We arrived in the waters of Pitcairn Island mid-morning. The sun was shining, the winds were mild, and the seas were pretty calm.
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| Welcoming Committee from Pitcairn |
That is very good news because the harbor/dock at Pitcairn is very small and not protected. Only about 50% of the planned landings on this island happen. Much too often the waters are much too rough for landing the tenders.
This photo shows the buildings at the harbor and the stone wall that surrounds the landing site.
Paul went to the shore excursion desk about 2 hours before planned departures to be first in line for tickets for the tender. We were on the first tender. There were a lot of people lined up on deck to see us off.
And the water here is incredibly blue.
The little harbor and welcoming sign.
Mary was able to get a seat very near the tender exit and she was the first off the tender. She managed to get a quick photo of this blue crab. Turns out it is an Atlantic Blue Crab, not native to the island.
She made a beeline to the craft tables and asked what needed to be done to get a ride up the “Hill of Difficulty”, the very steep, long road up the side of the island. The local called over Wayne, another local, who agreed to give us a tour on his ATV. We were the first to head up the island. Instead of just a ride to the town, Adamstown, he gave us a two-hour tour of the island highlights.
The ride up the hillside gave good views of the island and
its waters.
The same hill heading down at the end of our tour.
Some views on our tour.
The tour was mostly on dirt roads and the island was lush and green with vegetation everywhere.
The first stop was the grave of John Adams, the only mutineer that survived some of the internal conflict that occurred on the island. The large tombstone is Adams and the other two are his wife and daughter.
We drove through an area of banana trees where they were also planting coffee. The coffee plants need shade so the banana trees provide the shade.
Green coffee beans.
We also met Miss T, the only tortoise on the island. She is estimated to be about 80 years old.
We stopped at the Tom Block Lookout point for great views.
We could barely see one of the only two beaches on the island at the base of the cliff. It is almost impossible to get to from land as the steep trail hangs from a very steep cliffside. The beach is just out of sight at the bottom of this view.
We also saw St. Paul’s Pool, also nearly impossible to reach. The pool is at the far tip of the peninsula.
We saw some white terns,
a lovely tree with lots of moss,
and many pandanus trees.
There were flowers everywhere, although most looked like they were probably introduced species.
We also had a drive to the highest point on the island, for more great views.
Interesting signpost at the top.
Then it was down to Adamstown, the only settlement on the island and the world’s smallest capital. We drove past the general store that also had a post office and a couple of other operations in the same building. They were all closed because it is Sunday. There didn't appear to be much to the town anyway. There were a few houses but most of the houses seem to be scattered around the island.
We visited the small museum with it’s HMS Bounty
information.
There were also some displays of artifacts from a Polynesian society that lived here but abandoned the island prior to the arrival of the Bounty.
There was a large, open community center where lots of the ship’s guests were taking a breather from the long climb up the hill.
A signpost in town.
The local police station. They have one police officer who is from New Zealand. The officers rotate annually.
They also have a medical clinic that we didn't see. There is one doctor and one nurse. They are also from New Zealand and they rotate into Pitcairn at 3 month, 6 month or one year rotations.
From what we could tell there were around another four or five ATV’s that were out giving people tours of the island. And one that was just shuttling people up the hill. But a lot of people were walking up the long hill.
We felt so fortunate to have been at the front of the line and catching Wayne for the tour. It was a really special day.
We shopped a bit at the craft tables and boarded the tender
for the ride back to the ship. We were
back on board for lunch.
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