Anyway, we caught a few hours’ sleep then walked around the port area. The last time we were in Auckland was in November 1997. It was evident that this is a port city, by the types of shops that we passed while walking. These included Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Prada, and so on. It was odd to see people lined up outside these shops waiting patiently to get in just to buy a designer purse! Thankfully we walked on by.
The next day we boarded our home for the next 40 days – the MS Maasdam. The boarding was easy – too easy we thought! As it turns out there were only about 200 of us boarding from Auckland, because the ship had departed from Sydney 10 days before to cruise around New Zealand!
Anyway, we got to our suite and had a leisurely afternoon of actually unpacking our suitcases for the first time in 40 days. Yay! No more hauling suitcases!
As Sonya was unpacking, she commented that she was pleased with how well she did in coordinating our clothing. She also let it slip that she had enough clothes for an 80-day cruise. My brother-in-law, Randy, would say that nothing has changed since we were all last in New Zealand in 1997! Ah well, some things don’t change, I suppose!
We set sail at 5 pm and had two days of sailing to get to our first port of call, so the Captain called for a gala evening on our second full day of sailing.
Yes, I did pack a tie (two in fact, hence the large suitcases, right Sonya – must be those ties?).
On day four, we reached our first port of call, Mystery Island, Vanuatu. Now, if you don’t recall the name Vanuatu, you are not alone. Formally known as the New Hebrides, you will need to google to find the original Hebrides Islands. For many years, these islands were jointly managed by the French and the English, using what was called a condominium style government. Apparently, there were a lot of people that referred to it as a pandemonium style government because of the large ‘cracks’ there were in the joint administration! Imagine the French and English agreeing on anything - let alone government process!
In any case, they attained their independence on July 30, 1980. Vanuatu is like two different countries. There are well developed islands like Efate and Santo, where there are roads, electricity, tourism, infrastructure and so forth. And then there are the other 81 islands, where life goes on without basic infrastructure and the islanders survive on subsistence farming.
Corruption in politics is nothing new since independence, but it came to a head in 2015 when 14 MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Moan Carcasses were found guilty of bribery and corruption and sent to prison for up to four years! Not much different than elsewhere, except they actually got prison terms!
Vanuatu is often called the Land of Smiles, because it was once named the world’s happiest place. Much of Vanuatu’s economy is agricultural, with approximately 80% of the population involved in farming and fishing. Some exports include copra (dried coconut), beef, cocoa and kava.
Yes John, I hear you – enough of the history lesson and get on with the pictures already!
OK, so you see Mystery Island above and you think, what could possibly be there, right? Well, not much actually – just a grass airstrip! The people of the neighbouring island of Aneityum believe that Mystery Island is the home of ghosts, so no one will live there at night. Many cruise ships stop and tender people to this island, because the beaches are lovely, the snorkeling at the marine reserve off the end of the airstrip is something else! Our ship was the 61st of the year!
So, our tender dropped us at Mystery Island, and we immediately jumped on another local boat to go to Keamu, a village on the adjacent island of Aneityum. Here is view of Aneityum from Mystery Island.
We were escorted to the village and, upon arriving, we were challenged by a group of locals sporting clubs and spears as to what our purpose was. Once it was established that we came in peace, we had to sport a bit of local flora known as Inpa - which means you come in peace.
Fetching, isn’t it?
They showed us much of their traditional way of life, much of which is still applicable today. The local interpreter told us that he tried working as an electrician’s apprentice for a period of time on one of the more northerly islands, but could not manage his money and did not like the lifestyle, so he moved back to Aneityum to live the more traditional lifestyle.
This is the village chief (roughly akin to our town mayor or tribal elder). When we spoke with him (in both English and French!), he told us that his prime responsibility is to see to the well-being of the villagers and to keep the peace within the village. In older times, the chief used to have a group of warriors to protect him and to cook for him, lest a disgruntled villager try to attack him or poison his food. Today things are much more sedate, but they still hunt and fish for their food, and their buildings are a mix of corrugated steel sided structures, wood-sided buildings and buildings made of bamboo frame covered in woven leaves of various local trees. They still sleep on woven mats – no mattresses here.
Here, one of the village ladies is weaving a basket. On this island, wives are bartered for with baskets, mats, and perhaps a few small animals, but not for money! Weaving is a critical skill that is taught from the time the children are 5 years old.
These delicate hands were weaving an intricate pattern.
As I mentioned, they are subsistence farmers and fishers have and have a very unique way of fishing that is quite effective.
They take coconut leaves and split them down the middle and join these two halves together to make a long rope – like what you see above, but considerably longer. It may be 20-25 metres in circumference so that they can put it in a tidal pool area before the tide starts to recede. The leaves and the strands of the coconut stand up in the water creating a barrier that the fish will not swim through, so they end up encircled inside the tidal pool. The villagers then spear the fish and collect the seafood that they need for the next meal or two and then pick up the leaf rope to be used again. The remaining fish swim in the tidal pool until the tide returns (in about 6 hours) and then swim off and the process repeats itself. Quite ingenious and very efficient!
They showed us how they make their Kava (alcohol like) drink and how they make their meals on the fire, and then treated us to some of the local delicacies.
As we were ready to depart, they treated us to one of their traditional dances to send us on our way. (Click the video to play.)
And one last picture of Aneityum Island before we leave, only because I like the symmetry of the picture! Oh and, by the way, that mountain you see is a dormant, possibly extinct, volcano.
OK, a bit more of a geography lesson before we leave Vanuatu. The islands of Vanuatu are on the western side of what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. No, this is not a reference to Johnny Cash’s song (although that may be a good theme song), but rather to an area in the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Wikipedia lists 24 volcanoes on the Vanuatu archipelago alone.
The ring is a nearly continuous series of Oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, volcanic belts and plate movements. Many of you will have heard of the San Andreas fault - in fact, it runs right by our winter get away in Palm Springs. Well, Vanuatu is on the same Ring of Fire. Here is a picture of the Pacific Ring of Fire. (Vanuatu is situated just west of the Tonga trench shown on this picture.)
More than 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes are on the ring. Remember the earthquake and tsunami of 2004 in Indonesia, and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan – on the Ring of Fire!
For the next four days we visited the islands of New Caledonia. James Cook discovered these islands in 1774 and so named them (Caledonia being the Latin name for Scotland), because the terrain very much reminded him of Scotland. There are so many small islands in this archipelago that experts have given up counting them!
New Caledonia was colonized by the French in 1853 by Emperor Napoleon III. (It is interesting that the British did not object!) The area became a penal colony for France, who was looking for alternatives to their penal settlements in French Guyana in South America. They sent more than 22,000 prisoners (both criminals and political prisoners) between 1864 and 1897 when the practice ceased. The hard labour convicts (serving eight years or more) were subject to perpetual residency in the colony after they had served their jail time. The convicts carried out the colony’s public works and built the cathedral
During this time, nickel was discovered, and mining was to become a large part of the economy. Today, the islands contain approximately 10% of the world’s nickel reserves, and Vale SA, the world’s top nickel producer announced that it will invest $500 million in the New Caledonia nickel mine between 2019 and 2022. Their decision is in large part due to the company’s new understanding of the importance of an expected surge in electric vehicle sales. Nickel is a key input for most types of lithium-ion batteries, including those used in electric cars.
During our four-day tour of these islands, we visited Lifou, Ile de Pins (Ile of Pines), Tadine and the capital, Noumea on the large island.
Our ship, the Maasdam, has never been to Lifou before, so there was a formal welcoming ceremony. In honor, the local chief and some of his entourage, seen here,
were on hand to meet the ship’s Captain.
They all sang, with the ladies keeping time to the two drummers (see the tall wood drums in the last picture)
and several of the warriors, such as this one
danced, perhaps in part to show their agility and prowess.
We took a tour of the local tropical forest. Our tour guide, seen here
was conducting her first ever tour and in English to boot! She was, understandably, a little shy and had some challenges with English, so I interpreted a few words here and there to help her along. It was fun for me and I believe she appreciated my efforts.
As we were leaving this enchanted isle, Sonya caught a representative picture of the island’s beauty.
We were both reminded of how much this area makes us think of the Caribbean. And later that evening aboard ship, she managed to catch this shot.
The next morning, we arrived at Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines) for a short tour of the island. We were welcomed once again by some dancers. This time they had a youngster in training as well!
Naturally, Sonya could not resist getting a memory of this little one! This island is where one of the French Missionaries (Marists) landed and celebrated Holy Mass to bring the Christian religion to the area. This site
is where the mass was celebrated and a commemorative statue was erected, together with the local people’s totems, as you can see here. An interesting blend of Christianity and traditional beliefs.
We were then shown some of their traditional boats.
As you can see, the locals are a bit tinier on the backside than some of us! To this was added an outrigger for stability. It turns out that they still carve boats from trees here, but they have adapted their traditional boats a bit.
On Sunday day we went out on the Zodiac inflatable boats to see some coral that surrounded the island of Tadine. We were on the first boarded Zodiac, so the guide / driver took us to the front of the ship for a different viewpoint.
After that we were off to the coral reefs. They have cones to look through so that you can see the coral clearly. Here are our travel colleagues on another Zodiac.
Here is a closer look at one of those cones and the resulting view of the coral.
Now, our guide had suggested that one of the things that we “could try” was to put a phone camera on video mode and put it at the bottom of the cone and shoot some of the coral. Here is the result (click the video to play):
Cool right!
When the Zodiac tour was finished, we went ashore for a reconnaissance walk of the island, then back to the ship offshore.
On Monday (Happy Thanksgiving Canada!), we landed in Noumea, the Capital City of the Island Country – population 100,000 – and the only city in New Caledonia with traffic lights. This is quite a cosmopolitan city, in large part thanks to the Australian, New Zealand and, especially, the American troops that landed here from 1942 to 1946 as part of WWII defense against Japan.
The American armed forces provided a complete shift in the way of life of this island nation. Until the war, the islands were a colony of France and indigenous population had few rights or privileges. After the fall of France, the general counsel of New Caledonia voted unanimously to support the French Free Government (think French Resistance). The territory became an important Allied base in 1942 with the help of the Australians. And momentously, the US South Pacific Fleet moved to Noumea in 1942-43. At that time, the city had approximately 11,000 inhabitants. On one day alone 17,000 Americans landed and, from 1942 to 1946, more than 1,000,000 troops had cycled through the armed forces facilities stationed here.
The two airports of Noumea (regional and international) were built by the Americans. The Americans employed all of the locals, including the Indigenous peoples, who had been underpaid and underemployed until that time, offered them all health care, …forever changing the fabric of this sleepy French colony.
This example was in the World War II museum, built in an original American made Quonset. Perhaps not quite the same scale of operations that Malta provided for those that have read our Malta blog installment, but this place was equally pivotal for the Battle of the Coral Sea, as the Pacific Fleet was based in Noumea.
In 1946, New Caledonia became a French Territory, an upgrade from colony status, with all residents given the right to vote. In 1986, the United Nations put New Caledonia on a decolonization list. In response, New Caledonia held a referendum on independence in November 2018, narrowly voting to maintain their ties with France (54%-46%). There will be two more referendums in 2020 and 2022 to see if they wish to become independent. Interestingly, they are members of the EU by virtue of being a French colony, but don’t use the Euro. Wonder, if they vote for independence if they lose the EU status …. maybe as complicated as Brexit.
As we bid adieu to this lovely group of islands, we leave you with a view of the full moon from our deck.
Sailing onward to Sydney … the circumnavigation begins! See you in the next blog installment!
SnP
