2008-01-28
Bounty Day 2008
I flew to Wellington on the weekend to attend the 2008 Bounty Day celebration.
Bounty Day is a chance for Pitcairners and their descendants to get together to remember the burning of the HMS Bounty. In January 1790 the Bounty mutineers arrived at Pitcairn Island and had to decide what to do with the ship. Matthew Quintal set fire to it on the 23rd of January 1790. It burnt to the sealine and sunk into the depths of Bounty Bay. Every Bounty Day a model of the HMS Bounty is burnt in memory of this event.
This years model was made the day before and looked great! There was a talk by George Fergusson (the British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Governer of Pitcairn), the traditional tug of rope war between the men and woman, sports, a race to remove the insides of a coconut in the traditional manner, and photo's and videos of Pitcairn playing. The Bounty burning was performed, with everyone singing "Sweet Bye and Bye" while it burned. This was followed by lots of Pitcairn food.
If you have a browser that supports the <video> element you can see a video below of the burning. Otherwise you can download the bounty_burning_2008.ogg file directly.
I caught up with a lot of friends and family and it was a great day with Wellington turning out some fantastic weather for it.
