So we see that Blogger has chosen to mess with the font again...heavy sigh.
Five days at sea, and the Captain had something up his sleeve besides scenic cruising at the Pitcairn Islands. Locals came on board with a lecture and a craft fair that set up on the boat deck. Pitcairn, named after a fifteen-year-old sailor who spotted it first, has a rich history. Most prominent was the mutiny on the ship Bounty, which burned in the bay now named after it. The surviving mutineers lived out their days on the island in the area now known as Bounty Bay.
As of February 28, we'd covered 14,200 miles.
A fast boat ride took us to a picnic on a nearby Motu in Raiatea. Great food, beautiful place, the best of local entertainment.
Then it poured rain.
A bunch of drowned rats returned to shore, happy. Storms gave us sunsets! And on March 6, we had covered 15,500 miles.
More rain.
March 11 rolled around and alas there was no March 12 as we crossed the dateline. In Pago Pago, American Samoa, we got quite the welcome.
We set out to look for the large fox bats and some hats. All we found was heat. No bats, no hats. We did remember where the tree was that was loaded with the big bats last time. Here's what we found. New Park, No tree.
On to Fiji. We toured a local pineapple plantation where we learned how to skin a pineapple and a coconut. Incidentally, all island people call coconut trees "the three of life" because they use every part of it in their lives: it's hydration, food, shelter, fuel. This guy knows how to get on with life:
Gordon buys a "skirt", a sulu vakataga, in case he needs it in a temple later to cover his knees. Here he is, in Fiji Formal, along with our favorite ghost-busting housekeeper, I Gusti from Bali.
This guy was discovered in Papeete, Tahiti. Wait. If he has two head, shouldn't he have two...other things?
On to New Zealand...at Bay of Islands we went to see the glow worms again, sorry, no photography allowed. In Auckland they threw an event for the World Cruise people at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron where the champagne and snacks kept everyone happy until...you guessed it...it rained. Absolutely chucking it down. Gave us a nice sunset, though.
We did visit another few places including Tauranga and Napier, both looking very livable. NZ doesn't want us, though. It's very expensive to buy one's way in.
