Distant Anuta in the Solomons-A Place to Dream On

Inside.....

Link to a BCC story about a place I have never heard of.

Hard nose, thank you for posting this. One of my dearest friends in Solomon Islands came from Anuta. She was an Anglican Sister, and died on Tikopia of malaria, where she had gone to counsel people after the cyclone in 2003. Tikopia is Anuta's nearest neighbour. Several books have been written about Tikopia, the most recent published this year.

Yes, these remote islands are "the stuff that dreams are made of" (to paraphrase from the unrelated Maltese Falcon). Anuta and Tikopia are called the "Polynesian outliers" of the Solomons, which a traditionally different culture than the main Melanesian culture. Not better or worse, just dfferent.

I think you'll find a similar welcome on most remote islands in the South Pacific. Also, some modern shocks as well. When I took a ship to Aitu in the Cooks in 1977, (not anywhere near as remore as Anuta) I was the first foreign "tourist" there. I was a guest for a different meal at a different house for three days! Yet the strangest thing was seeing a little girl wearing a T-shirt that said "It's a Hippy World!". !!

Those t-shirts come from second-hand clothing bales, imported in bulk from overseas.
There are several other Polynesian outliers in the Solomons. The smallest, though less remote, is Sikiana, east of Malaita. There is the beautiful Ontong Java atoll to the north (I understand it is the largest atoll in the world (great fishing), with 2 settled island communities, Luaniua and Pelau (I have managed to visit these 3). There are also the bigger islands, Rennel and Bellona, in the south, which form a province in their own right, and include (on Rennel) the world heritage listed Lake Tengano.
Tikopia and Anuta are the most difficult to get to.