Down-Under Man On Way Here in Reverse Kon-Tiki

Almost everyone has to travel one way or another to reach the University this fall, but probably no one is making as difficult or round-about trip as Thomas Davis, a New Zealander, coming to the School of Public Health.

He is sailing via 45-foot ketch, 7,700 miles across the turbulent South Pacific to Peru, from Peru to the Panama Canal, and from there to Boston.

But Davis isn't making the trip because he's penniless.

Rather he is testing a scientific theory and the trip to Cambridge is just a side event. A student of Polynesian anthoropology, the New Zealander believes that the raft "Kon-Tiki" which drifted from Peru to Tahiti could have made a round trip merely by switching currents.

Engine-less to Peru

So in May he left Wellington Harbor and driffed engine-less to Peru, and after being buffeted constantly by winter seas, reached the South American coastline in 68 days. At one point, he almost gave up the fight against massive seas, but thought of his sea-faring ancestors, and continued the trip.

This week, he was going through the Panama Caual.