02/28/12 Lahaina, Maui Island, Hawaii

Our last port, our last tour, our last tender trip to shore and back…. (sigh).

We visited Lahaina on the island of Maui. Our 2 prior days in Hawaii were cloudy and drizzly and we couldn’t see any of the mountains/volcanoes. Today was sunny and beautiful and Maui lay open before us (picture 1).

 We spent a good deal of time today whale watching (picture 2)—right off our balcony and from other locations on the ship. Every time we looked out we would see 2 or more whales. Humpback whales come from Alaska in the winter to have their babies. The vast majority of whales are here by Thanksgiving and they stay until sometime in March. Adults are approximately 60 feet long and weigh up to 80 tons. The newborn calves are 10-12 feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds. While the calves are growing, the mothers keep them close to shore. They have to be taught how long they can stay below water and then pushed up to take a breath when they need to—all of which can be accomplished easier in shallow water. In addition to spouts, we saw tail waves and flipper waves. We didn’t see a full breach, but they were having a good time.

Our big excursion was to the Maui Ocean Center, where they have a wonderful aquarium that focuses just on sea life found in Hawaii. Picture 3 shows a unicorn surgeonfish and yellow tang, both of which are indigenous to this area. We saw seahorses, octopus, sharks, rays, puffer fish, green sea turtles and many other species—all shapes, sizes and colors.

We had local Mahi Mahi and a Maitai for lunch and bought our last T-shirts.

We’re on our way home. We’ll do a final post before we arrive in LA 3/5.

02/27/12--Honolulu, Island of Oahu, Hawaii

On our day in Honolulu we took a tour called “The VIP Pearl Harbor Tour”. It not only included a visit to Pearl Harbor, but it included all the sites that were important on 12/07/41. During this trip we’ve had several lectures on the WWII War in the Pacific and this put together the last pieces of the puzzle and finished teaching us how much we didn’t know about “the great war” that affected our parents’ generation so significantly.

The first thing to understand is why it was important for Japan to knock out Pearl Harbor. They were at war trying to take over China and they wanted to develop an empire that encompassed, not only China, but all of Indochina and many islands in the South Pacific. The purpose for this: natural resources—they didn’t have oil, coal, tin or iron ore. They knew they couldn’t take all these nations as long as the US was so powerful in the Pacific. The mastermind of Pearl Harbor, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, knew that the only hope of success was a surprise hit. He knew that in a prolonged war the US would win—and we did.

The Japanese fleet of 33 ships, including 6 aircraft carriers, left Japan on 11/26/41 and crossed 4000 miles of ocean in total silence, north of the standard shipping lanes. Included were 5 submarines that carried 5 midget submarines that they hoped would sneak into Pearl Harbor and torpedo our battle ships. 183 of their planes arrived at the island of Oahu about 8:00 that morning and immediately took out planes on the airfields, so no planes could take off to defend the ships. They then hit the harbor, sinking or beaching 12 ships and damaging 9 others. A second wave of Japanese planes that hit half an hour later attempted to take out dry docks and repair facilities, but fortunately, by then, we had some planes in the air and were able to minimize the second round of damage. The US lost 2390 military and civilian personnel that day and permanently lost 3 battleships (USS Arizona, USS Utah and USS Oklahoma). The remaining ships were salvaged and returned to sea in record time. Fortunately, the 2 US aircraft carriers stationed there were out of port and undamaged.

Should we have been better prepared? The consensus seems to be yes. A senior staff member at the Japanese Consulate had been sending coded messages to Japan for some time. The code had been cracked and the numbers were increasing in frequency prior to 12/7. And yet, the Admiral and General in charge of the Navy and Army at Pearl Harbor were never apprised of this. Additionally, on 12/7, 2 events occurred that could have gotten us in a better defensive position prior to the attack..

·      At 6:40 that morning a US ship spotted and sank one of the Japanese mini-subs and reported it to headquarters, but central command request visual verification of what sank because they thought it might be a whale.

·      At 7:00 AM a radar station spotted a large number of planes flying in the direction of Oahu and reported it. They were told that this was OK because a number of bombers were expected from California, but no one flew out for visual verification.

Today, the National Monument is called World War II: Valor in the Pacific. It includes the memorial at Pearl Harbor over the sunken USS Arizona (pictures 1 and 2), plus an excellent Visitor Center and several other ships and memorials in the surrounding area (including the USS Missouri, where the Japanese surrender took place in September, 1945). It also includes sites in the Aleutian Islands (where Japan actually did control a couple islands for a short period of time) and California (where Japanese-Americans were interred).

We also visited the “Pineapple Pentagon”—the command center for the war in the Pacific (picture 3). There we were taught about the patch designed for all who served in the Pacific (picture 4). You’ll notice there are 12 stars, 7 in the Big Dipper, 4 in the Southern Cross and 1 for the North Star—12/7/41. The red arrow in the center represents blood shed in the cause and the surrounding white for the purity of purpose.

If you look at a map of Oahu, you’ll see that Pearl Harbor is a perfect location—small entry to the harbor, with lots of room for lots of ships. To watch the movie from actual film clips and then stand at this very peaceful place and try to imagine what it was like at this exact spot on 12/7/41, is inconceivable.

We had lunch at the Officers’ Club, visited the air base where all our planes were lined up and destroyed by the Japanese and finished up at the Punch Bowl—the National Cemetery where many of the men are interred. The USS Arizona blew up and almost half of the deaths occurred there. These men remain buried in their ship. Interestingly, the survivors of the Arizona have the option of being cremated and having their ashes lowered into a crack in the Arizona, to be buried with their shipmates. About 30 men have done so. There are believed to be only 14 survivors of the Arizona remaining.

02/26/12 Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii

 We had only 4 hours in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii, so we did a quick local tour. We were here years ago and enjoyed seeing some familiar sights. The first thing you notice about the big island is that everything is covered with lava rock (picture 1). There are 3 volcanoes on the island. Only one, Kilauea, is active today and has been spewing lava into the ocean for 20+ years—the most active volcano in the world.

We visited a local coffee company to taste the world-renowned Kona coffee. Rick, being the only coffee drinker in our family, thought it quite good and bought some to take home—even at the average price of $35 per pound. Peaberry coffee is $10 per pound more expensive and represents the berries found at the tips of the tree branches. Kona coffee is so expensive because the berries are hand-picked only when they turn red/pink. The same tree may be visited 5 or 6 times in a season to pick ripe berries. Coffee plantations in other parts of the world pick by machine and pick only once, getting ripe and unripe berries. Our guide was quick to point out that even at $35 per pound it was cheaper than Starbucks!

 Then we visited Pu`uhonua o Honaunau (try saying that fast!) National Historic Park. Traditionally it was a Place of Refuge for defeated warriors or those who violated sacred laws. If caught, these people were put to death. If they were fast and made it to the refuge before their pursuers, their life would be spared, they would be forgiven and allowed to return to normal life. The site was beautiful and has been reconstructed to accurately portray what life was like in the mid-17^th century (pictures 2 and 3).

What were some of the sacred laws? My favorite was that women were not allowed to eat bananas. One day a woman was eating a banana, when the volcano suddenly erupted. The gods were obviously angry with what the woman had done, so she was put to death and the practice forbidden, so they would have no more eruptions from the volcano. Another was that men and women could not eat together because an earthquake occurred once.

This is a good time to talk about the Hawaiian language. Originally, the alphabet consisted of 12 letters, including a, e, I, o, u. From these letters, over 40,000 words were created—most showing an abundance of vowels. What can you expect when vowels make up almost 50% of the usable letters? I have an additional theory. Like water, there is a fixed amount of vowels on earth. Some languages (German and Vietnamese come to mind) use fewer vowels, while Hawaiian uses up the excess vowels.  By the way, the little “ ` “ that is used in some words emphasizes that the vowels on either side must be spoken—you can’t just bunch them into one sound

Our final stop was at the Painted Church—a lovely little church with magnificent paintings on the walls and ceiling. Some present a lovely native landscape, while other paintings showed columns and ornate decorations that might be found in other parts of the world. Interestingly, there is a door to the church, but that wall is open in several places to the outdoors—wonder what happens when it rains? (pictures 4 and 5).

Final fact to ponder: around the world, more people are killed by being hit by falling coconuts than by sharks—about 150 a year.

02/23/12 Tabuaeran Kiribati

 Our day on Tabuaeran Island (originally Fanning Island) in Kiribati may be the highlight of our trip. When you conjure up the image of stepping back in time on a coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific, you’re imagining the atolls of Kiribati.

First of all, Kiribati is pronounced Kiribas, because the local language has no “s” and uses “ti” to make the “s” sound. The country encompasses 3.5 million sq km, but has only 811 sq km of land—a lot of ocean between islands!  Kiribati consists of 1 raised coral island and 32 tiny low-lying atolls, including Tabuaeran. The islands are spread across the equator and in 3 time zones. Until 1995 they also crossed the International Dateline, dividing the country. The dateline has now shifted to encompass Kiribati on the western side of it and they were the first nation to experience the new millennium.

An atoll is a ring of land around a central lagoon (pictures 1 and 2 attempt to show this). Our marine biologist on board has told us that current theory is that the atoll started out as an island (quite probably volcanic) that was surrounded by a fringe of coral. Over time as the mountain sank (like Hawaii today as the tectonic plates shift under one another) and the coral grew, the island disappeared and left just the coral. Small breaks in the coral allowed the ocean to come in and form the lagoon. This, of course, occurred over millions of years. Tabuareran is approximately 7 miles in diameter, with 3 breaks in the atoll—one large enough for small boats to enter the lagoon, which was blasted open by the British, and 2 small ones, only large enough for canoes. At many places, the land is only 100-200 meters wide. As the oceans rise, there’s great concern that the atoll will become inhabitable. Australia has currently volunteered to take immigrants from Tabuaeran when that happens.

Polynesians arrived somewhere between the 3^rd and 5^th century, from either Hawaii or the Cook Islands or Tonga. Captain James Cook visited Christmas Island (part of Kiribati) on Christmas Eve 1777, thus it’s name. Tabuaeran was first visited by the American Captain Edmund Fanning, on his ship the Betsy (how prophetic!) on June 11, 1798, giving the island its original name. It has been British—as has almost every other island in the Pacific. It is now independent. The island does, however, have a more recent claim to fame. While picture 3 is not the Minnow, you would recognize the atoll as the opening shot of Gilligan’s Island (and the whole rise of the Marianne vs. Ginger discussion).

There are about 2500 residents of Tabuaeran in 9 villages and I think they all came out to greet us. Children performed in several places (Picture 4), with buckets to collect money (they accept US and Australian dollars) for their school—we left all our remaining Australian dollars. They also use native materials, especially coconut and shells, to make handicrafts, which are sold to people from visiting cruise ships. There is no electricity on the island, although there is at least one generator to keep the radio tower going, which is their connection to the outside world. There is no sanitation system, so twice a day the tide takes away what is “deposited” near the high tide mark. We were asked to bring back any garbage we had (such as water bottles), as there is no provision for garbage on the island (there’s a lot of litter). 2 or 3 ships a year arrive from Australia with provisions and gasoline to run the generator and boat motors. There is no airport—connection with other islands is by boat. They are dependent on fish, seaweed, coconuts and a few chickens and pigs for food. Rain is collected for water.

We swam in the lagoon (Picture 5), although it had a vicious current. There was virtually nothing to see snorkeling. The water was probably high 70s.

It was an amazing place—one that we enjoyed visiting, but we would probably not be happy living there. There are no computers, limited books, no movies and television and (very important to Betsy) no bathrooms! The people were lovely and it was great being a very small part of their life for an afternoon.

We’re north of the equator and east of the dateline. Hawaii is our next stop on 2/26. We’re homeward bound.

02/20/12 Pago Pago,American Samoa

 We just left the city of Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) on the island Tutuila in American Samoa, which is the only US Territory South of the equator. As a territory, we understand that they do not have all the rights of citizens, but can come and go to the US as they please. They have a governor and a non-voting member of Congress and they pay taxes. There are 6 other, smaller, islands in American Samoa, including 2 coral atolls—one privately owned. Even though American, there is no “can you hear me now?” from Verizon, but there are 2 McDonalds, Carl’s Jr., KFC, Pizza Hut and True Value Hardware. Gas is $4.35 per gallon. And for the Survivor junkies—it was not filmed here.

Interestingly, Captain James Cook never landed here—one of the few he didn’t chart and claim for the British. It was, however, visited in the 18^th century by the Dutch and French. In 1899, Britain, Germany and the United States agreed to divide up the islands.  The Eastern Islands became a US territory and the western islands became German, after Britain dropped its claim. The western islands have become independent and are now just called Samoa. During WWII, marines outnumbered American Samoans and Pago Pago remained an active navy base until the early 1950s, when the Department of the Interior took over management of the territory.

As the first 2 pictures show, this is a very beautiful island. It’s very mountainous and houses cling to the hillside close to shore—the rough terrain and jungle make finding a spot to build a house very difficult. The airport is entirely on landfill because there were no flat spots on the island long enough. If we were plant people, we would be able to list all the native tropical plants that we saw growing along the road, but usually see in plant stores and hot houses. The vegetation is so lush because it rains almost daily—although we were in and out without rain. The rocks are black because the islands are volcanic. The beaches are small, but the sand is white instead of black because the local parrot fish are pooping up a lot of the light stuff. You may doubt this last statement, but we had dinner with the marine biologist who has been lecturing and he informed us that a large male parrot fish can poop a third of a ton of sand a year. I’m sure I could go further with this conversation, but I think I’ll pass….

 Today is Presidents’ Day in American Samoa, as it is everywhere else in the US. People still live in villages with a chief and we saw extended families and villages picnicking, playing cricket (it’s that season here) and practicing for Fautasi Races, as shown in picture 3. These large canoes require 49 very strong men to race—pretty amazing to watch that many men rowing in coordination.

We visited one of the local villages, watching them perform some of their crafts and preparing their food in the traditional way. We ate breadfruit dipped in coconut milk, which is their version of chips and dip. Picture 4 shows how they will roast a meal. They heat river rocks using a wood fire, then they remove the wood and place the food on the hot rocks, cover everything with a heavy layer of banana leaves (40-50) and roast for 1.5 hours. We sampled roasted breadfruit, bananas, chicken, tuna cooked in coconut milk and their “spinach”—some kind of greens shaped like a cup with coconut milk inside. I asked our guide if they cook like this just for festivals and she said no, that they cooked like this most days, but especially on Sunday. I asked if they had stoves in their houses and she said they did, but that this is what they preferred doing. I think it’s a conspiracy of women—with all the rock and wood preparation, cooking becomes the men’s jobs—not such a bad idea.

Our final picture shows our second rescue at sea. Last night about suppertime the ship slowed and the captain announced that we were going to stop to check on a small fishing boat, where 3 men were waving at us. We lowered a small boat and found that the boat had stopped working and these 3 men had been adrift for 3 weeks—having run out of food and water at some point. They were brought onboard, checked by medical, fed, cleaned up and dropped off today in Pago Pago to be repatriated to Samoa. Once they were on board and the bridge collected enough information from them, they were able to contact their boss, who was quite happy because he assumed they had been lost at sea. Quite an adventure!

Two days at sea and then Kiribati.

02/18/12 Suva Fiji

Bula! That’s “Hello” in Fijian. What a fascinating island group—cannibalism, polygamy, a culture still steeped in villages and chiefs and a very unstable government—what more could you want! Top it off with unbelievable beauty (first 2 pictures) and you realize you could visit here a while. There are 333 Fijian islands, but only about 1/3 are populated.

Fiji was discovered as part of the great Polynesian migration from SE Asia and Indonesia. We saw models of the double-hulled canoes that carried up to 200 of the migrating Polynesians at the Fiji Museum. The first European to sight Fiji was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman (of Australian island fame).  He was followed by Captain Cook (who was EVERYWHERE in the South Pacific) and Captain Bligh after the Bounty mutiny. Fiji was independent until 1874, when they didn’t have enough money to repay a $40,000 debt to the United States and gave themselves to Queen Victoria, who paid their debt, and they became part of the Commonwealth.

More current history goes something like this:

1)   1987 military coup

2)   1990 Civilian rule reinstated

3)   1997 rejoins Commonwealth

4)   2006 military coup

5)   2009 Court of Appeals declares government illegal

6)   Currently expelled from Pacific Islands Forum and Commonwealth for refusal to hold elections

Not the greatest place for democracy these days, although all seems peaceful and people are great.

We did a little touring around Suva, the capital, today. As part of that we visited the Fiji Museum and were fascinated with what we learned. The 3^rd picture shows an exhibit about the Reverend Thomas Baker, a Methodist Missionary, who visited Fiji in the 19^th century. He hiked into a village uninvited and touched the chief’s head—bad move. He was clubbed to death and roasted for dinner—yes, cannibalism was practiced here until the last half of the 19^th century. But it was a “good” kind of cannibalism—they just didn’t eat for fun. They ate as part of battle to try to absorb the qualities of the person…. The implements to the right of picture 3 show a bowl and a fork that were used for cannibalism.

We also were fascinated with costumes. The 4^th picture is a band welcoming us to Fiji. Skirts worn by men are very common—we saw them on guards and on regular people walking around town. Our guide wore a similar one, without the points on the bottom. They are wrap skirts with 2 large pockets on either side. I had one just like it in the 70s!!!

The last picture is a traditional wedding dress. In fact, our guide’s cousin will be wearing one just like it for her wedding in the near future. He will wear his skirt and a “Hawaiian” shirt. What is interesting about the dress is that it is not made of woven fabric, but is mulberry bark pounded until it is pliable and then hand painted with traditional designs. Pretty neat.

2/16/12 Vanuatu

Vanuatu used to be the New Hebrides Islands, which were jointly occupied by France and England until 1980 and is now independent. How many islands are there in Vanuatu? The guide book says “80 or so”--our driver said 135. A map of Vanuatu looks like someone tossed a handful of marbles across the Pacific between the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.

The islands were actually founded by the Spanish, who thought they had reached the great southern continent. The ever-present Captain Cook followed. And even Captain William Bligh, the commander of HMS Bounty fame, visited these islands. But to the Hubers, the most famous visitor here was SURVIVOR. Being Survivor junkies, we were interested to find out that one of the series was filmed on Efate Island.

We visited Port Vila on Efate Island, the capital of Vanuatu. We snorkeled, as the first picture of Rick shows. (Betsy avoids pictures in bathing suit!) As the second picture shows, Paradise Cove is not much of a beach, but has a large amount of coral fairly close to shore. Unfortunately, much of the coral has been damaged and we had to move away from the sight where they were feeding the fish to see healthy living coral. Because they feed the fish, we got to see a lot of colorful small fish, however. In addition we got to see a bright blue starfish about 6 inches in diameter. We also saw a Sea Pineapple, which is a type of Sea Cucumber that was over 12 inches long and 3-4 inches in diameter, rust in color—a treat to see, but kind of nasty to look at!

We’ve snorkeled in much better sites, but it was still wonderful to see the sea life and spend some time sailing around the bay in a smaller boat. Picture 3 shows the island behind an interesting little boat. The last picture shows some interesting shore erosion that has created little rock “islands”.

2/14/12 Noumea New Caledonia

 Greetings and happy Valentines Day from Noumea, Grande Terre Island, New Caledonia. Noumea is the capital and largest city in New Caledonia and sits on a peninsula at the southern end of the cigar-shaped Grande Terre Island. Captain Cook discovers the island in 1774 and names it New Caledonia, although he noted that the native Melanesians were warlike and practiced cannibalism. The French take over in mid-19^th century and convert it into a penal colony, placing  convicts on the neighboring island of Ile Nou, which is today connected by a causeway to Noumea.

The second largest nickel deposit in the world was discovered in 1865 and is still key to the economy. The United States and Australia had a large presence here in WWII, protecting the nickel from getting into Japanese hands and providing a “stepping stone” for the United States to get close to Japanese territory.

While a few of the colonial buildings remain, most have been replaced by cement block cubes from the “nickel boom” in the late 60s and early 70s. The real beauty remains in the scenery. There is a double lagoon around this peninsula—one fairly close to shore and one some mile from shore. The shelf then drops off several thousand feet. The Noumea harbor is well-protected and provides views across several islands. Looking inland, one finds a mountain ridge running almost the full length of the island, rising to heights of almost 6000 feet at the tallest peak. The first 3 pictures provide a harbor view, an islands view and a mountain view.

We visited the very new aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though small, it had some amazing species. The final 2 pictures show a couple of the tanks. The most amazing residents were the nautilus’. We had never seen them before in other aquariums and they are beautiful, although very primitive. Unfortunately, their tank was in low light, since they live some ways down, so we were unable to get a picture.

Tomorrow we travel to Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines), a smaller island to the south in New Caledonia. We plan to beach it. More from there….

02/11/12 Brisbane

Had to have a cute and cuddly day! You can’t visit Australia without spending some time with the unique animals here. We’re in Brisbane and, after a quick city tour, we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

The first two pictures here show koalas—the first one male with his almost-heart-shaped scent gland showing. They sleep approximately 20 hours a day because they eat a poor diet of eucalyptus leaves that leave them with little energy. I actually held one on our last trip—very cuddly.

The 3^rd one should make everyone burst into song—the laughing kookaburra. The 4^th picture is, of course the kangaroo. They had a couple dozen very tame kangaroos and wallabys. I petted and chatted with several. The 5^th picture is a wombat. I held one of these on the last trip and they too are cuddly critters.

Finally, we had a sheep herding demonstration. That’s the herding dog standing on the backs of the sheep. They’re pretty amazing animals. Wonder if they can herd cats???

A fun day! Two days at sea and then Noumea, New Caledonia. Talk to you then.