12/4/2000 --
It is hard to believe that this is the last International flight of our journey. In two hours we will be landing in Honolulu, Hawaii. The flight from Christmas Island has been relatively routine, yet something feels different. I know that the longest leg of our entire trip still lies ahead of us, but the returning to the US brings on feelings of joy and a sense of relief. However, at the same time my heart is already longing for the excitement and adventure that foreign lands bring.
I want to give a quick review of our schedule over the last few days. We left Cairns at 10pm and flew for about 9 hours to Port Vila, Vanuatu. After clearing customs we met an airline pilot named Norm Sanson based in Vanuatu. He took us into to town for lunch. He had to return to the airport to catch a flight, but knowing that we needed some sleep before we continued our journey to Samoa, he kindly left us the keys to his house and his car so we could get back to the airport.
After about 6 hours of sleep we headed into town to have dinner at the local yacht club. The restaurant consisted of a wooden structure open on three sides with a roof made of palm leaves. The boats tied up at the dock represented the wide variety of people in the restaurant. The local fishing boats docked next to a beautiful wooden sailboat from San Francisco, with a small sailboat docked a little further
down from Sydney.
It was truly a wonderful mix of young and old from near and far, all singing and dancing to the local music. As much as I wanted to stay forever in this tropical paradise of no worries we had to head to the airport to continue on the journey. Our departure from Vanuatu was at 11:15pm local time. The control tower closed at 6 and only reopened between 11 and 11:30 for anyone that wanted to depart at night. The scariest part is that shortly after we departed, the airport closed and turned off all the lights making it impossible for us to return. The flight to Samoa went smoothly as well, taking us over the island of Fiji. Fiji had originally been a planned stop for us but due to fighting in the area the US State department has issued a warning for all Americans to avoid travel to the area.
We landed in Western Samoa at around 10:30 am local time. The plan was to get gas and sleep for a while, then continue on to Christmas Island that night. Shortly after landing we were informed that they only had 450 liters of fuel left or about 110 gallons, which was barely enough for us. The fueler called his supervisor to see if he could arrange more fuel, but instead the supervisor wouldn’t even let us buy the 450 liters they had claiming it was reserved for someone else. We will never know why they claimed to have fuel when we had called them before hand, and suddenly didn't once we arrived. As luck would have it American Samoa had AVgas and was only about an hour flight away.
The flight to American Samoa took us along the absolutely beautiful coastline of Western Samoa. Water falls pored out of the lush green mountains into the turquoise blue sea down below. The water was so clear that from the air we could see turtles and fish swimming along the coast. After passing through several afternoon rain showers we set down in Pago Pago, American Samoa, which is, actually pronounced Pango Pango. The gas showed up on a flat bed truck in 55-gallon drums. We had purchased 5 drums and with the help of a hand pump that was lent to us we filled the airplane in about 2 hours. Not exactly a quick process. We grabbed a quick bit to eat at the McDonalds just down the street and went to sleep under the wing of the plane. Our nap lasted 4 hours, as we had to leave American Samoa before the tower closed at 9:00 PM.
Dan flew the first half of the flight while I slept and then we switched. As we flew north toward the equator the old familiar friend the Big Dipper appeared above the horizon. For almost an hour I steered the plane with a reference to the middle star on the handle of the Big Dipper. It was a perfect night for stargazing and I turned out all the lights inside the plane. In that hour I counted over eleven shooting stars. Most were just a short little flash but one will always stand out in my mind. As I was looking towards Orion's belt, a bright blue streak shot half way across the horizon. I wonder how many miles its journey had lasted. Its journey had come to an end but I still have many miles to go before I rest.
As the sun rose over the horizon we were just above a layer of clouds. I dipped down just to the tops of a smooth layer of clouds and flew just feet above the tops. There is nothing that can touch the beauty of a sunrise from the air. The clouds glow bright reds and oranges all around as the sun peaks up over the horizon. The towering clouds make a surreal landscape as the airplane dips in an out of them. One of my first memories of flying was on a trip to Connecticut to see my grandparents. Looking out the side window of the airliner I dreamed of being able to walk on and play in their lightness. This is as close as I could ever come to that.
The first sight of land after a long flight is quite an exciting feeling. Christmas Island is a small place in the middle of a lot of water but with the help of the Garmin GPS it was easy to find. There was no answer at the airport to our radio calls so we decided to make a quick pass around the island. I was surprised at how flat the island was. We later learned that at the highest point it is only 40 ft above sea level and it is the world’s largest coral atoll. The place seemed nearly deserted. There were plenty of lagoons and coconut trees but hardly any signs of civilization. We finally received a call from the control tower clearing us to land. It turns out she heard us flying around and rushed out to the airport. With only one scheduled flight a week and a few ferry flights passing through, needless to say, the airport isn’t very busy. We stayed at the Captain Cook Motel, which is a very simple place. It used to be the officer’s quarters when the British were doing nuclear testing over the island. (They assured us that the island had been tested and there were no signs of radioactivity). Dinner consisted of a whole roasted pig, fish, and land crabs. After dinner we has a wonderful conversation with two scientists that were on the island to study the fresh water supply. Steve and Max had both traveled all over the world had had many interesting stories to share. They also filled us in on the history of the island and the interesting facts that I have provided above. The island was originally discovered by Captain Cook on Christmas day hence the name. At the time there were no people on the island and only minimal vegetation.
The island didn’t become inhabited until around 1880. The British used the island for nuclear testing after WWII. Today the island is considered one of the best fly fishing places in the world. They also have several exports including tropical fish and a coconut-by product. The island gets most of its goods send in by a 737, which comes to the island once a week.
The thing that I was most impressed by is how simple a life these people live. The keep their homes clean and have very simple houses with no furniture. They cook outside and sleep on the floor. To them this is very normal and they go on happily living there simple life singing and dancing.
Wanting to get a taste of every place we stopped it wouldn’t be proper not to at least do a little fly fishing while we were in Christmas Island. It started off on a bad foot. We didn’t have an alarm clock and over slept. Instead of getting out at 6:30 to catch the first light we rolled out of bed at around 8:30. We then headed out to the flats to try our hand at catching a bonefish. Our fly fishing skills are less then perfect and to make matters worse there was a strong wind blowing from the north. It was truly a picture perfect place on a picture perfect morning. Standing in about a foot of water I slowly worked my way along the white slat flats. The idea is to spot the fish and cast the fly right in front of them. It sounds easy, but after the fly came back and caught on the back of my pants several times
I began to realize the challenge I was in for. I didn’t catch a bonefish but I did catch several smaller fish. It was the first time I had caught a fish using a fly, which made me quite happy. Unfortunately I had to cut the day of fishing short and head to the airport to continue the journey to Hawaii.
*Hawaii - A quick note.
We spent the day surfing the North Shore of Hawaii. With a
little instruction and a long board borrowed from the recreation room at the University of Hawaii we were on our way. The waves were about 2 feet on the back or about 4 feet on the face. I was able to catch several and had a blast. Tomorrow we are talking at Punahou High School in the morning and then preparing the plane for the flight across the Pacific in the afternoon.
