Wellington, New Zealand

Today the ship anchored off the coast of Pitcairn Island. Because the sea is rough and their are no actual ports on the Island, we were unable to go ashore, however, since there are less than 60 people on the Island they weren’t going to miss the chance to sell things to us. About 25 of them climbed into a long boat and rode out to the ship. They then climbed up a ladder with all of their things, set it out on tables, and began selling. All the people on the ship began a frenzy to buy things. It was quite a sight.

Our ships crew giving supply's to the Islanders

We had gone to some lectures about the Island and learned that they have very good honey. It is said that they have the best honey in the world due to having the only bees in the world with no disease. We thought it would be fun to try some of this honey, but by the time that we got to the honey selling table they were all out. We were disappointed but then my mom had an idea. She thought we could give one of the islanders some money and our address and they could mail us some. We went to one of the tables where we met Andrew Christian. He told us that we should look a few other places first to get a better deal. We looked but there was no honey. By the time we had come back, Andrew was running back and forth from one table to the other. When we asked him what he was doing he told us that one of the ladies from the other travels had stolen his stuff and was trying to sell it. We were very surprised! We sat and watched for a few more minutes then talked to another man who gave us his card and told us that he could have the honey to us by July.

    Andrew Christian

Once it was all figured out my mom decided she wanted a serving platter made by Andrew. It was a tough choice because he had crafted many beautiful works from wood. She eventually picked one and we brought it down to the room. By the time we were coming back up we had started moving. All the islanders were gone. We decided to have some lunch. While we were eating our friends Brian and Ann came along. I sat next to them while I finished my lunch and Brian told me all about Pitcairn Island and that the Hollywood movies mix up the story sometimes because they make Captain Bligh (Captain of the H.M.S. Bounty) look like a bad captain which he was not. Brian also told me that when he was a kid he would skip school because it was the beginning of WWII and his school got bombed so he had to go to another school but there were to many kids so he had to sit in the hall and he couldn’t hear the teachers. Also all the teachers joined the war so the retired teachers had to came back and they hated that there were so many kids and so they told him that they would be happy if Brian skipped school. So him and his friends used to play in the hills, and one day they saw a German Plane fly overhead. They chased it into town where it had crashed into a building and killed the woman inside. Him and his friends climbed up the rubble. The looked in the cockpit where they saw a dead pilot with a few flickering flames around him. They ignored him and headed toward the wings which had been torn off. Together, they picked one up and began carrying it down the rubble, past the plane and the dead pilot (who was now completely engulfed in flames) and down the street to play with. The police came to the crash site and discovered the boys with the wing and took it from them. He said he is still angry to this day about it.

Brian telling me his stories

It was a fantastic day!

Till next time!