The South Pacific Birthday Party

Saturday 15 September

Today was last day we worked for the Woolfords, last roustabout day and Cs last day grading. It has been very interesting and met another bunch of interesting people. The ram sale was fascinating, cheapest ram was $600, dearest ram $6000 average price $1500, went to another ram sale which did not go so well.  Colman and I helped wash rams faces, we herded sheep, cooked, painted, graded, weeded, gardened and more and Colman helped crutch some sheep to boot.  There was the massive dinner as part of the ram sale, another ram sale and dinner at Nick & Jossie as well as assorted dinners including Dion and Hannah's birthday dinner at B&B’s place. Between the 4WD trip and the South Pacific trip we had dinner with Oscar& Di, Judy & Brian one night, K&B at the hotel one night, the library crowd, Sue & Richard as well as heading off to Whyalla for the Opera gala with the book club crowd.  Also spent a long weekend in Arno Bay and caught up with the 4WD gang. We were the only ones who hadn't sorted the photos!!!

Monday 17 till Monday 24 September

Set of for my birthday trip early after overnighting in Momo in the shed, did my Viterra medical in Port Augusta and then into Adelaide to get replacement camera charger & battery which we had lost after the 4WD trip.  Then to Joyce & John for a quiet evening before Catherine and Nathan arrived.  Thursday shopping with Joyce while C headed off for the flight simulator and to catch up with work crowd.  Friday had lunch with Kerry, Saturday breakfast at Zoots with Paul & Joan, then off to my mothers.  Bubbly and then to the Austrian club with Arno & Erika, it was Schuhplattler evening (a lot of grown Austria men dancing about slapping each other), saw Herbie, Connie, Romano and others.  Sunday Colman was off to see Hayden and I meet the O’Connor’s for coffee at Harbour town, then home to get ready for our early morning flight to Brisbane.  Flight and hotel were fine, headed off to Brisbane city to celebrate (or continue to celebrate) my birthday, picked up Sushi and wine to have in our room.

Tuesday 25 September

Up early for bus to airport, then a quick breakfast and joined long queue to be told there was a minor accident and the flight would leave at 1pm instead of 10am. Got concerned about onward flight to Santo and asked Murray who took us down to the Vanuatu Air office, turns out all is ok.  We talked about our trip so they took us and introduced us to the Solomon island crew; they appeared to approve of our itinerary.  Back upstairs to wait and wait, eventually left at 3.30 to fly to Vila and then get on domestic flight to take us to Santo, although this was not the plan it was how it went. And it was our first experience of ‘Island Time’, we eventually left Vila on the second plane at 9.30pm, arrived at 10.15, a short bus ride, then 20 minute boat trip to arrive at Bokissa about 11pm.  Fourteen of us ended up here and they still had dinner for us, in the pitch dark it looked great, our Fare 4 (Vanuatu for bungalow) was jam packed with frangipanis and greenery was draped everywhere!  We also found out why the flight was delayed, it appears the caterers (for the second time this month) had backed into the plane door, hmm; wonder if they are still employed?!

Wednesday 26 September

All food is buffet, breakfast 7-9.30, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 7pm announced by the gong. Met up with BJ, Lou, Derek, Nicole, Caruso, Scot, Melise, Shell and a few others. BJ, Lou and us got along great and spent many a happy hours sitting around pool, walking, snorkelling, swimming and diving.  Walked along beach where we encounter some scary looking Rottweilers then cocktails and early dinner in preparation for tomorrow diving.

Thursday 27 September

Breakfast and ready for first 2 dives by 9am, went with B&L, dive master Rasso headed out to Bokissa north reef, great coral and plenty fish.  The second dive was on the Henry Benault, a ship that was owned by the resort that had been scuttled about 500m off shore at 40meters, it was a short deep dive but exquisite, heaps of gorgeous coral and fish. Back for lunch, nana nap, walk to the back beach where we met the Rottweilers again and saw a few hermit crabs, one of which had a shell made of an old clear peanut butter jar (recycling at its best!!)  We walked around half the island, swim in pool followed by a sundowner with B&L.

Friday 28 September

After a 15 minute boat trip we started our dive on the Coolidge, which sits in Santo Harbour off Luganville, capital of Espiritu Santo.  It is 198 meters long and weighs 22,000 ton; it is the size of 3 football fields, 200 meters long and 25 meters wide, lying starboard side.  It was converted from a luxury liner to a transport ship in 1941, everything was painted grey and all luxuries removed, except for the Lady & the Unicorn relief in the smoking room.  The ship was sunk in 1942, after entering the Santo Harbour though the wrong entrance and it struck two friendly mines (love that expression, not sure where the friendly bit comes in!)  The captain managed to beach the ship, but it eventually slipped further into the water where it now lays between 21 and 67 meters.  Visibility was pretty average but there was plenty to see, plenty of military supplies and machines including torpedo shells, helmets, guns and more.  We dived to a depth of a 41 meters maximum and then coming up for a 20 minutes deco stop.  After a break we headed over to Million dollar point for second dive which was shallower with worse vis but it’s just amazing what is down there.  Buggers, forklifts, tyres and more tyres and then some, very little coral not much fish.  Came back for lunch, r&r by pool and a massage at 3pm in the cabana overlooking the beach, and then it was beer-o'clock.  Dinner was cooked in the fire pit called a Bunya where the meat is cooked using hot coal and banana leaves.  After we check out the local Coconut crabs, found one which was about 50cm across and about 80 years old, they are a local delicacy but are also near extinction so they discourage it for supper. We did ask the local lad if they still eat them, he only smiled!!!

Saturday 29 September

Off to Molo River and lagoon at the Blue Hole, after a 40 min boat trip south west of Bokissa and past a few islands we arrived at Malo River.  The boys took out canoes and we all paddled up the river to a lagoon and on to the Blue Hole which is a freshwater lagoon about 9 metres deep. Had a lovely swim, canoed back down with the tide, stopped at the lagoon to collect Sand Dollars, star fish that look like coins.  Had a lovely BBQ lunch, more swimming, relaxing and then off to look for turtles, found none, a couple of the guys went for a snorkel which was crazy considering the waves.  Headed back, sat around pool and had sundowner with Lou & BJ and a lovely dinner.

Sunday 30 September

Breakfast and then to church, on the way there notice Scott carrying a large bag of books.  Church ceremony consisted of about 8 songs all accompanied by the pastor on guitar, the crowd and the picaninies all singing and clapping along enthusiastically. The church itself was an open air straw roof construction which had been decorated by the picaninnies (children).  It ended with everyone holding hands, singing and then shaking hands with everyone in the congregation. After we visited the school where there are nine pupils attending from 4th grade to 10th grade, no computer but there were books, butcher paper, pencils and a lovely polished wooden floor.  There was an owl living in a cage which they had found and were studying, they plan to release it once it was well enough. There was one teacher on this island, on another island a teacher was threatened by a pupil resulting in all the teachers of the island resigning and leaving 200 kids without education.  After that we sat around pool had lunch with B&L and then they left for Vila where we may catch up again when we get there.  Organised night dive on Henry Bonneau for tonight, and to see the Lady and the Unicorn on the Coolidge tomorrow.  That evening we went out on boat with Melise and kids, who intended to drift snorkel back to the resort, and Scott who took lots of photos. Bad current going down, not much fish life but we dropped into the hold, turned our torches off and were surrounded by flashlight fish.  These fish have an area under their eyes where a phosphor- escent microbe grows, a membrane then passes over this (much like blinking) and it hides it and then it reappears.  Apart from that not much phosphorescence as it was full moon, but we got some good shots of red coral and minuscule crabs.  Back onto boat and to the resort for Kava in the Nakamal, which is like a men's club house to which women historically were not be admitted. Originally it was drunk by the chief of the tribe and honoured guests only, for special occasions the root was chewed by either virgins or prepubescent boys before being strained through coconut fibre and mixed with water.  There are also some curious rules to drinking the stuff .To partake first get a half a coconut shell full from the guy at the bar then find a quiet corner preferably looking into the dark bush.  Cup clap once say ‘Bulla’ drink it all down in one go,(it is like having a cup of muddy water tasting of sweaty socks), then cup clap twice more Luckily they have now seen the light and let women drink Kava ,however to date not all Kava huts allow women to drink.  The after effect was interesting first of all the plant is related to the pepper plant and has a numbing effect on your lips, tongue and throat, it is as if the dentist has given you too much anaesthetic that has gone down to your throat.  Unlike alcohol it doesn’t numb your mind, but the control of your extremities was another matter altogether just reaching for a glass of water was an ordeal in itself.  It went something like this, first concentrate as hard as you can and get your hand from your lap onto the table without under estimating the distance and height and slamming my knuckles into the side of the table, or over estimating and push your glass into the lap of the person opposite.  Then pick up the glass and get it to your mouth without emptying it into your lap.  That was just getting a drink to your mouth, eating was something else again.  We survived dinner without too much damage to fellow diners.  It did not seem to affect Colman half as much and he was required to escort me back tour bure for an early night due to inebriation!!  Passed out and had the best night’s sleep.  We later found out that Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu all have Kava, Vanuatu, specifically the northern island has the strongest of all the countries, and your resort is also a Kava bar for the locals, triple whammy I say!  We did try it a few more times at cultural events on our trip but it never again had that same effect I am glad to say.  I still can’t believe it, the national drink of all the three countries is a drug and perfectly legal, something to ponder.

Monday 1 October

Colman was up early and went for a walk around the island; we then had breakfast and headed off for our second dive in the Coolidge to see The Lady. It was a lovely blue sky day, Rox (the DM) was great and the sea was relatively smooth. Down rope heading for 28 meters down the side of ship, then swam over 3 inch (important for the men apparently) gun shells lying everywhere and port holes about every meter.  We swam to the sea door, dropped into the ship via the promenade deck and after a 20 meters swim down the length of a corridor into a big saloon.  Originally columns supported the roof but as the ship was lying on its side it was a very strange sight, there were still the original lanterns on what used to be the walls.  We then swam into another short wide corridor to see The Lady (with the not so big boobies).  The colour on the porcelain sculpture created over 70 years ago was still vivid; she was beautifully in a red dress with very very low décolletage and her unicorn having only lost his horn in all this time.  It was originally on the wall in the smoking room at 45 meters but the bulkhead she was embedded in rusted away and collapsed causing her some damage so she was brought back to Bokissa for repairs and returned to the boat at 38 meters. It had been on the wall when the ship was a luxury liner, when they converted it this relief could not be removed as it was embedded in the wall so they covered it with timber.  It was many years after it sank and the timber had rotted away that it was discovered by a diver, and so the Lady was rediscovered!  We ascended back through sea door and swam along the side of the ship towards stern, saw heaps more than we saw the first time, portholes, guns, shells, helmets, machine gun belts, ammunition and something resembling a jeep, apparently there are also gas masks and a typewriter, which we didn't see.  Deco at 6 meters and in the most exquisite man made coral garden, a myriad of fish, coral and more fish, with divers lying around everywhere doing the same thing. At first glance it looked very much like someone had ordered 20 divers fully kitted out and had forgot to collect them!!!  All up a brilliant dive, a highlight dive with The Lady being splendiferous. Back for rest, lunch, rest, snorkel, rest and then it was beer-o-clock.

Tuesday 2 October

Packed, breakfast, said our farewells, chat with Jan and then Rasu took us over to Luganville, showed us the submarine net and another dive site on the way and explained that the Coolidge had come in the wrong entrance which was why she ran into the mines. Airport unexciting, plane fashionably late, turbulence on way over, picked up by shady looking driver and deposited at Vila Chaumier.  We checked into our lovely little bungalow with private pool (!!), run by Kiwis who seemed very pleasant, investigated the famous French restaurant which sits on boards directly over Erakor lagoon with water views all around and plenty of fish, crabs, starfish and eel like things to entertain. Back to sit by the pool where we met some other guests, friends of the owners and spent afternoon chatting.  For dinner we had the famous (but politically incorrect) coconut crab, probably the brother of the one we saw on Bokissa, food was brilliant.  We also discovered that the crabs start out in the ocean, come to land and become the Hermit crabs, when they grow up they become the Coconut crab, the dump their "found" shell and grow their own. The reason they are called coconut crab is because they will climb a coconut palm and breaks off a coconut, which splits when it hits the ground.  They then scuttle down and finish demolishing it with their pincers!!!  Last piece of info for Santo, last human stew in Santo was in 1982!!!

Wednesday 3 October

After chatting with various people yesterday decided to not do an organised sightseeing tour but do it ourselves. Caught a bus into town, which is a minivan with a B next to the licence plate, to catch the bus you just get the drivers attention and he will pull over wherever, you then tell him where you want to go and he will drop you there. This all costs a grand total of 150 Vatu per person, $1.50!!!  They will stop anywhere, never take the same route twice and there is one every minute if not more, Adelaide eat your heart out.  He dropped us at the Anchor Inn in the centre of town which is also the pick-up point for the Mele Express, a kind of hop on hop off bus that picks up every hour on the hour, well give or take 20 minutes.  Colman stopped to admire a 4 masted schooner moored in the harbour which we later discovered had been impounded by the local authorities for cocaine and gun running, it also appears that several local ministers were involved in the fiasco for which some had been arrested. Amazingly after being granted bail they managed to leave the country and are now on the run.  Anyway, the bus arrived and we headed off to Hideaway Island, a private picture book island which you could catch a free ferry over too. We discovered at this point that everything we go into requires money, more on that later.  Not a very exciting place, it was full of people and no sand just broken up coral, one point of interest, it does have an underwater post office and I did post 2 waterproof cards.  After leaving the island we went to The Summit where they have a distillery to distil sandalwood, lemon grass and more.  It also had a botanic garden type set up with lovely views, gorgeous flowers and a A$20 entrance fee which seemed a bit steep considering you can see all this stuff for free in the jungles around here.  We had lunch overlooking the bay and then headed off to Mele Falls, several waterfalls the tallest of which was 35 meters high.  It was a beautiful but very dodgy walking track to the falls and a great danger of landing in the water, camera and all.  We saw an Iguana who was not bothered by us but not happy about a passing dog, on Hideaway Island they wanted to charge us a couple of dollars to take a photo of one in a cage, we took heaps here for nothing, so there!  Entrance fees are charged everywhere, not as a money making thing (so they say), but to demonstrate that you have respect for the land you are walking on. We then had a wander through town with hundreds of cruise ship visitors and back to our villa.

Thursday 4 October

Off into town early to have a look around before meeting Lou & BJ for lunch at Chill, we visited the markets including the fruit & veggie market which were brilliant.  Taro, yams all sold in woven baskets that they make specifically for this.  Bought a bunch of peanuts for $1, it basically looks like a bunch of dried flowers and bought some Kava sweets to take home  Had a drink at the Anchor Bar then back to hotel where we had dinner with the kiwi couple Robyn and Geoff.  They are Porsche enthusiasts, own a Porsche repair shop in Christchurch and knew of my uncle in Austria who used to be a test driver for Porsche in the early days.  Chat with the owners and bed.

Friday 5 October

An early start to our 10 kilometre walking Ecotour through the jungles of Vila with Henry (tour guide), a French family and an Australian couple.  We learnt lots of interesting information about Kava.  It comes in 5 different strengths and depends on the island the root originates from, the strongest comes from Santo.  The strength is also adjusted when it gets mixed with water and if you have a cup of the strongest a man will sleep for 3 days (no wonder I was dodgy when I first tried it).  Kava needs to be drunk before eating and in the special hut, your back must be turned to everyone when you drink it and you must close your eyes. There are about 80-100 Kava huts in Vila which are registered premises where they mix the Kava and you go there to drink it, the owners must have a special licence to sell it.  The Kava itself comes from the root of a plant which takes about 3 years to grow to about one meter tall. People tend to keep it small and it propagates by just breaking off a piece and sticking it into the ground. Apparently the Americans took lots home with them to try and grow it over there. Henry said his family has a Kava tree and it needs seven people holding hands to span it.  The Kava plant is a relative if the pepper plant.  We tried papaw, green papaw, two types of coconut picked straight of the tree, also saw Sandalwood trees and tapioca trees used to make flour and exported to Fiji.  We grated some of the coconut, spread it on a special leaf (no idea of name) sprinkle it with salt, rolled it up and eat it, very tasty.  We also discovered that on the confiscated boat mentioned earlier, they found 16 young girls from Samoa.  Another few interesting facts, they place bottles semi filled with water on their electricity meters as it apparently slows the meter down so reduces electricity usage!!  The meters sit by the side of the road, could we learn something here?!?  Driving down any street you see a cages sitting about two meters off the ground for the household rubbish, next to this the meter boxes with bottles sitting on each meter.  Another fact, during WW2, the Americans introduced a Columbian vine called A Mile a Minute used as fast growing camouflage for their tents and other military installations, it is now rampant and covers trees, scrubs and anything else that stands still long enough.  After the walk came back to hotel for a swim in the pool and a sit in the sun, except it's just started to rain, Bugga!!!  Relaxed anyway and then off to the Ekasup Cultural Village for "One night of your nights to remember" including (as shown on brochure) Juice "La Difference", Natives "A la mode" and "Your smoggers board on Earth", whatever that may all mean.  Turned out quite good, entertaining and we learnt a few more bits.  The minivan that picked us up was licensed to carry a total of 10; we had 15, never mind, no police. The band was called Stringband and turns out we saw them in town yesterday and could have bought their CD, damn missed out.  Some food facts, the local dish is called Laplap and made of a mash of potatoes, taro, yam with meat, Bunya is the same veggies but chopped.  When cooked in the Laplap leaf they are generically referred to as Laplap.  The Kava is tested by the chief before it is given to the others, uncertain what happens if he thinks it's awful, which incidentally it is anyway.  Here Kava is called the second wife as men spend more time with Kava than the wife, and apparently it also a form of contraception, it appears once enough Kava is consumed, there is nothing more!  Incidentally the maximum amount of Kava allowed to be consumed is 7 cups - so they say.  Back to hotel, last drink on water porch and relax.

Saturday 6 October

We went into Vila centre early to get some volcano soaps, checked out the market again and learnt some interesting things on the way.  Another ship was impounded, Korean and full of shark fins and turtles (the less said the better), that every so often prisoners here in Suva are popped into a cage in the back of a ute and paraded around town, allowing the locals to boo, hiss and throw stuff (I like it!)  Also a bit about the bus system, apparently if a white person gets on the bus the driver may give them priority over the locals, but sometimes it's just a bit if bad luck and you might get driven half way across the island before you reach your destination.  All at the one price of 150 Vatu ($1.50) per person.  We watched a local woman make Laplap at the market, a bit like Subway but tastier and healthier I'm sure!  And for all those as un-educated as me, Vanuatu was called the New Hebrides until their independence from France in 1970’s.

Our flight out was uneventful except for the landing, the landing strip starts about 10 meters from the beach, anyone sun baking there would have been sandblasted and probably never seen their towel again.  Arrived to find Vincent waiting, our driver who was a little frazzled because he had to ask us to wait 20 minutes for another couple from another flight.  No problem, he took us to do some food shopping, had a good chat and then when this couple arrived found that there was another couple due to arrive another 45 minutes later, so we waited.  Vincent was terribly apologetic and explained that he had customers who were first off the plane and refused to wait for the others at the back of the plane.  Two and a half hours later we arrive at our resort, headed down to bar to be greeted by one of the owners of the transport company and the manager of the resort and a bottle of bubbly.  All were very much more grateful than we expected and we stood around chatting about all the other clients who didn't want to wait.  My mother finally arrived and Anil (owner) asked if you could walk over and greet her, which he did by explaining that the dogs had detected narcotics in her bag.  Didn't take her long to cotton on and another bottle of bubbly was ordered. My mother using it to cover the taste of the Kava which she didn't like much, but still wasn't nearly as strong as the Bokissa stuff.

Sunday 7 October

Had a sleep in and then just relaxed with a massage, pool, and walk along beach and a walked up to the Arts village for dinner at Oasis restaurant.  We all shared Kokoda as an entrée, raw fish marinated in lime juice and then served with coconut milk and absolutely delicious.  My mother and I had a different catch of the day, I had Nuqa and my mother had Paka Paka.  After we all went to the Beka Blue bar for cocktails and a bit of live jazz, a great and relaxing start to Fiji.

Monday 8 October

An all day tour to Suva with Vincent our driver and guide, here are the compulsory interesting facts.  800 thousand people live here, there are 333 islands at low tide and about 270 at high, (Go the Global Warming Folks!), there are 600 cows on the biggest dairy farm on this island.  The school fees are $9 per term and the average person earns about $3 per hour.  Independence was granted for Fiji 10/10/70, so we will be here for Independence Day.  The first coup was in 1986 led by Captain Rambo, everyone here seems to like Bonimorama because he appears not to be corrupt. After the first coup B put someone in power who, after a couple of years, turned out to be corrupt thus causing the second coup. B decided this was unacceptable and ousted the man.  The first airplane from Charles Kingsford smith landed here on a football field where they also had to hastily cut down some trees to allow it to land, it was the first plane to ever land in Fiji and was the first flight from US to Australia.  At take off the Fijians then needed to tow plane 10 Km to a beach to have runway long enough for him to take off.  Anaconda 2 was shot on a river just down from our hotel.  All the buses here are colour coded so if you want to go to Nadi its pink, Suva blue, again, Adelaide could learn from this!  Now about Suva, typical town for this part of the world, maybe a little cleaner and less people begging, also much less hassling and touting by the local shop owners. One bigger shopping centre, 3 stories with a food court where we had lunch. I decided to try what the locals eat, taro which is like potato but less tasty, bread fruit which is like potato but even less tasty, local spinach which is like other spinach but less tasty and slices of eggplant covered with garlic and tomato. Apart from cooking fish very well, there appears to be almost no use of herbs or spices in local cooking. The major food types are Thai, Indian and Chinese which you can get everywhere, might be the way to go. One of the derelict hotels in Suva was built as an exact copy of a cruises ship so that the very wealthy who could afford to get on this cruise ship wouldn't get confused when they overnighted in Suva.  Queen Elizabeth also stayed there while in Suva, but it has since fallen into disrepair but is being rebuilt  Got caught in a torrential downpour on way back to bus after checking out the handicraft market, but it was warm so no drama. Having Lovo night at our resort this evening, the pit where they bury the Lovo can be seen from our balcony so we watched that being uncovered.  Dinner included local music and dancing which was interesting as it looked and sounded similar to both Hawaiian and NZ style.  Also had the whole Melanesia (Papua down to Fiji), Polynesia (NZ over to Hawaii) and Micronesia all the other little islands) explained to us. Good night and my mother enjoyed it, including her second taste of Kava, which after the 4th time still hasn't improved for me, Colman did go and have another bowl so he must be starting to like it!!

Tuesday 9 October

Today is jungle trekking and we head off at 9am and get deposited in this jungly looking area near the base of a hill and off we go. This is going to be a four hour trek through the Waisese jungle, along the Waisese River to the Waisese waterfall behind the Wainiyabia village. You wouldn't want to have a stutter in this country!!  Well it was interesting to say the least. After 10 minutes walking uphill in ankle deep mud (literally up past the ankles) and slipping and sliding from pillar to post and one fall, my mother decided to give it a miss and was taken back to the resort.  We continued with 4 others and the guides, there isn't much to say about the track. It went through jungle but I didn't see much of it because I was busy looking down to work out where to put my foot as I didn't want to land on my but - again!!  The waterfall, when we eventually reached it after crossing the river 8 times at various water levels, was lovely and refreshing but you had to basically haul yourself up a rope for about the last 10 minutes to get to it, all the while squelching through more mud.  After half an hour messing around at the waterfall, which was great, we trekked back down and were collected by a longboat. On the way down we saw something the locals call The Thumb, it was here that Edmund Hillary practiced climbing in preparation for his Everest climb, apparently he was (and is) the only man to climb the cliff face.  We then spent 15 minutes weaving our way down the semi mangrove creek towards the beach. There were a few occasions where we got awfully close to logs and trees, apart from that you had to keep your eyes open in case you got a snack of a branch or vine on the way through.  I would say the safety level of the entire trip was dodgy at best, and it was relatively clear why they got you to sign a waiver at the start.  An afternoon spent by the pool followed by a walk up the beach to Uprising resort for dinner. The food was lovely but the service was unspectacular, especially because of Colman forgot his mozzie repellent and it took him the best part of an hour to get some spray from the (supposed) waitress.  Returned to our hotel via taxi, saw Michael the barman, who suggested we have a drink which we did, chat with another couple and chat with Anil and bed.

Wednesday 10 October

Did Zip Fiji a rainforest canopy tour.  A flying fox which runs about 30 metres above the forest floor and has eight lines the longest over 200 meters long. On the way up to the platform we saw some more of the bush medicines as well as something called a water vine which if cut the centre will run out like water. Got dropped off at the Arts village where we had lunch and did a spot of shopping and then back to resort for beach, manicure, pedicure and also a massage for Colman. Planned to go to Beka Blue for dinner but as it was Fiji day not a taxi could be found so stayed here and had a lovely night with some of the others. Mother had her first Long Island Tea cocktail.

Thursday 11 October

Went on the Jewel of Fiji tour early today, arrived to collect our life jackets and off we went on the Navua River in our long boats to one of the local villages where we were welcomed with horn blowing fanfare.  Participated in welcoming Kava ceremony (as always), a tour of the village including the local primary school and stopped at various huts to be shown how the local crafts were done.  They weave mats and other items out of Parndana leaves, they then stamp a pattern using mangrove ink, or burying the fibres in the mud or crushed up charcoal and then use stencils cut out of old X-rays film to make patterns.  As the guide said, necessity is a mother!  The women weave floor mats and decorate ceiling panels in the ceremonial hut, the men give them moral support by sitting with them and drinking Kava, hmm, I know some Aussie who would love this theory! The women cook, look after the children and keep the place tidy. The men make the Lovo, tend the plantation which can consist of as many as six to eight plants and they also husk coconut. Luckily the women don't harass them to do work when it’s too hot but allow them to relax and drink Kava instead. No wonder the guys are always smiling!!  Had our Lovo lunch, a spot of local shopping with all the crafts made by the locals, interestingly my mother bought a sarong from the locals (only to discover the 'Made in India' tag on returning home).  A serenade from the kids followed by a 15 minute long boat ride to the Fantastic Waterfall, these were lovely and everyone went for a swim.  The water was amazingly clear and I was surprised by the amount of wind created by the fall itself, it was difficult to actually swim under the fall; it took a lot of effort. Back to the long boat which took us to the raft which we were supposed to travel down river on for 20 minutes. We all piled on the two rafts, however the current and wind were both against us. One raft got caught in a whirlpool and had to be towed out by one of the boats and our raft stopped to work out what next.  Outcome, after five minutes rafting we were back on the longboat and heading back to town. Spin back was amazing, the scenery was straight out if Jurassic Park and Anaconda with the odd cow thrown into the mix on either side of the river bank, this with lots of waterfalls and vines that looked like they were straight out of Tarzan. It was just beautiful.  Back to resort had a glass of wine, then cocktails and a BBQ.

12 October

Today is a big day, up early for our pick up to the Beqa (pronounced Benga) Shark diving which kicked off at 8am.  Down to the marina after having our fingers and toes counted by my mother to make sure we came back how we left.  Got kitted up and out we went, fairly calm sea for the 30 minute boat ride out to the Beqa lagoon to meet all the sharks.  The scariest bit was dropping over the edge of the boat into the crystal clear blue water and waiting for everyone to get together to head down.  There was one guy who had just finished his Padi cert, us and two photographers, with us came 7 of the crew each carrying a long metal rod, just in case. The first stop was at 18m where we were surrounded by black and white tipped reef sharks.  They have a huge wheelie bin into which the put lots of fish bits and hover about 10 meters above the shark feeding area, the idea is that all the little fish get out of the way of a good photo and lets us concentrate on the big ones.  It was funny seeing this wheelie bin hanging mid-air/water. There were lots of sharks, all sizes and all were beautiful.  This crew has been doing this dive for about 8 years and so far they have lost no one.  Some interesting stories from the crew, the feeders wear chainmail gloves and one dive the shark mistook the feeders hand for fish.  He grabbed the chainmail hand and started to head off with it, the feeder was cool enough to just go along for the ride and when the shark opened its mouth he just pulled his hand out and swam back to the feeding area.  Another one was a shark tried to take a bite out of the tank of the feeder, but must not have been that good, got spat out.  I was in awe of these beautiful creatures and really paid no attention to what else was going on, they swam within touching distance of you but were totally preoccupied with the feeding, many of the sharks preferring the live fish swimming around to the ones being pulled out of the feeding buckets.  They tell us that sharks have a memory of at least two year, the longest a shark had not been present for a feeding was two years and when he returned he made the absolute correct manoeuvres.  They have to do the feeding in a certain way, they must come around the back of the feeder slowly, from left to right, they then approach the feeder and slowly take the food from his hand.  Should they not do this they are pushed away with a stick and the must do it again, apparently the old sharks teach the habit to the younger sharks.  It all appears to work perfectly and we never felt threatened in any way.  For the second dive I asked if I could leave off one glove so that I could handle the camera better but was told no way, we had to be in black and the camera had to be held in my hand, it could not just be attached to it ready to be grabbed when I needed it.  On this dive we were higher up where they fed the bull and tiger sharks, again absolutely beautiful and again they kept to the rules of feeding.  An absolute highlight!  Got back to our resort at lunch time, did the finer and toe count with my mother and then were off to see the afternoon session of the Beqa fire walkers at the Arts Village around the corner.  Again fascinating, the show itself was very touristy but still interesting, the fire walkers are real and they do walk on hot stones.  We were sceptical at first, they did all the ceremonies and the dances and this and that, and then they started to walk across these boulders that had a fire lit under them since the previous night.  It was only at the end when they covered the stones with palm leaves, and you could see the leaves smoking and melting did I think there really was something to the story.  It was only the people of Beqa Island that were given the gift of fire walking and to this day is the only tribe in Fiji who does this.  They also told us lots of other stories about the history of Fiji, they aren’t shy about what they used to get up to.  In the old days about 100 odd years ago, when one tribe won a war over another tribe this is how the show down went.  The tribe that wins takes the men, and kills them, they then take the women and separate the pretty from the not so, the pretty get married off to the new tribes boys, the ugly ones are killed.  The kids are tied to trees and used as target practice by the other kids, the whole lot are then eaten.  Oh well, such is life in Fiji. After the show we had dinner at the Beqa Blue bar and listened to a bit of live jazz before heading back to the resort for farewell cocktails with the staff, followed by fond farewells. 

13 October

Lunchtime transfer to Sofitel at Port Denauru in Nadi, checked in and headed downstairs for cocktails and nibbles.  Then after settling in went down to the restaurant for dinner overlooking the pool which was quite nice.

14 October

Well today was one of the reasons for our trip and the day started of good, up early for a swim in the pool and then for breakfast where I was serenaded by the band that played every morning.  I then got my present from Colman and my mother, an Ipad, great excitement.  Then went to the Port where we had a massage, manicure, pedicure and drinks at the Hard Rock café, back to the hotel to get changed and then off to dinner at Bones restaurant.  We had Mahimahi fish on a huge seafood platter which included crayfish, prawns and all sorts of delicious seafood, all served by wonderful staff.

15 October

Today we did a full day sightseeing tour of Nadi, first we went to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant which was a huge garden filled with orchids, ferns and lots of other native plants, all very pretty.  After that we went to take a mud bath at the mud pools followed by a swim in a hot spring, all sounded very pleasant, but then again maybe not. You change into your swimmers in a very dodgy looking hut and then wander over to the mud pool where you climb down some steps to step into the mud.  Stepping off the last step, you sink into this mush of leaves, mud and crap up to your knees, I almost fell face first into the mud in my panic to get my foot out of this slush. I then spent the next ten minutes trying to float, hand off assorted people just so I wouldn’t have to put my feet down.  There was a guy on permanent patrol in the pool who also slapped mud on your face and neck, then escorted you out where you were handed a bucket full of mud that you then slap on yourself. To start with my swimmers had a white stripe; to end up with they had a grey stripe.  I have no idea what was in the mud, but my skin did certainly not feel better and I really don’t want to think too hard about the makeup of the mud, we didn’t glow in the dark which I guess is a good thing in the scheme of things.  The thermal hot springs was also a bit dodgy but at least we got rid of all the brown stuff that hadn’t come off when having a shower. I can’t really recommend this and am completely uncertain what medicinal benefits this whole thing would have.  Back to the hotel after this, swim in pool, and back up to Port Denerau for our second dinner at Bones café.  It was a funny evening, just as we sat down at the restaurant right on the edge of the veranda the heavens opened.  It threw it down so we had to move a little further in to stay dry, the gutters then over flowed so we had to move again to stay dry, then the roof started to leak and we moved again.  Despite all this, the food, service and the surrounds were absolutely wonderful.  Back to the hotel for our pre-bed drinks, a two man band was playing and it was a lovely end to the day.

16 October

The check in at Blue Lagoon cruises went smoothly and we were given lunch at Lou Lou while they organized luggage and boarding.  Our cabins were small but well set up with a port hole and a tiny wee shower.  We joined the Welcome cocktail drink on the top deck and met the captain, the crew and 37 other passengers including one child, all seemed friendly, but the child was dodgy, wait and see. The boat cruised past the Mamanuca islands and headed north towards the Yasawi island chain, rough seas and a few people were looking rather green. We also got to know Miri the Social Director, who introduced us to the cruise slogan of "Bulabulabula", with which she finished every announcement over the PA system, funniest thing was by the end of the cruise you could hear Bulabulabula coming out of each cabin in response.  Happy hour cocktails, a common occurrence everywhere, great scenery, we met Anna and Yorgi a Finish couple and had dinner with them, as well as Miri who was the number one star and event’s organizer of the cruise.  My mother failed to join us as she had been invited to the captain’s table.  After dinner the crew did a few local Fijian numbers, and we opted for the six am swim the following morning.

17 October

Morning swim with Anna, my mother and a couple of others on a beach on a little island, we were taken there by the tender boat.  Warm water but rough coraly sand, so hard to walk on, danger of falling coconuts and the wife of one of the four honeymoon couples on the cruise had some sort of parasite attach itself to her neck, didn't see it but sound awful.  Nevertheless the morning was lovely and we spent about half an hour paddling about before returning to the boat.  One of the funny sights was about a hundred coconuts bobbing about in the water, a roadblock with a difference.  Back to the ship for breakfast, set sail for the mandatory village visit where we were all taken to village and greeted by the locals.  The first thing we were shown was the memorial stone of an earlier chief, who had opposed the building of the church, the day they put the roof on the church, he dropped dead and to rub salt in the wound, the buried him just outside the church door.  Another interesting thing was that the beach was quite a mess, I asked about it and apparently this is unusual and they do keep it clean but they had been busy with the coming of two cruise ships today, our Blue Lagoon and also Captain Cook cruises. So they obviously are not doing too badly!  Anyway, to get invited into the village you have to stand outside the village longhouse and say a certain word and then the village chief replies, you are then invited in and to the inevitable Kava ceremony, tasting, assorted dances and general stuff which we are not sure is for tourist only or if they actually do this.  Drinking Kava is a definite but after that not so sure. The wee child on board successfully proved my theory that some children should have an expiry date, and this kid would have hit his if I had my way!  The story goes this way: George (a fellow traveller) had been here before, knew the routine and had brought some balloons for the local kids, he was messing with them, blowing up balloons and handing them out to the kids. There might have been about twenty kids but he had not brought enough balloons and when he had only one left and there were about five kids without one, he blew one up and handed it to a little girl. The rest missed out, so the local kids turned around and started playing with other things that George had handed out, no drama. Except for The Child who wanted a balloon, this spoilt little thing comes over here from Melbourne, the balloon is given to a local child not him, and so he has a massive temper tantrum. I mean the works, there were arms and legs and screams and tears.  A number of adults (quite apart from me) were ready to terminate this whiny creature, but we all found that it was quite fascinating to watch how the village kids reacted. They were fascinated, it was a bit like watching a monkey in the zoo, and it was the tourist who was the monkey, very interesting and sadly - The Child lived, just!!  They then laid out the handicrafts for us to inspect and purchase which we all did. Another thing we found was the name of a tree my mother had seen on our longboat trip, which we all thought she had hallucinated, it turns out the big trees with the big leaves with the candle like thing in the middle does exist, it is the Breadfruit tree. Another interesting thing, we and some other brought gifts for the kids, we were asked to give them to the village priest, who took them with great thanks. We then watched him as he took a well-used note book, itemized every little thing he had been given, the name of the child who he had given the gift to and what the gift was, a fair and efficient set up.  Went back to the boat and sailed a little further up the coast towards Nanuya Lai Lai where we decided to have a swim in the ship pool for a change, met an interesting couple from South Africa, Roger & Lindy who we had great chat with.  That night over dinner we met another couple Nicolas & his wife (!) from Italy who had met and fallen in love in Galway last year and were now one of the honeymoon couples. Entertained by the crew again, lovely food, great wine and the crew are very friendly. A bit of interesting stuff about Yasawa Islands, the first European to see these islands was Blight following the mutiny on the Bounty.

18 October

As we were spending the whole day at the Blue Lagoon we decided against our six am swim and slept in instead.  At the start of the cruise we were told when the boat is tied to two coconut trees we were allowed to jump off the back.  We woke up to amazing vista, aqua sea, white sand and guess what; we were tied up to two coconut trees. Off we dived from the back of the boat and swam over to the beach, the crew had put out deck chairs, hammocks, bar, you name it, it was there, and if not they got it for you. We all went on the glass bottom boat, saw some good coral, not too bleached, after that we did some snorkelling and fish feeding, hundreds of Sergeant Major fish swimming around making grabs at the bread the crew give you for the feeding. Touristy I know, but we got some good pictures, we then spent the rest of the day sleeping, reading, eating, drinking and wandering around this gorgeous private island and just enjoying.  That evening the crew had put on a Lovo (for those not paying attention, a buried BBQ), as well as the compulsory Kava drinking, more traditional and less touristy this time. Scarily both Colman and I were getting to like this stuff, so we did the usual ritual (minus the dancing) which in case I hadn't mentioned consists of 1 'cup' clap before accepting the bowl, a big Bula before drinking and 3 'cup' claps after drinking.  We had just finished dinner with Roger & Lindy where we discussed the fact that they did not do touristy things and this cruise was a real first for them. Next thing the crew informed us that it was our turn to entertain the crew, so before they knew it they were on a team called the Multinationals, us Austrians, Irish, the Italians, a Pommie couple and the South African. As there were so many Aussies in that team there was no need to join them, and the Kiwi couple were on their own.  We had to do a song or a skit and the best thing we came up with was singing God Save the Queen, after the first couple of lines lapsing into that old international favourite, The Birdie dance, sadly we lost so there. Had a few more cocktails and got kicked off the island around midnight when the crew had had enough. Brilliant time and if anyone is interested in doing a cruise, I would suggest Blue Lagoon without hesitation.
19 October till 23 October
Set sail early back to Port Denerau, packed, had group photos, exchanged emails and addresses, and the crew including the captain sang Isa Lai to farewell us. Had to wait a while after we left the boat for our pick up and then we headed off to Hideaway resort just past Sigatoka down on the Coral cost for a few days. The drive from Nadi took about one and a half hours on the excuse of a road they call a highway, on arrival we were greeted to the sound of the Lali (the local drum) and handed a cocktail, which is pretty much how the rest of the time went. Our two Bures overlooked the beach, had a little hut out front that you could sit in out of the sun and the pool was great, main complaint - Kids!!!  Although the resort was lovely, I think we may go Adult Only from now on!  Met an interesting couple Helen and Anthony, he was into everything, almost like a local and very funny, could talk the hind legs of an iron chair. We heard a sad tale which happened on the day of arrival about a member of staff. We had massages, cocktails, lots of swimming in the pool and lots of lying in the sun doing nothing but reading. Colman headed off to visit Sigatoka one afternoon, but my mother and I never left the resort apart from going to the local church. This was a bit longer than we expected, in fact after one hour a local (who also worked at the resort) took pity on us and said that we could leave, we left in a trail of dust. I decided that on my last night in Fiji I really should try a Piña Colada, after all there is a song all about it that I know every word to, and to my surprise I discovered….I love Piña Colada!!  Should have discovered it earlier, but it was probably better I didn't. Our last night was spent watching the staff perform a "You are the World" tribute, we had Tina Turner, Cindy Lauper, The Boss, and Steve Wonder amongst others. It was so cute, they mime but have no idea what they are singing so the words and the actions never matched, but who cares. Having said that, they do this in their off time and appear to have a ball doing it, we had a good laugh. A couple of interesting things, the resort is one of the few resorts in Fiji owned by the locals and employs the people from the nearby village and returns all profits to the local village, church and school. Also we found out some of the wages of the people around the resort, hard to believe especially when you consider that to get the exchange rate Oz dollars to Fiji dollars you simply half the amount!  A taxi driver earns F$50 per day, a security guard earns F$12 per twelve hour shift and the best paid are the resort admin staff who earn a grand total of F$56 per day, which is a twelve hour shift!!! Go figure, and don't forget to half the above, having said that, the villagers use no power, gas, telephone so no utility bills. They fish, hunt and grow their own vegetables and barter whatever they have with other villagers to get variety.  Supermarket shopping is pretty much out of the question, as is 'European' food, fresh milk is not available at all, orange juice is only fruit juice and one kilo of Coon cheese is A$48 per kilo and that was your only choice of cheese. Another one that amused me is that a packet of Sao biscuits is F$5.60, 10% of a taxi drivers daily wage. Having said that, it's a happy country and the majority of people have smiles on their faces, so it can't be all bad, it's simply what you're used to.

23 October

Our flights were early so we had a very early pick up, I'm talking two thirty in the morning. Thought I would set the alarm on my phone, no need for a wakeup call because we are so organized! How is that Irish saying, “Thought made a fool of you”!  We were woken up at 2.15 by the phone and the porter telling us our taxi was here. I have since discovered  that I can get up, have a shower, get dressed, pack my suitcase and have a cup of coffee in a grand total of 25 minutes. This was followed but the taxi ride from hell, the driver was friendly and chatty, but drive he couldn't. One of those wonderful individuals that hits the accelerator, the breaks, the accelerator, the breaks, every minute for a duration of one and one half very, very long hours, that my mother and I didn't throw up, still surprises me.  Eventually we arrived at the airport, three hours before the flight and not a single shop was open, they finally did and we did end up spending our last pennies on a great cup of coffee.  We left an hour before my mother’s flight back to Australia, sad Good-byes and off we flew to Honiara.  Landed, went through customs (we thought Fiji time was slow!!!), went to teller machine to get out money in preparation for our two o'clock flight to Seghe.  Tried to get out the maximum amount, machine did lots of counting, whirling, coughing and then spat out a receipt to tell me I had withdrawn X amount, except nothing had come out.  Searched the machine high and low in case the money had been put into a special secret compartment, well no, it just wasn't there!  Right, collared the local police man, who looked as confused as we did and after much explanation we decided the best thing was for Colman stay at the airport with our luggage and I take a taxi into town to the ANZ bank. Off I went, got to the bank in which there were at least a hundred (mostly unwashed bodies) in various queues. I eventually got to where I was supposed to be, waited for twenty minutes, had a great chat with a German who lives here part time, then it was my turn for the teller. I won't go into the details but it went roughly like this. I need S$10000, hmm, ok, no we can only do S$4000, but the other guy said I could, hmm, oh ok, she disappears with my debit card, fifteen minutes later she returns to tell me, hmm, no can only be used in teller machine. Yes, but the teller will only give me S$4000, hmm, no, this one in here give you two lots of S$4000, you just have to do it twice. Right, well we can all guess what happens next, the teller machine tells me after the first transaction that that is the end for this day. I go back to the human teller and explain that in fact it did not work and I need more money, hmm, well, no we can't take more money out of the debit card, it can only come off a Credit card, yes but then I will have to pay lots of interest and you can see I have money in my account, hmm, no, sorry, only from credit card. Right fine, whatever, we need to check in for our next flight in forty minutes, just take it off the credit card. The funniest thing was that five minutes later she turned up with bundles of money and I broke out in a cold sweats thinking how I am going to get notes the size of four yellow pages out of this bank inconspicuously! Luckily it wasn't all for me, and the German guy was still around so after I stuffed my handbag full I asked him to escort me out to my taxi, my driver had waited. Phew, all is well, next we fly to Seghe on a twin otter and then for a 2 1/2 hour boat transfer to our resort, once again, Wrong!  The flight left at 2, 2.30, 3.15, 3.30, 3.45, 4, 4.15, we did eventually fly out at 4.25, which apparently is just as well because the grass (!!) runway in Seghe does not have lights! Oh! I should have twigged a bit earlier when I asked the girl at the bank if the Seghe airport had a teller machine and she looked at me as if I had two heads. Before I go any further I need to have my gripe about the Twin Otter plane. When was the last time anyone saw an otter sailing through the air except at the pointy end of sling shot, never I suggest, so why name a pokey 19 seated flying machine after a completely land bound animal?? We ended up having a great chat at the airport with a guy from America called Mike, who was also a diver, flying to Seghe and had done this trip before. He assured me all would be fine, especially after I get a view of the Seghe runway before landing, hmm can’t wait! So we boarded the ‘plane’, oh failed to mention there were no boarding passes involved in any of this and I sat behind the pilot. I really mean behind the pilot, did you hear the one about the space shuttle that exploded and the last thing that Nasa heard was as female voice saying "and what does that button do?", well that could have been me. I could have reached in past the pilot and co-pilot and pressed any number of buttons, if I kind of stood up (you couldn't actually stand up, the plane was to low) you could see out the front windscreen. The 'Safety Procedure' was the co-pilot telling us that " the emergency exits in case it's required" and off we went. I must admit it was less scary than I actually anticipated, in fact it was a very smooth ride, the fact that the two pilots were so relaxed and having a great time laughing and carrying on while the auto pilot did its thing also helped.  As we approached Seghe airport I looked through the windscreen of the plane and saw what would loosely be called a runway! I guess if you imagine a football field, maybe cut in half lengthways, there you had it. The beginning of the 'runway' was in the ocean, as was the end of the runway, and it was grass, and it had no lights. But our little pilots did a sterling job and so we arrived at Seghe airport. The Arrival/Departure lounge consisted of something most Australians wouldn't store their car in, but it did have a large friendly and colourful sign saying "Seghe Airport". Luckily all our delays had reached our pick up and they were waiting for us, took our bags and headed off for transport to Peava village in our five meter alu dinghy, with a canopy, no life jackets and a forty horse power Yamaha outboard engine, with our luggage safely wrapped in a tarp on the floor. The trip to our accommodation was quiet spectacular, especially before sunset, after sunset it got a bit dodgy. The engine stalled once because of an airlock in the fuel tank, and twice because leaves and things jammed the propeller as we were going past islands. The crew were great and we arrive at our accommodation in one piece. I shall leave it there except to say, we both fell asleep after explaining to each other that ‘yes’ this was the Solomon’s, ‘yes’ we did know that this was not a resort, ‘yes’ we have come to a place far removed from the modern world and so enjoy.

24 October

A little bit of info, the Solomon Islands are 800000 square km, at 990 islands it is the third largest group in the pacific, has four active volcanoes and became independent in 1978.  It has Melanesian ancestry, people live on five major island groups and there are 75 different local languages, most common being English and Pidgin.  We are now at Vuanu Lodge, in Paeve Village on Nggatokai island, in the Marovo Lagoon, in the Southern provinces.  And so we woke up to the sound of ocean and it was very lovely. Walked out onto the porch and reviewed the situation in broad daylight. We were in the Solomon’s, we were staying in a local village which is exactly what we had wanted and which is exactly what we are now doing. Having said that, our accommodation was the very very rich cousins of what the locals really did live, sleep and eat in.  Our accommodation consisted of a house which really was a room with a huge veranda around it. It was made entirely of local timber, in the room were two widows covered with wooden shutters, no glass, no fly-net, and a door where you could open the top and bottom separately, no fly screen and no locks. Our bed was also made of local timber with some foam mattresses and a mozzie net around the whole thing. The bathroom and toilet was off the porch, down the path, don't fall over the toads, turn right into another timber building again with windows without glass and shower curtains to replace doors. I explained to Colman in no uncertain terms that he is required to escort me to toilet and bathroom for the duration!  The walls did not reach the ceilings in any of the rooms so there was always good ventilation and plenty of opportunity for creatures to enter.  Plenty of skinks, no mossies, possums, plenty of cane toads, spiders, and best of all glow flies, these are bugs about one centimetre long and their buts glow when they fly, well it actually blinks on and off and at dusk there are lots about, quiet beautiful to watch.  Electricity and water were a bit of a hit and miss thing, there was electricity when the generator ran, unless it ran out of petrol of course, and water for showers was a bit hit and miss also, especially on Sabbath when everyone in the village was showering!  This is a Seventh Day Adventist island which means no drink, cigarettes, drugs, no chewing Beatle nut, and no working on Saturdays. Apparently all the islands have been “taken over" by some sort of church group, SDA, RC or Uniting church and locals do adhere to this. Food is included in the accommodation so food is grown locally and it is very tasty, lots of fish, fresh vegetables (onions, snake beans, tomatoes and off course the occasional taro and sweet potato) and pineapple, mango, papaw and custard apples everything served with lots of lime. The food is very nice, the owner of this stay, Lisa, is an American and encourages the locals to cook new things with the usual ingredients which is working very well. There are two full time staff to look after the six guests that can stay here at one time (except on Saturday of course) they are Evelyn and Reliance and sometimes Maureen, who are all very friendly and speak great English and are most helpful. To give an idea of where our bungalow is, if I walk straight out of the front door, take five steps, walk down four steps and take another ten steps, we're on the beach. We sat here this morning before anyone got up and watched the locals from the village (Peave) go out and catch fish, spearfish, skin dive for fish, go for a walk along the reef that pokes out of the water about fifty meters from shore, do washing and go bathing.  We also watched them get into and out of their dug-out canoes, spear gun, fins and all without so much as swaying the canoe, impressive. It is beautiful and you get a little bit of the feel what it must be like to live here. Today we are the only guests and we have our breakfast at eight am, omelettes, there is no milk on the island so coffee comes with instant cream or milk powder, oh well! No orange juice, just water (there is a spring on the island and the water is drinkable) with either lime or lime and bush honey mixture, no other form of drink apart from that. Had a chat with Lisa and got our dive intro and decided on a dive that afternoon, went for a small walk around with Brian, one of the dive masters as well as general everything doer, went for a swim. The weather is very humid, but not terribly hot, about 25 degrees, but due to the humidity absolutely nothing dries, something we will get used to. After lunch we have our dive briefing from Lisa, she started diving in Hawaii and has been doing so for a very long time, she has about 14,000 dives and not really counting. She started this village stay about six years ago and is aimed squarely at divers, what she doesn't know about diving, fish, the local fish life, local dive spots, currents etc isn't worth knowing. Went out on the boat for our first dive, decided that Lisa and I would buddy up and Colman would go with the other DM, Ronald who was also one of the guys who came to collect us from the airport, as well as Esro who drove the boat. We did a 'muck' dive meaning lots of little things to be seen, and it was just off shore from the village and in between two different rivers that flow into the ocean. The dive itself was very good, visibility not too great (15 meters) but lots and lots to see, Lisa got very excited because we found an Ornate Ghost Pipefish, not very common, difficult to spot and very beautiful. After that I was her good luck charm! Saw lots of other fish which Lisa then helped us to identify but they are in the dive log, I can see friends nodding off to sleep. After the dive we came back and the next  guests had arrived, Joanne and Rob ,Lisa joined us for dinner and then an early night.

25 October

Up to watch the locals doing their thing on the reef, watched a hug pod of dolphins swim past and then after breakfast we were introduced to some of the school kids. There is a small kindergarten (1 room) here in the resort, it teaches about 10 kids from age three to five, there is a primary and secondary school further in the island. We talked to Ronald who told us from the age of about six the kids make their own way to school, in a dug-out canoe paddling just off shore; the kids are gorgeous and tough as blazes. Then off to dive Kitcha island, a 20 minute boat trip for a day of diving. We split up again, I went with Lisa, Colman went with Brian and R&J with Ronald. A brilliant dive and although visibility is not as great as places like Sipadan, the amount of coral and fish live is amazing and stunning, more info in dive log. An interesting thing, there is an active underwater volcano about 20 kilometres from the island and while we were diving we heard it belch a couple of times which was an amazing sensation.  It is a deep rumble that goes straight through you, almost fluttering your heart, apparently when it really gets going the noise physically hurts your ears and your heart. Diving with Lisa is wonderful, she is calm, looks at everything, knows every fish and behaviour, I will give a few fishy stories later cause some are just so interesting! Had lunch on the island which included a tuna they had caught on the way out and was very tasty. We  went for a walk around the island to see the local pigeons called kuru kuru birds, because the sound they make is, kurukuru.  Colman also saw a Megapod bird, they live on this island but it is very unusual as they should only be living on another island called SuvaSuva, no one knows how they got to this island cause they are not great fliers, they look a bit like a miniature chicken, black with long yellow legs, a little red skull cap and nest in burrow so the local goannas can't get the eggs. After walk and a swim, back for dive number two and again a great dive, this is one of the local breeding grounds so there were baby fish everywhere.  Lisa's dog Midgit came along and I ended up cuddling him all the way back, he was cold and so was I, it worked! Then back for relax, food, an amazing thunder storm with absolute torrential downpour and sleep. Found out the next day that Esro had to bail out the boats three times in the course of the night due to rain. A little bit of diving info, if you are not into diving skip this next bit. Things we saw on our dive, lion fish lots of these, anemone fish, clown fish, shrimp gobies.  Thee shrimp is blind and keeps the borough clean for the gobies with which it shares the burrow.  The feeler of the shrimp always touches the gobies and if the gobies sense danger the shrimp will disappear followed by the gobies.  Ghost pipefish, Antheus and damsels are the many coloured fish. Antheus fish have a harem, to attract females he changes colour from dark orange to white and orange, the females are the plain gold coloured fish. There are things called cleaning stations maned/fished (?!?) by Cleaner wrasses, these guys are fussy and will select which fish they clean, someone did a thesis to discover that if the wrasse bites the client, the client not return.  Some fish when they go into a cleaning station change colour from white to black and then back when cleaning is over.  A herd of Goat fish were digging and creating a huge cloud of dust, and Colman saw a rock mover wrasse that turns over rocks to find food underneath, very destructive. Flag tail tile fish shimmy while swimming and it is how they hunt, Spiny cromus, a damsel fish is the only fish which watches its babies.  Barrel sponge look like a huge vase, Black Saddled gobies are the white spots on black and Black bellied Pigmy gobies are the ones sitting on the plate like white coral. Baby tube lips wrasse are the black fish with the shite strip in the white coral.  Coral algae is the stuff that breaks up when it dies, Mushroom or razor coral detaches itself and floats around when it gets older.  The purple things are Ascidians or gold mouthed polyps.

26 October

Lisa found out the time of our flight and turns out we were both wrong, we leave at three pm for Munda, so our transfer out of here is at 11am. Our last day here on Gatokai is lovely, clear water, calm but it is hot, spent day relaxing and getting ready for the trip out tomorrow morning.

27 October

Vacated our room so that Joanne and Rob could move in and packed our bags in preparation for our eleven am departure. The others went off for a dive and we said our farewells, true to form when they returned from their dive at 11.30, we were still waiting for our 'express' boat to Seghe. After a few hurried radio calls our express boat arrived, a dingy with a garden bench proudly bolted down in the middle of the boat, full stop, the end. Said another sad farewell to Lisa, we have found out some of the troubles she is having with the locals and we both wish her luck, but will likely not see her again here at Vuana.  Anyway, Mick our captain loosened the throttle and off we went, our luggage wrapped in a tarpaulin and us with raincoats ready, the weather looked ominous but Mick assures us that he was blowing the rain clouds away. Sure enough, after a two hour boat trip we arrive at Seghe airport unscathed. We were met there by The Representative, who told us he was just off to lunch and we needed to wait, not sure about what representative he was, where we were to wait and why we were waiting for him in the first place. Anyway, surrounded by beetle nut chewing and spitting individuals we found the latest in airport comfort, a palm tree log in the shade, next to the runway.  Eventually we discovered that our Representative had something to do with Solomon airlines and our flight didn't in fact leave at three but at four.  There is the Bernina guesthouse somewhere in the village on the other side of the runway so after much toing and froing, we worked out where it might be, so checking left and right for incoming planes we crossed the airstrip and headed off for our two hour wait. Someone obviously decided we looked dodgy and next thing a guy came after us to escort us to the guesthouse. We were introduced to Rachel who gave us some lime juice and made us feel comfortable and kept us out of the heat. We met another guy from Ghizo who offered us accommodation at his place, as we already had something booked we declined, but he thought we should still catch up for a drink, let's see. Eventually Rachel said we needed to head over to the terminal because our flight is running early!! So off we went, oh forgot to mention we did have boarding passes this time, just no allocated seats. As it turns out the plan arrived at 3.45pm, the crew got off and helped unload another one of these famous blue eskis, then the captain came out to inspect the plane and kick some tires. When he was done and got back on board we got a beckoning wave from the hostie standing just inside the plane door which we took to be the boarding call. This time the plane was big enough that I didn't bang my head on the way in, and we got the front seats, the plane was full nor could we look into the Cockpit, in fact the hostie with the mostie drew the curtain across the door leading into the cockpit, how about that. We were given formal safety instructions this time, only problem being we thought he was speaking pigeon English, when in fact he was speaking the queen’s English, but with an accent that was completely incomprehensible. After our massive fifteen minute flight to Munda we landed on a stamp sized, crushed coral paved runway, on which we have found more information, stay tuned!  Agnes Lodge was a two minute walk from the airport, the place is nice, the room is nice (with indoor plumbing-yeahhhhhh), the locals are nice, pity about some of the tourists!  Checked some of the sightseeing that can be done from here, a day trip averages about $250 per person, pricey!! Talked to someone who told us about a war museum, we might check that out tomorrow because it is supposed to be very good, also met a rather unattractive man who was here as part of the military ordnance (for those like me, it means bombs!!!) disposal unit. Dinner was lobster for both of us at the exorbitant cost of $40 for an entire approximately one kilo lobster each, so two of these babies!!! Plus sides of course.

28 October

Let me start today with some information you probably didn't need to know. While at Vuana with the toilet out the door, cross the garden etc etc, I needed to go to the toilet every single night, our first night with indoor plumbing, I slept right through till wake up time! Go figure! Breakfast was back out on the veranda overlooking Rovina Bay, then we headed up into town for some supplies, check on our transfers and suss out the town. It was hot, with a capital H. We were told by one of one of the guests here about a private collection/ museum of WW2artifacts and decided to go have a look as it sounded interesting. The directions were more than a little vague even though we had asked several people, nevertheless we decided to head out for what we were told a 20 minute walk on the "highway". This turned out to be a WW2 cement track built by the Americans, for the most part it had grass down the middle, potholes that could have doubled as fox holes full of water from the nights rains, to add insult to injury our first attempt saw us going the wrong way for 20 minutes or so in blistering heat before we gave up, returned to Agnes lodge to recover with a cold shower.  On our second attempt we saw our mistake and after watching a good five-a-side bare foot football game for 10 minutes we finally found the place. We were met by the owner called Barney Polach a very interesting guy who explained to us that there had been several large ground battles on the ridges around the area when the Americans were driving the Japanese out of the Solomon's.  He had spent the last twenty years looking for and digging around in the foxholes that litter the ridges. The result is a large collection of memorabilia from personal effects weapons, helmets, grenades to bombs some of which I was not at all sure were defused. He also had a collection of 50 or so dog tags both Jap &Yank that he had found, I did think about what else he had seen when he took the tags. This is all stored in a straw roofed open shed which is lovingly dusted and oiled on a regular basis and to give him is credit he is doing something to preserve the memory of what happened. Now, a bit of stuff Colman learnt from the aforementioned ‘unattractive man’ at the lodge, about the runway we landed on yesterday and the one we will be using again in about one week.  It was originally built in secret by the Japanese army in WW2 in 1943; they built it by stringing wires between palm trees and using camouflage nets to keep it hidden from the Yanks. All went well until they paved it with crushed white coral, guess what happened next, the Yanks saw it, came and bombed the bejesus out of it, turning the whole thing into a moonscape. When they eventually took the island they resurfaced it by simply getting a bulldozer and pushing in the foxholes and bomb craters, regardless of anything that may have been there. Today as a result of a planned run way extension they discovered hundreds of unexplored bombs some as large as 2000 pounds, voids where oil drums had been buried covered with coconut tree trunks that had since rotted away.  They also found the odd Japanese skeleton, one of whom had been manning a three inch cannon, they found him perched next to it, shot through the head. Currently they are only using half the runway as the other half is unusable due to the issues mentioned above, they plan to clear and resurface that half and do the other half next.  The half that we are taking off on has NOT YET been done!!! We are currently sitting drinking a bottle of wine or three, Good Night!

30 October

We were up early to get ready for our 10 o'clock pick up to go to Kolombangara island, an island made up by four large volcanoes.  We stayed at Imbu Rano lodge, which means "cool mist from Mt Rano" the nearest mountain and one of four that line the crater that we see from the balcony.  The lodge is "self-catering" so we had to do some shopping, we did find a bakery that on this particular morning sold only bread rolls (and not too bad either). We were told we were very lucky because the day before the baker didn't feel like doing anything so he didn't bother opening.  There is a small vegetable market near Agnes lodge and while having breakfast we saw several of the stall holders taking what they had to sell down the lagoon in there dugout canoes, so we knew it was fresh.  The problem is they all seemed to sell the same thing, lady finger bananas , pineapple, bread fruit, some kind of pastry that looked like doughnut and of course the ever present Beetle Nut.  We learned it is eaten together with a type of bean and some white powder they call lime, these are all white in colour but mixed them together causes a chemical reaction that turns saliva red and gives them some kind of a mellow high, it also causes them to spit a lot which is why you see red gobs of spit everywhere on the ground.  This done our boat was ready for our private island transfer, sounds posh I know, we had chosen to take the 50 horse power boat as it made the journey in half the time the 40 hp would take, but cost more because of the fuel (please don't tell Trans Adelaide about this idea you know what will happen).  The sea was calm, it was sunny and it was a good trip, we passed 50 or so tiny islands some with houses visible others with what looked like palm plantations and lots of dugout canoes on various reefs catching their fish for the day, doesn't seem to be a bad life really.  We docked at Ringgi cove, also the name of the local town, the boat driver hung around to talk to us for ten minutes even though on the way out he was surly and un-talkative probably in the hope of a tip, fat chance!  The local security radioed the tour office and a car came soon after, were taken through the town with its soccer pitch with an afternoon game in full swing and all the locals out to watch.  Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon. We met with one of the most ‘with it’ people we have met so far, Sharon who explained we were to take a 4x4 trip for about 30 minutes up the side of the volcano to the lodge.  The view from the veranda is spectacular, overlooking a huge valley and a mountain peak called Rano at 1698m, Mt Mbatuvana just behind it, just behind that is Mt Veve the highest at 1779m plus one other the name of which I have forgotten, all covered in thick jungle vegetation. There are two park wardens here, Moffat and his boss Rocky and they both came for a chat.  They told us about the local wildlife, one of the most interesting was The Eyelash Frog it sounds just like a small dog when it croaks so the whole night around here it sounds like you are so rounded by a pack of vicious Chihuahua.

31 October

Decided to do a morning trek along the Vila river to the Myles falls via Mali village ruins. We had looked at some trekking information yesterday and decided to do a good half day walk, the one we picked was easy but you had to push to get it done in half a day, we should have known better! We headed off with Moffat at 7.30am towards the Myles Falls, the easy trek remember. Part one was descending into a gorge that would have done any mountain goat proud, there were roots, rocks, trees, mud and an average downhill gradient of about three in one, meaning it didn't go straight down - just! The worst part was the knowledge we had to come back up.  We spent the next hour clambering over, under and through bush, crossing the Villa river at least half a dozen times, the whole while Moffat was up ahead with the trusty bush knife and a bit of twig for getting rid of spiders and their webs to make sure I survived!  On the way we came across assorted snakes, frogs, spiders as well as the Pere tree which is a poisonous tree that grows here and just touching its leaves is enough to cause discomfort, let alone getting sap on you or eating it.  Right something else to avoid, if I ever recognize it again. After about two hours we finally arrived at the falls, they were spectacular and the water was crystal clear, paddled a bit and cooled off, then we had to head back. Not quite sure how I managed, even Colman was feeling a bit the worse for wear, meanwhile our guide Moffat galloped up these tracks like a mountain goat, without shoes I might add. I’m so glad we didn't do a longer trek; I may not be here to tell the tale. Oh, after last night’s debacle trying to find an eyelash frog we did find one on our trek, sadly we had trodden on it on the way to the falls, flattened and killed it, Moffat found it on the way down. How unlucky can one frog be, as Colman pointed out the first kangaroo a tourist sees in Oz always tends to be road kill, not really sure if that was a consolation or not, we did find a baby one a little later, and it lived to tell the tale! After we came back Rocky had organized for us to visit one of the Japanese underground hospitals in the area, as well as some WW2 relics. In typical Solomon style we were picked up half an hour late, driven down to Ringgie village to meet the boat which was to take us to the hospital, the boat of course was not there. Nor would it be there anytime today, it had gone to Gizo to take a local woman to a real hospital. The end! So we went back to our lodge up in the mountains and spent the afternoon on our mattresses which we had pulled off the bed and onto the porch, laying overlooking Mount Rano. Oh, the island we were on (Kolombangara) means Sea god, never too old to learn. Dinner was the usual tinned tuna with minute noodles, which by the way we had to hang in metal pots off hocks in the ceiling, rats have a liking for our food too!  Moffet joined us to tell local ghost stories. One was about a friend of his who was taken away for four days by The Lady who took him through the island and fed him, gave him water, gave him shelter and even organized a smoke every night. This all went well until she asked him to climb up a steep mountain, when he said he couldn't because it was too steep she left him to it. Apparently he eventually did find his way back to a village, he never saw her on the whole trip just heard her voice in his head, the only way you can see her is in your peripheral vision. Apparently he was not into drugs and had not been drinking or smoking! Hmm. And then there was the story of the six toed woman who appeared and wouldn't let anyone see her face, just her body and the six toed foot print in the mud. Double hmm. Dessert was our pineapple. 

1 November to 4 November

A morning transfer to our next stop at the Senbis resort near Ghizo, I will vary between Ghizo and Gizo, the first is the island, and the second is the town. Sanbis and Fat boy are both on Mbabanga island which is about ten minutes from Gizo by boat, and about five to the airport which by the way is on its own little island.  Senbis resort consists of eight bungalows and The Lodge, the island sits in pristine waters with beautiful coral and clams snorkelling distance from the bungalows. There was a beautifully position hammock just by our bungalow right on the beach which we frequented regularly. The food was great, lobster every night and the best wood oven pizzas we have tasted. Some nice people to talk to, the staff were friendly and Hans the owner was interesting as were the two dogs who belonged to the resort. We did very little except for a day spent diving in the VonaVona lagoon to check out the manta ray cleaning station, we saw one pigmy ray, the end. After that we did a residual dive on the F6F hellcat which was shot down by Pappy Boyington during WW2, he mistook it for a Japanese plane. Excellent condition and of course we both needed to sit in the cockpit for photo, I also did my Titanic impersonation, it had to be done. We then went to Olosana island where JFK and his crew were stranded for three days in 1943 and where we were abandoned by our crew for lunch during our surface interval. It was great, luckily (I think) they returned for us and we did a wall dive, there had been a storm the previous day and coral was spawning which meant visibility was not too great but the amount of fish and coral was impressive. Apart from that one day of exertion we did lots of snorkelling, beautiful huge clams, lots and lots of fish and coral. We kayaked around the island which took us about three hours and again was spectacular. Apart from that we just did what you do on a semi deserted island in the South Pacific, drink beer, lay in the shade and relax. The Puta sign was frequently used at the front of our bungalow, this means ‘sleep’ in the local language.  The weather was muggy and there were lots of storms off in the distance but it only rained here a couple of times. Gizo itself is just a small town, clean and the people are friendly, but we saw it all in a couple of hours.

5 November

Left Senbis early for our flight to Munda and then on to Tetepare, we took the boat to the island airport, which is quite literally an island where the runways starts at one end and ends at the other. The ‘Arrival Area’ is a small stone wall next to which a boat can be parked and where you then clamber out onto the path leading to the ‘Arrival Hall’. The crowning glory of the fiberglass hut or ‘Arrival Lounge’ was a weighing scale that I seem to recall from my distant childhood, it had been bolted to the floor just in case someone took a liking to it. Check in was some guy leaning on a counter and hand writing our names into a lined notepad, but in his defence this time we did get boarding passes. Air conditioning was none existent but as there was no front to the building, when our little plane landed we got a good dose of the cooling fuel laden breeze. A contingent of Koreans emerged from the plane, stood around taking photos of all and sundry while the captain did his usual walk around the plane, kicking tires and so on. Once the Koreans had finished they clambered back inboard and we were given the beckoning ‘Boarding Call’ wave from one of the guys who had loaded our bags on the plane. The captain and flight attendant were the same as always, the guy from the last trip who I thought was speaking pigeon when in fact it was English. This time, because of the amount of 'real' tourists, we got the full cabin briefing, by the time he had finished we were told to fasten our seat-belts for landing. Up till now we have still not flown in a Dash8, which is the smallest of planes, I thought this time might be but no. and thus we arrived back at Munda where we locate our 'representative' who would get us to Tetepare. It was Nathan, who we woke up last time in Munda when we called into the TDA (Tetepare Descendants Association) at about eleven am and, who today was as alert as ever. He asked if he could carry Colman's bag, when Colman suggested maybe he should carry mine, there was something close to utter confusion about what to do next. Anyway, I handed him my suitcase with a smile and he slung it on his should (as did Colman - he is becoming a true local!!) and off we went back to Agnes Lodge to await the boat from Tetepare. Oh I failed to mention earlier that our flight was due to depart Ghizo at 9.55, Colman had decided in his infinite wisdom that we should arrive at the airport an hour prior to departure. A wise decision it was too as the flight left, without ado, at 9.25, I wonder if they would have left without us, I have been assured by others this would have been the case! We now had three hours to kill in Munda, the choice of where to spend it was relatively easy, Agnes Lodge. As we arrived we met the owner and told him we were waiting for the 1pm pick up for Tetepare. He suggested we settle at the bar, have a drink, some lunch and find a way to amuse ourselves as the Lodge boat is never on time. We did and it wasn't. There was a moment there when the boat arrived at the wharf at 11am and we though Mr Agnes had gotten it wrong, we should have known better. Ordered lunch, met Rheinard from TDA who we had met last time here as well as his wife and a woman who had just come for doing some sort of audit on Tetepare. One o'clock came and went, as did 1.30, eventually Nathan returned as well as some of the boat crew, Colman, me and the captain left Munda at 2.15. The sky was looking ominous and the ocean even more but Rheinard had assured us we had gotten the best boatman to take us out so off we went. Not much to be said about the trip except maybe we should have worn our swimmers, mask and snorkel, boat trips in anything smaller than the QE2 were very close to being permanently removed from my bucket list.  We arrived on Tetepare looking like we had been hauled behind the boat, not in it, if swallowing seas water is a cause of insanity book me into the asylum, I must have drunk gallons of the stuff. My first thought was would it be very wrong if I dropped to the ground and kissed it, but I refrained, our captain was very apologetic and in this state we arrived on The Last Wild Island. I read this book written by John Read and it was fascinating, so here we were now. It looked wild and primitive; the thought crossed my mind, had I bitten off more than I could chew with this one?  Colman was cool, calm and collected, I was a smidgen off panic. Here we were in the jungle, our accommodation was a locally built (but beautiful) leaf bungalow, woven mats for windows, a door that couldn't be closed, one drop toilet and one flush one, and two concrete cubicles with plastic curtains strung across the front which were the showers. There was no electricity and no light in the bungalow, there was a mozzie net over our bed and that was it. We caught up with JoAnne and Robert (who we met diving at Vuana), they were leaving tomorrow morning so we got a few tips from them. Keep your suitcase closed because of cockroaches and rats, if you hear thumps in the night that would be the skinks falling off the ceiling and any poo you find laying around is just a result of these skinks eating the aforementioned cockies. There was also the question of spiders and snakes in the toilet, as well as hermit crabs trying to get into your bedroom. Ooohhr!!  Before I could panic too much more we were told the local guides were heading off for the fortnightly turtle rodeo. This involved two boats heading out with a scout looking for turtles (greenback or hawksbill) which they catch and dump it in the boat ready for tagging for WWF. They did four jumps and caught four turtles, they dived into the water from the prow of the boat, and they came up clutching a turtle.  We then headed back to shore to do the tagging and taking of DNA samples, when we got back to shore I headed back up to the bungalow, I found the distressed turtles distressing. Colman stayed and they eventually tagged them, (apparently words were exchanged because they seemed to find cleaning the outboard motor on the boat more important). The DNA samples were never taken because the alcohol in the test tubes had evaporated and there was no replacement alcohol, because (so we were told) the boys would drink it!! We also discovered that the reason there was no power was that originally there had been solar panels and a freezer here, but the boys filled the freezer with fish they caught and the amount of power it used to keep the fish frozen was such that nothing else worked. So they took the fridge- freezer away and now the only power is a power board in the communal dining room which has power occasionally, not sure exactly how this works yet. We had our dinner with J & R and four others who were also staying here; the food was great, local, fresh and tasty. Off for our first night sleeping in the jungle, we arrived back out our open, unenclosed room to find a big crab making its way under the bed, it was swiftly evicted.

6 November
Breakfast with Joanne and Robert, they left and we went back to our room to cockroaches and rat proof our suitcases, after expelling possible ten cockroaches from each suitcase. We had been warned about the rats by another guest who had left her suitcase open during the day, got something out in the evening, locked it and the following morning opened it to have a rat leap out at her! Warning taken so we reorganize our room, locked, sealed and animal proofed what we could and then headed out for a snorkel with our allocated guide Adam. Visibility was great, there was lots of fish and coral, we spent about two hours in the water and never got cold, water and air temperature around 29 degrees. Back for lunch which is in the Eatery, Margaret is in charge here and the food was good.  All local product cooked by Margaret according to instructions from Katherine.  Afternoon spent lazing, I went for another snorkel with Adam while Colman relaxed, again there was lots of fish, but the seas were a lot rougher and vis was less. In the afternoon the next lot of guests, Ruth and Janet arrived. We had a nice dinner and interesting conversations with them, the other four and Margaret and Salomi.  We decided for a 6.30 snorkel the following morning. Returning to our cabin we discovered a crab asleep in my shoe, and one hanging off the furniture, they too were evicted

7 November

We, Adam, me and Ruth & Janet went for our am snorkel, as we came back Colman told us they were feeding the reef sharks on the beach and maybe we should come on shore a bit further down. We swam in and sure enough they were feeding offal to a group of about thirty black tip reef sharks, exactly where we were going to come ashore. Apparently they are harmless, we did see them quite regularly while snorkelling and they are curious but don't seem aggressive. Meanwhile the other four guests had left and we were down to four for dinner, which was very tasty and consisted of fish caught by the boys.  There always appears to be enough food to sink a small battleship and then of course there is desert. We returned to our room which was actually one big hut with a dividing wall made of leafs down the middle, so when Coleman's snores we need to apologize to our neighbours and when they sneeze we wake up.  Anyway we all returned to our rooms after dinner, I let off the first scream when I almost picked the usual crab up while moving my bag, this was followed by a scream from next door that had just discovered a millipede in their room. Now these buggers are probably the nasties creatures here, they bite viscously and where they bite it apparently hurts like hell, so there was a reason for the scream when they found one by the bed. Anyway, I managed one better when I bent down to pick up my sarong to find this tree snake asleep on it. This scream brought some of the staff out to see what was going on and next thing there were three brave boys with long stick poking this poor little snake, I think it was well pleased to be back in the jungle at the end.

8 November

We did an early morning snorkel, breakfast and then off for our walk up to Crocodile Lake with R & J and Adam as a guide. We set out at about 9.00 am Solomon time, which made it about 9.30 for the 2 kilometre walk along the shoreline, some jungle stretches, through some old coconut plantation, of which only some ruins of a drying house and other unknown bits of machinery remain.  This island is the only remaining patch of "old forest" (jungle) remaining in the Solomon's as most, if not all of the other islands have been logged at some time in the past. So this walk was very impressive, we saw huge trees, huge ferns that we desperately try to grow in our various gardens back home and fail at miserably, and plenty of birdlife as well. We were shown many plants you should avoid because of their ability to burn, irritate your skin or even poison you. There was also some medicinal plants one of which cured an upset stomach simply by rubbing the leaves between your hands and then rubbing it on the outside skin of your belly . Hmm, I wonder? Just before we arrive at the Crocodile Lake Adam asked us to be quiet, I guess we didn't want to get the crocs excited or something. Anyway in hushed tones we tiptoed after Adam, who led us through a shallow river which fed the lake where the crocodiles live and we then crossed some mangroves to the edge of the lake. At this point Adam climbed a tree leaving us to stand around looking somewhat perplexed, he then started to bark like a dog. It appears that when the crocodile hears the dog barking he thinks dinner is up and comes for the dog. Now I never thought crocs were that stupid and sure enough it really wasn't falling for it.....again. So after Adam spent some time barking up the tree, the croc did surface somewhere off in the distance and obviously decided against us. I tried a small dog impersonation (much to the amusement of Adam) but it appears that crocs don't like Pomeranians either, so we gave up and headed back to the beach. From there a couple of us decided to snorkel along the beach, I went with Adam in one direction and Janet & Ruth in another and eventually the boat with Colman in it came to collect them and then stopped to pick us up. The snorkelling was great again and it would have been a wonderful place to dive. More snorkelling, more lovely food, back to our room to look for our crab, this time he had brought his friend, they were just heading under the bed, prior to being evicted! We were woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of things falling; we turned on our torches to find a crab up on the ledge of the hut where I had my toiletries. He was happily wandering along the ledge throwing toiletries off as he passed them, he was evicted too!

9 November

We went to visit the local villages in Rendova which is the island opposite Tetepare. There are two separate villages which actually are right next to each other and are divided by a line of trees, the major difference is one is Uniting Church and the other was Seven Day Adventist, they both had school associated with the various religions. We went to one school, met the headmaster and a couple of the teachers who were just this side of asleep and couldn’t be less interested in what we had brought with us. It was too early to meet any of the kids so we walked around and headed to the UC school.  There the kids had started lessons and we were introduced to the headmistress Annie who then introduced us to the children. There would have been about 100 kids aged between seven and twelve and all very excited. We had brought some school stuff and the commotion was huge, I also took my IPad and took photos which I showed the kids, well complete chaos followed. I think between the two of us we took a hundred photos and the kids wanted to see each one and then pose for the next one. It was really cute and we promised Annie that we would post her some of the group photos we took of the boys and the girls. Adam then took us around and introduces us to a few villagers who also wanted photos taken, we met some of the wood- carvers, bought a few things and then we were left with an ex TDA ranger to "story" with him for half an hour before we caught the boat back. We went for a little snorkel, lunch and then it started to rain, nevertheless we went for a walk along the weather side beach on the island, still missing all signs of dugongs, and we then had our tin of SolBrew sitting on the jetty watching sunset. Had the usual great dinner cooked by Margaret but this time served on the smaller table with more comfortable chairs. We then sat and "storied" with Margaret, Salomi and Lellani till late. Heard some interesting information about Rendova Island which was logged, they took out three ships full of logs, the village chief got F$100 for it, (A$7), the rest of the community got nothing. They destroyed the local water supply and the town was left with one tap to supply all the water for washing clothes, dishes, themselves and cooking. The logging company was never heard from again.

10 November

Ruth and Janet left and as it was throwing down rain so we decided to lazed around. We went for a snorkel came back and I watched the local oven being lit and helped make Cassava pudding with Margaret, Salomi and the crew cook. Had our last remaining two tins of SolBrew lazing in the hammock before diner. Adam and Wilson came to visit and chat, as did some of the other girls we had met and then we were called for dinner to taste my creation, not bad I might say. After dinner Adam and Wilson came and took us to look for Coconut crabs, we found one, then looked for glowing mushrooms, we found none but we did find lots of phosphorescence on logs and trees around the place which was lovely. Went down to the jetty with Adam to check for any poachers in the area and then back up to the eatery where we had a chat with Laylanie and Roy before heading off to bed.

11 November

Up for our last morning snorkel with Adam trying to find the elusive dugongs. We did find some rays, as well as some grass that the dugongs had fed in earlier!!! What can I say! Saw some more sharks and Adam in his usual style plastered himself against me, shielding me from the shark (or stingray) as the case may be. They have this notion that they must protect the guests at all cost and get very agitated when they ask you not to do something and you don't listen to them. I tried to swim towards the stingray and Adam wasn't having a bar of it, they do it very politely but very determinedly. It's quiet funny!  We did have a bit of a serious chat about people and behaviours following an incident with some staff the night before and it is interesting and disturbing how us white folks are perceived. We were due to leave that day and as it was Sunday all the other staff who were not coming with us back to Munda, were going home to their village, a new crew would be coming out Thursday when the next lot of guests arrived. So Colman and I went down to the beach to wave them all off, it was quiet funny.  When they eventually got the motor in the boat to work they did an honour lap before heading off, Adam standing in the middle of the boat waving frantically with both arms till we couldn't see the boat any more. Eventually we also left and headed back to Munda for our 3.20 flight to Honiara (Solomon time!!) Our trip back was calmer than coming out and we saw a huge pod of miniature spinner dolphins, spinning out of the water over a meter high, it was beautiful and we arrived almost dry. It was about 1.30 and we thought we would head up to the airport, drop our bags off and double check when the flight actually left - 3.20ish! First the blue esky arrived, then the check in man who told me I needed to be weighed, not sure what would have happened if I was over-weight, but it appears I passed, then the plane (a Dash8 finally).  We were beckoned on board by the guy loading the suitcases in the back door, at 2.35, so much for 3.20ish. Apparently we were heading directly back to Honiara, so the check in man told us, at take-off the pilot turned around and announced through the cockpit door that we must fasten our seat belts, emergency exists are there, there and there and please don't smoke, oh and we will be making a short landing at Seghe airport on the way to Honiara. We nevertheless arrived at Honiara earlier than expected and decided to walk over to the ANZ teller machine to get some money out, we hadn't been able to do so in Munda as both tellers in the town were out of money, and needless to say this teller was out of money also! Let's just say we were not surprised! We rang Sam to collect us and drop us to our accommodation at the Raintree lodge, where we were given the Ocean View room. Many mod cons to be had here, a door, fly screens on the window, an indoor toilet, a shower with hot water, a ceiling fan and electricity. Downside, no running water at the moment, pipe problems but will be fixed soon! Well, no point in complaining, were brought some buckets filled with water and left tour own devices. First thing first, went for our welcome drink and then back to the room to unpack. Thanks to the rain and humidity at Tetepare everything was wet, damp or smelly, so within minutes our room had been transformed into a Chinese laundry so we decided to ask them to do a laundry to at least get some clean, dry clothes, so we thought anyway. We ended up getting it bet damper then when we handed it in.  We had pizza at the restaurant attached to the lodge which was supposed to be the best pizza in Honiara, although they were nice and fresh I would hate to taste any other pizza here. We decided against a glass of the house white sold by the flagon and called Dry white and opted for SolBrew instead. An early night on our quality bedding covered with our quality mosquito net, as advertised on Raintree Lodge website, and the water had come back on, but then the power went so that was the end of the ceiling fan for a few hours. We slept well nevertheless.

12 November
As always, awake at sparrow fart and no sign of the woman in the restaurant to make us coffee. I collared her as soon as she arrived, after our first hot shower in over ten days we had our first Latte in several weeks, bliss. Breakfast was tasty and then Sam came to pick us up for a bit of sightseeing, we had decided against a dive because with the organizational skills here it is just way too difficult at short notice. We were taken to where the rich people live, past a couple of fancy hotels and to the American war memorial which commemorates the Battle of Guadalcanal and the horrendous and bloody battles fought here over a six month period between the Japanese and the Allied forces. The name of the water here, Iron Bottom Sound, becomes obvious when you read the information, there must have been about 15-20 ships, from cruisers, destroyers to aircraft carriers all laying in over 60 meters of water. After this Sam showed us some American command station foxholes, dug in under hillsides and still quiet visible now, some of which lead to under-ground hospitals. He then took us to the Solomon Island War Museum. At first when he stopped we thought he was doing the old ‘this is my uncle’s shop’ trick. They opened a big fence gate and we drove into what looked like a third hand car wrecker yard, complete with earth moving machinery, stacks of timber and of course the assorted dogs. We then noticed that there was a very well preserved remnant of an armoured personal carrier, complete with guns and a moveable turret. Just past that there was a huge shed stating Solomon Island War Museum. I can honestly say that at this point we were not in the slightest surprised. We were met by a European guy by the name of Jurgen, who was the owner of this place and had been seriously collecting artefacts for the last ten years. Everything was stored in this shed as well as in a small lockable room where the more precious items where kept under lock and key. The amount of stuff was amazing, Bren machine guns, semi-automatic pistols, Lugger semi-automatic, colt 45 and lots of others we can't remember the names of, it included a whole heap of Japanese copies of European and American guns, they were at this copying game even back then!  There were dog tags, tins of aspirin, pens, cigarette cases, a tiny little camera, no more than 10 cm with film still in it.  There was also a set of binoculars, they had a bullet hole going in the front and coming out through the eye piece in the back, sitting looking through the binoculars was the skeleton of a Japanese soldier with the corresponding bullet hole. There were also photos found in a stack of wallets buried by a tree, as well as teeth, some with gold filings, some just gold bridges that obviously connected teeth, awful, apparently when he finds the skeletons and prior to returning them to the Japanese, he extracts the gold teeth etc. Ughh!! Speaking of skeletons, there are 25 thousand Japanese soldiers still in the jungle in the hills around Honiara, many of who died of starvation, malaria or other assorted diseases. Jurgen (who did a lot of the exploring) found skeletons leaning against trees, where they had either committed suicide or simply died of one of the above causes. There were many more other things including a large three inch steel wall shell from a nine inch gun that had been fired at the island from the sea, where it was hit by an amour piercing bullet that blew a hole in one side and out the other, but not exploding it. Jurgen told us another story where a school had been using a ‘bell’ which they had been hitting for the last sixty years with an iron bar to announce the start of school day, they recently found out this was in fact a 2000 pound, unexploded bomb, which they have now removed and deactivated! He also told us stories of planes still sitting in the swamp around here ready to be discovered, stories of Pappy Boyington who had shot down the F2F Hellcat we dived in Ghizo as well as other things he had heard and found. There was also the case of two Japanese machine guns sitting on the side of a hill overlooking a waterfall that the Americans had used, the Japanese were ready to pick them off as they came for their washes. He mentioned the fact that the Solomon islanders do not actually need any weapons, should they decide to go to war all they need to do is go out into the jungle, find the machine guns, shells and whatever else, bring them back, boil them in oil and they will in most cases be ready to use.  Which apparently has happened in the past, and he thinks will likely happen again. A last comment on this, almost everything we saw from water bottles to tins of aspirin had bullet holes through them, which shows exactly how much gun fighting happened in this area. I think I will be reading a bit of literature on the happenings around here, it sounded just awful, fascinating and unimaginable. One more item of interest from Jurgen, the English have apparently found 140 Spitfires in mint condition in Burma, leftovers from WW2, we think, the British will leave one with the Burmese and the rest will be returned to the UK. Next Sam took us to the town shopping mall where we spent all of ten minutes looking at the vast array of 3-4 shops, all at this stage merrily decorated with Christmas lights. We found a cafe where a number of expats were holed up and decided this was a good place for lunch. We then headed back to our accommodation, where we had water but no power, so we sat in the restaurant which was closed today and did some organizing for our trip home tomorrow. We had arranged for Sam to pick us up at six pm for dinner at the Japanese restaurant at the Mendana Hotel, which according to the Lonely Planet and a local we met in Tetepare, was great. Off we went, got to the Mendana, sat down for a pre-dinner drink, they only had the flagon of Dry White we saw at the Raintree, so we opted for beer and G&T instead, and then the power went out. So we sat in the dark for several minutes until the generator kicked in, at least they had one! About 7.30 we headed off into the restaurant, which on checking earlier we had been told required no booking, and it was packed. A good point, we ran into Laurie and Peter who we had met at Senbis earlier, and had gotten along with very well and we decided to have dinner together.  After some chat they eventually took our order, and then the power went out. Luckily between us we had torches and iPhone to give us some light, then the power came back on and I thought I would nip to the toilet quickly. There was no water! Fine! Returned to await our food order, we both thought Colman had ordered something with beef, he got prawn tempura, he wasn't sure he had given the waitress the correct number, so all good. Eventually they looked over to see all but one had their dinner, my sushi was nowhere to be seen, a moment of panic before they served me my......prawn tempura. I explained that I had ordered sushi and was told, that no I had ordered tempura, anyway the sushi required a days’ notice. After a few minutes of pondering the tempura I went over to the waitress, showed them the menu, indicated the number I had ordered, pointed out that nowhere did it state that it needed to be ordered a day in advance and if that was the case, why had the waitress taken the orders in the first place? I did not want tempura! In fact I wasn't hungry; this was too much like hard work. Luckily, in true Japanese style all the others had gotten some water melon, papaw and chocolate cake served with their meals!?!? They all donated their fruit to me, good for the diet I guess. Peter pointed out that I had missed out on nothing and Colman wasn't exactly singing the praises of the food either. After a lovely catch up we headed home, where we had water and power, simultaneously, bonus!

Tuesday 13 November

Up early, had water but no power, breakfast without the Latte (no power), no ATM machine so had to nip down to bank for cash. Colman wanted to spend a couple of hours checking out town, Sam looked like he thought Colman had lost his marbles, but he dutifully dropped us of and told us where he would wait for us. The shops took a grand total of thirty minutes which included five minutes in the airline office to check our flight, which in Honiara requires you to check in 3 hours because there is so much to do at the international departures. We then spent 30 minutes in the Lime Cafe, again an expat hangout and had a very reasonable drink, in a very reasonable and air conditioned spot. Then Sam took us to the airport, where we sit and wait on metal seats, in the sweltering heat with nothing to do!!!! Still no postcards, not even at the airport, flight to Brisbane departed on time and off back home we went. What a wonderful trip! Landed at Brisbane airport, train to town and then overnighted at the Brisbane YHA on a friends recommendation.  The accommodation was excellent, as was the location and the restaurant attached to it, all at very reasonable costs.  The great bonus, we had electricity, hot water, lights and more, spoilt I say!

Wednesday 14 November

Up for a great breakfast, then a wander into town and our afternoon flight back to Adelaide where we ran into Paul and Joan at the airport and then to meet with some friends for dinner at the General Havelock before heading back to Kimba tomorrow.