Solomon Islands Encounters – A Window into the Past (Part 1)

20/12/2024 0 By michaela@tainuipress.co.nz

Words & Images By Shane Boocock

Bouncing down the highway was an eye-opener, as Japanese made cars and trucks of every description and size jostled for space on the rough, pot-holed roads. Makeshift wooden or bamboo stalls with tin or tarpaulin-covered roofs sold plastic water bottles and shaved coconuts on both sides of the road, manned by barefoot or flip-flop wearing women and men. Welcome to Honiara…derived from one of the Guadalcanal languages, meaning ‘Place of the East Wind’.

The chaotic traffic was heavy and often at a standstill in bottleneck junctions as acrid exhaust smoke billowed out into the early morning air. Boys and men stood or hung off the back of beaten-up Hyundai or Toyota flatbed utes or in unroadworthy trucks. A boom truck with a hydraulic crane mounted to the chassis had roughly eight men riding it like it was an elongated iron-horse saddle. Brummagem (cheap) stores on either side of the road sold housewares, basic groceries, top-up options for phones or rudimentary workshops where mechanical things get fixed.

The road from the airport is known as The Kukum Highway, so named by the American Navajo Indian with their word for Pineapple, which the famous ‘Wind Talkers’ used to describe the American’s yellow- painted hand-grenades. Known as the ‘Code Breakers’, it was the only language in the course of WWII that was unbreakable when the enemy tried to decipher radio-transmitted messages.

Earlier that morning we had caught a 2 hour 45 minute flight from Brisbane on a Solomon Airways A-320 Airbus before landing at Henderson Airfield in Honiara, known today as Honiara International Airport and gateway to the Solomon Islands. The airfield was originally named after US Marine Corps Major Lofton Henderson, killed during the battle of Medway, a month before the US Marine Corps landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in August 1942.

The Solomons Islands were first spotted in 1568 through the Andalusia born eyes of the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana who, when sailing from Peru looking for Terra Australis, ended up arriving in this unknown, northern typhoon-swept region of the South Pacific. A scattered archipelago of some 992 richly forested mountainous islands, low-lying coral atolls and reefs, grouped into nine regions or provinces. Since that first tantalising Spanish glimpse of paradise hidden, the Solomon Islands has been attracting international tourism ever since.

Mendana’s legacy can, to this day, still be found in the Solomon Islands with many of the islands still bearing the Spanish names he gave them. Perhaps the most famous of all, Guadalcanal, the name synonymous with World War II which takes its name from a small township in Andalusia in southern Spain along with other Spanish named islands such as Santa Isabel and San Cristóbal.

But for the most part the Solomon Islands and their quiet, reserved people with a population of about 750,000 are a mix of Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian cultures. They were left pretty much alone after Mendana’s visit until 300 years later when Great Britain was gifted control of the entire territory. In 1976, the Solomon Islands became self-governing before gaining full independence from Britain in 1978.

This area of the North Pacific was recently referred to as part of the ‘The Blue Continent’, by none other than New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, who was in Honiara during his 2024 Pacific tour of the Micronesian sub-region ahead of 53rd Pacific Island Forum Leaders Summit.

Little has changed in the Solomon Islands since independence – it is simply…a window into the past. It’s thanks to this situation that the Solomon Islands have become such a breathtakingly fresh destination for those international travellers, hardy enough to explore way beyond the usual tourist tracks and look for new and very different experiences. Centred on its culture, you won’t find any other South Pacific Island destination that offers such a diverse range of attractions.

Having negotiated the Kukum Highway, we arrived at our accommodation in the quiet grounds of the Heritage Park Hotel at Point Cruz. In the large marble lobby the soot-black overhead fans turned in unison, swatting the humid air, where the smell of frangipani lingered in the balmy 28 degrees temperature.

The hotel’s name is derived from the fact it is built on what was once part of the Governor’s residence and landscaped grounds. My room, complete with a balcony looking out to sea, was generous in proportions and made for a relaxing start to my three-night stay. Honiara also has a broad range of other accommodation options from hotels, resorts, bungalows and motels to lodges and budget hostels.

Our meal on the first night was at the Heritage Park Hotel’s seafront Splash Bar and Grill just above the undulating waves that gently broke below the hotel’s raised promenade.

On the menu was lobster…the only real seafood option we had as they had run-out of all the other fish dishes. The sunset was mellow but enough to want to take a few photographs. The hotel also features the Renaissance Restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Heritage Park Hotel is still considered the best hotel in Honiara. If I had to be pernickety, the Heritage had daily internet connection dropouts due to their data cap plan. Additionally there are no lifts between floors, which is common in other hotels, otherwise it was an excellently maintained hotel with good quality facilities.

It was Saturday morning as we met in the lobby to transfer to a nearby pier for our day trip to Savo Island and then onto the Nggela Sulu Islands (once known as the Florida Islands) in a large, open sea-going boat with twin outboard engines that was impressive at first sight. We settled in to what we thought was going to be a fairly calm crossing of Iron Bottom Sound, so designated for the amount of ships, submarines, aircraft and navy boats sunk there during WWII.

In reality it turned into a wet and wild, wave-cresting, hang-onto-your seat ride that drenched the unlucky passengers seated at the back of the boat (myself included) with repeated showers of saltwater. By the time we had reached land it had taken over an hour (twice the intended time) to make the ocean-going trip.

Our first beaching was onto volcanic-black sands near the tiny serene, sun-dappled village of Mavalu on Savo Island. On a short beachside path we entered the village to the smell of the wind-whipped salt from the sea and the earthiness of the land with the pungent smell of smoldering fires, offset by the fragrant airborne blossom of more frangipani. Coconut husks and discarded plastic bottles littered sections of the beach, as village children played happily. In small coves, upturned wooden dugout canoes pointed out beyond the black sand beaches to the Coral Sea.

Young girls, some holding babies shouted a greeting, “Dai-ropoe” meaning, Good Morning! They all smiled, waved and looked very happy with not a care in the world. Villagers like this live in their thatched-hut world without electricity, big screen TVs, internet, smart phones or computer games to distract them. It seemed an idyllic life and one far away from any civilisation that we have come to take for granted. The scene reflected a lifetime of living in relative solitude.

Our group of five then took a smaller banana boat coast-hugging ride further east to a region of the island that sits below the lower slopes of an active volcano. Once beached, we hiked an inland bush track where crops were growing in the rich volcanic soil, while nearby we could hear the distinct sound of a stream trickling through the forest. High in the trees Dollar Birds with a distinctive screech were calling to each other. After about 1.5 kilometres we came across a village woman about to start cooking cassava and bananas. Standing in ankle deep hot water she wrapped the tuberous root vegetable and fruit in banana leaves and let them cook over the sulphur steaming hot waters that flow from the volcano’s bubbling mud vents.

The woman allowed us to taste the chalk-coloured cassava that we all found very bland and extremely dry. Not surprisingly, cultivated cassava is used daily to make cassava flour, breads, and tapioca. The villagers however, live on a common diet of kumara, fish, wild cabbage, peanuts, coconut and coconut milk. However pigs are reserved for special feasts, during marriages and in some cases they are used to barter for goods between other villages.

Back on our big launch boat the captain headed east in more very rough seas to Roderick Bay (named after a foreign trader in 1877) on the Nggela Sule Islands. This is the site of where the famous MS World Discoverer cruise wreck is located. As we tied up we were greeted on the pier by about a dozen young village kids waving spears covered in face-paint and dressed in tribal loincloths. This was followed by a cultural performance from villagers using panpipes (consisting of different lengths of bamboo flutes tied together that are beaten on top like a mini-Jamaican-styled drum).

In 2000, the MS World Discoverer with 175 passengers on board hit a rock at the entrance to the Sandfly Passage, which gashed a sizeable hole in the right side of the ship’s hull. The captain at the helm of the German registered ship was unfortunately named Oliver Kruise. As the captain tried to manoeuvre it closer to shore in the hope of salvaging it, the ship turned sideways onto the beach and the keel became embedded in the soft sand. The insurance company deemed it unsalvageable and it is believed many of the interior items from ceramic urns to cutlery still remain inside the wreck…other valuable items were, not unsurprisingly, quickly recovered.

Looking like a film prop from a Jason Stratham action movie, the ship’s claim to fame today is the photogenic nature of all the trees, plants and other living matter that have since grown all over the rusting, above-water decks and portholes. It is also a very popular spot for divers and snorkellers as it now lies at a 45-degree angle and has since become somewhat of a ghostly tourist attraction. It usually makes it onto the lists of the Top 10 Most Famous Shipwrecks.

Back in Honiara, after yet again another rough crossing in strong swells ripped up by the cross winds, we made our way to the Heritage Park Hotel. Dinner that night was at the Hakubai Japanese Restaurant in the Solomon Kitana Mendana Hotel…a culinary delight that is rare to find in the Solomons.

Traffic was light being Sunday as we drove through the outskirts of Honiara. Eventually we arrived in a remote area to be greeted at the Hotomai Cultural Village – a commune-like society of between 40-50 villagers. A good luck omen was a majestic Blyth’s Hornbill that squawked as it flew right over us on arrival. For entertainment, five young men (their teeth displaying the red residue of Betel nut chewing) performed a traditional cultural dance followed by a more subdued dance performance by five older women.

Our group then wandered a pathway between rows of perfumed orchids where local villagers were cooking traditional dishes under lean-to canopies made of woven coconut palm fronds. One particular woman, and her angelic daughter sitting beside, her was roasting taro root over simmering wood coals – her daughter displaying a mop on natural blond hair, not uncommon as it turned out.

On either side of the track were extensive produce gardens that contained more than any supermarket could display in their produce section. Sitting on a lush ridge above it all was an ornately decorated ‘Feasting House’ built by the loincloth wearing village chief, along with more cooking and sleeping huts. Elsewhere other individual family units were scattered far and wide.

Lunch was a four-wheel drive away that lasted about an hour on a slippery, wet, claggy mud road through dense jungle. We unloaded high up in the mountains behind Honiara at Parangiju Mountain Lodge, which offers adventurous travellers ridge-top cabin accommodation. It was quite remote, located on a promontory that had views down upon a deep, jungle covered valley that was cut by the force by the Lunga River. When the water is high from excessive rains or flooding it is used by Ko Kama Rafting Adventures for scenic and exciting river rafting trips.

From the lodge there is a one hour trail you can trek down to go swimming at the base of Tenaru Waterfalls – it’s the return journey that will have guests craving a cold beer back at the lodge. Our lunch was a delicious bowl of sweet and sour chicken, a whole poached fish, fried mixed vegetables with a salad of cucumber and lettuce, and a large bowl of rice, accompanied by a Solomon Islands cold SolBrew Lager or two!

That night dinner was at the Kaikaihaus Restaurant in the King Solomon Hotel – it’s a great place for a family or group to spend an evening sampling a good range of Italian pizza options as well as specialty fish dishes and some Australian chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon wines.

Our first three days had been full of cultural experiences in what is deemed the closer outer islands near to Honiara, places not really on the usual Solomon Islands tourist map, but they should be, as they offer insights into many forgotten aspects of Solomon Island life.

Facts:

Tourism Solomons

www.visitsolomons.com.sb

Heritage Park Hotel, Honiara:

The Heritage Park hotel offers accommodation options to suit all types of discerning travellers with 48 rooms and 27 one, two and three bedroom apartments. www.heritageparkhotel.com.sb

Solomon Airlines:

Operate two Airbus A320-200 aircraft on their international routes. Note: Maximum check-in baggage is up to 30 kgs, there is plenty of leg room between seats, meals are hot and very enjoyable, there are generous servings of wine and beer, but there are no seat-back movies screens. Domestic routes are serviced by turbo-prop Twin Otter and Dash 8 aircraft with a maximum check-in baggage limit of 16 kgs.