Diving Video

Here is a short video one of our guests made of their trip here. It is just a quick one I asked for, and has a few inside jokes, but this is work. The weather was quite rainy on their trip hence the gray skys and seas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__66-cBYuwo

Niame Village Visit

We slowed down so me, Dave, and Erin went to a village to relax on the
Island of Renoka. Now Renoka has an interesting story here, it is
very different from the other islands because it has lots of stones.
That might sound odd, but it is different, and has black sand, not the
white sandy beaches we see on the other islands. It is a lush rain
forest and is known for its rare butterflies. The other interesting
thing is that it lays on the fault line that caused the 10th largest
earthquake ever recorded that resulted in a tsunami hitting my island
2 years ago. When this quake happened it actually lifted the island
4M higher, so now the reef is out of the water! If you look at the
photos you can see the coral heads that used to be under water.

All of us have been busy, and spending too much time in town so it was
good to get away, and pretty cheap. about $10 US for food and a room.
The room was in a typical leaf hut, but had mosquito nets and clean
linens. The food was great, the village are SDA's (Seventh Day
Adventist) they supposedly don't drink, smoke, or have caffeine.
While there they did not stay true to this. But because of that their
vice is generally food, the make lots of sweet cakes and puddings with
kasava an island root.

We did lots of interesting things. We did not let them know ahead of
time that we were coming, but were trying to find a friend of a friend
there. Not knowing exactly where the village was, and the island is
probably 10 miles long, we pulled up to the first village asked a guy
and a dug out canoe which way and he said North, he also asked what
surf website I had? When I learn to surf I'll let him know. We then
ran into a guy fishing in a small boat and asked him, his name was
Gaga, the friend of the friend. He was very welcoming and happy to
see us. He ran his boat in first and organized people for us to come
in next. They have no jetty or landing. they have some round foam on
ropes they throw down and you time the swell to break through the surf
with a large wave, you then drive fast at the beach and pull up the
motor real quick, jump out, pick up the boat and run out of the surf
before the motor gets swamped. It was a lot going on but they have
become experts! They pulled our 7M fiberglass boat out, with a 40 HP
OBM in seconds.

The rest of the time we spent hiking to waterfalls, bathing in rivers,
visiting some other villages and talking with people. It turned out
Dave had ordered some timber last week, and it just turned out ordered
it from the village we were staying in. We talked with Gaga our host,
and found out they had not cut down the tree yet. So one afternoon
Dave and I followed 4 guys, with one HUGE chainsaw through the bush to
the rosewood tree. It was about 3M around and giant. It took about
30 min to cut it down, and it was quite a rush to see, feel, and hear
a tree that big fall. So for you tree huggers out there take note
that together Dave and I watched a giant tree fall and killed a croc!
Now to be fair this was not logging, it is sustainable because this is
not a mass operation. They replant their trees, and it is like saving
in a bank, when you need money you cut down 1 tree and sell the
timber. It is not a commercial logging operation.

Coming back we had some bad weather and the 1 hour boat ride turned
into 3, with Dave bailing, me getting hit by everywave, and Erin
hunkered in her rain jacket. Eddie Dave's driver did a great job and
got everyone home safely.

Aerial Picture

Picture of the TV Aerial

TV!

So Gizo just got its first TV station. Now it is not broadcast from
the Solomon Islands, but it is an Australian one, called
ABC(Australian Broadcasting Company). The kicker is thought that no
one has antennas, so you have to buy one, from the one shop in town
that ordered some. They are about $100 US, so very expensive. People
here have just made their own in very creative ways. They work great,
I think mainly there is only one TV station and one radio station, so
not a lot of interference.

The one I rigged up uses the cooling wires from an old fridge, some
wire ripped out of said bad fridge, which is wrapped around the grid
and reaching outwards. I will have to take a photo. If you can get
your hands on a metal fan cover, that seems to be the easiest and best
way to make them. Because of that all fan covers in town seem to be
missing.

This has however created some interesting things here, since it is the
first time people have seen lots of news etc, everyone watches it. So
I have been explaining what terrorism and things like that are new to
them, since most of what they have seen before was from movies, and we
all know how realistic Chuck Norris films are!

So enjoying the news!

Golf and Fatboys

Work is finally slowing down so I am getting some days off. Last
Sunday Jerry, the owner of the building supply store here, organized a
golf game for some of the people here. We got some aussie cops and
some of the aide workers and met at the hotel at 11am to head to the
course. After loading into a VERY small boat, we left for Nusatupe
Golf Club. Oddly enough Nusatupe Golf Club is a bit unofficial, the
island is more known for the fact that the whole island is the landing
strip for the airport here. So just like playing in the street when
the planes landed everyone yelled PLANE PLANE PLANE and ran into the
trees.

I have never played gold and it defiantly was evident, I did however
improve significantly by the end and was one of the three winners!
Out of 8 people I am one of 3 that did not lose their ball. We then
finished a few beers, and got back in the boat and headed off to
Fatboys for lunch, we had a great lunch and had a surprise from Kieran
when he walked up to say hello, and he had his pockets full of baby
sea turtles. Only in the solomons can your kid walk home with five
endangered animals in his pockets.

Next week I am taking off to an Island Simbo which is a few hours away
by motor canoe. Literally it is a large dug out canoe with a 10-15 HP
outboard motor on the back, so I will take that through across the
open sea to the island. Don't worry Mom I'll bring a life jacket and
some water. The island still has an active volcano and some rare
birds similar to chickens, but they lay their eggs 2 M under ground to
incubate.

Whats New?

Been the busier the last two weeks then we were the previous 2 months!
Because of that I have been diving diving diving and then some diving
sometimes 5 or 6 a day, if that puts my life into perspective you will
understand why I have not updated lately. I have not been in the
office hardly at all and have not had a day off in over 3 weeks.
Every time it looks like I'll get a break someone else comes in.

This week we had zero bookings, by 9am this morning, we had 10 divers
on our boat on a day non were scheduled, all of them were just people
passing through. You would think if you are showing up to a small
island in the S. Pacific in an undeveloped nation, that you would book
something ahead?

Anyways I will write more later when I become sane again

Luke