Week Six - back in Tuvalu after a long break

Island life is interrupted by the arrival of the four planes a week around lunchtime on Mon, Tue, Thu and Sat. While many passengers are coming for business reasons, a few tourists want to tick off their trip to the least visited country.

With the Filamona being close to the terminal, its long-term guests are ideally placed to interact with outgoing passengers as they await their flights.  

First time approaching Funafuti from the north

The country gained independence from Great Britain in 1975 and became a Pacific nation by 1978. But due to its remoteness and the convoluted travel arrangements necessary to get here, tourism isn’t catered for. According to the last census, Tuvalu is the second least populated country after the Vatican.

Independence Day is next week, 1-Oct, and will be celebrated with a big parade and party. Everyone gets two days off except us. We have to work due to programme and weather delays, but I hope to be able to talk about the festivities next blog.

Most of the non-tourists here are working on aid projects or scoping them. I’ve met a lady on her fourth visit who is working on providing cyclone shelters on each island. The local officials see the shelters as gymnasiums but according to the lady, the World Bank doesn’t fund gyms. 

A couple of guys from the Netherlands popped into the Filamona a few times. They’re here to help the government with disaster management preparations. Then there’s Sea Shepherd who are helping the Australian navy and local police with monitoring of the fisheries around the country’s 200 km limit.

Others who have turned up at the lodge are here to organise the medical drug delivery logistics. 

Recently I met a guy from Palau who was on a scoping mission to sort out the scrap metal on the island.

Another guy has been on the island for a while advising the public works department on infrastructure delivery. 

These people are in addition to the two main contractors Halls and Downer. Halls is working on improvements to the port along with reclamation work to provide higher ground as an answer to sea level rise. 

Then there are a small group of American guys clearing unexploded ordnance (UXO) from World War II. They were sent by the US State Dept because the Police found a mortar shell and two hand grenades. More shells were found under the Fisheries Dept offices. All were disposed of safely. Interestingly, they stored them in a prison cell as that was the safest place (aka bunker) on the island. The UXO guys like to joke that Toby looks a bit like the American actor Sam Elliott

Toby and me just before I flew out last month.

It seems to me that if you can think of a cause related to climate change, sea level rise or any social improvement scheme you can get funding and end up in Tuvalu. 


Unfortunately, I lot of these causes import equipment for the work and it's left behind or "donated" to the locals. 

The island is littered with broken down and half-rusty machinery everywhere.

Parked-up plant - not operable
An old crane which is called up on the tourist map as a WWII tank!

Abandoned tug and barge because the owner went broke.

More broken equipment

While I've been off the island for a few weeks, the team have made real progress on our asphalt plant site.
End of July
End of September

They have unloaded 4,500 tonnes of aggregate from a barge and 55 containers from a ship.
Barge loading at Lautoka, Fiji
Unloading the plant and equipment at Funafuti Port

This week we started repairing holes in the runway.
Local guys undertaking Scal penetrometer testing to determine subgrade strength


It's great to see the team cranking into getting the work done and the job progressing. More next week.

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