Lorup Bay Ureparapara




Evelyn is the the school teacher of Dives bay village and she paddled out with her niece to check out the big boat.

we served our guests tea, biscuits and apple juice for the little picininny, Nesha who was most suspicious of the strange drink we gave her and took a bit of coaxing from Evelyn to taste it, but then she was all smiles and ate her biscuit without hesitating.
Evelyn was a friendly and very informative about the Island and quick to promote the services of guides.....( with the chiefs approval) for a walk up to view a bat cave and a look out. Our captain was eager to get some photos of the boat in the bay, but unfortunately came down with a nasty cold after our first visit to the village and so confined himself to the boat missing some of the highlights of the voyage such as the snake dance (more about that later) ....I think this was partly because he was too sick and also not to spread the infection to susceptible locals.

Just how out of place does our white plastic dingy looks against the traditional dugout canoe.

This was our most northen point of the voyage and visitors here are rare. The people were friendly and the children refreshingly unreserved in approaching us with big smiles and wide eyes as Catherine gave out balloons and lollies.

the children were intrigued to be able to view photos of themselves.

this cute title boy is Evelyn's son Chitlon, the young women in the background is Lilly and Susan and I spent a morning cooking with her and other women.

Many of the young boys carry slingshot and a small woven bag with rocks this young fellow was keen to pose for us.... Checkout the lad in the blue shorts he walked around with us for two days holding up his pants.....The poverty was very notable here another like boy who also followed us around holding up his pants and carrying his baby brother!

Evelyn took us around the village and to meet the chief. There are five chiefs in this village all with different responsibilities, chief Nicholson is the head chief ....The politics in this village is a little disturbing as the main chief and his family seemed to be much more affluent, with new clothes the most obvious difference from even the other chiefs. Evelyn pointed out the we could have chief Nicholson organize a Kustum dance but that the proceeds of our payment would go to chief Nicholson, but if we spoke to the Kustum chief and he organised it the proceeds of our payment would help the whole village... So we opted to to visited the Kustum chief and spread the $ around the whole village.

A typical overcast tropical evening where all the colors of the day blend to grey.