Melanesian Cruise: Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands 3.4.26)

Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, was one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.  It started over an airport.  The Japanese learned that the Americans were finishing an airport on Guadalcanal Island which had originally been started by the Japanese.  They feared the airport could become a base servicing all of the South Pacific.  In August 1942, the Japanese invaded to keep the airport from being completed by the Americans. Six months and tens of thousands of casualties later, the Japanese disappeared in the night.  We visited Honiara, on Guadalcanal Island, on March 4, 2026.  Parts of the old American airport are still being used, although the main airline flying out of that old WWII airport is now Solomons Airlines.

The part of the airport still remaining from World War II.

We visited a collection of ruins from World War II---rusted tanks, banged up planes, and even a metal barrel shot full of bullet holes.

We visited a memorial garden honoring soldiers who fought at Guadalcanal, and we also visited monuments erected by both the Japanese and the Americans.

The Japanese monument included a poem, "Sound of the Tide," about fishermen dying at sea.

The American monument had large marble plaques telling the history of the Guadalcanal campaign and the soldiers who fought in it.

Both the Japanese and American monuments were high on the hillside.  The pathos of the place and its memories were represented, for me, in this photo of a man contemplating as he looked over the now peaceful valley below the monuments.

As we watched from the top of the hill, a plane came flying in, landing at the same airport which had seen so much history.

Polyonesian cultures in Hawaii, Tahiti, and New Zealand are highly evolved.  The Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, in Melanesia, seemed much more primitive, both in the lifestyle and in the art.  I love indigenous art, though, of any sort, and I enjoyed the collection at the local museum.

Dave and I stopped at a local shop to buy a beautifully turned wooden bowl, inlaid with shell, for my paralegal, Cate.  I wish I bought one for myself!

One other unique feature of the Solomon Islands is that gold has been discovered there.  In addition to a large, majority Chinese owned mine, there are many small-time miners mining gold illegally.  There were signs all over town saying, "We buy gold."

Melanesian Cruise: Face Paints and Coconuts (Alotau, Papua New Guinea 3.2.26)

Our second stop in Papua New Guinea was at Alotau, formerly Milne Bay, on March 2, 2026.  As in Greenland and other former European colonies, after independence the cities got renamed.  Alotau was the scene of the Battle of Milne Bay during World War II, as the Japanese tried to invade Papua again.  As at Port Moresby, they were rebuffed.

We spent our day at a "cultural immersion" in a Papuan village which opened itself to visitors.  There were stalls selling woven baskets and shell jewelry, as well as areas showing village crafts and activities.

The young men of the village danced for us.

In Melanesia, the people are darker than in Polynesia, and have kinky hair.  Clothes are minimal.

The village center was organized into different areas.  Villagers demonstrated basket making, pottery making, building a canoe, and making coconut milk.  In another area, a young man and several women showed us how to wrap fish and yams in banana leaves and roast them over a fire.

This young man uses a sharp stick to husk a coconut.

The meat of the coconut is squeezed into coconut milk.

The village children were adorable!

And, finally, refreshments!

Melanesian Cruise: Art from the Back of Beyond (Port Moresby, New Guinea, 3.1.26)

The son of Nelson Rockefeller, vice president of the U.S under _____, disappeared in Papua New Guinea while gathering native art for a new museum in New York City.  He was later discovered to have been killed and eaten by natives when he swam to shore after his small boat capsized.  Papua New Guinea has always held contrasting allure for me--a violent place with spectacular scenery and art.  On March 1, 2026, I experienced the gorgeous scenery and art, if not the violence!

Our ship often receives a welcoming party of singers and dancers when docking in exotic ports.  

The highlight of our shore excursion in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, was a visit to the National Museum of Art, with enough gorgeous native art to thrill critics in New York City!

We also visited the impressive Parliament Building, based on native architecture, with a statute of the "father of the nation" out front.  It was refreshing to see a government building based on native styles, rather than with a Roman dome and pillars!

Photographs of Papua's Supreme Court justices lined the walls of the Parliament Building.  In those photographs, customs were borrowed from Papua's colonizers, including British-style judicial wigs!

Papua New Guinea was the scene of bloody battles during World War II, as the Australians and Americans fought to keep the Japanese from invading nearby Australia.  This Allied cemetery was filled with graves of Australian soldiers.

In the distance we could see the mountains where the bitterest fighting took place--thousands of men died as the battles raged back and forth over a mountain ridge.  The Japanese goal was to conquer Port Moresby, which they never did.

Our final stop was at a wildlife sanctuary where we saw animals native to Papua New Guinea.

This species of red fox is rare, except in New Guinea.

Kookaburras are native to Australia, as well as nearby Papua.

Cockatoos are common throughout South Pacific's jungles.

South Pacific jungles are also full of bright-colored snakes.

And, of course, bright flowers abound in the tropics.

The wildlife refuge included a "yam house," where natives stored produce and celebrated the earth's fertility.