S. Pacific 2004: 7 - Port Vila, Vanuatu to Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Friday, October 29, 2004

After stumbling along the dark path from room to road I found a taxi to drive me to the airport at 4:15 AM. When I reconfirmed my flight in town yesterday the agent at Air Vanuatu was very emphatic about arriving at the airport two hours before departure. He said check in opened at 4 AM. On arrival at 4:30 AM I had to wake up the sleeping guard to open the airport door. He turned on the lights and ceiling fans, then after another half hour someone from Air Vanuatu arrived to checked me in.

Everything went smoothly until we boarded the plane, but the pilot announced that he could not get clearance from the tower to take off. There were two uniformed police on board who were getting hysterical. The head one leapt into the aisle in front of the Chinese pilot and demanded loudly that he take off immediately. The pilot protested that he could not take off without clearance from the tower. The policeman asked if he was in charge of the plane, and if so why was he not already in the air? On demand the poor pilot produced his identity card so the policeman could record his name - he was convinced the pilot could do what he wanted.

It turned out that the police were the cause of the problem. Vanuatu was extraditing a criminal from New Caledonia who was accused of a crime in Vanuatu, and there was a diplomatic battle over letting him go. New Caledonia was not going to let the plane land with the police on board because they did not want to turn over the prisoner. The whole thing was being debated by the politicians, with the police charging out of the plane to join the fray. In the meantime an hour and a half went by, slightly more than the hour 25 minutes available for my connecting flight on Air New Zealand.

It was finally agreed that the prisoner would be turned over, so off we went with the police still on board. When we landed a ray of hope sparked inside me when we parked right beside the plane I was scheduled to catch. The flight crew had radioed ahead asking Air New Zealand to hold on a few minutes.

As we climbed onto the tarmac we were met by the manager for both Air New Zealand and Air Vanuatu, who said my flight had closed for boarding 20 minutes ago. While walking past the plane a tractor began pushing it back to the taxiway. Talk about frustrating! I did the only thing I could do - I took a video of my ride leaving without me - so near yet so far!

Once Gilbert (he's French - it's pronounced "jill bear"), the station manager, was through with the crisis caused by the late flight he booked me on an Aircalin flight to Auckland due to leave the next morning. He let me choose between city or airport hotels, so I picked city figuring I might as well see something - it was only 9:30 AM. Vouchers were written for hotel, lunch, dinner and a morning pickup for the 45 minute drive to the airport. When everything was arranged he drove me into town personally, doing a scenic tour with commentary along the way.

He's an interesting fellow. His father was in the Gendarmerie in French West Africa - he was born in Ivory Coast and raised in Benin until independence. His father was transferred to various international locations, including 7 years in France, and finally Vanuatu. Gilbert has lived in Noumea for 10 years, but says he far prefers Vanuatu as a place to live - the third person I heard that from today. The reason given is slower pace and friendlier, easier going people.

Noumea is very French and very expensive- for example the Best Western "Le Paris" Hotel where I stayed charges $150 per night for a single room. Many people speak a little English, but not a lot, and communicating can be difficult for those who do not speak French. It took three different people, including the manager, to figure out I wanted to know the per night charge at the hotel!

To fit into the French scene I had a delicious croque madam, salad and a couple of beer for lunch, which did in my $40 value lunch voucher. This was definitely the place to have someone else picking up the tab!

I set off to see some of the city, putting more miles onto my tired legs in the steamy heat and earning a blistered toe for my efforts. There is an excellent tourist bureau in Coconut Park, the central park, where an open air city tour was suggested. Sitting down sounded pretty good, so I joined the next one to come by.

The city of about 150,000 is clean and modern. There is a huge white population here, and in some residential areas there was not a single native islander to be seen. The women are the best looking I've seen so far on this trip. Low cut tops with short shorts and miniskirts seem to be the fashion, not that I paid a lot of attention, of course. There are some good beaches in the city, but they were crowded.

There was a lot of new concrete and steel house construction, in spite of the high prices. There were natural harbours filled with hundreds of fancy yachts and lots of expensive cars, giving the impression that there is a fair amount of money around.

The island is mountainous, but not volcanic. It is said to have separated from Australia about 100 million years ago. The very rugged part we flew over did not have a lot of jungle; it looked more like a covering of dried grass. Grand Terre, the 18,500 sq. km. main island, is 50 km wide and 500 km long, making it the third larges archipelago in the Pacific, after New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

New Caledonia was discovered and named by Captain Cook in 1774. It became a French penal colony in 1853, catering to some 22,000 prisoners during its time. During WWII it had the second busiest port in the world as 2 million US soldiers moved through the staging area. It has one of the world's largest known deposits of nickel, which is being extracted by two huge Canadian mining companies and is the source of the island's wealth. The smelter in Noumea alone employs around 4,000 people. One of the open pit mines is supposed to be the world's largest.

Driving here, as in Vanuatu, is on the right hand side of the road, but strangely enough on a four lane road the outside lane is used for passing. The speed limit is 110 km/hr, the fastest I've seen this trip.

Friday, October 29, 2004

A van picked me up at 5:30 AM sharp and transferred me to the airport bus. Gilbert was there to see me checked in and say goodbye. The plane was a wide body Airbus 330-200 and I had two seats to myself at the exit door with miles of leg room. It was a good flight.

On arrival in Auckland customs and immigration were very quick and friendly - the only question I was asked at immigration was why I was not going to spend more time seeing the country! When I changed money the rate was good. Not trusting airport money changers I was going to change a small amount, but the woman said the $NZ 5 service charge was good for up to $500 so I upped the amount.

The next stop was the Air Polynesia office to confirm my Saturday flight. Once in with the operations manager I was very pleased I'd been convinced to change more money - an upgrade to first class on the long flight was arranged for a very reasonable cash amount. It had to be in cash as there was no credit card machine in his office. The bad news was that the plane has broken down in Sydney and they have no idea when it will fly. Mike, the operations manager, said it will be at least 12 hours late, but that it could be later than that. I agreed to call tomorrow, as this is going to affect hotel reservations and connecting flights if it is too late.

Avis had a rental car for me, and even though they did not receive my email notifying them that I would arrive a day late, they did not charge me for the missed day. When setting off to drive to the Bay of Islands I'd hoped to avoid the tedious drive through the streets of Auckland by connecting with a northbound highway directly from the airport, but no such luck. There was no way to get to the freeway north without crawling through traffic on two lane roads in shopping areas and residential neighbourhoods. It took an hour to get clear of Auckland, and two more to get to the Bay of Islands.

The drive is very pretty, with deserted sand beaches and forests containing all kinds of interesting vegetation along the way. The traffic was a lot heavier than expected, but it was a pleasant run. On arrival in the tourist town of Paihia all the places to stay had vacancy signs. I chose an apartment overlooking the bay at the Abel Tasman Lodge. After a drive around the area I had a marvellous roast lamb, potatoes, gravy and mint sauce dinner followed by pavlova for desert - it couldn't have been better.

Friday, October 29, 2004

This cloudy, grey, drizzly morning started with the short drive to Haruru Falls, then to the Waitangi treaty grounds. It was here in February, 1840 that the treaty was signed between 43 Maori chiefs and representatives of the British crown clearing the way for New Zealand to be a British colony, and guaranteeing the rights of all citizens. Copies of the treaty were carried around the country and by Sept, 1840 over 500 chiefs had signed. This is the treaty that is the cause of various land and other claims by the Maoris today.

It is ironic that the chiefs agreeing to sign came about due to a French baron who moved here and declared himself supreme ruler of New Zealand. This inspired the Maori to take more seriously the offer of protection by the British crown, as he had threatened to send for warships and troops.

The rest of the morning was spent exploring local roads. The main roads are good pavement and the secondary roads are well maintained gravel. The area, which lives up to its reputation as a beauty spot, is hilly and forested

Just before noon I arrived at the Kawiti glow worm caves. The 200 metre long limestone cave was carved by the small stream that runs through it. The stream is home to eels, the largest of which measures 1.3 metres in length. A board walk over the stream makes access to the cave interior fairly easy. A jolly Maori guide holding a Coleman gas lamp led the way, providing commentary as he went. At several locations inside the cave the lamp was dimmed to allow the light from hundreds of glow worms to shine clearly. The guide described it as his milky way, and it did look like a sky filled with blue white stars. The passage through the cave came out quite a way up the hill, so there was a steep and interesting walk back to the parking area through cliffs carved into wild shapes by wind and water.

In Kawakawa I tried a couple of pubs to find they did not serve food with lunch - only beer, which may account for how few people were in them. At the 120 year old Star Hotel they heated me a meat pie as an accompaniment to a couple of brown ale. The only others in the large pub were two tables of Maoris.

While there I visited the famous toilets. These were built a long ago, with multi coloured ceramic pillars on the sidewalk, and multi coloured tiles on the walls inside. Stained glass provides light. They are located in the center of town on the main street, are well used and very clean. So there you are, if you have to go while in Karakara, do it in style by using the famous public toilets!

My favourite radio station in the area is a Maori station. Although I can't understand a lot of the announcements in the Maori language, there are a lot of English words and the music is good. Obviously the language is being kept alive.

On return to Paihia I caught the passenger ferry to Russell. The sea was quite heavy, and two lady passengers received a good dousing when a wave broke over the boat, proving that the Plexiglas windows were not watertight. They quickly moved to inside seats! The windows are panels attached for inclement weather, but easily removable for fine days. The passenger ferries run every 20 minutes from Paihia. The car ferry from Opua is less frequent.

Russell is the site of the first European settlement in New Zealand. During whaling days it was a wild, lawless place which in the 19th century was described as "the hell-hole of the Pacific, a viper's nest of vice and depravity". Charles Darwin visited, stating that it seems populated by the scum of the earth. It was a supply and repair place for whaling ships, and its lack of law and order attracted many escaped convicts and criminals.

Today it is a quiet town with many beautiful old buildings lining the sandy beach around the harbour. It has a disproportionate number of pubs, which I considered a real find until I realized that none of them were open! That, coupled with a serious rain shower, motivated me to get back to the motel and finish writing this.

As with New Caledonia, New Zealand was part of Australia around 180 million years ago. It was uninhabited when Kupe, a Polynesian, discovered it in 950 and named it Aotearoa, "Land of the long white cloud". In the early 1300s there were mass migrations of Polynesians to the north island.

The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to see it. He called it Nieuw Zeeland after his homeland, but he didn't land due to the hostility of the natives. Captain James Cook charted the north and south islands in 1769, then the first whaling stations were set up in 1790.

New Zealand was the first self governing country to give women the vote, in 1893. Today both the prime minister and the governor general are women. The total population is only 4 million, the same as that of Costa Rica.

After many unanswered phone calls, I finally reached Air Polynesia to find that my 1 PM departure has been rescheduled for 6:15 PM tomorrow, to arrive in Apia, Samoa at midnight their time. Because the 6:15 PM flight is still tentative the airline requested that I call tomorrow for another update. At least they still seem intent on getting there!