- September 28, 2009
Whilst collecting Birthday emails, we overheard a conversation from some Samoan athletes who are here participating in the Pacific Mini-games, that there had been a large earthquake near Samoa and people had died. A remark “I hope it doesn’t head this way” made us wonder what they meant. Looking on the BBC site we found that the Pacific area was under Tsunami alert. Apparently the last tsunami that hit in this area happened in 1935 and took out one corner of Rarotonga. As we walked along the sea front, shops were boarding up and people were heading to the hills. Apparently there had been much larger waves that morning and then the reef started to drain water as the sea retreated. This had prompted the airport to close. Fortunately we are staying in land on higher ground so we headed home. On the way we met 2 Kiwi’s getting married this Friday on the island, as they were very uncertain of the situation, they tagged along with us. There was quite a gathering of people when we got home and we all sat listening to the radio and TV, catching news and predictions of what might happen. There was no panic but it was very interesting to see the emotions people were going through with the uncertainty of the situation. After a couple of hours the news that the alert had been called off came through, there had been a 1 metre swell but no more large waves …. the simple island life resumed, except now everyone had a story to tell.
The next day in the newspaper we found that if a tsunami had hit Rarotonga they estimated that it would have been around at 9.30am. At this time we would have either been at the Telecom centre collecting emails (close to the shore) or walking along the sea front!
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Whilst wandering in the Cook Islands – I came across a local paper, advertising that one of the masters of Cook Island drumming (now based in Hawai’i) was going to be giving a lecture. Fortunately I was allowed to sit in on the workshop and got to know some of the attendees. One drummer, Mark was a government worker and he invited me to his local drum and dance group rehearsals.
He was a mine of information about the islands and how things were slowly changing due to the influx of more and more tourists. One such story explained the cultural mindset of his people. When tourism grew the governmental leaders of all the islands came together to discuss the possibilities of supplying Raratonga (the main tourist destination) with food from the outlying islands. Extra supplies were being flown in from New Zealand, Australia and America, which was putting all the prices up for the local people. If they could supply the needs in house, then prices could be kept at a reasonable price for the He joked that you could wake up each day, shoot a hog and just eat one leg and there would still be plenty for everyone. Apparently the islands were blessed with plenty of fruits, fish and wild boar. There was one proviso if this was to work, no island time, supplies had to be provided daily and on time! Well the leaders went back to their people and for a couple of weeks everything seemed to be going fine. However the third week everything slowed down and the fourth week it stopped all together. The leaders were called back for a meeting. When asked what was happening, one leader replied “We have one question – what are we going to do with all this extra money?” It had taken them just 4 weeks to realize that they had enough. They had everything they needed for a good life and didn’t need anything else.
