “golf course”, all lava field where you would only need a sand wedge to play.

The third lecture was by our anthropologist Justin Friend, talking about his wedding in Papua New Guinean style to a Papuan woman- bride price, pigs cooked and left out a night for the wedding feast- quite hilarious and definitely worth putting together in the form of a book.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the evening entertainment was talent show by the ship staff, and who knew the Filipinos on the deck crew could sing and dance? The highlight for me was a rendition of the Village People’s “In the Navy”.

March 15- Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

Connie and Beth signed up for the town tour which took them to Gen. Yamamoto’s bunker, the volcano observatory, the lava damaged Rabaul Hotel and other sights. I went by bus, then scary boat ride (high wind, crocs), to the edge of the volcano. It belched for us which was very convenient.

Packing.

March 16- Rabaul to Cairns

Who knew you needed a visa to get into Australia? Relaxing day on the shore in Cairns- no one on the beach- croc warnings and stinger box jellyfish, but lots of shore birds. Dinner with friends from the boat.

March 17- relaxing day in Cairns

Best souvenir of the trip- a $100 trillion bill from 2008 in Zimbabwe. Flying foxes roosting in the trees downtown!!

March 18- the longest day, Cairns to Brisbane to Auckland to LAX. Reunion dinner in LA with Rich and Darla, whom we haven’t seen together since about 2006, we think.

March 19- home to a sick Rusty.