tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8991089000728603362024-02-19T08:22:34.743-08:00Villa Mamana on Telekivava'uUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-27407181040116909322015-03-09T14:52:00.000-07:002015-03-09T14:52:11.275-07:00<CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">I</span>slomania is a strange attraction to islands. As far back as the days of Plato’s Atlantis, islands and island nations have been a source fascination and inspiration. A brief description from a lost seaman’s encounter with another land was enough to drive people into the sea risking everything in search of a new world.
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There was a time in human history when innocence prevailed; when anything could be believed by the mere power of storytelling; when every trip and adventure had a mythical feeling. It was the time when everything could be true and out there.
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In ancient times, those who could afford it, usually kings, were sending ships to find a fountain of youth; some were melting, distilling and transforming mysterious elements in search of gold, knowledge and a cure for all diseases.
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In all these fantasies, islands were the most featured subjects that fascinated the minds. A king would receive news of a fantasy world where the immortal live in a beautiful paradise somewhere in the middle of the sea, and these kings would dispatch search missions into the sea.
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While most people attracted to islands were driven by their fantasies of finding better things, others were driven by their need to escape authority. Most people’s idea of an island is a sandy beach that leads to green forests and coconuts trees, but not every island looks like a tropical paradise.
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Even today people’s attraction to islands remains. The most visited holiday destinations are islands, and an island is a symbol of freedom, paradise and pleasure. The rich still buy houses on islands, and in some places like Dubai islands are being constructed at sea. Plato’s Atlantis is still the subject of many books, documentaries and movies. And resorts named after the legend include Atlantis Bahamas and a newly constructed Atlantis underwater hotel in Dubai.
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If you suffer from islomania, book yourself into <A HREF="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/villamamana/">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span><I>he absurdity of reality is lost on the large land masses, but here on the islands, it is writ large. An island offers a stage: everything that happens on it is practically forced to turn into a story, into a chamber piece in the middle of nowhere, into the stuff of literature. What is unique about these tales is that fact and fiction can no longer be separated: fact is fictionalized and fiction is turned into fact.</I>
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So writes Judith Schalansky in the introduction to her book <B>"Atlas of Remote Islands - Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will"</B> which won a prize in Germany as the most beautiful book of the year. It deserves to win several more.
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The book does not mention Telekivava'u which ensures that you are the only guest when you book yourself into <A HREF="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/villamamana/">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-89013196320944860012013-06-16T00:55:00.002-07:002023-11-11T12:57:33.059-08:00<P><P><CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">I</span>n 1968 the transoceanic solitary sailor Bernard Moitessier participated in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, which would reward the first sailor as well as the fastest sailor to circumnavigate the Earth solo and non-stop.
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Moitessier was spotted passing the Falkland Islands, heading northbound, and fast. Fast enough, in fact, for it to be assumed that he would win. But then suddenly, and for no apparent reason connected with the race, he decided he would not continue north at all, but would turn due east, and head into the Indian Ocean.
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In due course he explained himself, in a letter squeezed into a can that he fired from a slingshot toward a passing merchantman:
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<I>"My intention is to continue the voyage, still nonstop, toward the Pacific Islands, where there is plenty of sun and more peace than in Europe. Please do not think I am trying to break a record. 'Record' is a very stupid word at sea. I am continuing nonstop because I am happy at sea, and perhaps because I want to save my soul."</I>
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You don't have to be an experienced sailor to save your own soul. Simply book yourself into <A HREF="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/villamamana/">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-10302784273220951212013-04-14T23:52:00.000-07:002015-03-09T14:54:47.148-07:00<CENTER><P><iframe width="400" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HVkAGN4iGf0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>his is
Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia where Thor Heyerdahl's now famous KON-TIKI raft made landfall on the 11th of August 1947, after having set out on the 28th of April from Peru to drift across the Pacific, as pre-Inca voyagers are believed to have drifted from South America to Polynesia.
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As the 32-year-old ethnologist and adventurer reported at the time:
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"This marks the conclusion - and, as such, the success - of our expedition. In the nearly fifteen weeks we have made the drift of more than 4,000 miles in the flow of the Peruvian (Humboldt) and South Equatorial Currents.
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After three days of trying to get around long, low Raroia Reef, a spot in the French Tuamotu Islands at about Latitude 16.30 South and 144.3 West- we finally were drawn right in among the coral rocks. As there was no choice left to us, we directed the raft right into the roaring twenty-five-foot waves that broke in the area. All men were ordered to cling to the basic nine logs that form the body of the raft. When 600 yards from shore, we grounded on a low, half submerged mass of coral. Giant breakers came in and threw us onto other rocks, each a little closer to shore
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The balsa-wood raft was taking an awful beating. Our hut was smashed to bits, and our hardwood mast was carried away. The steering oar went, and the cross logs from the stern and the bow. But the main logs held together, and we all clung to them, hoping for a chance to leap from them to some protruding coral and make our way along them to shore
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Finally our chance came. We jumped onto some sharply pointed coral, along which we made our way 500 yards to shore. We are still there, on a tiny uninhabited island.
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We have made several trips out to the marooned logs which constitute the remains of our raft, and have rescued most of our equipment. We also have our water and food supplies, and we are sleeping under the large Kin-Tiki sail- now stretched between two trees.
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We will try to get the remaining logs into some quiet lagoon near here, and possibly we will be able to find some natives who can help us salvage the remains.
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We are all in good condition and feel thankful that we have been able to save such things as food, water and an improvised radio."
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As you read about the famous KON-TIKI expedition, remember that you won't have to build a balsa raft nor drift for more than three months across the South Pacific to get to <A HREF="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/villamamana/">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-28165090301127061622013-04-01T15:43:00.000-07:002018-04-18T19:30:09.757-07:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">S</span>ome of the islands in the Kingdom of Tonga are so heart-achingly beautiful, they take your breath away. Small wonder they attract all sorts of expatriate floatsam and jetsam. A recent resident of these happy isles, Robert Bryce, has a particular way with words to describe them:
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<B><I>"Tonga is a wonderful mix of culture and humor. Humor prevails in Tonga. Like a theme park, Tonga has all the characters. Living here is challenging, elusive and most interesting. Orderly chaos might describe its internal functions. Like a beehive, the closer in you get the more confusion and disorder you see, but somehow critters that aren’t meant to fly do and things get done, problems get solved or just go away - this is Tonga. If the plane does not fly today, it may tomorrow and that gives you another day to enjoy your stay. Friendly is what Captain Cook called these islands - though he was almost roasted on his visit to Tonga. The people are friendly, gracious, helpful and generous with everything they have. There are four different groups of islands that make up Tonga, each with their own expression of the Tongan creed. If you are looking for adventure but do not want to risk your life, Tonga is probably the choice, be it for your holiday or a better place to live.
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Tonga is politically and functionally independent; no country owns or presides over Tonga. The King has wisely not sold out to, or aligned himself with, any larger country outside the region. Sometimes it feels as though the Tongans know something about life that the rest of the world is in the dark about.
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Tongans take life as it unfolds and they make the best of it, good or bad.
Tonga sits on the International Dateline so the travel brochures promote it as the land “where time begins.” It is also where time doesn’t matter. Stress-free and loose schedules are a way of life on the islands, unlike the more punctual Northern Hemisphere.
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It is interesting to consider that each day on this planet begins in Tonga. Not exclusively, but regardless of who you are, your official calendar day starts here.
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We live it first and by the time the Stock Exchange opens in New York, it is tomorrow in Tonga.
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So, where is elusive Tonga? Somewhere in Africa?… is where most guess who have not heard of the islands.
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There are even a few stories around about people sending mail or freight from the USA to Tonga and having had their freight end up in Africa, and sometimes that is where it stays. I guess most people in the world don't really know where their day begins.
Tonga is located in the middle of the South Pacific (tell your postman) about 20 degrees south of the equator and 180 degrees west latitude. It was one of the last group of islands in the South Seas to be discovered by the European explorers. Tonga continues to be discovered today by pleasantly surprised travelers and tourists. Though on the map most vistors to the South Sea islands fly right over Tonga on their way to more popular tourist destinations like Fiji. French Polynesia is to the east and Fiji just to the west. New Zealand is to the south about 1,500 miles away, and American and Western Samoa just to the north about 400 miles away.
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Modern sailors have no problem finding Tonga, for the Vava’u Island Group, the crown jewel of the Kingdom of Tonga, has long been a popular port of call for yachts cruising the South Pacific. Vava’u, once spelled Vavaoo, which is closer in spelling to the pronunciation, is home to our family.
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We too, arrived by sailboat about 4 years ago, checked in at the main port of Vava’u and we are still here. The “Port of Refuge,” the main harbor of Vava’u is very well protected, as is the entire island group. A huge reef system which forms up to 60 emerald islands, shields the islands from the relentless ocean tides that pound the walls of coral and volcanic rock. Even a tsunami would spend its force on the walls around Vava’u.
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Within the protected islands, white sand beaches, caves, coves, and blue water lagoons decorate each island. Small boats can safely navigate the relatively calm inter-island waterways making this island group unique. There are a few small resorts on the many islands, all of which offer the vistor a true Robinson Crusoe island experience, but with all the amenities. The islands are perfect for charter yacht sailors - no big waves, gentle trade winds and lots of beautiful anchorages.
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Humpback whales have made Tonga their holiday destination as well. Each year the Humpback whales migrate here, probably because they don’t need a “Transit Visa". Here they breed and bear their young, schooling them for their big trip back to Antarctica in October. Tourists that somehow find Tonga may attend classes with the whales, swimming with whales is an incredible experience. This is the only country in the world in which you can swim with whales.
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Governments are like magnets, attracting some and repelling others. Thank God we can still move around the planet. And, it is nice to be free without having to be brave.
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Government is usually where things break down in most countries, but Tonga is blessed with a stable constitutional monarchy, successfully in business since 1860. A Kingdom with a real King and a Royal family that are benevolent in their rule. But like with any bureaucracy, a little political wrangling probably keeps everyone busy and, merrily, most of us feel like we are in a classroom with no teacher. Freedom is having fun without someone being there with a gun; and guns are something they don’t have in our little haven from crime and punishment. The police are armed with smiles and respect the populace. Crime in most of Tonga is very minor. They tell me the prison in Vava’u used to have a sign on it that said: “Not in by 9 PM, you'll be locked out” Things have toughened up some lately. Now they have to be in by 6 PM. It’s true, during the day you are basically free, but better get back on time or you will miss out on the Kava party. No one fears getting shot at McDonalds on Tonga … anyway there are no McDonalds.
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Life is good in Tonga. The bugs and animals mirror the harmless populace. There are no harmful bugs, except for one species of centipede, no malaria, no snakes, no critters lying in the weeds waiting to harm you. In fact, there aren’t many wild animals at all. If this were Disneyland, we would be on the little kids ride where a child walks safely through the jungle. We do have pigs so, ‘good fences make good neighbors.’
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Peace of mind has to be mentioned as a part of the appeal of these islands. You take it for granted after awhile. Peace of mind creeps up on you quite naturally, due in part to the fact that you can rid yourself of the “bad news” addiction you've acquired from watching too much evening television in the States. We have TV, but it is not very popular. Real life is so much more interesting in this Land of Oz than any soap opera and we certainly have no bad news to report. Most of the bad news generated in the big countries has nothing to do with us, anyway. Folks returning from the “civilized world” after a two-week visit, arrive in Tonga exhausted and depressed, but very happy to be back home in their island paradise. Watching all that crime and propaganda everyday is a huge pill to take for a cleansed soul that is not used to any more trouble than some spilt milk - milk being mostly imported.
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No traffic lights, is how I answer the question; “Why did you choose Tonga?” Well, that is part of it. I also enjoy my new freedom of not having to keep one eye on the rear-view mirror. A police officer on every corner may create more crime than it prevents, as evidenced by the success of the law enforcement system in Tonga where you rarely see an officer. Common sense and mutual concern rule. You find you don’t break the rules, written or otherwise, out of concern for others, and not because some uniform might arrest you: concern replaces fear in Tonga. Policing yourself is the key to real freedom.
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Discovery TV is boring compared to the discoveries one makes in Tonga, particularly in the Vava’u Island Group. Vava’u is like an oasis in the ocean. The huge ring of protective reefs combined with islands strung like emerald pearls results in a sea within a sea, with the pattern of islands resembling an ink spatter on an azure canvas. The islands come in all shapes and sizes and some come as round as a silver dollar. You see colors, hues and views that even a $5,000 camera can’t get right. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the real thing is worth a million. The ambiance is all encompassing. You are surrounded by pure nature and all your senses are activated and enhanced. The air is pure, oxygen laden, with hints of floral scents and exempt of any pollutants. The sea is clear, clean with all the iridescent hues of blue. What you cannot see you can feel and the combination of it all is the appeal. For a delightful experience, put Tonga on your map."</I></B>
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And there is more of the same in his article ‘Thinking of Leaving the Rat-Race?:
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<B><I>"One hundred thousand of us out of over 7-billion people on this planet are living free and secure here in Paradise. 100,000 is the entire Tongan population which includes a growing expat community from all over the world. “We found it,” is the message, the ultimate place to live.
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This is an invitation for you to join us. We have room for just a few more, and you will be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to get a residency visa. Investing in your own or any business of just $298,000 USD earns you a business visa. A retirement (non-working) visa requires only $5800 USD in annual assured income to qualify. Where in the world is it easier than Tonga? Like the foot soldier that made it to the safe bunker, we are home-free, or free from home, as it might more accurately be restated. We are now in full control over our lives here in paradise. We are self-sufficient. We don’t rely on any system in the hands of others that might fail us. We provide our own electric power, water and can even provide our own food and lots of it. We are insulated from the worst that might come to pass and yet, in the event of the best of all of what the world might actually render up, we would still chose this paradise to live and prosper.
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We lack nothing that was vital or important back home. We have stores, building supplies, restaurants, hotels and even a mini shopping mall. Some of us have been here for many years and would never think of 'going back to Kansas' (so to speak). Even back when the world was a better place; this was still the best place. In our paradise, not much has changed. We live a life that is depicted as what Heaven is like. Fruit, none forbidden, with gardens of free food, tropical forests, blue skies, azure seas and white sandy beaches, and just like in Heaven, no serpents, snakes, wild animals nor any critters that can harm us.
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We have no snakes, dragons or deadly anything in our Heavenly haven. Not many places in the world can boast of being able to allow an unattended child to roam freely about and never fear anything will harm child or adult, for there is nigh or nothing so inclined in this paradise.
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We are like you, some of us from near and some from far, from Canada, London, Malibu, New York, California and Austria, Germany, Italy, AU, NZ and Norway, Mexico and even South America. The reasons why we live in this remarkable place run very deep and might take many pages to thoroughly explain, but for the sake of those who have little time or penchant, I will recap the driving forces. We live in the Kingdom of Tonga which is comprised of four island groups. Tonga wins in about every category that people use to chose a new place to live on the planet.
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Let’s start with the air. You can’t see it, which can be scary at first since it doesn’t appear to be there. No soot, smog, dust nor chemical pollutants to remind you it is at hand. So you breathe deeper naturally and, remarkably, the body responds.
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The water is as soft and pure as rainwater falling through clean air; for that is where we get our most potable essence of life, from the see-through, blue sky. The grass is truly greener. The earth is naturally rich and has not been depleted nor artificially recharged with chemicals that synthetically stimulate what results in fake food. When you eat a home grown tomato from Tonga, you taste it and feel it working like Popeye did his spinach. Real food is a wholly another study and how that is part of what is having us loving it here.
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Fish - imagine the kind that aren’t running on oil or eating it so we can too. Clean, unpolluted and vital are the expected in these crystalline waters where you can see 100 feet deep. This is just another thing to get used to when you come from the polluted bays where you can’t see anything but the surface of the water. I remember feeling a sensation akin to a fear of heights when I first looked down into the water while stepping from the boat to the deep water dock. I could see to the bottom as clearly as through the air. It was like living in an artificial world, but it was real.
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Anything this beautiful back home would have had to been fake - something from a theme park. In Ha'apai we live in nature’s own naturally made theme park. The entire island group is like a huge resort, the world’s largest perhaps, within find numerous restaurants, hotels, accommodation choices and supplies to build your own resort or home as you might see fit.
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So what about building a home here and living happily ever after? Got to live somewhere; might as well be in Paradise.
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During the whale season, pods of Humpbacks swim through Ha'apai and frolic right off the beach. The huge but docile Humpbacks put on their show of spy hopping by leaping high into the air and hang there with their massive tail flukes treading water till they fall back into the sea with a huge splash. This is how they look around and over waves.
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It is in these waters that the Humpback whales migrate each year to bear their young. A mother and child sight to behold, and you can even swim with them. Imagine that. These islands are the magnificent Humpback’s safe haven choice too. When in doubt, do what the whales do. As ever, Robert Bryce"</I></B>
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You, too, can have a whale of a time when you book yourself into <A HREF="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/villamamana/">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-44684859637044189172013-03-08T18:45:00.000-08:002013-03-08T18:49:14.294-08:00<P><P><CENTER><IMG SRC="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/images/speck4.jpg" align="top" width="411" height="134"></CENTER>
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<P><P><span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">M</span>ore than 80 years ago, Oskar Speck, a 25-year old German, starving and out of work, decided to leave Germany. He had heard there might be work in the copper mines in Cyprus. He had just enough money to equip his tiny "Faltboot" (folding boat) which he took to Ulm by train where, beside the Danube, he put the frame together, pulled the rubber-and-canvas skin over it, loaded up, and, without any fuss or farewell from anyone, set off to paddle down the river in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.
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Seven years and four months later, on the 20th of September 1939, he coaxed his kayak through the surf and on to the beach at Saibai, an island 60 or 70 miles north from Thursday Island. It was two weeks after the start of World War II - but Oskar didn't know about that. At his bow, often smothered in the flying surf, fluttered the tiny Swastika which he had brought from Germany with him. Three Australian police were waiting for him to berth his kayak. If this was the German invasion, these cops could handle it. “Well done, feller!” they said, shaking his hand warmly. “You’ve made it—Germany to Australia in THAT. But now we’ve got a piece of bad news for you. You are an enemy alien. We are going to intern you.” Read the full story <A HREF="http://www.riverbendnelligen.com/dearall27.html" target="_blog">here</A>.
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You don't have to do any paddling as you wing your way aboard a modern jetliner towards <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-36600836244395729672013-03-05T14:48:00.001-08:002013-03-05T14:51:20.614-08:00<P><P><CENTER><iframe width="400" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bx20hi374as?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">K</span>on-Tiki was the name of a tiny balsa-wood raft, constructed by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl. It was Heyerdahl's contention that pre-Columbian Polynesian natives had regularly made trips across the ocean in similar rafts. To prove his theory, Heyerdahl set sail in the Kon-Tiki in 1947, successfully completing a 4300-mile journey from Peru to Tahiti. Filmed en route with 16-millimeter camera equipment, Kon-Tiki was originally released in Sweden in tandem with the publication of Heyerdahl's book about the expedition.
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<B>You</B> don't have to build your own balsa-wood raft to travel to the very heart of Polynesia. All you have to do is book into luxurious <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-16421894624546531012013-03-03T13:12:00.001-08:002013-03-06T20:39:30.264-08:00<P><P><CENTER><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXxEv8N0klFLaYkKUF3BN5V61hKUrxoOyOJ8zWDT3WloJx63ZqgmwoXkXx8FNRCLtSxpYDbC5BCGH5lsKa5ZanArbRD4JKSnylFiMi8Z67YGJmweIEAx_uohadSazx9EhX-lL1PoiEBY/s1600/1adream.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXxEv8N0klFLaYkKUF3BN5V61hKUrxoOyOJ8zWDT3WloJx63ZqgmwoXkXx8FNRCLtSxpYDbC5BCGH5lsKa5ZanArbRD4JKSnylFiMi8Z67YGJmweIEAx_uohadSazx9EhX-lL1PoiEBY/s320/1adream.jpg" /></a></CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>erms of venery, or collective nouns, were all the rage in the Middle Ages. Derived from the sport of hunting, they indicated collections of beasts and birds. And as anything fashionable is then adopted and adapted for other purposes, special collective nouns were invented for and applied to things and people. So what do you call a collection of islands?
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Gavan Daws calls his book about famous people whose lives were linked to islands - Paul Gauguin, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Murray Gibson, Hermann Melville and John Williams - <B>"A Dream of Islands"</B>, and what an aptly evocative description it is!
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<I>Your</I> dream of islands will become reality when you book into luxurious <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-1794966232120978602013-03-03T01:03:00.001-08:002013-03-03T16:03:36.900-08:00<CENTER><iframe width="400" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Cvn9l1pJ3-A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">S</span>piral Island is the name of two floating artificial islands in Mexico built by British artist Richart "Richie" Sowa. The first was destroyed by a hurricane in 2005; the second has been open for tours since 2008.
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The first Spiral island was located in a lagoon near Puerto Aventuras, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico south of Cancún; Sowa began constructing it in 1998. He filled nets with empty discarded plastic bottles to support a structure of plywood and bamboo, on which he poured sand and planted numerous plants, including mangroves. The island sported a two-story house, a solar oven, a self-composting toilet, and three beaches. He used some 250,000 bottles for the 66 feet (20 m) by 54 feet (16 m) structure. The mangroves were planted to help keep the island cool, and some of them rose up to 15 feet (4.6 m) high.
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The island was destroyed by Hurricane Emily in 2005. In late 2007 and 2008, Sowa built a new Spiral Island in the waters of Isla Mujeres, the "Island of Women", also near Cancun. It opened for tours in August, 2008. It is referred to by Richie as Joyxee Island.
<P>
The new island was initially 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter, which has since expanded to 25 metres (82 ft), and plants and mangroves are already growing on it. It contains about 100,000 bottles. The new island has three beaches, a house, two ponds, a solar-powered waterfall and river, a wave-powered washing machine and solar panels. Volunteers helped with the project. Sowa will continue to make improvements to the Island, so it will always be a work of art in progress.
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You won't need to collect empty bottles to live on your own island. In fact, you need to do nothing more than book into luxurious <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-63802238141480902602013-03-01T15:13:00.003-08:002013-03-03T16:04:42.894-08:00<P> <P>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>om Neale chose to live alone on Suvarov, one of the remotest atolls in the South Pacific Islands, because life there moves at the sort of pace which you feel God must have had in mind originally when He made the sun to keep us warm and provided the fruits of the earth for the taking.
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These days you can follow Tom Neale's example by booking into luxurious <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-44473379798682274252013-02-17T14:28:00.002-08:002016-10-10T20:33:48.368-07:00<p><p><CENTER><A HREF="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEy2g0VnTZTgPvPNZ1bhO5xwtYUjbkdYSelu9ObN1VK9U_6jpmPJeqoXBT3bn-TundeZH-AruK0EtGQ-vK2_6k47ub5Etgq7_a-QwutcuJ0Tor5z-sEOdsQBDWJwcXBKU2mMnUelLLFSXz/s1600/altenhein2.bmp" target="_blog"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEy2g0VnTZTgPvPNZ1bhO5xwtYUjbkdYSelu9ObN1VK9U_6jpmPJeqoXBT3bn-TundeZH-AruK0EtGQ-vK2_6k47ub5Etgq7_a-QwutcuJ0Tor5z-sEOdsQBDWJwcXBKU2mMnUelLLFSXz/s1600/altenhein2.bmp" width="400"></A><BR>Click on image to enlarge</CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">V</span>illa Mamana was built in the late-1990s by Joe Altenhein and his Tongan wife Lola.
<P>Joe had come to Tonga in 1994 following a royal visit to Germany by the late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. during which the king had invited German citizens to come and live and invest in his tiny kingdom. Joe, a pilot, had been looking for the right place to start his seaplane business in an island country with many islands and sandy beaches with shallow lagoons. He thought the Maldives were too Islamic, the Bahamas too screwed up, Fiji too Indian, but Tonga just right: very authentic, relatively untouched, with nice people and beautiful weather, and foreign investment officially welcomed.
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However, with the Government delaying the issuing of an operating license for his seaplane, he decided to wait and in the meantime build, as a support business to his original plans, Villa Mamana on Teleki'vavau. For more than six years he created, single-handedly, with just the occasional help from some local fishermen, this most exquisite resort. It must've been a labour of love because the logistics and the costs to transport material and build on this tiny and remote island must have been quite daunting.
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Eventually, with their two children needing schooling, Joe and Lola put Villa Mamana up for sale.
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<table border="1" width="360" align="center" cellpadding="15"><tr><td><i><center><FONT SIZE="5"><b>FOR SALE</B></FONT></CENTER>
<P>The Villa Mamana is situated on deserted Telekivava'u Island in the South Seas' last kingdom, the Kingdom of Tonga, 37 nautical miles south of Pangai with its regional airport. This almost untouched part of Polynesia offers all the lonely island cliche could suggest: crystal clear waters, rich marine life, lush tropical vegetation, an authentic culture, and absolute peace of mind. The Villa (built in 1999) is right at the white beach and the shallow lagoon which surrounds the island. 3000 sq/ft of villa hold 2 1/2 bedrooms with ensuite marble bathrooms, the great room, two huge decks (which become part of the great room with the french doors opened), and a porch. All facing west to ensure beautiful sunsets over the warm South Pacific Ocean. High ceilings, wooden floors, teak furniture, and the light reflecting from the lagoon give the colonial style building its special charm.
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Amenities include: TV, VCD, Stereo, Satellite Phone, Fans, Washer, Workshop, Fishing Gear, etc. Further down the beach you will find the kitchen house of 700 sq/ft(fully equipped) with a studio, and a smaller house (500sq/ft) which is ideal as caretaker quarter. Included in sale are also a 40ft motor yacht, a 27ft gamefishing power boat, a runabout, two diesel gensets, two inverters, two battery banks, solar panels, desalination system, watertank and much more. </I></TD></TR>
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After the sale to the current owners, Joe and Lola returned to Germany where they now operate a 'Hotel-Pension' in the centre of Berlin but still miss Villa Mamana.
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As Joe wrote, <I>"We all had the best time of our lives on the island, and will always miss it - unless we find another island and build a 'Villa Mamana Lite' just for us."</I>
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-50132874459661721532013-02-10T20:27:00.000-08:002013-03-03T16:05:41.373-08:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>ake one part sun-soaked, palm-lined beach, add hammock stretched between two palm trees, dash of ice-cold beer,
and a pinch of gentle tradewinds, and finish with a twist of tropical sunset. It's easy to lose track of time
in the land where time begins. Welcome to the South Sea Island Paradise of VILLA MAMANA on the island of Telekivava'u!
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<P>
The peace and tranquility of Ha'apai (in a South Pacific travel poster setting) is an experience not to be missed!
If relaxing was an Olympic Games event, this is where you'd come to train!
These are the islands where the famous mutiny on the Bounty occurred (could you blame them?), the
Port-au-Prince was ransacked, and where
Captain James Cook who found Ha'apai to be the perfect place for rest and relaxation and made long stopovers at Nomuka in 1774 and 1777
and Lifuka in 1783, dubbed Tonga "The Friendly Islands."
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The low coral islands lined by coconut palms along colourful lagoons and reefs, offer miles of deserted white sandy beaches where you can
explore and linger as long as you like. Towering volcanoes can be found here too. In all there are 60 small islands in the Ha'apai Group,
17 of which are inhabited, and all are uniquely special.
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The traditional lifestyle of the locals is supported by fishing, agriculture and handicrafts. The friendliest people you can meet are here in Ha'apai.
Caesar is to have said, "Let me have men about me that are fat". Well, he would have loved Tonga because the people of Tonga, by and large,
are fat. They are proud to be fat. They want to stay fat.
If they aren't fat enough by Tongan standards, they want to get fatter. Perhaps that's why "Fakalahi Me'akai" which means "Grow more food",
is inscribed on every Tongan coin. And "The Complete Book of Running" would never make the bestseller list in Tonga.
The only joggers here are foreigners while bulky Tongans sit in the shade and follow them with uncomprehending stares.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-52766760846840311762013-02-09T23:52:00.002-08:002013-03-03T16:05:59.897-08:00<P><P><CENTER><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1Hjw2fNGBBc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></CENTER>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>he South Seas have always been a favourite setting for romantic pictures ever since <B>"Moana of the South Seas"</B> and Dorothy Lamour.
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Somerset Maugham's famous <A HREF="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26854/26854-h/26854-h.htm#VII" target="_blog"><B>"Rain"</B></A> has been filmed several times, but never in the actual locale of the story, Pago Pago.
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Tahiti saw the filming of Nordhoff and Hall's novel <B>"Mutiny on the Bounty"</B>, and Bora Bora was the inspiration for the same authors' <B>"The High Barbaree"</B>, an exquisite story wretchedly pictured.
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<B>"Return to Paradise"</B>, starring Gary Cooper, was filmed in the village of Lefaga in Samoa, some fifty miles from the port town of Apia, about as far away as one can get without leaving the island entirely. The village is straight out of a fairy story and the lovely bay on which it is located was for a few weeks in 1952 inundated by Hollywood.
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The tropical beaches surrounding Telekivava'u are even more paradisical but you share them with no one when you walk the few steps from <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> to the water's edge.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-22607499900031051132013-02-09T20:48:00.000-08:002013-03-03T16:06:23.126-08:00<P><P>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>hey inspire feelings of great passion and serenity ... they give people the opportunity to find themselves ... they are revered as paradise ... they provide a real, friendly community ... What is it about islands that has captivated millions of people around the world and through the centuries?
<P>
In this penetrating, brilliantly written book that weaves travel, history, politics, personality, and ancient and popular culture into one compelling narrative, Thurston Clarke island-hops around the oceans of the world, searching for the explanation of the most passionate and enduring geographic love affair of all times - between humankind and islands.
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As you read this book and experience what Lawrence Durrell called an 'indescribable intoxication' at finding yourself in 'a little world surrounded by the sea', you may discover that islands are more liberating than confining, more contemplative than lonely, more holy than barbaric because they remove us from all the wickedness of the world.
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And you will feel totally liberated and completely removed from all the wickedness of the world at <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-66392158828349018662013-02-09T20:28:00.000-08:002013-03-03T16:06:58.150-08:00<P><P>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:90px;line-height:60px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">H</span>ave you ever wanted to chuck it all and spend the rest of your life on a South Sea island?
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Every ten years or so a pied piper with a literary bend comes along and captures so perfectly the haunting sound of surf on a South Pacific reef that the dreams of every reader are refurbished, and not a few actually cast off their humdrm routines and set sail for Tahiti, Rarotonga, and points south.
<P>
Men such as Conrad, Maugham, Michener, Nordhoff and Hall have been caught in the spell of the islands, and they in turn have written so convincingly and compellingly of the Polynesian paradise that there has been a steadily increasing flow of bewitched believers - a flow that included footloose, carefree, resolute individualist Julian Hillas, the author of the book <B>"South Seas Paradise"</B>.
<P>
In 1930, when the full weight of the Depression was felt round the world, Julian Hillas found himself in Sydney, Australia, with a wife (whom he had married more for convenience than anything else), a car, little money and no prospect of employment. An old silent movie called "White Shadow in the South Seas" was playing in the local theatres and after seeing it for the third time Mr Hillas liquidated his limited assets, left half with his wife, and booked passage for the islands of the South Pacific. He has been living in the Cook Islands ever since.
<P>
<B>"South Seas Paradise"</B> is his warm, refreshing, unusually candid and ungilded account of a thirty-year holiday spent rewardingly, if not exactly idyllically, in the pursuit of happiness.
<P>
As Julian Hillas relives the best years of his life, it's just possible the reader may decide to get aboard the next jet, liner, or banana boat and join him. Or us at <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog">VILLA MAMANA</A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-65907177612243222252013-02-07T16:39:00.000-08:002013-02-10T20:31:52.648-08:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVKW6O8lC9fDC8-OXi3oETjcj4NvmpyuSmizlD3-S9xeVsMhN5t4ZbRv8ozNNracv6sYbu1pERzwhOpUSN66JAgD1xMXMVKnoM_TkfumE3oCca9XlfZapzQKAkctNDx1RgheDn1mNFISo/s1600/1islandwise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="266" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVKW6O8lC9fDC8-OXi3oETjcj4NvmpyuSmizlD3-S9xeVsMhN5t4ZbRv8ozNNracv6sYbu1pERzwhOpUSN66JAgD1xMXMVKnoM_TkfumE3oCca9XlfZapzQKAkctNDx1RgheDn1mNFISo/s400/1islandwise.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">I</span><B><I>t is easy to fall under the spell of islands. They possess powers to heal us when our spirits seem frayed and our bodies feel battered. We dream of their slower pace of life, seek their simplicity, and covet their protective surrounding waters which isolate us from the frenzy of "mainland mania". Islands welcome us with fresh clean air, liberate our souls with their insouciance, entice us to think differently. They whisper lessons to us - to slow down, to rest, to rediscover ourselves."</I></B>
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So reads the introduction to the book <B>"Island Wise - Lessons in Living from the Islands of the World"</B> by Janis Frawley-Holler.
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Read the book, then take your very best fantasy about a pristine South Pacific island, multiply it by a thousand, and maybe, just maybe, you might come close to envisioning <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-84492496946140856512013-02-03T23:47:00.001-08:002018-01-16T01:59:07.451-08:00<P><P>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">I</span><I> once met a man, not my husband, another man. He looked back on a life. What will you take with you into the dark? For me, I'll take the smell of a pearl shell, freshly opened, one late day on a beach."</I>
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This whispered voice-over sets the perfect mood for "In A Savage Land", a richly satisfying and haunting movie filmed in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea.
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It's a little like opening the cover of an adventure book, and tumbling down the rapids of life into a dangerous, uncertain world saturated with colour and contradictions. The story engages, the images stimulate the senses and our imagination is let loose. Set on a tentative backdrop of impending war, "In A Savage Land" is more than an adventure story. A genuine intrigue of another world and another time, it is an absorbing exploration of culture, taboos, traditions and superstitions.
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The memories of this movie will linger. And so will your memories of VILLA MAMANA on tropical Telekivava'u.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-29666201196814903872013-02-03T19:22:00.000-08:002013-02-10T20:24:05.163-08:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUM0-FmOTKE-ZA3rZI_KjpkQCRnPe_uX3HbveEzNS9uymsH9ToDuaQmR048fGca65IT7kyG4ZFjPFvWjgQM7CDYZ1hFGRL9ojZZvuDHuz-lLDy0hyqxOPrF5_efHBPTxFVz5tFfQkhPlw/s1600/1ahking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUM0-FmOTKE-ZA3rZI_KjpkQCRnPe_uX3HbveEzNS9uymsH9ToDuaQmR048fGca65IT7kyG4ZFjPFvWjgQM7CDYZ1hFGRL9ojZZvuDHuz-lLDy0hyqxOPrF5_efHBPTxFVz5tFfQkhPlw/s400/1ahking.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">W</span>. Somerset Maugham was the master of the short, concise novel and he could convey relationships, greed and ambition with a startling reality. The remote locations of the quietly magnificent yet decaying British Empire offered him beautiful canvasses on which to write his stories and plays.
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The real-life inhabitants of these locations were frankly shocked at being portrayed as so trivial, parochial and vacuous creatures. Maugham would endure the undying hatred of many a South-East Asian planter and his wife for the rest of his life. Yet, for the rest of us, his realistic depictions of the boredom and drudgery of plantation life, and the desire and trappings of what they would regard as civilisation, can re-evoke what were perhaps the more genuine feelings felt by many of the planters and civil servants in the farflung reaches of the Empire.
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Many of his short stories are set on an exotic South Sea island. The story of <A HREF="http://riverbendnelligen.com/red.html" target="_blog">"Red"</A> is an excellent examples of Maugham's wry perception of human foibles and his genius for evoking compelling drama from an acute sense of time and place.
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"Red", when about to leave his tropical island and asked, "Will you be gone long?", merely shrugged his shoulders.
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Nobody leaving VILLA MAMANA will shrug their shoulders. They know they'll be back soon!
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-38738454613298565662013-02-03T17:52:00.000-08:002013-02-10T20:26:29.843-08:00<P><P>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqq2edh0ljewwjdQW2UyQAkhNkkbO2uOD5rendrh7y8MbzfUFOVh0LAj-jDsYplRMPzP1Yu5r8ijqP9vjy2lcA9UWH0A3f5iQJTxgxjQFIJsm6riUVxw-Efo-ouVerEQpLPpxORg0Pwmo/s1600/1poorhappy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="369" width="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqq2edh0ljewwjdQW2UyQAkhNkkbO2uOD5rendrh7y8MbzfUFOVh0LAj-jDsYplRMPzP1Yu5r8ijqP9vjy2lcA9UWH0A3f5iQJTxgxjQFIJsm6riUVxw-Efo-ouVerEQpLPpxORg0Pwmo/s400/1poorhappy.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span>he South Sea Islands are great cannibals; they have eaten portions of the hearts of many of their visitors who will never be wholly at home anywhere else again. What is their appeal? Is it the submerged feeling in all of us that life in the islands is free from care, where even the poor are happy?
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Which is the title of a book by Roderic Owen. <B>"Where The Poor Are Happy"</B> is a bit long in the tooth as it was published in 1955 but it resonates with those who seek the real Eden, the physical Eden, as much today as it did fifty years ago.
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If home is where your heart is, where will your heart be after you've been to <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com/index.htm" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u?
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-37052202389242130932013-02-03T02:00:00.000-08:002013-02-10T20:28:00.559-08:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkH8M9Mu6PjkhxOJ7Ht-osaVnjb3D7Uj0EslI0t_kps-TKWSt9O0PMoup7qCcIFNsgILTWG0-s4Xc04NxGw7AYQJIintHkigp8ZJx29jnDUFQBi59cFUeCV16SEnNauPja0j2-yI4rTdE/s1600/1becke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkH8M9Mu6PjkhxOJ7Ht-osaVnjb3D7Uj0EslI0t_kps-TKWSt9O0PMoup7qCcIFNsgILTWG0-s4Xc04NxGw7AYQJIintHkigp8ZJx29jnDUFQBi59cFUeCV16SEnNauPja0j2-yI4rTdE/s400/1becke.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">R</span><I>eturn? not they! Why should they go back? Here they had all things which are wont to satisfy man here below. A paradise of Eden-like beauty, amid which they wandered day by day all unheeding of the morrow. Why - why, indeed, should they leave the land of magical delights for the cold climate and still more glacial moral atmosphere of their native land, miscalled home?"</I>
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So wrote Louis Becke, the 'Rudyard Kipling of the South Pacific', about the South Sea traders.
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He and many others succumbed to the siren song of these remote and soporific islands which is that on this small and human-sized stage your life will count for more and even your smallest accomplishments will be remembered.
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Of those who do remain, few are ever struck by homesickness and none ever want to leave again.
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Nor will you after you have stayed at the luxurious VILLA MAMANA on Telekivava'u.
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:90px;line-height:60px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">S</span>teve, whom you see at the beginning of this video clip, has been Telekivava'u's longest-serving caretaker.
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Sit back and relax while he takes you on a tour of VILLA MAMANA and the island.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-51532889380980709032013-02-01T22:58:00.000-08:002013-02-10T20:29:00.670-08:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxDvMpBslcLfp0JbrG_0p4ceyRRaV_x24MH0szqVy4F2_KSgrQteTRiB_xdrU1j_jm3n3_iwtAGO4dPIpDg_ppBr1-EN2JNZnpmQeneuicXWNcaBak2pKOnmBT1XV-t9G7r30uivtcEc/s1600/1adventures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxDvMpBslcLfp0JbrG_0p4ceyRRaV_x24MH0szqVy4F2_KSgrQteTRiB_xdrU1j_jm3n3_iwtAGO4dPIpDg_ppBr1-EN2JNZnpmQeneuicXWNcaBak2pKOnmBT1XV-t9G7r30uivtcEc/s400/1adventures.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">T</span><I>he word 'paradise' has been more consistently applied to the mid-Pacific islands than to any other region on earth"</I>, writes William Price in his book <B>"Adventures in Paradise"</B>.
<P>
On or off the beaten track, in French, British or American territory, whether he is talking to a hobo or a High Commissioner, watching fire-walking in Fiji, meeting a son of Gauguin in Tahiti, or in the arms of an octopus under Samoan waters, Willard Price extracts the maximum interest out of a situation with a minimum of fuss.
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His book is a unique time capsule of life in the South Pacific in the 1950s. Much has changed in the intervening years but not at <A HREF="http://www.villamamanatonga.com" target="_blog"><B>VILLA MAMANA</B></A> on tropical Telekivava'u where time has stood still where time begins.
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-54949964914969819862013-02-01T20:09:00.000-08:002018-01-16T01:56:03.335-08:00<P><P>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:90px;line-height:60px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">I</span>n this German television documentary, two German families are given the opportunity to realise their dream of the South Seas.
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Paradise awaits them on a tiny coral atoll in Ha'apai in the Kingdom of Tonga where they will live for one year in a native hut without air-conditioning and running water, beds and a Western-style kitchen.
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They'll have intermittent power supply but no television and they'll eat what they can catch or grow themselves. They are "Traumfischer" - Dream Fishers - and they're not at all certain that their dreams will become reality.
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<U>You</U> can be certain that all <U>your</U> dreams will become reality when you stay at the luxurious VILLA MAMANA on tropical Telekivava'u Island!
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-23022267184989667922013-02-01T19:39:00.001-08:002013-02-10T20:30:06.203-08:00<P><P>
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">M</span>iddle-aged Gerald Kingsland had to lie about his age when he advertised in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. Young Lucy Irvine answered his ad and later wrote a book (which was made into a movie in 1986) about life on a desert island with her "husband for a year".
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<U>You</U> won't have to lie about <U>your</U> age to find a companion to come with you to the luxurious VILLA MAMANA on tropical Telekivava'u!
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899108900072860336.post-53680400959676666202013-02-01T14:10:00.002-08:002013-02-10T20:37:31.513-08:00<P><P><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="float:left;color:silver;font-size:70px;line-height:40px;padding-top:2px;font-family: times;">I</span><I>f there is a place where a man can grow old contentedly, it is on some quiet, drowsy atoll, where today is forever and tomorrow never comes, where men live and die, feast and sorrow, while the wind and the waves play over the wet sands and gleaming reefs", observed Julian Hillas, an Australian beachcomber who, during the 1940s, settled on Rakahanga in the northern Cook Islands atolls where some 250 people live on 1,000 acres around a nearly landlocked lagoon."</I>
<P>
With these evocative words begins chapter 8 in this book which describes, amongst others, the story of Tom Neale on Suwarrow, one of the many incredible adventures of true-life Robinson Crusoes which make the real Robinson Crusoe's exploits look like a picnic on the beach.
<P>
Alexander Selkirk, upon whose adventures Crusoe was based, was washed ashore on an island west of Chile, where he lived quite handily until his rescue four years later. Part of this book's fascination is that readers are told how the various survivors spent the remainder of their lives after they returned home.
<P>
There is also a good bit of information about early voyages to the South Atlantic and the Pacific, the sealing and whaling trades, and life among the natives and early settlers in the South Seas. One of the accounts is of a woman who, along with her baby and Chinese servant, died of starvation on an island on the Great Barrier Reef. She left a journal detailing the bizarre circumstances of their demise. The incredible obstacles overcome by these resourceful, persevering souls will leave modern readers slack-jawed. No two stories are alike, and all are compelling.
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Of course, once you've been to VILLA MAMANA on tropical Telekivava'u you can write your own story of having been a castaway in luxury!
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<P><P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0