Supply Ship day

Last Tuesday was supply ship day. Pitcairn receives supplies twice a year every six months via the Government chartered ship the ‘Claymore II’.

The Claymore loads up will all of the supplies for the island, such as provisions for the store, mail, building supplies, petrol, diesel, new fridges, washing machines etc at NZ. It departs NZ on a two week trip to Pitcairn. Once it gets here, it spends a day unloading, then heads off to Mangareva (an island in the outskirts of French Polynesia, in the Gambier Islands – closest airport to Pitcairn) At Mangareva, the Claymore picks up a load of passengers, and takes them back to Pitcairn – this is a two day trip. After passenger drop off, a load of people leaving Pitcairn are picked up and ferried to Mangareva. Then back to Pitcairn, and then back to New Zealand. Six months later, it does this all over again.

This ship is the only regular, reliable way to get to Pitcairn and its how I will be leaving in a weeks time (yikes!) It’s very expensive and (as you can see) is no cruise ship…

However, back to supply ship day. The ‘able bodied’ Pitcairners are divided into four main groups, a group to man the longboats, one group at the landing to unload the boats, one group at the warehouse for building supplies and the last group at the store.

Unloading the boat

There is a lot of stuff to unload and everyone helps out where possible, this is also considered ‘public work’ and is therefore mandatory for the islanders of working age.
Container delivery to the store

I spent the bulk of the day helping out at the store – any excuse to be around any sort of shopping, even if it is mostly just food stuffs! Most people place large orders privately via the store – when you can only get supplies once every six months, you tend to bulk buy. A large portion of my day was spent lugging around 20kg bags of potatoes, onions, flour, sugar etc sorting out who got what. Working some fancy maths when orders had fallen short, exhausting work on a very hot day.
The Store

Everything was unloaded by around 3.30pm, so off to the post office to collect Dad dads six months worth of mail. Next it was time to head down to the landing to see Darralyn off (one of the islanders heading over to NZ for some nursing training.) and it wasn’t long before the harbour was filled with bodies escaping the heat. A fitting finish to a busy day!

To Do Item 3 – My Daily Swim

I have managed to go swimming everyday except for two days.
My first excuse was because Daddad had me out foraging for bananas to trade with for a passing ship.
My second excuse was due to unsavoury weather…

However, every other day apart from those two, you’ll find me seeking relief from the heat in the crystal clear water down at the landing.


My swimming buddies

Overhead view of the harbour, or in this case, my swimming hole

Christians Cave and the Eco Trail

On my first Saturday morning, the day was sparkling and beckoning for me to get out there and explore! So I decided to head up to Christians Cave (known as Big Cave to locals – Pitcairners are real imaginative when it comes to naming places…)

Christians Cave is not really a cave as such, but more of a large opening in the cliff face. History says that’s where Fletcher Christian used to hide out from the rest of the population when all of the fighting started.

Before you start the climb, you get to walk along the Eco Trail. I found it very educational and quite interesting. Here are photos of the signs along the way, if you click on them, you should be able to read them if you are interested…









Next stop, Christians Cave. Its one heck of a climb, but the view up there is magnificent.

As you can see, I am a firm believer in appropriate footwear when climbing sheer rock face. I don’t think that this photo does justice to how steep it really was!

Once you are in the cave, you can get a fantastic view of Adamstown (Pitcairns capital and only town)

Can see my house from here!

The easiest (tho not necessarily safest) way back down is via a shortcut called ‘The Tunnel’. The tunnel is a vertical drop and the only way down (especially for someone of my meagre height) is to but your back against one rock face, jam your legs against the other and walk your way down.

From the bottom looking up at the tunnel. That really doesn’t look so bad, why are my knees still shaking??


This is a photo taken from the boat looking at Christians Cave from afar.

Finally made it!

Two days of wondering around the Saga Ruby like a lost soul, waiting for meal times, watching the daily movie, listening to the daily lecture. I’m ready to get off this ship! Cruise ship life as a passenger is lovely, but a bit too slow for me.

Saturday morning finally arrived. The excitement in the air was tangible as we all gathered at the bow to catch our first glimpse of land.
Land Ahoy!

View from the Bridge

Time really felt like it was slowing down as the ship circled the island until a good anchoring spot was found.

It wasn’t long until we spotted the longboat full of waiting islanders. It was fun watching them go from being just a dot out in the distance to a boat full of people that we were trying to identify.

Observe 'dot' in the middle of the photo


Here is a closeup shot of O'Leary Auckland or 'Tub' as nicknamed by the Pitcairners. Tub is one of the two main longboats on the island. Run by a diesel motor, these are Pitcairns lifeblood as they are the only real way to access passing ships.

The longboat pulled up alongside the ship and it wasn’t long until everyone had boarded.

As are most passing Cruise Ships, the Saga Ruby is a valuable source of income to the Pitcairners. The first course of action was to start bringing their basket loads of souvenirs and carvings to sell to the Saga’s passengers.

After a brief but very happy hello to my family, it was time to set up shop. So just like that I went from being one of the passengers to being one of the islanders selling wares!

The Pitcairners got to enjoy a cruise ship style lunch before we all crowded into the longboat to head ashore. Needless to say by this stage I was bouncing with excitement.



I had the camera busy as we made our way around to Bounty Bay where the longboats and jetty is. Here are some happy snaps of Pitcairn and some of its coastline as we motored back around the island.



This area is known as 'Down Rope'. Back in the day, the only way down there was using rope. Great fishing down here.

Goodbye Saga Ruby, thanks for bringing me home!