A bogan amongst bogans

Well, here I am enjoying a beautiful morning on my deck in Bougainville. It is around 25 degrees and its only 7:21am. Chur. My bach is situated on a hill overlooking the ocean. To my right are a couple of coconut and banana trees, there’s a papaya tree infront of me, and a 90 degree view of the ocean. I can hear the waves rolling in from here, and its sublime.

The house itself is pretty good. Its like an old school Coromandel bach, large deck, open plan kitchen/lounge, four bedrooms and a large bathroom. All to myself! I’m pretty lucky because a brand new washing machine is being installed, and I also have a brand new fridge/freezer, both of which are better than any appliances I’ve had before. The house even comes with hot water (solar power) and 24 hour power.

I arrived safe and sound on the 30th of July at 10:00am. The view from the plane was amazing, coral atolls and islands everywhere. Buka Island itself is lush with forest, ringed with coral reef and separated from the mainland by a short channel of water. Costs about $1NZD to get across to the mainland of Bougainville so will be doing that in short time.

Bogainvillians themselves are super friendly, which is pretty unusual for bogans. They have the darkest skin pigmentation of any people, so they don’t even need to wear black jeans J Honestly, the skin is so dark on some of them it is almost blue. For an island of bogans they are, however, pretty soft on music. I’ve yet to hear any heavy metal, so far its been some kind of reggae/pop mix on the local airwaves. Must rectify that.

I’m also stoked to say that the ex-patriots here are super friendly. I have four neighbours, Bob (kiwi), Greg (Oz), Kate (kiwi), Rebecca (oz) and Rosalie (bogan). Bob and Greg are pretty old school, have been working in Papua New Guinea on and off for about 20 years. Bob’s got a boat and is keen to take me out on the water so stoked about that. Kate works with the law and order types here is a good sort, gave me a cold can of South Pacific Lager as a welcoming present.

So so far so good. I’ve been provided with a mobile phone, so if anyone wants to send a text or call, the number is: +67-5-679-4751, or it should be! If it doesn’t work please let me know. NZ Telecom phones can send and receive messages with me, but apparently Vodafone only receives, or something like that.

Hope everyone is good, will post some photos soon!

Wolf.

Oh and these blog posts will always be a few days out of date, so sorry if it gets a bit confusing.