Aloha Io (No 10)

Synopsis ( for previous episodes of Io click on Io in the labels area)

After being hijacked by the Greek goddess Io on the way home from Britain to Australia I found myself being charmed by her to such an extent I was now travelling the Pacific with her on a strange quest to find the legendary Pacific creator god Io, her namesake.

Despite getting the maps out and checking possible flights available with the various airlines in our search for this other god Io in the Pacific, my Io still labouring under the impression that the quest would be something like the voyage of the Argo with lots of adventures on the way with no one knowing what the outcome would be. I was having my suspicions that getting a result was far less exciting for Io than undertaking the quest itself. She would have been happy to have sailed around the South Pacific experiencing a new found world for her and free from the boring task of being a goddess in a region where no one believed in you anymore. Something like the politicians of today.

I shut the atlas up and put the flight schedules away and told Io of the difficulties we were likely to face. “There will be very few if any people in the South Pacific that believe or even know about the ancient gods.”

She looked surprised. “They probably worship secretly then.”

“That is possible, but since the European settlers came two hundred years or more ago, almost all native islanders have adopted in one form or another of the imported religions. You know, Christianity in its various forms then there are the Hindus and Muslims in Fiji; probably Confucianism and Shintoism as well with Chinese and Japanese traders….” As I rattled all these off I could see she was getting frustrated and interrupted.

“So what do you suggest?” She condescendingly asked.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “We can go to Hawaii first and then with our elastic timetable work our way back slowly checking out some of the smaller islands to get a feeling of the area. You might be able to sense any belief in historical gods. Then I suggest we finish up in New Zealand to check the records in the libraries there for any reference to this old god.”

“But won’t they lie?”

“No, current day historians want to record the old ways even though they are different from our own.”

She looked at me as if searching my brain for any deceit. She found none so leapt on to me giving me a hug saying, “Shall we go tomorrow?”

“As soon as we can get the flights arranged. But you need a passport can you manage that?” Mrs Violet Inarchus looked at me in disbelief. “Just checking” I said.

We flew out of Adelaide for Sydney to get a connection for Hawaii. From there we were going to work our way back to Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Rarotonga and then to Auckland, in New Zealand. Even I thought there might be pleasure mixed with the hard work.

Secretly I had Googled the Pacific god Io on the computer and had some understanding already of the legend of this creator god. Knowing that Io could read my mind I had extreme difficulty in blanking that information out when we were together. This was done by a strategy I had learned over my many human years. I kept my mind firmly on how beautiful Io was and showing her how stupidly in love with her I was. In other words I couldn’t keep my hands off her and she not unnaturally thought that was her due. Clearly this was not difficult. She didn’t ask what I was thinking about as she always thought it was her!

Io was not impressed with Hawaii. I don’t know what she expected but when I told her there was a natural phenomenon named the Iao’s peak that may be somehow connected to the old religion she perked up a little. However when we got to the park, there were all these signs saying keep to the designated footpaths she blithely ignored these and I meekly followed in her footsteps to view this awe inspiring mountain rising out of the ground by ourselves. I was explaining how the various languages in the Pacific were all related and the differences were all in the enunciation so that Iao may well have been Io originally but now a glottal stop in the name had somehow become an A. She was mesmerised by the mountain and just waved my explanation away and stood in silence contemplating the view. She then turned to me with a worried look on her face and said, “We must get away from here. We should not have come to this sacred place. Can’t you feel it?”

It was no use protesting and saying “Isn’t that why we came” or “Shouldn’t we should visit the libraries to check. She merely said “We are too far north let‘s go to Tahiti next.”

Like a puppy dog I cancelled the hotel booking and just followed at her heels doing everything she asked.