Feb 19th, 2020 Day 47 of 128

Hello California time zone, long time no see. Today we visited Pitcairn Island. Although it is more appropriate to say that Pitcairn Island visited us. We awoke to the flatboat pulling up along side our ship filled with the locals and their goods to sell this morning. The girls, mom and I headed off to breakfast and just as we were finishing up they announced that the “stores” were open for business. Imagine 1300 people all trying to go to the same place at the same time. I kept joking, not really, that is was just like a black Friday sale. We wandered up to the pool deck where they had many tables set up. Each of them represented a different artisans selling their wood sculptures, jewelry, coins, lots of t-shirts, honey, and of course stamps. You could buy a postcard for a dollar and a stamp for $2.00 to send it back to the states. We had our own postcards and bought about 12 stamps between us. We purchased some honey and t-shirts and of course our magnets. I also purchased a book. We have been collecting magnets from everywhere we went so far. We then sat poolside and filled out all our postcards so they could be given to the postmaster to be taken back to the island and await the next mail pick up in May. Most likely we will be home long before those postcards are. At 10:30 there was a lecture with the Pitcairn Island Ambassador who told us so very much about the history and the day to day life on living on such a remote island. These are my favorite factoids from today. Pitcairn Island is the 3^rd largest Marine Sanctuary in the world. There are fewer then 50 people that currently live there full time. It is the only certified disease free island in the world. There is a school with three children currently enrolled. There is a one year old and three year old also on the island that will start school there eventually. When the children reach either middle school or high school age, decided by the families, the parents send the children to boarding school in New Zealand. The drinking water comes solely from rain water. The electricity comes from diesel generators that run from 6:00am till 10:00pm. They are working on moving to solar energy in the future but they are not there yet. They get fuel from New Zealand in 55-gallon drums and that fuels their “quad” type vehicles. Last year they received 7 passenger mini vans for when there is a group of tourist (in smaller ships of course) arriving on the island. There are no hotels; if you want to come here and stay they homestead you with a family for your visit. None of the land is owned. It is considered crown land. Anyone can come and petition to build here and the land is free but you only own the structure. The doctor on the island is contracted for one year from New Zealand. He handles most everything. For major cases the patient has to go to Tahiti or New Zealand. They await the next ship coming through and catch a ride as needed. New Zealand sends a supply ship to the island with essentials four times a year. This year there are 18 cruise ships visiting the island and the locals selling their wares earn 50% of their income in those 18 days. They spend the rest of the year maintaining the island, it’s infrastructure, growing their food and all the other day-to-day things we do. They are like family and they share things among one another. Lastly, there are no taxes. They all seemed happy and healthy. After that talk we went and had lunch and relaxed a little until our second lecture of the day from our Polynesian ambassadors on the history of the Lei. From all over the world including the Hawaiian islands. He showed us picture of every type of lei you could imagine. Leis made from beautiful flowers, leaves, ribbons, feathers, shells, pearls, and his favorite…money. It was a lovely presentation and I learned so much.   We now have a couple more days at sea till we arrive in Tahiti on Saturday. More crocheting in our future, lectures, school work, etc. At the heart of everyday though, is spending time with my family. We get stopped almost daily and told how lucky we are to be traveling together, how sweet it is to see us all spending time together, how happy we all seem as we are always smiling. These things warm my heart and I pray our joy and peace is spread to those who cross our paths. Life is for the living and we are living it to the fullest. Hugs from all of us to all of you…Debra