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08/24/2006
Surviving Survivor - Cook Islands
Survivor was filming its next series on the island of Aitutaki over the course of the last several months. We arrived about a week after they left and were happy - and very relieved - to find that while they had a major impact on the island economically, it was difficult to see where they had actually been. They had picked up after themselves quite nicely!
An article in the August 12th edition of the Cook Island News (the local newspaper) mentions that the production crew had donated eveything from a timber pier they had constructed to cartons of soft drinks and water (for the local schools). The crew also contributed more than $700 (NZ) to a rugby league to focus on the development of youth on Aitutaki and the senior students at a local school received coveted Survivor crew t-shirts.
Just about eveyone we ran into on Aitutaki had a Survivor story to tell. The folks who took us on our Aitutaki lagoon cruise had been hired by the production company to ferry people around, so we were able to see many of the locations where the episode was filmed, including One Foot Island, pictured here.
Aitutaki Lagoon is amazing. The water runs from pale to deep turquoise and the snorkeling is fantastic. On our way to our lagoon cruise, we stopped at a marine center to see some of the rehab that has begun on the critters in the lagoon. The giant clam population has been depleted over the years, and they are growing some in tanks and then planting them in the lagoon when they are large enough. The baby giant clams in this picture are only a couple of inches across, while the grown ups are a lot larger!
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08/03/2006
South Pacific
I grew up in town of Hingham, Massachusetts, which is south of Boston. It was settled in 1633 as Bare Cove and changed its name to Hingham (after a town in England from which early settlers came) in 1635. Derby Academy on lower Main Street was founded in 1784, is the oldest co-educational school in the country. A couple of doors up the street from Derby Academy is one of the town landmarks, the Old Ship Church, the oldest church in continuous use in the country. Main Street was called "the most beautiful Main Street in America" by Eleanor Roosevelt. It hasn't changed much in the years since it was first developed - it is still is two lanes wide and bordered with large trees, mostly elms that have survived the ravages of Dutch elm disease.
Lower Main Street is dotted with homes that date back several centuries, such as my favorite set to the west of the street, its pergolas covered with wisteria that hangs languidly in the summer heat.
The last time I visited was in October 2001 - security was heavy in the airports (we flew into Connecticut and machine gun armed military were everywhere) and the tension was palpable. The homes along Main Street that are decorated with a simple wreath and candles in each window at Christmas were hung with flags, many of which dated back to the 1800's.
Summers meant swim lessons at the town beach timed around high tide to avoid the icky mud when the tide was out, sailing with the girl up the street when I could convince her that it would be more fun that mooning at the soda jerk with whom she was enamoured and occassionally going to the Music Circus in Cohasset to productions of the musicals that played each summer - Finnean's Rainbow, The Pajama Game, and, of course, South Pacific. My father had all the words to the songs memorized. (Cohasset, by the way is where the movie the Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson was filmed.)
It was only years later that I learned that the island of Bali Hai in the musical was based on the island of Bora Bora. This summer we take off for the South Pacific, stopping VERY briefly in Papeete to change planes and head off to another island that won't be identified at this point as our destination is a surprise.
If your destination is Tahiti, though, you will want to see what The Big Day's Aruna Bali has to suggest for Resorts there in her May blog entry .
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