Meghalaya, India

The Bridges of the Peoples that Create Roots


Jingkieng Wahsurah
Another bridge from Nongblai's roots that crosses the river on the banks of the village just above a waterfall.
Almost in home
A young man from Nongriat descends a staircase, loaded, about to reach his village.
a dark rest
Chief Longneh Khong Sni's family in the room of his tiny stilt house in Nongblai village.
Jingkieng Wahlangseng
Chief Longneh Khong Sni with two of his sons over one of the bridges in the village of Nongblai
the betel nut
The yellowish fruits that are addictive and stimulate a good part of the population of Meghalaya, India and Asia.
Nohkalikai
The highest waterfall in India at 350 meters. It plunges into a huge drop in the Shillong plateau, Khasi Hills.
Tyrna village
Village of the Khasi Hills above Nongriat, downstream from the base of the Nohkalikai waterfall.
motherly laugh
A woman plays with her son in the main market of Cherrapunjee, or Sohra as the Khasi people call this town.
peace pipe
Nongblai Longneh Khong Sni chief smokes a pipe over the Jingkieng Wahlangseng Root Bridge.
on the way to the other side
Nongblai children cross the curved bridge of Wahsurah.
on the perch
Alarm clocks recharge for late-night service.
the half-slope
A resident of Nomblai on a shady stretch of the village's long climb to the top of the valley in which it is located.
photo of the photo
Morning Star guide stops for a photo on the way down to Nongblai.
vice palms
Betel nut palm forest, consumed in large quantities in Meghalaya and also in Nongblai.
almost night in the mountains
Sunset ends another productive day in Nongblai at around 17pm.
The unpredictability of rivers in the wettest region on Earth never deterred the Khasi and the Jaintia. Faced with the abundance of trees elastic fig tree in their valleys, these ethnic groups got used to molding their branches and strains. From their time-lost tradition, they have bequeathed hundreds of dazzling root bridges to future generations.

It was far from the reality of Christmas days that we pass by: sunny during the day, cooler after sunset, but dry. The province of Meghalaya, which translates as “abode of clouds”, is by far the wettest in India.

It has several villages in the top 10 of the world's rainfall. Of them, Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram boast numbers in the order of 25.000 mm annually. They compete for the absolute record against each other and with other Colombian towns.

As a rule, when May arrives, the heat generates intense evaporation from the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Moisture-laden clouds are pushed over the subcontinent by southerly winds. The higher the nearby land, the more rain it provides.

Now Meghalaya occupies the plateau above the alluvial Bangladesh, a few kilometers from the coast of the Bay of Bengal. We soon noticed the rupture in the landscape between the two regions.

We were based in Shillong, the state capital. From there we left morning after morning heading south. On one of these journeys, we left with Cherrapunjee as our final destination.

A lot of twists and turns through hills and valleys later, Gus and Don, the driver and guide who helped us discover the province, brought the car to a halt at the edge of a horseshoe-shaped cliff lined with vendors. As soon as we approached the cliff, we realized how the scenery and the different views we had seen before mirrored the contrast between the two weather times of the year.

A distant waterfall – by the way the highest in India, at 340 meters – falls from the forested top of the plateau into a lagoon between green and blue.

Nohkalikai Waterfalls, Meghalaya, India

The highest waterfall in India at 350 meters. It plunges into a huge drop in the Shillong plateau, Khasi Hills.

The Impressive Nokhalikai, or Seven Sisters Falls

Its English-speaking name, Seven Sisters Falls, alludes to the fact that, in the rainy season, the jump we saw there multiplied by seven, each representing one of the states of the distinct North-East India: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur , Meghalaya and Mizoram.

In the middle of the more-than-soggy monsoon phase, clouds fill the natural amphitheater at the foot. They also invade and irrigate most of the lush, rugged area above the Nohkalikai, the Khasi (local dialect) name for the waterfall, inspired by a legend involving Likai, a local woman, her son, husband and familiar cannibalism. In such a macabre way that we refuse to go into detail.

On really rainy days, more than a sequence of vertical torrents, the Nohkalikai come from every groove in the relief. They become a fluvial list hidden by the mist that always hangs there.

After the final chuáa of the impact on the rocks at the base, its flows continue, full, towards the Bangladesh's sandy plains. Along the way, they pass a series of self-degraded Khasi and Jaintia villages deep in the valleys.

Tyrna Village, Meghalaya, India

Village of the Khasi Hills above Nongriat, downstream from the base of the Nohkalikai waterfall.

Peoples of the Deep River Valleys

A few days later, on the way back from Nongblai, one of those villages, we asked the young native guide Morning Star Kongthaw what had caused people to inhabit such painfully accessible places. Morning Star hardly adorns the explanation: “Centuries ago, survival wasn't like it is today. Families had to find reliable food sources.

The rivers flowed down there. In addition to guaranteeing them fish and other animals, they allowed the cultivation of vegetables and fruits. For people, tiredness had little meaning compared to having their lives assured. For many, it's still like that.”

Nomblai resident on staircase, Meghalaya, India

A resident of Nomblai on a shady stretch of the village's long climb to the top of the valley in which it is located.

Two ethnic groups in particular occupied the fertile riverside corners of Meghalaya. They were the Khasi and the Pnar, or Jaintia, both matrilineal and that the British missionaries converted to the point where the Khasi and the Pnar formed, in Meghalaya, the most Christian and possibly less “Indian” state in India, where people share a notion of individual space and modesty towards others, uncommon in the subcontinent.

As we explored it, Meghalaya kept surrendering to intense christmas celebrations, as no other Indian state did.

When they settled at the bottom of the valleys of the Khasi Mountains, both the Khasi and the Pnar had to learn to obtain food from the streams and its banks. But not only. They were forced to anticipate the huge seasonal fluctuations in the volume of rivers and the room for maneuver to safeguard their homes and crops.

Bétele Palms in Nongblai, Meghalaya, India

Betel nut palm forest, consumed in large quantities in Meghalaya and also in Nongblai.

The Roots Bridges of Nongblai and So Many Other Villages

The other question requiring the best of your ingenuity was how to guarantee the crossing of the increased flows. The solution they came up with excelled in an astonishing organic pragmatism, much more moldable and resistant to raging torrents than steel and concrete, and virtually free of charge.

Now that tourism has arrived everywhere and knocked on their door, it fascinates the rest of the world. In many cases, it also represents a fruitful livelihood.

We began the incursion into Nongblai, this time led by Saddam, a Hindu chauffeur, more than a peculiar, tragicomic one. We picked up Morning Star a few kilometers from the beginning of the long staircase we had to walk.

For a good hour, we descend the high, uneven stone steps and, in shady areas, covered with slippery moss, the guide tells us that, during the rainy season, it formed a huge green carpet. At that time, we only saw the diverse vegetation that surrounded the stairs and the other side of the valley.

Access staircase to Nogriat, Meghalaya, India

Young man from Nongriat descends a staircase, loaded, about to reach his village

We are faced with only two or three villagers coming from the ascending direction, less tired than we might suppose. Finally, we saw the river's furrow and glimpsed the village's houses a few dozen meters above.

The ritual was sent to receive us by the head of the village. Morning Star even teaches us a few words in Khasi dialect – for example, the ever-helpful thank you, khublei shibun – but Longneh Khong Sni, in English, spoke nothing so all communication flowed through the guide.

Morning Star tells us that the Meghalaya tourism authorities had warned him of our visit at the last minute. As a result, the chief's family had not been able to welcome us as they would have liked.

The Providential Reception of Longneh Khong Sni

The descent had left us hungry. The hosts knew it. In agreement, they tell us to settle down on the wooden floor of the small stilt house and serve us tea, then white rice with an omelet, which we devour as if it were the most irresistible delicacy.

Chief Longneh Khong Sni at his home in Nongblai, Meghalaya, India

Chief Longneh Khong Sni's family in the room of his tiny stilt house in Nongblai village.

When the meal is over, the chef puffs on his pipe. I take the Morning Star ride and try for the first time chewing betel nut, so popular in those parts, all over India and Asia.

The taste turned out to be horrible. As if that wasn't enough, the semi-acid liquid gave me a huge cold sore. After ten minutes of accentuated salivation, I spat the reddish liquid in relief, washed my mouth and swore never again. "Just go there with the habit!" Morning Star assured me, stifling a laugh. By that time, I was convinced it was something I would never get used to.

Bethel Nut, Meghalaya, India

The yellowish fruits that are addictive and stimulate a good part of the population of Meghalaya, India and Asia.

We left the chief's home aimed at the river. It had been more than three hours since we had left the comfort of the Shillong hotel with a clear purpose in mind. An additional ten minutes of walking later, we come across the tour's superior reason for being: Jingkieng Wahlangseng.

Jingkieng Wahlangseng, the First of the Root Bridges

A massive, mossy tree bridge hugged the vast bedrock, with profuse aerial roots stretching from the thickest trunks, lined, braided, and carved to form a secure walkway. Others, younger and thinner, fell into the clear water in decorative fringes.

By intervention of the villagers of Nongblai who guide them with bamboo canes, the rubber tree (elastic fig tree) that had spawned it, had grown sideways, with powerful branches pointing in the direction where the sun crept in before disappearing behind the mountain.

We crossed it to and fro in absolute vegetal ecstasy. Meanwhile, the chief installs himself on the trunk in the company of two of his infant sons. He takes a few last breaths and is left to contemplate, in pure tranquility, the blessed scene in which he lived.

Roots Bridge, Jingkieng Wahlangseng

Chief Longneh Khong Sni with two of his sons over one of the bridges in the village of Nongblai.

"Did you like this one?" asks us Morning Star. In Meghalaya there are hundreds. It takes almost half a century to reach this size, but if no one cuts them, they just get bigger and stronger. Here, in the village, there are another five. Let's go to the next one?”.

In Search of the 2nd: Jingkieng Wahsurah

Of course we were. Too bad we don't have time to follow Morning Star for days, weeks on end, through the valleys of Meghalaya. To discover them, enjoy and cross them all, preferably in the rainy season when the landscape is even more lush and green.

Jingkieng Wahsurah, the bridge that followed, appeared in a sector of the same river cut by a large terrace and which housed a waterfall. The light entered there much less than in the area of ​​the previous bridge.

Yet, for more than a century, the elastic fig tree The resident had developed and greedily released its tentacles there. We were barely aware if the branches and roots covered by the moss belonged to one or more specimens.

Morning Star is gone. When we discovered him from the bridge, he was perched on one of the branches that extended downstream, photographing the bridge from below.

Jingkieng Wahsurah, Nongblai Village Roots Bridge, Meghalaya, India

Another bridge from Nongblai's roots that crosses the river on the banks of the village just above a waterfall.

We couldn't resist joining him along the same steep trail. To the astonishment of the village chief's children and two other newly-appeared children, little or not used to seeing strangers on such adventures.

The sun was already insinuating the southern edge of the valley and we still had two hours or more back in the highlands. Aware of the added difficulty of climbing in the dark, Morning Star urged us on.

We returned to Longneh Khong Sni's house, thanked him for the privilege of visiting the village and said goodbye to his wife and children. The chief had a meeting in the village at the top of the stairs, so he went up with us.

Roosters in Nongblai, Meghalaya, India

Alarm clocks recharge for late-night service

Back to the Meghalaya Highlands

Until more than halfway through, we completed the ascent tired but without too much complaining. From the hour and three quarters, with the pitch installed and the legs giving way to the weight of the photo backpacks and the intense wear and tear, we almost dragged ourselves to reach the last step, always encouraged by Morning Star who entertained himself to renew the promise that only five minutes to go.

We still had tea together masala at a local tea house. Finally, we climb into the car, given to Saddam's whims. We were both about to fall asleep, lulled by the curves, when we noticed that the driver had a video player installed over the steering wheel.

He saw some Bollywoodesque success as he led us down the road, which was almost always flanked by cliffs. Even so, we arrived safe and sound at Shillong. We spent the next day sore like we hadn't felt for a long time.

The beating did not deter us from repeating the dose.

Two days later, we descended (and, of course, climbed) 3000 or more excruciating steps to the depths of Nongriat. There we met and revered 180-year-old Umshiang. One of Meghalaya's amazing but rare root double bridges. Probably the most visited in the state, worthy of its own story.

Sunset over Nongblai, Meghalaya, India

Sunset ends another productive day in Nongblai at around 17pm.

The authors would like to thank the following entities for supporting this article:  Embassy of India in Lisbon; Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and Meghalaya Tourism.

They would like to thank and advise those interested in discovering this unique region of India to rely on the “native expert in Root Bridges and Meghalaya nature and culture” Morning Star Kongthaw:

Telm and Whats App: +91 80144 70908​

Facebook: MorningStar Kongthaw (Bah Morning)

Dawki, India

Dawki, Dawki, Bangladesh on sight

We descended from the high and mountainous lands of Meghalaya to the flats to the south and below. There, the translucent and green stream of the Dawki forms the border between India and Bangladesh. In a damp heat that we haven't felt for a long time, the river also attracts hundreds of Indians and Bangladeshis in a picturesque escape.
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
Goa, India

The Last Gasp of the Goan Portugality

The prominent city of Goa already justified the title of “rome of the east” when, in the middle of the XNUMXth century, epidemics of malaria and cholera led to its abandonment. The New Goa (Pangim) for which it was exchanged became the administrative seat of Portuguese India but was annexed by the Indian Union of post-independence. In both, time and neglect are ailments that now make the Portuguese colonial legacy wither.
Tawang, India

The Mystic Valley of Deep Discord

On the northern edge of the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang is home to dramatic mountain scenery, ethnic Mompa villages and majestic Buddhist monasteries. Even if Chinese rivals have not passed him since 1962, Beijing look at this domain as part of your Tibet. Accordingly, religiosity and spiritualism there have long shared with a strong militarism.
Guwahati, India

The City that Worships Kamakhya and the Fertility

Guwahati is the largest city in the state of Assam and in North East India. It is also one of the fastest growing in the world. For Hindus and devout believers in Tantra, it will be no coincidence that Kamakhya, the mother goddess of creation, is worshiped there.
Dooars India

At the Gates of the Himalayas

We arrived at the northern threshold of West Bengal. The subcontinent gives way to a vast alluvial plain filled with tea plantations, jungle, rivers that the monsoon overflows over endless rice fields and villages bursting at the seams. On the verge of the greatest of the mountain ranges and the mountainous kingdom of Bhutan, for obvious British colonial influence, India treats this stunning region by Dooars.
Gangtok, India

An Hillside Life

Gangtok it is the capital of Sikkim, an ancient kingdom in the Himalayas section of the Silk Road, which became an Indian province in 1975. The city is balanced on a slope, facing Kanchenjunga, the third highest elevation in the world that many natives believe shelters a paradise valley of Immortality. Their steep and strenuous Buddhist existence aims, there, or elsewhere, to achieve it.
Morondava, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar

The Malagasy Way to Dazzle

Out of nowhere, a colony of baobab trees 30 meters high and 800 years old flanks a section of the clayey and ocher road parallel to the Mozambique Channel and the fishing coast of Morondava. The natives consider these colossal trees the mothers of their forest. Travelers venerate them as a kind of initiatory corridor.
Ooty, India

In Bollywood's Nearly Ideal Setting

The conflict with Pakistan and the threat of terrorism made filming in Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh a drama. In Ooty, we see how this former British colonial station took the lead.
Goa, India

To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
Serengeti, Great Savannah Migration, Tanzania, wildebeest on river
Safari
Serengeti NP, Tanzania

The Great Migration of the Endless Savanna

In these prairies that the Masai people say syringet (run forever), millions of wildebeests and other herbivores chase the rains. For predators, their arrival and that of the monsoon are the same salvation.
Young people walk the main street in Chame, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 1th - Pokhara a ChameNepal

Finally, on the way

After several days of preparation in Pokhara, we left towards the Himalayas. The walking route only starts in Chame, at 2670 meters of altitude, with the snowy peaks of the Annapurna mountain range already in sight. Until then, we complete a painful but necessary road preamble to its subtropical base.
Architecture & Design
Castles and Fortresses

A Defending World: Castles and Fortresses that Resist

Under threat from enemies from the end of time, the leaders of villages and nations built castles and fortresses. All over the place, military monuments like these continue to resist.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Adventure
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Conflicted Way
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jerusalem, Israel

Through the Belicious Streets of Via Dolorosa

In Jerusalem, while traveling the Via Dolorosa, the most sensitive believers realize how difficult the peace of the Lord is to achieve in the most disputed streets on the face of the earth.
St. Augustine, City of Florida, USA, the Bridge of Lions
Cities
Saint Augustine, Florida, USA

Back to the Beginnings of Hispanic Florida

The dissemination of tourist attractions of questionable taste becomes superficial if we take into account the historical depth in question. This is the longest inhabited city in the contiguous US. Ever since Spanish explorers founded it in 1565, St. Augustine resists almost anything.
Meal
World Food

Gastronomy Without Borders or Prejudice

Each people, their recipes and delicacies. In certain cases, the same ones that delight entire nations repel many others. For those who travel the world, the most important ingredient is a very open mind.
Culture
Lhasa, Tibet

When Buddhism Tires of Meditation

It is not only with silence and spiritual retreat that one seeks Nirvana. At the Sera Monastery, the young monks perfect their Buddhist knowledge with lively dialectical confrontations and crackling clapping of hands.
Sport
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Entrance porch in Ellikkalla, Uzbekistan
Traveling
Uzbekistan

Journey through the Uzbekistan Pseudo-Roads

Centuries passed. Old and run-down Soviet roads ply deserts and oases once traversed by caravans from the Silk RoadSubject to their yoke for a week, we experience every stop and incursion into Uzbek places, into scenic and historic road rewards.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Ethnic
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Rainbow in the Grand Canyon, an example of prodigious photographic light
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 1)

And Light was made on Earth. Know how to use it.

The theme of light in photography is inexhaustible. In this article, we give you some basic notions about your behavior, to start with, just and only in terms of geolocation, the time of day and the time of year.
Mdina, Malta, Silent City, architecture
History
Mdina, Malta

The Silent and Remarkable City of Malta

Mdina was Malta's capital until 1530. Even after the Knights Hospitaller demoted it, it was attacked and fortified accordingly. Today, it's the coastal and overlooking Valletta that drives the island's destinies. Mdina has the tranquility of its monumentality.
Teide Volcano, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Islands
Tenerife, Canary Islands

The Volcano that Haunts the Atlantic

At 3718m, El Teide is the roof of the Canaries and Spain. Not only. If measured from the ocean floor (7500 m), only two mountains are more pronounced. The Guanche natives considered it the home of Guayota, their devil. Anyone traveling to Tenerife knows that old Teide is everywhere.
Horses under a snow, Iceland Never Ending Snow Island Fire
Winter White
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

When, in mid-May, Iceland already enjoys some sun warmth but the cold and snow persist, the inhabitants give in to an intriguing summer anxiety.
silhouette and poem, Cora coralina, Goias Velho, Brazil
Literature
Goiás Velho, Brazil

The Life and Work of a Marginal Writer

Born in Goiás, Ana Lins Bretas spent most of her life far from her castrating family and the city. Returning to its origins, it continued to portray the prejudiced mentality of the Brazilian countryside
Cilaos, Reunion Island, Casario Piton des Neiges
Nature
Cilaos, Reunion Island

Refuge under the roof of the Indian Ocean

Cilaos appears in one of the old green boilers on the island of Réunion. It was initially inhabited by outlaw slaves who believed they were safe at that end of the world. Once made accessible, nor did the remote location of the crater prevent the shelter of a village that is now peculiar and flattered.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Joshua Tree National Park, California, United States,
Natural Parks
PN Joshua Tree, California, United States

The Arms stretched out to Heaven of the PN Joshua Tree

Arriving in the extreme south of California, we are amazed by the countless Joshua trees that sprout from the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Like the Mormon settlers who named them, we cross and praise these inhospitable settings of the North American Far West.
UNESCO World Heritage
Boat Trips

For Those Becoming Internet Sick

Hop on and let yourself go on unmissable boat trips like the Philippine archipelago of Bacuit and the frozen sea of ​​the Finnish Gulf of Bothnia.
aggie gray, Samoa, South Pacific, Marlon Brando Fale
Characters
Apia, Western Samoa

The Host of the South Pacific

She sold burguês to GI's in World War II and opened a hotel that hosted Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper. Aggie Gray passed away in 2. Her legacy lives on in the South Pacific.
Cargo Cabo Santa Maria, Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde, Sal, Evoking the Sahara
Beaches
Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde

Boa Vista Island: Atlantic waves, Dunas do Sara

Boa Vista is not only the Cape Verdean island closest to the African coast and its vast desert. After a few hours of discovery, it convinces us that it is a piece of the Sahara adrift in the North Atlantic.
Mtshketa, Holy City of Georgia, Caucasus, Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
Religion
Mtskheta, Georgia

The Holy City of Georgia

If Tbilisi is the contemporary capital, Mtskheta was the city that made Christianity official in the kingdom of Iberia, predecessor of Georgia, and one that spread the religion throughout the Caucasus. Those who visit see how, after almost two millennia, it is Christianity that governs life there.
On Rails
On Rails

Train Travel: The World Best on Rails

No way to travel is as repetitive and enriching as going on rails. Climb aboard these disparate carriages and trains and enjoy the best scenery in the world on Rails.
Society
Dali, China

Chinese Style Flash Mob

The time is set and the place is known. When the music starts playing, a crowd follows the choreography harmoniously until time runs out and everyone returns to their lives.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Cape cross seal colony, cape cross seals, Namibia
Wildlife
Cape Cross, Namíbia

The Most Turbulent of the African Colonies

Diogo Cão landed in this cape of Africa in 1486, installed a pattern and turned around. The immediate coastline to the north and south was German, South African, and finally Namibian. Indifferent to successive transfers of nationality, one of the largest seal colonies in the world has maintained its hold there and animates it with deafening marine barks and endless tantrums.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.