Papua, New Guinea - 1 Day
This is the view of Alotau, Papua New Guinea from the cruise ship when we arrived. It was sunny in the morning but by noon the heavens opened up and It poured the rest of the day. I got my bike out and headed to the town center. The island is lush and full of beautiful vegetation. I wish I could say it got better BUT this is one of the poorest places on earth. Most of these people do not have running water and most do not haveelectricity for more than a few hours a day. The few cars and trucks are mostly businesses. Few own cell phones and virtually no motorcycles scooter or even Bicycles. Very few have a job.
This island has so much potential beautiful mountains and clear ocean water.
If this is the good part of the island I can't imagine what iis like in the rural areas.
This is the town center and it looks better in this photo than it does in person. Never saw a bicycle except the few who went off the ship with them. Most went out in groups walking. I was getting locals staring at my bike like they have never seen one in person. Kids were pointing and saying "BIKE". I saw people taking bathes from water coming off the mountain by the edge of the road. The only ATM was at the bank and there was about 50 or more locals in line and nothing worth buying here anyway. I had been to Haiti in 1981 but this was more eyeopening to me. We take so much for granted living in the US and to them, we are so so rich. I was going to post a few more pictures but it was not needed. The country has nice natural beauty but it's hard to look past its problems. I was never able to get any of their currency, something I like to do.
Honiara, Solomon Islands - 3 Days
This Monument stands at the entrance to the Port and Commemorates The locals who helped the Allies during WW2 battle at Guadalcanal.
100 Solomon Dollars are equal to 12 US dollars.
There was an Embassy right at the port and we watched them move cargo while eating lunch.
I was on my bike ride to the WW2 memorialand I passed this Catholic Church. We arrived to town early on Sunday Morning.
The UNITED STATES Guadalcanal Memorial located on top of a hill overlooking town.
There are about 10 to 15 of these very large standing Pilars explaining different parts of the battles here I took photos of them all, but I'm only posting two here.
The Japanese view from the hilltop memorial overlooking the Harbor during WW2
Tulagi, Solomon Islands - 1 Day
The island put on this introduction for us and we took pictures. They also had a few people making music.
They made us real flower leis and this is the government building which they were very proud of.
This is the elementary school. No glass in windows, and desks that looked like they were from the 1950s. The kids were let out of school so they could come over andsee us. We were a very unusual event. They never see cruise ships on this island.
The Guide is standing in the spot on Blue Beach were the American Marines first landed in late 1942 to take this island from the Japanese. This was considered the turning point of the Pacific War. Japan was using these islands to set up there take over of New Zealand and then Australia and this stopped it. Tourist come here on small boats to dive the many WW2 ship wrecks and most were Japanese. The Japanese lost a whole fleet in the waters surrounding these islands during late 1942 and 1943. in 1943 John F Kennedy's PT 109 boat was rammed by a Japanese war boat and sank and he swam to one of these small islands (maybe this one they say). The children are very friendly. Some of the children have blonde hair and blue eyes. This is an unusual genetic trait that is studied by scientists and I had seen a documentary on Youtube about The Solomon Islands and the blonde haired people with dark skin, just a few months back while doing research for the trip. The guide had red teeth and tongue from eating Beetlenut. It is outlawed in some countries.
These islands where one of the biggest battles of the Pacific was fought, is so peaceful now. We can only image what these islands looked like before the war. The Japanese built caves to hide there supplies and fight if necessary. These caves were U shaped to help them escape if attacked. Here's part of the welcoming party dressed up to greet us. The local soccer field was were the Americans buried many of there dead soldiers during the war because of diseases like yellow fever. At the end of the war they were sent back to the states for burial, many to Arlington cemetery.
Luganville, Vanuatu Islands - 3 Days
The morning we arrived in Luganville. This was a New Zealand Territory and got its independence in 1980. I woke up to cargo containers outside my window and this was my view from view for 3 days. I could watch them zip by with a tractor type vehicle that could pick up and move two at a time. They would stop to let us walk by. No OSHA here I'm guessing. The walk to town was about a half mile so the bike was a great asset. There are a little over a dozen bikes on the ship. I find to local ATMs and stores and let the people walking to town know the town layout if I go out early. They take Australian dollars and sometimes American dollars at some ports.
It's kinda crazy to me, but they have these greeting parties at many of the ports when we arrive playing music and welcoming us there. Some of the places we go only get a few ships per year. They usually play for an hour or two as we head into town. Many of the passengers eat it up.
I went for a 5 mile or so bike ride away from town and the roads were very quiet. Many flowers and tropical trees, some I've never seen before.
The guides took us up the river with an outrigger canoe. Our group had 3 boats and about 5 passengers and a guide on each canoe. The water is crystal clear going to the Blue Hole park. It was about a 45 minute drive and a thirty minute canoe ride and we swam for about 2 hours. We were way into the wilderness. We did see some coconut farms on the way.
We went on a Blue Hole Canoe Tour (they had about 3 different ones on this island) and when swimming. This is fresh water that runs by river to the sea but salt water fish swim upstream, so we saw fish found in saltwater swimming in the place.Some of the younger passengers and locals were swinging out and jumping in the middle of the water. That guy on the left is about 75 and he and his wife are British from Gibraltar. They are in the next cabin to me.
The Blue Hole has a strange glowing blue color
They took us to a nice resort to have lunch after the Blue hole tour. It was far away from town. We passed another small resort a mile or two away and that is about it. We had a very nice time there. The food was very good and the beer was ice cold. A Winner!
Some of these islands near by are privately owned but this area is mostly undeveloped.
This is a view off the beach of the resort.
The next day Roxanne hired a taxi driver to drive us to Million Dollar Point and wait for us to snorkel for 2 hours and take us back. This is a popular WW2 snorkel and dive site. At the end of the war the US Army had a whole mess of Army equipment Jeeps and construction equipment that they tried to sell to the British and French at the wars end for one twentieth of its value but they refused so the US General told the Army to dump it in the ocean. Causing a bad environmental problem at the time but over the years it's turned into a beautiful reef.
This is a picture from a video I shot with my GoPro at Million Dollar Point. We did see army stuff under some of the coral.
Trying to show the coral.
This Small town of Luganville was cut out of the mountain by the US Army in 1943 to land ships and cargo for the War effort. This area is loaded with WW2 sites and they were lucky in this area that US Navy was able to repel the Japanese navy out of this area, so it was not embattled like the Solomon Islands were. They have South Pacific WW2 Museum at many of the islands and this island does not get many cruise ships but does get a lot of scuba divers diving the ship wrecks. An Australian who runs the museum drove this WW2 jeep down to the cruise ship to let us know about it and to get our people to visit it.
Port Vila, Vanuatu Islands - 1 Day
We had to anchor at Port Vila and tender in for it had no cruise terminal. It was a nice town but not a lot of tourist things but it was full of Duty Free stores that's had the best price for Alcohol in all of the South Pacific. Everything is listed in Australian Dollars worth only about 60 cents US. If the locals or visitors bought it to consume there it was double the price, to help prevent local alcoholism. The water is very blue and crystal clear. This island was more upscale then Luganville.
Mystery Island, Vanuatu Islands - 1 Day
This is the famous Mystery Island (its real name). I have said this before but, it is the nicest place I've ever been. The water color is insane.
We arrived and a group of about 10 of us decided we were going to do the 1 mile walk around the island before picking a side. The island has walking paths all around the island many shaded. The locals set up massage huts and sell fresh pineapples cutup and coconut drinks and snacks. They have handmade crafts but it is not commercial and we are the only tourists on this island this day. This island could and does get big cruise ships and we heard they were getting one the next day. Nice Plumeria and our boat is in the distance.
I thought the locals asked if I wanted some soup...
This beach has white sand on all sides and the water temperature was perfect. It is summer here but highs are only in the mid 80s, Australia was was the hottest place withhighs in the low to mid 90s.
A hut on the far side of the island that just begged to be photographed. You can see the surf breaking out on the outer reefs.
I was able to snorkel this Mystery Island and it had a very large and beautiful reef close to shore. and here are a couple of cool fish I saw.
The US military built this airstrip during WW2 to land planes and Airport building still remains. It is located in the center of the island but is hidden from the sea. The US military was using the island after the war and kept this island off limits. It earned the name Mystery Island way back then.
This is the island on the other side of the ship. It is very lightly occupied. We were getting ready to pull anchor before leaving to head to Fiji. We were very lucky the wind did not pick up, if it had we would have had to leave early since we tender to the island. I was on the beach by 9am and stayed until almost 4pm. Last tender was 5pm. They have filmed some episodes of Survivor in a few of these Vanuatu islands. They now film them in Fiji which is close by.
Suva,Fiji - 2 Days
We are now in Suva Fiji which is the capitol and largest city, and a big busy port. This is one of the many city buses which has on glass in the windows. The money is very colorful and a Fiji dollar is valued about 50 US cents. Fiji is one of the largest South Pacific economies and one of the easier places to fly to and from. People told me they tried to mail postcards at the Fiji post office and they will not except them because of the tariffs.
Downtown Suva
While I was headed down to the park where the Bats are hanging from the upper limbs trees I was stopped by this female cop and she wanted to know where I was from and we talked for a while. People are very nice and when I'm riding my bike or walking people wave and say "Bula" which is Hello. White people really stand out here most locals think we are Australian.
I went to the mall and ate at a Fiji restaurant and had the traditional Dinner Soup. It had red pork, and roasted pork and roasted chicken with noodles. Of course I stoped by the ice cream place and got a scoop of Mango chocolate chip and a scoop of passion fruit.
Another photo of Downtown Suva
The sign caught my eye, but we missed the Miss Hibiscus Festival, maybe next year. The movie cinema was next to the giant farmers market and that might be a problem, because trip advisor said it's possible that rats may run across your feet in the dark while watching a movie there. They had US, Australian and Bollywood movies . Did not give it a try.
This is a Chinese ship in the harbor. It was built by the Russians and it cost to much to run and to cut costs they sold it to the Chinese Navy. A retired US Navy officer on board says it is used to spy on the US military satellites as well as others.
I'm moving into my final cabin today. It's my first one without a window, but the cabins are similar with a mirror in place of the window. I've now stayed on 3 different floors. I rented this cabin only a week ago for 8 days to extend my stay through the end of Fiji.
Lautoka,Fiji - 2 Days
A church (Muslim or India ?) and a cool old steam roller
Fiji Ambulance and fire truck