I’m writing this in route from Port Villa, Vanuatu to Honoria, Solomon Islands….
I had an interesting experience at the Port Villa airport. When the flight with my plane to Honiara landed, there were a bunch of police and TV cameras waiting. I didn’t know what was going on. I assume it was a politician or a celebrity which was arriving. The flight had come in from Fiji.
After everyone got off the plane, a man exited and was thrown to the ground by the police after he got down the stairs. Turns out he was a counterfeiter from Fiji who had been coming to Vanuatu to make fake notes. The police made a big show of it for the cameras (some things are the same everywhere I guess) and put him and two accomplices who were arrested waiting for him in a cage in the back of a pick-up truck and drove off.
Frankly, it was the most entertaining excuse I’ve had for a flight to be late.
I was worried about my flight to Honiara. When I got my tickets for this part of my flight in Apia, the flight from Vila to Honiara was full. I was put on a wait list and decided not to get any tickets beyond Honiara if I wasn’t sure I could get on the flight. I figured it was a small plane because the Vila to Honiara route couldn’t possibly be that big.
Well….the flight was 50% empty. It was a Pacific Air 737. Why in the hell they had this marked as full was beyond me. Yet another story to throw on the pile in my Pacific travels. I had I been guaranteed a seat on this flight, I would have taken care of my flights beyond Honiara sooner. Now I have to cross my fingers and hope I can get a ticket there an back to Rennell Island, my objective here in the Solomons. I really don’t want this to be another Vanuatu. I also have to book my flights to Tarawa and back to Fiji. From Fiji I’ll take a brief weekend to Tuvalu, then to Hawaii
I’ll stay a bit in Hawaii so I can send mail out and finish up the video that I keep talking about but never showing (I think you’ll find it worth the wait). Then I finish up the Pacific in August in Guam, Palau, the Northern Marinas, Micronesia and the Marshalls.
Then…..JAPAN!! I look forward bullet trains and not being trapped in one small spot for a week at a time…..and quality internet.
Your things to see/do in Japan suggestions will be welcome. The help I got from everyone in New Zealand was really appreciated. I got to see most of the things that were suggested.