Pentecost - pastors and the original bungy jump

"Yes, you can get bread at the school kitchen up on the hill" said the rotund and cheery retired pastor who had taken upon himself to be our guide up to a pretty waterfall a short distance from the beach. The steep hot walk up the hill was in vain, no bread left. Zakias was awaiting our return, sitting under a tree keeping an eye on our dinghy as the tide crept in. Doesn't matter I said, I'll make some in the morning. He was all agog, asking how on earth we could make bread on a boat. Cooking here is either in an earth oven over hot stones, or on an open wood fire. Not sure what he imagined our facilities on board were like! An oven! Gas! "This I have to see, you must take me to your boat to see your oven" So he hopped agilely into the dinghy (all 78-years and many kilos of him) and we took him on a tour. Would love to have been a fly on the wall as he told his family about how we lived - including an oven that swings as the boat rocks. Sailing boats look bigger inside than they appear to be at a distance rocking on the swell. Position 15 47 224 S and 168 09 722 E Waterfall Bay, Pentecost Island

Our next anchorage on the same island, Loltong Bay 15 32 721 S and 168 08 841 E We dropped anchor in the afternoon and could see and hear the whole village having some sort of celebration. Heard later that they were preparing for the inauguration of a new pastor the next day. ie chickens and pigs were being slaughtered in readiness. Evidently about a hundred chickens with legs tied were laid out in a long line, and ceremonially thumped on the head with a carved stick. We were told that we would be welcome to attend the festivities the next day, and when we heard the tam tam (a big drum) it would be time to go over. Several villages had walked over to join in, and the men of each village danced and then presented the new man with several beautifully woven panandus mats. Difficult to take photos as the women, children, and old men showed their appreciation by dancing round the outside of the group shouting and waving green branches.

Traditional clothing in Pentecost for such an occasion is either a short panandas mat wrapped around the waist, or two squares of mat fore and aft with a bark belt. Green branches are tucked in the back, and feathers, more leaves, or some type of hat (woollen beanie, cap, old straw hat). Footwear, if worn, was, like the hat, a bit of a status symbol we felt. Football boots, leather boots, and a variety of flip flops and sandals. An anklet rattle of seed pods completed the outfit. Those not taking part in the dancing were in western clothes, which for the women in all these islands is a baggy shapeless 'mother hubbard' dress, a legacy of the early missionaries. Cool and colourful if nothing else.

Pentecost is best known for its Land Diving. It is partly a ceremony to ensure a good crop of yams, and partly a rite of manhood. A tall tower is built by binding saplings and branches with vines to form a tower as much as 35m high. Strong vines act as stays on all sides. Small platforms are built at various heights - boys can do their first jump from the age of about 8 or 9, first on the shoulders of their father, then by themselves but from a lower platform. They tie liana vines round their ankles, and their hair (and only their hair) must touch the ground when they jump. The jumps take place in April and May, but we were able to see one of the towers - perched on the side of a hill with the patch below cleared of stones and dug to make a soft soil landing. It is absolutely taboo for anyone except the divers to climb the towers, and from various people we have heard a story of a newspaper man who climbed up to take photos and the tower fell down and either injured or killed him. Some say the supports were cut though others say that of course it collapsed as it was taboo for him to climb. Sorcery, magic and superstition are alive and well in these parts.