by Carri Night

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2009

South Pacific's Best Kept Secret

A sun drenched South Pacific holiday awaits in the most unlikely place. It is not in Tahiti, Fiji or even The Cook Islandsit is the unspoiled Solomon Islands.

Made up of 992 islands strewn across 930 miles of endless sea east of Papua New Guinea in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. It's coordinates are 800 S. and 15900 E.

When the land mass is added up it equals to be slightly smaller than the state of Maryland. The capital of the Solomon Islands is the city of Honiara on the island of Guadalcanal.

The climate has a lazy average of 80 degrees with high humidity and about 120 inches of rain annually. While seasons are not recognized here, the cooler months seem to be June-August while November-April seem more sticky and rainy with a chance of cyclones.

The landscape of this undiscovered jewel has many characteristics similar to it's other South Pacific counterparts. There are clear lagoons, abundant rainforest, rugged mountains, waterfalls and of course volcanoes. The land elevation ranges from at sea level to Mount Makarakomburu (2,447 meters in height). Just a little tip for travelers, Tina Kula and Kavachi Islands house the volcanoes that are most active.

The Ancient History of the islands goes back to about 6,000 years ago when people from New Guinea started to settle on the land. In Modern History the nation became independent from the British on July 7th 1978. Since then it has suffered its share of heartache and rough times. The ethnic violence, government instabilities and wide spread crime prevented the economy from growth, but since 2003 when Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza took control, and sought outside help from Australia, the nation progressed into its parliamentary democracy with hope for the future.

The nation's economy relies on agriculture as its main source of export income. Some of its goods are copra (dried coconut meat), palm oil, cocoa beans, fish and timber. Some of it's natural resources are unrefined lead, zinc, nickel and gold.

The Solomon's economy is made up of about 600,000 people and growing, the average population growth is 2.4% per year with most being of Indigenous (Melanesian) decent. The official language of the Solomon Islands is English, although only 1-2% speak it. There are over 120 different island languages (not dialects) spoken which makes communication difficult at times. The economy uses the Solomon Island Dollar (SBD) and the primary religion practiced is Christianity.

The culture

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