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# Bounty Day 2008 is approaching! Held on the 20th January 2008 at the Darts Club Hall, Kenepuru Drive, Porirua, New Zealand at 10am. The cost is $10 per head, with children under 12 free. The events include Film Slides, Music & Dance, Sports, Bounty Burning, Air Castle and Pot Luck Weckle. A flyer with details is here.

This is what I wrote on Friends of Pitcairn (and published in the Pitcairn Log) about Bounty Day 2006 when I attended:

I went to the Bounty Day celebration in Wellington today and had a wonderful time. I went along not expecting to know anyone or see anyone I knew and had a few surprises.

First was being asked, when I arrived and put on my name tag, what my connection to Pitcairn was, and on mentioning my grandmother Elvina, immediately had people saying "Oh you're Whina's grandson". Whina being my grandmother's nickname on Pitcairn. Got lots of hugs from many friendly people :-)

After being introduced to people and chatting I had the pleasant surprise of meeting a cousin, Cherie, who I had never met before and she had never known of me. She was just as surprised to be greeted as "Whina's granddaughter" and finding out she had a cousin she didn't know about there as well. We had a big catch up about the family. I also got to meet other cousins and people who knew my Mum and other family members. One of my mother's sisters also turned up who I had not seen for almost 20 years!

Tom and Betty Christian were there and it was nice to meet them. Betty had a photo there of my great grandmother which was amazing. I met Melva's sister Pearl, who is very nice, and made me feel very welcome. I can't even begin to list the other amazing people I got introduced too and who all made it a great day.

Matthew Forbes and Leslie Jacques were there and gave a slide presentation showing some of the projects that have happened on Pitcairn in the last year, including the Museum and the Hill of Difficulty road. They also mentioned some of the upcoming things including a scheduled boat service from Mangareva to Pitcairn six times per year and some information on a new land tenture system for the Island. One of the intents of the latter being, I believe, to make it easier for people to hold title to land on the Island to build and live there.

A tug of war was held between the men and the women. Apparently the women had won it for the last three years so the men were pretty determined this time. On the first try (out of best of three) I'm sure the men were about to win when the rope snapped! I sensed sabotage as the men went flying. A replacement rope was obtained and it was close but the women again one the war.

The Bounty Burning was held and it was a great sight. The model of the bounty was placed in the field and set alight while everyone sang Sweet Bye and Bye. Some photo's taken with my phone camera (so not great quality, sorry) here:

• Bounty Burning Photo 1
• Bounty Burning Photo 2
• Bounty Burning Photo 3
• Bounty Burning Photo 4
• Bounty Burning Photo 5

I was so busy enjoying the day and the moment that I'm afraid I didn't take many other photos!

More slides of Pitcairn, taken during the 50's and modern day, were shown followed by an incredible range of tasty food. Wow! Hats off to those that prepared everything, what a great job...Yummy!

Another surreal moment for the day. While I was getting some food I bumped into a friend I worked with about 10 years ago. We both looked at each other and wondered what the other was doing there. Turns out their father was born on Pitcairn and for all the time we worked together we never knew we shared a connection to Pitcairn. Amazing. It is indeed a small world.

All in all and awesome day. Big thanks to those that sent me the information about it - I would have hated to miss it.

One thing I forgot to mention was during the talk about the museum it was mentioned that someone had donated an item they had that was from the Bounty to the museum. From what I remember they said it was used for pouring drinks on the Bounty. They had it there and I took a photo.