By ANDERSON AGIRU MP
THE heading above conjures up a rather violent apocalyptic image but the occasion which gave rise to it was most peaceful but itself an altogether awe-inspiring spectacle which I beheld last weekend in Milne Bay.
I found myself and a few other friends at 5.30 pm on February 03 at East Cape, the eastern-most tip of the main island of PNG, 56 kilometres out of Alotau.
I cannot express in words the feelings that came over me as I stood there and looked out over the waters to the circular island that acts, as one writer put it, as a “full stop to the massive geographical sentence that is the island of New Guinea” and further still that to the towering colossus of Normanby Island, its sisters Fergusson and Goodenough to the north and the scattering of hundreds of other islands and atolls and sand banks that dot the horizon as far as the eyes can see in any direction.
Whether from the intellectual appreciation that you are finally at the eastern tip of the land that carries everything you represent or whether there is some other magic at work here; you will be as enthralled as we were.
It is an unbelievable feeling to be standing here, The sight all around me brings on a quickening of pulses and I am quite at a loss for words - like a lover found his long lost love.
Indeed, one among us - a normally well composed and serious fellow - ventured that he should like to build a village here and name it after his tribe, a lasting living memento of his visit there.
We roared with laughter but this is the kind of effect the place has on you. Others before us must have felt the same need to leave a lasting imprint of their visit here. The cement obelisk remains where the London Missionaries erected it when they first landed there on June 19th, 1891.
There is a sense of wonder here, of peace and tranquility and of power and violence. And yes, there is a sense of other-worldliness here too.
At the back of us the land rose up and I suddenly realized I was staring at the tail of the Owen Stanley, the tail of the Central Mountain Range which holds up my home in Hela. I realize too that here where I am standing is where the proud back bone of Papua New Guinea dips into the seething waters of a sea-intersection. For here the mighty Pacific Ocean breaks against the proud stern of PNG. Here the headlong rush of the Solomon Sea towards Australia is met. Here too our own Bismarck and Coral Seas meet. I suspect there is a bit of Arafura here too. And so the surface calm and serenity might well be deceptive, and that really there are churning and angry currents wrangling for power and supremacy beneath.
Often the raging currents force their way to the surface and many is the time when human lives have been lost in these waters.
Rising straight up out of the depths in the distance is the monolithic figure of Normanby Island, an awesome climb straight out of the ocean bed and rising up some 2,000 meters, it looks like Poseidon himself, the Greek God of the Sea, come to check on PNG. The maps do little justice to the size of the islands. Normanby, Fergusson and Goodenough further north look colossal.
All over our island home there is some magic, some color or shape that takes our breath away but over the years the human animal has rubbed off some of the glean by his thoughtless actions. The magic that Milne Bay holds is the fact that here men and nature seem to co-exist in a harmonious relationship.
There at East-Cape or in all the villages on the way there, there is a sense of natural harmony. The sea, the land, the villages all seem to belong. From Alotau to Divinai village to East Cape the shoreline is scenic. Local halewa palms and swaying coconut trees grace the shorelines.
Every break in the foliage shows pristine blue green lagoons and beyond, the deep blue of Sanderson Bay. I would only remove the “S” to rename it after myself as suggested by brother Philemon Embel.
Divinai village is home of the Islands Tour Retreat owned by Jim Gilsenan. On the balcony of the retreat you face Keleten Island and sparkling in the distance is Base Lake Island and on the right is the Iguali passage. Beyond I am told is historic and idyllic Samarai which once was the capital of Papua.
I am told Tawali Resort is magical as well but I didn’t have time to visit it.
I had visited Milne Bay only once before in 1989 but then the same peace and quiet of Milne Bay could be found in many parts of PNG. Today I noticed with a shock that this province seems to be the place where PNG’s quiet and tranquility had withdrawn to.
Before my most recent visit there I was a strong advocate of opening up the entire country with major road links. Indeed, in my recent 100 day statement, I did say Alotau ought to meet Port Moresby via the Magi Highway but now I am not so sure. I would not want to import the problems of Port Moresby into this peaceful place of peace loving people. I would wish that there was some way that the nature of Milne Bay could be transposed on the rest of the country.
Many more Papua New Guineans need to visit this province to see how ideal it is.
Back in Alotau once more brothers William Duma, Francis Potabe, Sam Akoitai, Joe Poma. Philemon Embel and I sat at the newly constructed Driftwood Lodge owned by Marcus Scully and Brendon Cums. On a small jetty was anchored a boat. It is the old Government boat Aleva.
Somebody turned the music on and the best from throughout PNG floated out over the waters. My own band Augustine Emil from the heartlands of the mighty souths blared out something and our eyes blurred.
Aioni and tinani baneina to hosts Norah Otto and Joe Tom of Alo Alo village in the Mutuyuwa LLGC.
 

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