A New Zealand couple currently sailing through the country have commended local indigenous Solomon Islanders for their hospitality and communication skills.
Michael and Julie, sailed through our waters from Temotu province and now are in Central province.
They have their own trade business in New Zealand. But after retiring they decided to sell the business and started sail around the world.
They have been to other pacific island countries mainly to fish, scuba diving and village tour.
Currently they are in Roderick Bay, Florida, Central province and will sail down to Gizo in Western Province later this week.
One thing of the difficulties they faced while sailing through other pacific island countries is poor communication .
In an exclusive interview with the Solomon Star last week in Roderick Bay the couple commended the locals for their kind hospitality and for being influent in speaking English although there were some broken English to it.
“We had been sailed everywhere in the pacific islands and found it very hard to communicate with indigenous people there.
“We have been to Fiji, Vanuatu and pacific island countries and their indigenous people can’t speak proper English and we find it very hard to communicate with them. But here in Solomon Islands, we have been to Reef Islands and Vanikoro and the indigenous people there speak fluent English which we really appreciate and its very helpful to us to communicate and interact with the local villagers,” they said.
Meanwhile the couple higlighted the country is blessed with the natural resources. They appealed to the government of the day to work closely with resources owners to protect the natural resources from depletion and contamination.
“Solomon Island is one of the pacific island countries which have natural and intact resources which remain untouched.
“We urged government to work closely with landowners to keep their resources intact from contamination. Your resources are your future, therefore we urged you to protect your resources from destruction,” they said.
By DENVER NEWTER
