PACIFIC VOYAGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 192, 28 May 1934, Page 3

PACIFIC VOYAGE.

APIA TO AUCKLAND IN SMALL YACHT. VENTURESOME ATTEMPT. (Special to the " Guardian.") AUCKLAND, May 26. There should shortly arrive in Auckland the 38ft yawl-rigged yacht Viking manned by Captain A. Howe, of Oakland, California, and a Rarotongan sailor. The Viking arrived at Apia from Pago Pago during the last week in April. The owner, Captain Howe, attempted to dispose of his vessel in order to return to the United States, and was fortunate enough to find a buyer in Mr Robert Head,, a wellknown Niue Island trader who returned to his home recently in 'the Maui Pomare from a trip abroad. Captain Howe, who is sailing' the vessel to Auckland via Niue, for the owner, left Apia on the first leg of his long beat south on May 5, and will spend two weeks at Alofi before proceeding to New Zealand. The Viking will be the second yacht to make the long voyage from Apia to Auckland during the past few months, Messrs Dibbern and Schramm, two adventurous Germans, made the trip recently in the Te Rapunga taking 23 days for the direct run. Captain Howe who purchased the Viking in Tahiti, has spent eight months cruising about the Pacific visiting such little known islands at Puka Puka and Suwarrow. The latter, a lonely atoll inhabited only by huge land-crabs, has a special interest for New Zealanders in that an Aucklander was reported to have found treasure there somo sixty years ago. His good fortune, was however, short-lived, as he had the misfortune to lose his life in a brawl at Papeete soon afterward—his secret dying with him. A number of gold coins sent to friends in New Zealand are all that .remains to-day of the treasure that was thus found and lost again.