A hellish trip to a small piece of heaven

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April 3rd 2008

Published: April 11th 2008

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The boat trip

The MV Tokelau

Tokelau trip, 3rd to 15th March 2008

Hands up who’s heard of Tokelau. Didn’t think so. In fact it wasn't even one of the options for 'location' on this travelblog site, I had to specially request that they add it. Tokelau is actually a country, but the reason you probably haven’t heard of it is that it’s made up of three tiny coral atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with a population of about 1400. It’s administered by New Zealand, but the only way to get there is a two-day boat trip from Samoa - no aeroplanes. And this is where I recently spent two weeks. I was there on a work trip, as the women of Tokelau were having a week and a half of events, including an economic summit and the first ever Miss Tokelau Pageant. I’ll get to the difficulties of being a gender advisor and endorsing a beauty pageant later. Following are some edited extracts of the notes I made while on the atoll, in two installments. The installments are still fairly enormous, so you might want to grab a cup of tea and settle in!

Day One - boat trip
I

The boat trip

That's my mattress on the bottom left. I pretty much didn't move from this spot for 36 hours

arrived at the wharf in Apia feeling a little bit silly with my rolled up mattress, but resolved that I would be pleased with myself once on the boat. I was quite apprehensive about the boat trip, having been told it would take 24 to 26 hours, and having had my workmates give me very concerned-looking farewells on the Friday. But I knew it would be worth it in the end, at the very least a story to tell. And a story it was.
There are a couple of cabin beds, but funds for my trip didn’t stretch that far, so the deck it was. The good spots on deck appeared to be reserved for a select few, apparently including me. The chief mate directed me upstairs saying there would be more space there - another man behind me enquired about space upstairs and was told “Not for you sir”. While this was a bit strange, I wasn’t about to argue with 26 hours on deck ahead of me! I laid down my mattress in the middle of the deck - there was a roof above and tarpaulins protecting the open sides. Several other mattresses soon materialised in the space

Fakaofo

300 people live here!

around me, and I settled in for the long haul as we pulled away from the port.

After a couple of weeks of nice weather, a storm had moved in a day or two before and the sea was not looking welcoming. Rain streaked down around us and I watched with mounting trepidation the puddles at either edge of the deck pulse slowly further and further inwards, licking at the edges of neighbouring mattresses. Huge rolling waves rocked the boat in all directions, the steel hull occasionally slapping down the back of a wave and sending shudders through the boat. I stood next to the bridge and watched waves crash over the bow, while flying fish went skittling off in all directions - but soon decided that the best place for me was horizontal on my mattress. Meals were provided on the boat, and of course the sensible thing to feed a boat-full of nauseous people for lunch is curry! This was a particularly gloopy-looking one with chunks of bony meat. I nibbled at the rice and then gratefully accepted a proffered plum instead from another passenger - no idea where she got them from, they cost a fortune

Fakaofo

in Samoa! The smell of the curry had churned my stomach, and it wasn’t helped by watching Lise, the lady from the Tokelau office in Apia who organised my trip, heaving into a bucket next to me. Later, a trip to the tiny airless bathroom sent me over the edge, and the lovely plum went to waste down the bathroom sink. After this I felt somewhat better, and zoned out on my mattress listening to music. I felt sorry for Misa, my work colleague on the trip, who hadn’t brought a mattress and was reduced to borrowing a tarpaulin to sleep on. Although not sorry enough to offer him my mattress! I settled in for a long night of tossing and turning; some sleep punctuated occasionally by being thrown sideways by the swell.

Day two - boat trip continued
Finally the suggestion of sunlight could be glimpsed on the horizon, and the night was over. The sea had calmed somewhat and the boat was now rocking much more gently than the previous day. Having previously thought we would arrive somewhere between 8:30 and 10:30am, I was a little dismayed to discover it would be more like 12 or 1.

Fakaofo

Drying fish

Then even more dismayed when the chief mate explained that that would be to the first atoll, Fakaofo, after which we would then “hopefully” arrive in Nukunonu (my destination) today, around 6pm. 24 hours had suddenly turned into 34! The chief mate, Roman, was from Russia, and had been running the MV Tokelau for a year and a half. It must be quite a life, spending the majority of your time at sea between Samoa and Tokelau, when for everybody else the trip is seemingly undertaken with gritted teeth at the beginning and exhausted resignation by the end.

We arrived at Fakaofo around 12:30. And I thought Samoa was small. This atoll was perhaps the size of Shark Island in Sydney Harbour, maybe smaller. I went ashore while the boat was unloading part of its cargo, and strolled around the place in under 5 minutes. Apparently 300 people live here! I shared a lovely cold niu (drinking coconut) with a few of them for a quick break in the shade. Back to the boat and we set sail, arriving at Nukunonu around 6pm to be collected along with cargo by a couple of launches (there’s no actual wharf for

Fakaofo

The boat in the distance

the boat to berth at). The main cargo was two of the Miss Tokelau participants who had joined the boat at Fakaofo, and they were ferried to the shore seated on large wooden chairs draped with decorations, accompanied by traditionally-dressed males. The large fale by the shore was the location for the welcome, where the women of Nukunonu along with their Miss Tokelau participant waited to welcome the women of Fakaofo. Songs were sung, speeches were made, and niu were passed around to be drunk. The boat set off for its seven-hour trip to the third atoll, Atafu, to collect its two pageant participants and the rest of the women and return the next day.

Finally after the welcome we made it to Luana Liki, the guest house that would be my home for the next ten nights. I have never been so excited about a shower in my life. I had entertained ideas of being a bit cheeky and claiming to be a vegetarian for the duration of my stay, as the meat on the boat had not inspired excitement. However, on exiting the shower I was ushered to the dinner table and presented with an enormous pork

Fakaofo

Sections of the atoll stretching away into the distance

chop by a beaming chef, and I didn’t have the heart to refuse. I know he’s a chef because he wears a big boofy chef’s hat and chef’s button jacket. Luana Liki is basic but clean and the family is very friendly, so I was happy to down my bags and prepare to rest my head here. Other palagis in residence who were also on the boat include a camp English gent, and a cantankerous old German man who was here for his twelfth trip to Tokelau (a ham radio enthusiast, he seems to spend his time travelling to out-of-the-way places to speak to people in distant other out-of-the-way places). The tv was blaring with a Hollywood movie, thanks to a giant satellite dish outside. I’m ashamed to admit it but that does make me feel a tad more at home, having access to the big wide world outside. If only I can convince them to switch it to BBC World occasionally!

Day three - Wednesday
I awoke to the sounds of schoolchildren straggling down the road, and looked out to see big puffy white clouds. During a breakfast of frankfurts and toast, the German informed me of

Nukunonu

Loading everyone into launches to head to shore (there's no wharf for the boat to dock at)

a small kitten who had become trapped in a fishing net downstairs. I ran down to look, and the kitten was certainly well and truly tangled, with the net particularly tight around its neck. It was petrified and hissed at us as we came near, and any attempts to untangle it just made it worse. Scores of flies were already circling, like vultures. The German said he’d tried to find someone to help but that locals weren’t really interested. I fetched the chef anyway, who came down and made a couple of decent attempts to free it. He then said, “Oh, my apprentice”, and went running off back upstairs. I waited for him to return with said apprentice, but after a while eventually realised he wasn’t coming back, and he’d just headed back to his cooking. I felt quite helpless, and just scared the kitten again into an even worse tangle. I contemplated cutting the net, but was mildly concerned that cutting a fishing net on Tokelau might be a hanging offence, especially on my second day when I was yet to make an impression. Later I noticed it was still sitting there quietly and looking considerably weaker, so I

Nukunonu

Sunset

thought bugger it and ran to grab my scissors. After cutting through at least a dozen strands, I managed to pull it free and it raced away. (The next day, the stupid cat was stuck back in exactly the same spot! But the chef was on top of it this time and had fetched the owner of the net, who cut the kitten out and removed the net).

Around ten, Misa and I headed for the government building, and joined the women in a fale out the back where discussion was taking place as to the following week’s events. Later the women sang, I’m not sure why. I get the sense that there will be a lot of that this week - events or songs where I smile and don’t quite get what’s going on.

Walk around the island
I set off to circumnavigate the atoll. There’s incredible natural beauty, but also if you look closer there’s quite a bit of rubbish around. Chip packets, and also old oil drums etc. The atoll is a longish strip, with a road around the edge and one through the middle as well. Then there’s a bridge over an inlet to

Nukunonu

Arrival off the boat of one the pageant participants from Fakaofo

the next section of the atoll. The road glares at you, as it’s essentially like a gravel track but with white coral instead of gravel. The atoll is very flat, with the highest part being five metres above sea-level; and the expected coconut trees everywhere. There were plenty of ramshackle partly-open houses, but I also passed several solid two-storey houses, and quite a few going up - big cement constructions. In fact there’s a great deal of construction around. I should remember Tokelau is not a Least Developed Country, income is decent - but artificial - Tokelauans rely heavily on remittances and aid money from NZ and it’s certainly not a sustainable environment from within. A clue from the boat was the large sacks of rice, carrots and cabbage being shipped in - everything comes in on the boat, really the only food obtainable locally is breadfruit, coconuts, fish and pigs, and maybe a small amount of bananas and pawpaw. It seems slightly strange, even the lean-tos that are collapsing and surrounded by rubbish and various rusting items have tvs in them, I even saw a giant-screened tv in one house. So they’re not desperately poor, and surrounded by the

Nukunonu

The view from my guest house room's window

stunning environs it seems quite the idyllic paradise. But if it’s entirely propped up externally, how can it be sustainable?
Walking along the lone road on the other side of the bridge I could see the water in both directions (you can see it in both directions from most places). Passed two small children who were in awe of me, big grins and saucer eyes. I was invited for a drink at one house, a girl sat on the concrete veranda while two boys sat below, one scraping the outside from breadfruits with the sharp edge of an old tuna tin. Feeling very intrepid for conversing with the locals, only to discover the girl was from New Zealand and the two boys from Samoa. The boys are here from Samoa, looking for wives - they couldn’t have been more than 18.

After the women of Atafu arrived and were welcomed with a ceremony, there was just enough daylight left for a swim. I ventured out the back of the guest house, dropped my towel and waded in, over the top of hundreds of sea cucumbers. Floating on my back, watching the clouds, observing the coconut palms dipping towards the

Nukunonu

The view from the government building back across to the guest house on the left

lagoon all around the atoll, I could hear the ladies singing in the distance. I felt a very long way away from everything. It was worth the boat trip. But I’m going to be chockers with culture by the end!

Day four - Thursday
Today was the official opening ceremony for the week’s events, so everyone gathered in the main fale by the wharf. There was a u-shape of chairs set up, and the rest of the ladies sat on the floor at one end. One chair was for me but I spent most of the time roaming and filming the proceedings. It was mostly speeches from various people in Tokelauan, I think the various pulenuku (village mayors) and then the presidents of the fatupaepae (women’s committees). Lise gave me an interesting rundown afterwards - apparently when the Ulu (the head of Tokelau) spoke with great passion, he was speaking about the fact that it’s all very well for everyone to talk about supporting and nurturing the women and girls of Tokelau, but it has not been done thus far and he wants to see real commitment and action - an honourable sentiment. Then we headed to the fale

Nukunonu

View from the guest house balcony back to the government fale

behind the govt building for morning tea, and I chatted to a couple of women about what they thought of the events. One explained to me how men and women here have very different roles, and ‘the hand cannot be the eye and the eye cannot be the hand’. I’m not sure which represents a man and which represents a woman.

Later as Misa and I ate lunch at the guest house, someone had switched the tv to E! channel, and it was incredibly strange to watch the overly-made-up celebrities posing for photographs - it really seemed just worlds away. The incongruity of it is quite dazzling - I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a local born and bred, watching this sort of thing beamed in via satellite.
I’ve enjoyed watching as I’ve wandered back and forth, the men doing the cooking and preparing of lunch for the women, and also the washing up afterwards. The men seem to be really supportive of the women’s plans this week. I wonder what it’s like normally?

I’m now sitting in on the women’s handicrafts meeting, part of the economic summit. Tokelau handicrafts are quite beautiful, and

Nukunonu

The school and rugby field

the summit is to determine whether they can be marketed more widely and turned into income generating projects for the women. This meeting is for the different women’s groups to display their wares and discuss prices. There is some amazing work; incredibly fine detail and workmanship. I was offered a foil-wrapped ball, no idea what it is but accepted it. Eventually worked out it’s for eating, but haven’t opened it up yet. (Later - opened it to discover a sweet smelling ball of coconut and other ingredients, although it was a bit tough to bite into and with no dentist on the island I wasn’t too game to keep trying!) Instead I settled for a bowl of the ice-cream that was being handed out for afternoon tea. It was in small plastic containers and tasted commercial, not something they would have made here, so I guess it comes in freezers on the boat.

One other palagi on Nukunonu is Heather, a Canadian girl on a volunteer programme similar to mine, here to work in the school for two years - she’s been here a month so far. Chatting about Tokelau one afternoon, Heather mentioned that apparently the sky tv

Nukunonu

The generator and fuel drums - all fuel is shipped in on the boat

connection only arrived last year. One of the teachers told her that as soon as it arrived, you could see the difference - one day children were playing outside, the next they were all inside glued to the screen. But apparently now the novelty is wearing off a little bit and you can see them back outside in dribs and drabs again - we saw a few playing a ball game as we walked. Another teacher had told her he remembered when the boat only came once every six months! He had a strong memory of the smell of oranges - this strange new thing that arrived on the boat one time.

Day five - Friday
Carted my laptop to the govt building to do some work, but due to rain overnight the solar-powered satellite internet connection was acting up, so I went for a brief stroll around the atoll to kill time. The men are busy constructing the stage for the pageant. Or perhaps not ‘busy’ as such, as several of them are lying around in the fale while one or two carry in planks of wood. Further around I was stopped by a man who I’d seen

Nukunonu

Check out the water tank! Probably a cyclone

filming some of the events. He asked if I was a tourist, and I explained my purpose here. He was born here, but left in ’69 for New Zealand, and has been back a couple of times since. He’s back this time to collect his mother and take her back to New Zealand; Wellington. He said he enjoys the lack of stress when he visits Tokelau, but confessed he was actually a little bit bored. He’s heading back on the same boat as me.

Misa and I then went to the bank to change some money. The ‘bank’ is actually a girl at a desk in one of the weatherboard government cottages. She has a box next to her full of little yellow passbooks with names written across the top - some of the old ladies seated on benches outside the door were clutching theirs.
Joined the ladies for lunch today, and had my first taste of local food. Two freshly caught fish, accompanied by a yellow mixture which was breadfruit and coconut cream, some coleslaw with pineapple pieces, and a brown granule-like food which was apparently a local form of taro - a bit strong-tasting for me. The

Nukunonu

One of the big new cement houses going up - the whole bottom storey is one giant water tank

rest was great though.

This afternoon I went for a walk and met Fefo again, a guy I got chatting to the first day and who turns out to be the school principal. The boat was about to leave for an unscheduled trip to Samoa, a medivac - the baby born by caesarean section on Monday is not doing well apparently. Even for medical emergencies, a two-day boat ride is the only way out. (The last plane to land in Tokelau was apparently a seaplane during WWII. There’s talk of building an airstrip, but some of the elders are against it and either way it will be a while before it happens). So I’m stranded for a few days! I was anyway, but it’s a bit more remote knowing there’s no boat to take you back if you need it.

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