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Thread: KONG IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

  1. #16
    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by captain kong View Post
    I dont have the photies,
    the photo card in my NEW camera made the photos too big, I could not see them myself, I have sent it away to a mate and he is reducing them,
    Why not go and take the photos yourself, the ship is still there and will be for many years to come.
    WHY ABUSE ME?? I AM NOWAY A SILLY OLD BUGGER. I do not abuse you.
    Kong, George is only joking, 'silly old bugger' is just an affectionate term you might say to someone you know and not meant to be offensive

  2. #17
    Senior Member kevin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lindylou View Post
    Kong, George is only joking, 'silly old bugger' is just an affectionate term you might say to someone you know and not meant to be offensive
    Both he and the 'long haired one' are not too well at the minute - so more Grumpy Old Bugger than Silly Old Bugger. Praying he recovers in time to make the meet-up at the end of the month.

  3. #18
    Captain Kong captain kong's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kevin View Post
    Both he and the 'long haired one' are not too well at the minute - so more Grumpy Old Bugger than Silly Old Bugger. Praying he recovers in time to make the meet-up at the end of the month.
    OK point taken. I am grumpy at the moment, we got a severe virus somewhere over there and had no sleep for ten days now. and we are knackered. we spent last weekend in hospital. we have not seen any relatives or friends yet as we are contaminated and still on medication. Hope this note does not give you all a virus.
    I have not got my photo card back yet, there were 947 photos of the Islands on it and I havent seen them yet.

  4. #19
    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    Hope you are feeling on top form again soon Kong

  5. #20
    Captain Kong captain kong's Avatar
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    We did two days on the old Queen Mary and two day on when we were homeward bound. Try www.queenmary.com click on all the icons and do a full tour of the ship. there are some good photos of her and the accommodtion.
    An ex Liverpool lady, Molly, who is married to a Canadian and now lives in Winnipeg gave Anne and I a lift in their car all the way to San Diego, only 140 miles or so.
    We sailed from there to the Hawaiian Islands, love those places, I was having a bevy in HOOTERS in Honolulu, and spoke to a fella and he and his wife were from Liverpool and now lived in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Graham and Helen, used to live in Melling near the Racecourse, he was an ex Liverpool Seaman and also went to the Vindicatrix Sea Training School as did I and Brian Daley. So we had a few more bevies and continued on the ship.
    After we left Fanning Island we headed South to the Cook Islands, Tahitian Islands and Paradise.
    Five days later, after crossing the Equator and again crossing the International Date Line, on 17 March giving us two St, Paddys days on a run, we arrived at Rarotonga in the Cooks. I had a friend here who I sailed with on the Tung Tsing, Eddy Tom, another friend who is his cousin and lives here phoned him to say I was on my way to see him. They were both originally from Aitutaki anther Island in the Cooks.
    I looked around for him, no sign. We did a round trip tour of the Island, beautiful. On the way to the tender that takes us back to the ship I stopped a man in the street, `Do you know Eddy Tom?` he said `Yes he is very good friend and last week he took off and went to Aitutaki, three days sail away.`So he had gone to the wrong Island after I had sailed half way round the world to see him.
    Next port was Raiatea an Island with a sister Island Taha`a. Raiatea was the centre of ancient Polynesian culture, there were many ancient sites of of Polynesian legends, the best known is Taputapuatea where the alter was used for human sacrifice and cannibalism
    until the Missionaries put a stop to their games.
    The smaller sister Island Taha`a is 15 minutes away by ferry, and very mountainous, all these Islands are made from huge volcanos.
    It has a beautiful lagoon and palm fringed `motues`, tiny islands.
    that evening we sailed across to Bora Bora, made famous by the film `South Pacific` one of the most beautiful islands in the world with its Bali Hai mountain.the followind day we went for lunch in one of the most famous bar restaraunts, Bloody Marys, very expensive but well worth it. then to a beautiful beach, pure white sand and again fringed with palm trees, a real paradise.
    We then sailed to Papeete on Tahiti, I was supposed to meet another friend, Stanley, he was not there, I asked a man if he knew him, `Yes he is my cousin, here use my mobile phone`, He got hold of Stanley for me and Stan said he was on the Island of Bora Bora, we were there yesterday. So he couldnt get to see me. All that way to see him and missed. His cousin was Maruaii who had taken me to Matavai Bay and the HMS Bounty memorial.
    After Pape` we sailed across to Moorea, 9 miles away.
    I had another friend to see there, Tiko and wife Fifi. He wasnt there, I asked the locals , `Where is Tiko and Fifi,`?
    They said, He has gone to Pape`, [Papeete]. So once again I had to go half way around the world to miss them.
    So we decide to join a small boat that was leaving the Jetty, it was going to a small island down the coast.
    We sailed across the bay round the point with a hotel and several overwater cabins made of bamboo and thatch and across Cooks Bay, where they filmed the "Mutiny on the Bounty" films and the big mountain behind, a beautiful scene, and then past the Intercontinental Hotel, again with overwater cabins, they have glass floors so people think are walking on water.
    Further down the coast the man stopped the boat, it was in shallow turqouise water and there were many large Sting Rays swimming around. He gave us all goggles and snorkals, and over the side I went with a few others.
    I had swum with Sting Rays before in the Caymans and they were very smooth like silk, these were very tough with sharp points all over their backs . I got one around four feet in diameter, fed him a few lumps of fish then hung onto his shoulders while he towed me around. To my amazement a bunch of sharks arrived and started to circle us, they were around 8 feet in length and a beige colour with a black dorsal fin. They circled around for a while and the sting ray was getting very agitated and thrashing his tail. The tail had a blunt end, no sting there, but all the length of the tail, around 4 feet, was covered in tiny spikes or stings. Then suddenly I got a whiplash off him right across my right shoulder to the left side of my waist and up my right fore arm. The stings were tolerable and I continued to swim with him, he didnt intend to sting me but to scare away the sharks, the sharks slowly moved away and then disapeared. When I eventually climbed back on board Anne could see the stings and they appeared to be tiny puncters in the skin, the pain disapeared after a couple of hours, we upped anchor and sailed for the small island where a barbeque was prepared for us, very tasty, chicken and beer. It was a real desert island, palm trees on the beach and good coral reefs around and ideal for the snorkel, swim to the outer reef and then just lie on the water and drift along back into the lagoon watching the corals and angel fish and several Nemos.

    I may get my photos back tomorrow

  6. #21
    Came fourth...now what? Oudeis's Avatar
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    It would appear that life on small islands is akin to city life on our own largish island. Here visiting relatives is a mere bus or short train ride away. For your pals seem to treat the ocean ferries in the same way we do our buses.

  7. #22
    Captain Kong captain kong's Avatar
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    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Later we sailed for Rangiroa, Tuamotu. there are 78 Tuamotu islands stretched across hundred miles of ocean, NE of Tahiti. It is one of the worlds four largest atolls. The Coral ring is made up of 240 motus, [islets]
    The colours of the water in the lagoon is stunning and the snorkeling is great. A lot of black pearls are harvested here. The lagoon covers over 630 square miles and you cannot see the other side.
    After a day of snorkeling and walking around the motu we then sailed for Nuka Hiva in the Marqueses.
    A mountainous island made up of several volcanos.we anchored in the Bay of Taiohae and landed at the village, which was also the Capital of the island.. We hired a 4WD Land Rover and went towrds the peak of the mountain, Mt Tekoa, through the forests with sheer drops of a couple of thousand feet on the side of the rough tracks. we came to the end of the track and then walked for a while through the forest, past a huge Ban Yan tree which was hundreds of years old. then we came across the ancient abandoned villages of Hikokua and Tahakia Kamuihei.These date back two to three thousand years to an ancient civilisation before the Polynesians arrived.
    The stones of the villages were laid out in a pattern for the long house, a dance square and the ceremonial and sacrificial sites. many of these stones were huge and must have weighed a couple of tons, It is amzing how they collected them and placed them in the right positions without machinery. The whole lot had many Tiki, statues carved of stone, each one a different design. Most of the Tiki statues were all well endowed, with huge "thingies", I felt quite envious of them, some of the ladies in the party stroked them, `perchance to dream`. One statue was a lady holding a baby hanging by the neck in one hand. Baby sacrifice was quite common. They had these ceremonies where they went to the next village and stole their babies and women, place them on the alter and crushed their skulls with clubs and afterwards eat them. They ate more women than men, I guess they tasted nicer.
    a fascinating place.
    We went down the mountain to the villages of Hatiheu and Anaho on two bays, and saw the damage caused by the tsunami a week or two before. The two bays and up the two rivers were badly damaged and all the palms had been swept away.The industry there was Copra, and it wiped out the crop and damaged all the stock and production of the copra.
    We stopped at the best restaurant in the islands for lunch, Restaurant Hinako Nui, near Hatiheu, The sea food was magnificent with baked Bread Fruit and many other fruits washed down with Hinano beer.
    We made our way back to Taiohae after a journey of 8 hours.
    The sad history of the island is when the island was first discovered by the Spanish the population was almost wiped out, only a handful survived, They had brought `gifts` of Syphilis, dysentry, tuberculosis,
    smallpox, and leprosy. they died by the thousand.
    that evening we sailed for San Diego six days sailing away.
    In San Diego we checked into the Holiday Inn which was very handy, it was directly facing the bow of the Rotterdam, no taxis required, just walked across the road and we were there.
    We stayed for two days, so again facing the hotel was the Maritime Museum which had two sailing ships, the Star of India built in Britain about 150 years ago, a beautiful full rigged ship and still sails around the coast, also the Rose, the ship that was in the movie made by Russel Crow, "Master and Commander", also two old submarines and an old San Fransisco ferry.We had a trip to Del Coronado Hotel where Maralyn Monrow, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon made the film,"Some Like It Hot" very interesting and a wonderful beach.
    The following day we spent on board the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier built in 1945, it had more airplanes on it than we have in our entire Air Force. A full day can be enjoyed aboard her.
    The following day drove up to Long Beach and had another two days on board the finest ship still afloat, the QUEEN MARY. www.queenmary.com we then flew back home. end of.

    During the trip three passengers died on board., and several taken ashore to the ambulance in Hawaii and in Tahiti, On leaving San Diego on the first day one was lifted off by helicopter around 100 miles out.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  8. #23
    Captain Kong captain kong's Avatar
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    Here are a few of the 947 photos from Paradise. The back end of the tsunami on Hawaii I got a little wet taking this one., on an Island off Moorea, Cooks Bay in Moorea with the Bali Hai Mountain swimming with the stingrays. dancing girls in Tahiti, my friends Manuraii and wife in Papeete Tahiti , Manuraii is a direct descendent of Edward Young, Midshipman of the BOUNTY, and one of the Mutieers who landed on Pitcairn`s Island with a Tahitian wife, The Bounty Memorial in Matavaii Bay Tahiti where the Bounty anchored for six months for the Bread fruit. Fanning Island singers, they have Nothing but still sing, a lesson to our benefit cheats. there is a statue of TIKI carved around 2 to 3000 years ago by an ancient civilization now extinct on the island of Nuka Hiva.
    Sacrificial stones on Nuka Hiva, men dancing on Fanning Island, two young lady dancers on Tahiti with coconut bras. didnt sell these in Lewis`s. the mountain on BORA BORA. Bread Fruit on Tahiti, what the Bounty went for. They are very tasty when toasted cant get them in England. My tooth is buried under this tree on Matavai Bay.
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  9. #24
    Captain Kong captain kong's Avatar
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    Did you like those?? there are more pictures but not ready yet. I bought a new Olympus camera for this trip but the the lens must be distorted it shows me with little fat legs etc, and more than half of the 947 pics have not come out as they should no colour, and only as thumb nails ,cannot open them . The camera has gone back to Olympus for investigation.

  10. #25
    Senior Member lindylou's Avatar
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    Wow ! Looks like you had a marvellous time and such a beautiful place to see. Lovely photos, thanks for sharing them with us.


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