Oil Search Pacific Games Relay visits historical sites of Sidea and Samurai Islands
It was a very different start to the typical Relay day with a short village Relay at Deidei to their famous hot springs.
Here the local children called to the spirits to make the geysers shoot up in to the air for the team.
Next was a short helicopter ride to the Sidea Mission where Father Ronnie and the nuns of the mission had worked with the children of St Mary’s Primary School and St Anne’s Training Institute to recreate the arrival of the Catholic faith with Father Lyons arrival by canoe in 1932.
Father Ronnie described the arrival of the Baton as “another unforgettable occasion being written into Sidea’s history with the arrival of the 15th Pacific Games Baton, uniting Sidea not only to our country but also our neighbouring nations.”
The school children then ran a Relay around the oval which included the nuns of the station in their habits and Relay shirts.
From there the Relay flew to the historical town of Samarai, a major trading outpost in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
Long-time town resident Ian Poole made a short presentation about the history of the town before eight residents took the Baton on a Relay down the former main streets with their old and mainly abandoned buildings and then around the entire island.
There are no vehicles left on the island so the team had to display some fast running to be able to keep up and catch the images of the relay.
The Relay finished at the sports oval and the awaiting helicopters, where the kids of Samarai Primary sang a chant they had made for Team Papua New Guinea to the Queen song ‘We will rock you”.
The Oil Search Pacific Games Relay will continue its Milne Bay experience at Dogura and East Cape, on the mainland tomorrow.
Photo credit: madNess Photography
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