Travels to the South Pacific

I (David Whalen, Director of LMM) am travelling to the South Pacific for about 16 days in August 2014 from Aug 3 to the 19. I will be filming several sites in several countries including the Cook Islands (Aitutaki), New Caledonia (the Isle of Pines), Vanuatu (Tanna Island), Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand. Richard Taylor is funding this trip and we will be travelling together. Richard produced our recent film The Wild Coast. A huge Thank You to Richard!

Areas Visiting in South Pacific

The videos I will be creating for LMM will be short 3 minute videos for the countries and will be set to music.

I intend to accompany the videos with write ups of each with a bit of history of the place. I will also be doing some blogging from the islands during August so check here at LMM for updates. In September 2014 I will be posting the videos.

The great explorer Captain James Cook, explored and mapped a good number of these islands in the late 1700s. One of his first mates, Lieutenant William Bligh, later captained his own ship the HMS Bounty. To learn more of Captain Cook read "Blue Latitudes" by Tony Horowitz.

On the Bounty's return voyage from Tahiti occurred the infamous mutiny on the bounty by first mate Fletcher Christian and others. The mutineers took several women from Tahiti, of whom they grew enamored with, and lived with them on Pitcairn Islands (population today of 67) giving birth to children and founding a community. To learn more read "The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty" by Caroline Alexander or watch several films here (1985 with Mel Gibson) and here (1962, but in gorgeous 70mm Imax like film, fantastic).

Norfolk Island

There are many myths as to what became of the mutineers and their families. In the book "Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener, he locates descendants of the mutineers on Norfolk Island near New Zealand with wild tales.

Michener's book deals with WWII events of the South Pacific, known as the Pacific War. Japan essentially started WWII when it bombed Pearl Harbor by surprise. Japan had been seeking expansion through the region and thought they could stop our interference before it started. We (the US) then fought them in the Pacific for 4 years. A great movie to watch on this is Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and the PBS documentary, Victory in the Pacific which includes a 1944 documentary narrated by Ronald Reagan about the then new B-29 bomber mission to Tokyo. It's extraordinary.

The Pacific War ended when Harry Truman, the US President, dropped it's Atomic bombs' Little Boy and Fat Boy on on Hiroshima and Nagaski. A great book to read on this is "A Song for Nagaski; The Story of Takashi Nagai" by Paul Glynn, about a Catholic convert who lived through the bombing to tell about it, and to help the countless injured. Today he is considered a saint in Japan.

I will be dragging along my helicopter with GoPro as well as my Panasonic GH3 to film the beauty of the place.

Another thank you goes out to Vanessa Snider at the Bluefish Concierge who is organizing the details of this trip.