Micronesia and Nauru
It's so strange; this world.
In ( I think it was ) 1976 Continental Airlines started Air Micronesia and they sparked development of Micronesia as a tourist development. Truk, one of the islands in a far flung grouping, was touted as the place where we got the Japanese "back" for Pearl harbor; bombing their 4th fleet as it anchored in Truk Island lagoon.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/npswapa/extContent/wapa/paradise/paradise6c.htm
It was supposed to be "lush, tropical and unspoiled" What that meant in "brochure speak" was overgrown, hot, and with cranky plumbing . I found that out only after going. I was up for an adventure. The area was unvisited except for some real die-hard scuba divers ( Truk... now called Chuuk.... lagoon is one of the world's best diving sites; but it was just becoming known as such then) so intrepid me scheduled a vacation. Hop one to west coast for connection to Honolulu . Then Air Mic ( Air Micronesia) westward a l-o-n-g way via Kwajelein, Palau, and Yap and then a APU ( auxiliary power unit which is a small jet engine used to start the main engines in areas where there is no ground service) failure delay on a small forgettable atoll (Majuro) where we as passengers had to "bucket-brigade" hydraulic fluid to get the engines started before nightfall as there were no lights to land in Truk at night, being that it was an old Japanese military runway.
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| Majuro atoll ( in entirety) a four hour delay here |
Matter of fact the Japanese made those runways out of coral so the Air Mic plane had a special teflon coated bottom so the fuselage wouldn't tear up from the sharp coral cutting it, and the tires were especially made non-pneumatic. Even the plane was special; a 727 QC called "Ju Ju" by the airline; half passenger seating and half cargo and carrying extra parts and tires and stuff so as not to get stranded. I can remember taking off and at the runways end were underwater remnants of Jap Zero's that hadn't made the lift ! I had flown to Honolulu aboard Continental and sat next to pilot Jerry Journey who was "deadheading" to the Honolulu base to fly the Air Mic leg the next day (with me)
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| Welcome to Truk |
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| Captain Jerry Journey on "Ju Ju" |
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| No jetways here- enplaining from tailway stairs |
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| The Air Mic schedule on enception |
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| Me with guide on Truk |
I'll leave the visit story for another time, but one of the subsequent flights was on Air Nauru flying from Guam to Palau and it was there I found out about the Island republic. Nauru was essentially an island formed of centuries of seabird guano (poop) deposits. It was being mined for commercial phosphates and, as result, the inhabitants had the highest per capita income in the world. The airline consisted of a total of 2 737 Boeing two engine jets and it was all one class: First. They served cold lobster and Champagne. I was so impressed, but had no time to visit the island. I had heard stories about people buying American cars and ; having no real place to drive them nor the gas to power them; relegating them to be chicken coops. And of buying kerosene powered appliances that were quirky and quickly discarded to form junk piles of nonworking stoves, fridges, etc. there was problem even back then as the deposits were being mined to depletion and with that, there went the economy.
I got back to the States and went on with life until recently; I was reading "the Sex lives of Cannibals" a recount of life in Tarawa Kiribati, a remote island in the area of Micronesia (and Nauru) When I went online to check and see what was up with Nauru currently: Wow. The phosphate deposits are depleted. The republic in financial straits.
Between 2005-2006, the island all but unreachable because Air Nauru had had its planes reposessed and there was no air service. No funds for any community government and no imports.
Australia paid for a prisoner off shore relocation facility for a few years and Taiwan bought back a jet for them because they recognized Taipei diplomatically over mainland China's objection.
They have only one aging desalination plant providing potable water ( other than rain collection) and have no municipal income. They tried to become a money laundering facility like Grand Cayman, with anyone with $25,000 able to set up a Nauru bank, but that never worked out so now in 2009, they are basically a broke protectorate ward of Australia.
The saga hasn't played out yet and now they do have a subsidized airline under the banner "Our Airline": flying to Brisbane and Guam. A few people make a living working for the republic owned phosphate operation mining what is left ; but little planning for the future and no money for infrastructure or terraforming the blighted landscape the mining has left. They are basically a welfare protectorate of Australia.
A pitiful turn of events for what was once a place in the sun. A part of history I would have been totally unaware of except for that interisland flight many many years ago.
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| Nauru from air |
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| Map of Micronesia and Nauru |
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| Populated Nauru |
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| The "Air Nauru" I flew |
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| "Our Airline" the Aussie leased service to the island |
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| What the island center looks like now |
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| The decimated center of Nauru now |
The island is now trying to establish a tourist industry. They have a website and a new hotel in addition to a few older family owned properties. The site lists activities with beach-going , scuba diving and water sports as the prime attractions. The "History" section briefly mentions the phosphate operations but goes into no detail or extent. It is a challenging effort. One I fear will not see fruition.
http://www.discovernauru.com/nauru/export/sites/NTO/index.html
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