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Published: October 24th 2015
Generally we are early risers, and today was no different. This time, we saw land for the first time since leaving Morton Bay, Brisbane.
Did we know what to expect? Were there any surprises? No and yes respectively.
We did know that the eastern regions of PNG were lush, but we couldn't see that too clearly as sea fog and or low cloud hung around the hills. The locals later told us they were glad of our arrival as it brought the first rains of their wet season, so these silver clouds brought liquid gold to these folk.
David and Mary and Marg and I went different directions in Alotau. Milne Bay province was involved in the real turning point of World War 2 (and more so at Rabaul later in the cruise) where the Imperial Japanese Army came up against a makeshift Aussie brigade, but were held and then defeated. I heard someone say that there were 250,000 lives lost in this region including locals who were squashed up in other peoples war. David was keen on the military, but we had chosen a cultural experience that rather surprised us. We thought it sounded like a tour
I wept
I was not sure how to understand this portside scene. Out of shot, some commercial buildings, some houses as we know them, and these families adjacent to the wharf.plus visit their festival re-enactment. It turned out to be (renamed) Meet My Family. More on that later.
I'm not ashamed that I shed a tear as I looked down from Deck 14 and saw these families standing looking up to this towering white cruise ship. I'm not sure what was running through their minds, but I do recall standing on the wharf in Auckland as a child and looking up to a smaller but none the less giant passenger ship, and dreaming of places to discover, tastes to try, music to enjoy. This was so rooted in my mind I trained to become a marine engineer. But in Auckland, there was no equivalent dwelling adjacent, so I struggled - was this poverty? Was this some kind of human wasteland? I didn't know. These photos are very natural too as I used a large amount of zoom on my Canon sx60 camera. Marg zoomed even closer and had a sweet photo of a mother caressing her baby.
When we left Brisbane, we had two powerful tug boats to assist in moving away from the dock, but here, the tug boat was very different. Should the ship have had
Alotau
Some of the buildings peeping through the mist and trees difficulties berthing here, I'm afraid the little tug would have been of no assistance. You may read reviews where passengers have bitterly complained about not visiting PNG ports. Later in the cruise I was talking to the Captain (The real one) who told me that the conditions at Alotau were very marginal as the winds and sea currents were making both berthing and planning for the departure quite marginal.
Now the ship is probably three times the length of the wharf, so there are anchoring bollards way past both ends of the wharf to keep the ship secure, like anchoring a pumpkin to a pimple.
Once tied up, we disembarked and joined our tour to visit some village people. We had a great guide who gave us quite an interesting perspective on their country, customs and life style. His talk was prefaced by the statement that 'We are a Christian Country that has moved from cannibalism to Christianity in 100 years and we now know a much better way of living, and respecting those once our enemies.' If not quite the direct quote stored in my defective memory banks, it is pretty close. In fact on several occasions
The Alotau Tug
3 men and a 25hp outboard. Pacific Dawn, 750 crew, 4 engines of 15,000HP. the local people echoed those same sentiments.
Our guide told us about building a house in PNG. Generally, a man and a couple of his mates will go into the jungle, chop down a couple of trees, and in the space of a week, the new home will be ready. A little further down the road we drove through a quite deep floodway and I noticed a partly constructed concrete bridge. I asked how long it takes to build a bridge. 'A very long time!'
For those who have followed our travels around Australia, we have commented on the quality of the roads. Here, we are just grateful for roads for the locals walk many miles every day to go about their daily lives. As commented on the photo of our bus, this is a luxury coach.
We travelled about 10ks out of Alotau and then turned off into a little village. We were greeted by the Chief who called us around by sounding the conch shell horn. This village was one that gardened and hunted, and the second family we visited were fishermen along with their garden plots. In PNG, if you don't hunt/fish, or plant
Tricky manoeuvre
The tying up of the ship at Alotau was interesting to say the least. The Tug Boat managed to straddle itself over the two 80 tonne ropes. Had the ship's winches acted too soon, they would have been airborne. and harvest, you do not eat. These little communities are wonderfully self sufficient, and trade surplus with other clans. The people are clean, gracious, willing to engage and share their story. The tear on arrival now forgotten, for we related (as campers) with the simplicity of their lives. I asked several locals how they felt about 2000 white people coming into their lives for a day. Was there any benefit coming back into their communities from our visits. Each time they confirmed their pleasure at having visitors and said that the arrangements with P & O were feeding funds into the communities. This is important for medical and educational materials amongst other things.
Local trade is important, sometimes paid in Kina, the local currency, or some times paid by the more traditional method of shell currency. Even their simple clay cooking pots are purchased through local trade with clans living on a nearby island where they have the right clay to make fire proof pots.
In this community, the women were adorned with the trading shells, and also owned the land, passing it on down through their daughters. One thing we did learn in PNG, you can drive
Luxury Coach
I'm not kidding. This one had air con for the driver and front seat passenger. It was my luck, or rather length of leg and size of boots that had me allocated this first class seat. 7 Ks to another community and find different language and customs. However, the up shot for our chief is that he lives in a matriarchal society, and should he divorce his wife, leaves the community all together with no matrimonial settlement.
The clan duties are divided somewhat on gender lines, but some in common. The older women teach the grandchildren how to soften the palm leaves and to weave, men and boys will hunt for wild pig etc or go fishing, and everyone works the crop rotations up in the hills. No work = no food for you. Simple! The weaving skills are quite diverse, and many articles are decorative while others are functional. The boys undies amused Marg, while the girls had cute skirts Ceremonial clothes were colourful, and headgear adorned with feathers etc.
Food preparation and cooking is probably managed by the women, but shared as required. Great news - no washing up. All plates are palm leaves and disposed of at the end of the meal.
We left Alotau late in the afternoon really happy with our adventure.
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Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Another interesting blog
Good reading and photos interesting to see how the locals live