Solomon Islands Dec 8-11, 2023
The Solomon Islands are a South Pacific archipelago east of Papua New Guinea. They occupy a strategic location on sea routes between the South Pacific Ocean, the Solomon Sea, and the Coral Sea. 1,500km long. Most rain forests. Several active and dormant volcanoes with Tinakula and Kavachi the most active volcanoes.
Extremely humid throughout the year. November through April frequent rainfall and occasional
SOLOMON ISLANDS – Summary Dec 8-11
Visa. Visa on arrival. Need onward ticket.
Money. SBD (Solomon Island Dollar). 1US$ = 8.47SBD Oct 9, 2023. 1A$ = 5.47SBD. ATM at airport (45SBD service fee).
Flights. Solomon Airlines (flysolomons.com).
Dec 8 Brisbane (BNE) – Honiara (HIR) IE701@09:10-13:30 3’ A$526. Dec 11. Honiara (HIR) – Port Vila (VLI) IE722 @09:00-11:00 $601.70
Booking # 6E756R Ticket #193-2421247955 No online check-in.
Get around. From the airport share van from the street outside the airport 5SBD (taxi 100SBD) to the Central Market then walk to accommodation. Share vans and buses are cheap. Accommodation: Chester Resthouse mbhches@solomon.com.sb / fan/shared BR 330/night (A$60.28), AC 750.
Phone. Our Telekom SIM at almost any store.
Eat. Coral Seas Resort, any of the hotels, Japanese restaurant, and many Chinese restaurants.
SOLOMONS – SOUTH (Guadalcanal, Malaita, San Cristobal, Central)
GUADALCANAL The major island with the capital city and main airport
Day 1 Fri Dec 8
I was up at 04:50, showered, packed, had breakfast and walked to the train station for the airport (A$20.60). From leaving the hostel to finishing check-in at Solomon Airlines took 45 minutes. Brisbane (BNE) – Honiara (HIR) @09:10-13:30 3’ A$526. ATM outside the Airport, SIM at a store out on the main street. Take a share van from the street outside the airport 5SBD (taxi 100SBD) to the Central Market then a 600 m walk to Chester’s Guesthouse. 330SBD/night (750 with AC). I fell asleep at 5 pm, woke up at 9:30 when I thought everything would be closed and ate some crackers, cheese and cookies from the flight. I went back to bed and slept until 03:30. I am writing this now hoping that the internet speed is faster (and it was).
ON Chesters Guesthouse. Very clean with a huge verandah running the length of the building with a view down to the port. It is operated by The Melanesian Brotherhood, established in 1925, is a Religious Community of the Anglican Communion, committed to “vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty”, by training young men in religious pursuits and evangelism.
Day 2 Sat Dec 9
HONIARA (pop 92,344 2021) is the capital and largest city of the Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal.
After Honiara became the new administrative centre of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in 1952 with the addition of many administrative buildings, the town began to develop and grow in population. Since the late 1990s, Honiara has suffered a turbulent history of ethnic violence and political unrest and is scarred by rioting. A coup attempt in June 2000 resulted in violent rebellions and fighting between the ethnic Malaitans of the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) and the Guadalcanal natives of the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM).
In 2006, riots broke out following the election of Snyder Rini as Prime Minister, destroying a part of Chinatown and making more than 1,000 Chinese residents homeless. The riots devastated the town and tourism in the city.
Honiara is predominantly Christian and is served by the headquarters of the Church of the Province of Melanesia (Anglican), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Honiara, the South Seas Evangelical Church, the United Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other Christian churches.
50% of Honiara’s residents are younger than 30.
History
World War II. The Battle of Henderson Field (August 1942 – February 1943), the last of the three major land offensives conducted by the Japanese during the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II took place in what is now the airport area about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) to the east of the city centre. Mount Austin at 410 metres (1,350 ft), was held by the Japanese held from this hilltop in the second half of 1942 and showered artillery fire on American troops at the Henderson airfield below the hill. Eventually, the hill was captured but the Japanese held on to the Gifu, Sea Horse, and Galloping Horse ridges for about a month. Most of the Japanese died of starvation, banzai assaults or direct killing. After an attempt to deliver further reinforcements failed in November 1942, Japan conceded defeat.
Landmarks. Government buildings and institutions. East of the mouth of the Mataniko River at the beach are wrecks of a Japanese ship destroyed on 23 October 1942.
War Memorial and Peace Park. The Guadalcanal American Memorial (1992). The Solomons Peace Memorial Park, built by the Japanese war veterans is about 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) down the coastal road. Memorial to Sergeant Major Jacob Vouza, a highly decorated war hero who escaped after the Japanese tortured him and lived to tell his story.
The seaport of Point Cruz MV Pelican Express and MV Solomon Express, offer services once a week to Malaita and the western provincial cities of Mbunikalo, Seghe, Noro, and Gizo. The 26-hour boat trip to Gizo is said to be one of the most scenic in the Pacific.
National Museum. In three buildings: RAMSI Gallery with photos of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, Archaeology & Prehistory with Lapita Pottery and Polynesian migration and the Culture & History Gallery with exhibits on traditional handicrafts and historical artifacts (archaeology, currencies, arms, languages, personal ornaments, traditional music and dance, agricultural implements, life and natural environs of the country, fishing tools and tackles, and many publications and handicrafts. There are many great totem poles serving as supports for a verandah and a small structure in the courtyard. Eight traditional houses from the nine provinces of the Solomon Islands.
Donation. Note open M-F 9-5 and some Saturdays 9-2 pm.
Guadalcanal WWII sites and memorials. The Dark Side. The Solomon Islands were used as a battleground between Japanese and American forces during the Pacific War. Most of its war relics can still be seen on land and underwater, including tanks, plane wrecks, shipwrecks, and guns.
Some of the most brutal World War II battles took place on the northern face of Guadalcanal. Visit Bloody Ridge, Red Beach, the Vilu War Museum, Betikama school relics, the American War Memorial, Tetere beach, The Thin Red Line, Honiara golf course (previously a US Airstrip), and the Japanese War Memorial (Mt Austen).
Vilu War Museum. A small open-air museum with several old planes, artillery and a tank in the jungle. 28 km west of Honiara on a 4WD road at the end. Then it is still difficult to find – pass the white picket fence on the right, go 300 m down an old farm track past some shacks. 200SBD I didn’t go on a Saturday as I wasn’t sure it was open and just getting there would have been a 200SBD taxi, just to see some old war wreckage.
Day 3 Sun Dec 10
Holy Cross Cathedral. I walked to the church arriving at 09:20 and the mass was in full swing with the church packed – all the outside pews were full and several were standing at the back. I made the mistake of sitting down and it lasted another 70 minutes after most of the crowd had taken communion. There was no singing from the congregation but from a choir.
The church is in an A-frame shape turned sideways with coloured glass on the two end walls. There are two extensions on the back.
American War Memorial. It was a one km walk up a hill to the memorial park, a large enclosed U-shaped compound with four marble walls of names and a square obelisk. The Guadalcanal American Memorial commemorates the Americans and Allies who lost their lives during the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Second World War, from 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943.
There is also a plaque dedicated to newspaper and magazine correspondents present at the battle.
Mataniko Falls. The underlying caves served as a hide-out for soldiers in World War II, Close to Honiara.
Tenaru Falls. Close to Honiara on 4WD road. 1-hr hike, wading shoes.
Day 4 Mon Dec 11
I was up early, showered, ate and took a share van out in the street to the airport 5SBD.
Flight. Solomon Airlines Honiara (HIR) – Port Vila (VLI) IE722 @09:00-11:00 $601.70
MALAITA
Malaita was the first area of the Solomons explored by whites in 1866 by the Anglican missionaries from the Melanesian Mission based on Norfolk Island who travelled to the Solomons on their ship, the Southern Cross from 1863-73. A British warship, the Royalist, arrived in 1891-94. Malaysians were then recruited to work on sugar plantations in Fiji and Queensland until 1901 and all were deported back by 1907.
Langa Langa Lagoon National Park at Auki. Its waters are brown rather than bright blue, and life here is slow and peaceful, with locals working on their traditional handicrafts and classic canoes making their silent way through the water. It’s also one of the places where you can see the artificial islands this country is known for. Some date back to the 16th century, but new ones are created even now, using stones and coral materials.
Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Solomon Islands Tentative WHS (23/12/2008)
Bauro Highlands of Makira-Ulawa Province
Mt. Maetambe region of Choiseul Province
Central caldera forests of Kolombangara of Western Province
Mt. Popomanaseu region of Guadalcanal Province
Tropical rainforest areas with nearly three-quarters of the global diversity of birds – 163 land birds and 72 species are found nowhere else in the world, numerous endemic amphibians, reptiles, molluscs, insects and several endemic plant groups reflecting unique patterns of speciation, isolation and dispersal.
More than 50% of the palm and orchid species, and 75% of climbing Pandanus species are endemic. The forests are lowland and hill rainforests, mangrove forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland rainforests, seasonally dry forests and grassland, and montane forests. Cyclones, and human impacts have created a mosaic of secondary forest successions in many lowland forest areas.
Of the 47 mammals, 26 species of rodents and bats are endemic. The Solomon Islands endemic Prehensile-tailed Skink (Corucia zebrata), the world’s largest skink.
The sites are sparsely settled, with only a few small villages scattered with subsistence agriculturalists and fishers.
Mt. Popomanaseu area of Guadalcanal Province includes the lowland valleys of the Itina River to the montane forest. Mt. Popomanaseu (2330m) and Mt. Makarakomburu (2249m) are the highest mountains in the country.
Reoka Hot Springs. Savo Volcano on Guadalcanal has steaming ground, fumaroles, small geysers, and hot springs, many of high pH and sulphate-rich on the summit crater, on the S to SE flanks, and offshore.
Well-known thermal areas include Fisher Voghala (hot sulphurous water), Mbiti Voghala (boiling mud pots and geysers), Pipisala (crater fumarole), the Tanginakula River near Mbokiaka (having both cold and hot waters), Vutusuala (hot springs and heated ground), Reoka, Mbulika and Tavoka (hot springs near Sesepi, heating the Kolika River), Talughau and Toakomata (remote hot springs in the bush).
SAN CRISTOBAL (Makira)
MS World Discoverer was a German cruise ship built in 1974. A small fleet of dinghies landed passengers 2-3 times per day on various shorelines for observation of local wildlife in the area. On 30 April 2000, the ship struck a large uncharted rock or reef in the Sandfly Passage. All the passengers survived. The ship was brought into Roderick Bay, Nggela Islands with a 46° list where it remains.
The ship has been ransacked by locals and damaged by tidal activity and rust. The shipwreck is in the NM The Dark Side series.
