Faces of Melanesia

Day 1 Arrive Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji

After your early morning arrival, check in to your hotel dayrooms and enjoy a morning at leisure before lunch. In the afternoon set out for an island exploration, including a visit to The Garden of the Sleeping Giant, started by the late actor Raymond Burr in 1977, and showcasing more than 2,000 varieties of orchids. Visit the Vei Sei Sei village, then stop for magnificent island views at Vudu Lookout. In the city of Lautoka on the western, “sunshine coast,” of Viti Levu, Fiji’s largest island, embark the Clipper Odyssey.

Day 2 Expedition Stop in Fiji

Enjoy the warm clear waters and colorful marine life surrounding the Fiji Islands during this first opportunity to snorkel or dive on the voyage.

Day 3 At Sea

Relax onboard today and learn about the natural history and cultures of the islands that await the trip from our accompanying lecturers. Sail toward the islands of Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides.

Day 4 Ambrym Island, Vanuatu

Captain Cook was one of the earliest explorers to view the magnificent volcanoes that dominate the twin-peaked island of Ambrym. Going ashore, the captain is presented with a ceremonial yam—in the same tradition of hospitality that greeted Captain Cook. Witness palm-leaf-clad dancers with elegantly carved headdresses before exploring traditional Linbul Village. Ambrym is known for its fern carvings and slit-gong drums, some carved from enormous breadfruit tree trunks.

In the afternoon snorkel, dive, or view from the glass-bottom-boat, coral heads that rise from a black-sand ocean floor, while from the beach the birders search for the elusive megapode.

Day 5 Rano Island

Off the coast of Malekula Island, Vanuatu’s second largest island, is Rano Island. With the scent of hibiscus and red ginger in the air take a leisurely walk to a village that welcomes guests with many dances including the famous mask dance of Rano. Afterwards under the cool shade of banyan and fig trees, learn about the local culture, including cooking, snake charming, and even magic. After lunch on board the ship snorkel or dive the clear blue waters surrounding the island keeping an eye out for long-nosed butterflyfish and sea cucumbers.

Day 6 Luganville, Espiritu Santo Island

Today explore Luganville and its environs. A fascinating tale of World War II history unfolds as you view relics of this large American base—Quonset huts, downed bombers, and Million Dollar Point, where the Allies jettisoned large quantities of surplus war material into the sea. A highlight for divers is a never-to-be-forgotten dive over the USS President Coolidge which sank in 1942. Now, a tapestry of corals encrusts the wreck offering a haven for fishes. Naturalists accompany birders and hikers on an excursion inland. Espiritu Santo is famed for its 50 species of birds, including the very rare mountain starling and thicket warbler, found only at high elevations; the chestnut-bellied kingfisher; and the yellow white-eye.

Day 7 Tikopia Island, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Islands

Tikopia is legendary—a remote tropical paradise where traditional customs remain intact. This Polynesian-settled island lies in Melanesia, yet its people are descendants of Tongan and Wallis Island settlers. School children clad in tapa cloth harmonize songs of welcome, followed by enthusiastic dances by the young men of the village. Pay homage to the four paramount chiefs of the island who sit in state in their leaf-covered huts.

The island is so small that you can walk from one side to the other in an hour or two. An extinct volcano, the island has a crater lake at its center and fertile soil for crop cultivation; yams, sago, taro, bananas, and breadfruit trees grow in profusion. Walking to the lake, spot fairy terns, cardinal honeyeaters, and yellow-bibbed lories. Islanders display exquisite handicrafts such as woodcarvings, finely woven pandanus mats, and model outrigger canoes. Enjoy an afternoon snorkel on the edge of the reef where we may spot up to 60 species of fish, including damselfish, green parrotfish, and the bright yellow, long-snouted coralfish. Or, stroll the white sand beaches where the lavender flowers of the beach morning-glory bloom beneath the shade of pandanus trees.

Day 8 Utupua Island

Remote and rarely visited Utupua charms from the first glimpse. A lagoon and barrier reef surround the high island and Zodiacs take a fjordlike channel into its heart. Among the marshy mangrove trees learn about an ecosystem that is a beehive of biological activity. Follow a local dugout canoe along a narrow waterway to see where the Nembao villagers plant their productive vegetable gardens.

Day 9 Santa Ana Island

Village warriors greet guests with the blowing of conch-shell trumpets as you step ashore on this small island and the local residents offer welcome with songs and elaborately costumed dances unique to their island. Santa Ana is known for its bone fishhooks and imaginative fishing floats. In the afternoon snorkel or dive the reefs to view clownfish, soldierfish, and brilliantly hued wrasses. Or join naturalists for a guided walk across the island through a shady forest. Visit a traditional "spirit house" where ancestral relics are kept. Bird sightings along the walk may include the cardinal honeyeater, Brahminy kite, and Sanford’s eagle.

Day 10 Honiara / Iron Bottom Sound

Approaching Honiara this morning, watch for the spectacular acrobatics of spinner dolphins and the occasional pilot whales that frequent Indispensable Strait. During WWII the British founded Honiara, on the north side of the island, as a military base. The town and the Mataniko River, which runs through it, were the front for many months during the battle of Guadalcanal. Today, this is a bustling town with lovely hibiscus and palm-tree-lined avenues. Enjoy a morning tour of Honiara and its environs, visiting war memorials, Henderson Field, the open-air war museum, and a local woodcarving academy.

Leaving the island, cruise Iron Bottom Sound off Guadalcanal Island, the site of intense World War II naval battles. The Sound is named for the large numbers of Japanese and American ships and aircraft that sank beneath the surface of the usually placid seas. Today, the wrecks provide a safe submerged harbor for fish and crustaceans.

Day 11 Ghizo and Kennedy Islands

Ghizo Island unveils the natural attractions of the remote Solomons and hike up a hillside for splendid views, watching with binoculars for the white-bellied graybird, whiskered tree swift, and colorful lorikeets. In the afternoon the ship cruises in the historic wake of John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 boat ripped in half by a Japanese destroyer in the Blackett Strait during World War II. Kennedy and his ten crew members swam ashore to the tiny island later named in his honor. Zodiac excursions to Kennedy Island’s sandy beaches and snorkel or dive over its coral reefs. A magnificent wall dive presents the opportunity to swim with large pelagic fish. Birders may spot the cardinal lory, black-naped tern, or the great frigatebird, a classic symbol of the Solomons often portrayed in carvings.

Day 12 Laughlan Islands, Papua New Guinea

Traditional canoe building is a specialty of the Laughlan islanders. In this very remote corner of eastern Papua New Guinea, find seagoing canoes in various stages of construction, with finely tuned hulls of traditional planking lashed with natural sennit fiber cord and caulked with sap. Sails are often made of woven pandanus fronds. The residents of Bodaluna welcome guests and stroll through the village where palm-thatched houses line shaded coral-sand walkways. Witness the methods of subsistence gardening and fishing as lecturers introduce us to the history of the Kula Ring, a circular pattern of ceremonial trade relationships that binds the islands of Milne Bay and eastern Papua New Guinea together in a long-established network of friendship.

Enjoy an afternoon snorkel off a pristine sandbar or an adventurous dive off the outer reef where you may see turtles, groupers, wrasses, and spinner dolphins in warm waters of great clarity.

Day 13 Kitava and Narutu Islands, Trobriand Islands

You are fortunate to visit with the traditional Trobriand islanders of Kitava to view energetic, time-honored dances that celebrate fishing and the seasonal yam harvest which is imbued with ritualistic significance. These islanders are also renowned for the exquisite quality of their ebony wood-carvings, often decorated with mother-of-pearl shell inlays.

Enjoy a walk among the six villages of Kitava or spend the afternoon relaxing on the gleaming sandy beaches of nearby Narutu (Uratu) Island. Snorkel amid intricate coral reefs populated by parrotfish, neon damsels, and other brilliantly hued species. Bottlenose dolphins frequent the exterior reef. Naturalists lead a hike around the island, including a walk through the lush forest and spot flying foxes (fruit bats), sulphur-crested cockatoos, helmeted friarbirds, or channel-billed cuckoos.

Day 14 Fergusson and Dobu Islands, D’Entrecasteaux Islands

Today make expedition stops at these distinctive, jewel-like islands capped by active volcanoes and may have the chance to snorkel or dive in the surrounding sublime waters. Visit tranquil seaside fishing villages where women and children still wear traditional dress and visit a hot spring and mud pool surrounded by lush vegetation.

Day 15 Expedition Stop

Numerous small islands dangle off the southern coast of Papua New Guinea and make an expedition stop to snorkel among the colorful reefs that fringe their shores. Cruise toward Port Moresby and watch as the terrain grows more rugged and the peaks of the Owen Stanley Range soar 13,000 feet skyward.

Day 16 Port Moresby / Brisbane, Australia

This morning, after breakfast, disembark the Clipper Odyssey in Port Moresby and enjoy a visit to the National Museum and Art Gallery with its exceptional collections of primitive arts, including Sepik River carvings, Malagan masks, and Trobriand Islands fishing vessels. Transfer to the airport for a flight to Brisbane. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Day 17 Brisbane / Home

Transfer to the airport for your independent flight homeward.