More cool diving pictures!

Thanks again to John Penfold for the great Gizo diving pictures!

Malolo Diving, Fiji

This map shows the numerous dive sites in the area-

The last 3 days I dove 5 times at #23 Supermarket, #26 Charlie's Reef, # 34 Wilkies Passage # 35 Plantation Pinnacle and #31 Namotu Wall.  I saw lots - turtles, an eagle Ray, trumpet fish, pipe fish, banner fish, sharks- 1.5 meters long!, huge trigger fish, an octopus!!! My first ever!! Barracuda, hard and soft coral, etc.  It was great...so colorful.

Here is Dels, our dive master and me as we approach one of the many private islands/resorts-

A speciality of the area is vakalolo, which is fish, often dolphin fish aka mahi mahi, with vegetables and casava, served in a coconut cream sauce.  Delicious!

I am off to Honolulu tomorrow for a few days.  Looking forward to a couple more dives, hopefully a wreck, before it is back to the cold 😢

Funky Fish Resort, Fiji

Fiji is a country made of over 300 islands but only 100 are inhabited.  Most people live on the 2 main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.  Average summer temperatures are 32 degrees and it is very humid.  I am dripping with sweat!

I'm  staying gat the Funky Fish Resort for 3 nights on Malolo Island, part of the Mamanuca Group of islands-

This is my beach bure-

The view from my deck-

The inside-

Cloud 9 is a floating restaurant/bar in the middle of nowhere!  The snorkeling is supposed to be very good-

I dove once this afternoon with SubSurface.  They assured me they've never lost a diver so I had nothing to worry about!  We dove at Plantation Pinnacle.  It is a single pinnacle covered in coral, 27 meters high.  There's a swim through and numerous overhangs that are covered with soft corals.  It had a lot of coral on the very top, but not much on the sides, however there were hordes of small fish - all colors.  It's apparently listed in "The World’s Top 100 Dives” Guidebook.  It was very beautiful and this is exactly what it looked like- (thanks to surfdivefiji.com).

Looking forward to tomorrow!

You know you're in Gizo if.....

You know you're in Gizo if.....

It pours for hours at a time and the only water laying around is in the huge craters in the streets.

Speaking of huge craters in the streets-

When the stewardess explains the safety procedures on the airplane, she reminds you that it is prohibited to consume any alcohol you may have brought with you and not to chew or spit betel!

Speaking of betel, it's the main item for sale at the market and all over town.

All the stores are run by Chinese.

Gizo Hotel is the only place with wifi.

If the ferry leaves at 8, that probably means 8:30. We're on Solomon time.

Power outages are common. Why wouldn't they be with a diesel engine generating power for the entire island!

One can hear music blaring from somewhere all night long and usually hooting and hollering to go with it.

Every vehicle looks like it's been rolled ... at least once!

There is garbage everywhere, and I mean everywhere-

Swimming is prohibited in the sea because that's where the sewer goes!

Everything is expensive! $30 for a dorm room without a bathroom or A/C! That's more expensive than Australia!

You can't eat for less than 50 Sol - $7.69 Canadian.

The only permanent white people own the dive shop!

Hambere Village, Kolombangara Island, Solomons

I moved from the town and island of Gizo for one night to the Hambere Village Stay on Kolombangara Island which is known for its extinct volcano-

Hambere village is made up of 2 families - initially grandfathers plus all of their descendants. There are about 60 adults living here and many children. Everyone lives in these airy huts-

We have our own hut, right on the water-

This is is my bedroom - mosquito net and all, although I never saw a single one.  Apparently they don't like salt water-

The bathroom was an outhouse, but a fancy one!

Lunch was "just caught" King fish, coconut rice, baked sweet potatoes and a noodle/pepper dish-

The school is closed for summer holidays but it's huge, providing dorms for 500+ students. This is one of the boy's dorms currently being remodelled-

The village is Seventh Day Adventist and this is the school chapel-

Teachers are all locals. This is one of the very basic classrooms in the high school with forms 6-13-

Here is Joel, my new Aussie friend, in a hollowed out tree trunk that works as a great canoe!

This gentleman was spearfishing all morning.  His catch was already sold and on its way to Honiara-

These boys spend all day, everyday in the sea.  No computer games or cell phones for them!

The island is very hospitable and quiet.  I came back to Gizo to make sure I wouldn't miss my plane tomorrow.  I don't think airlines operate on "Solomon time!"

Gizo Diving

 While at Gizo, I dove 3 days with divegizo.com for a total of 6 dives.  These include Grand Central Station, the Toa Maru #2 Wreck, Secret Spot, Hellcat, Gap, Manta and One Tree.

Thanks to John Penfold who took these great pictures.  John is also a sailmaker in Sydney, so if you are ever in the market for a new sail or repairs, check him out at JP Sails.  

Here I am-

Grand Central Station is where oceanic currents merge with Gizo Islands, so there are lots of fish because there is big current. The coral was  beautiful and there were thousands of fish.  This site has the second highest fish count in the world.  There are over 270 different species that you can see in just one dive!

The Gap is a drift dive.  We went into Gizo lagoon and saw barracuda, reef sharks and tons of schools of fish.  There were huge sea fans

and gorgonians.  I saw a barracuda, a green pipe fish about a meter long, an ugly, ugly crocodile fish,

a Spanish dancer, and a black tipped shark.  At One Tree Island I saw hard and soft corals, huge sea fans, a school of baraccuda about a meter long each!, 2 one meter long grey reef sharks, and a huge parrot fish!

At Secret Spot, I saw a small Manta Ray, an Eagle ray, about a 10 inch pipe fish, and an open green anemone with clown fish enjoying its interior.  This is also where my regulator, stage 1 hose broke at about 10 meters! All of a sudden I heard a loud bubbling noise and could see bubbles behind me. I took a normal breath, then could only get a half breath, then nothing. Luckily I was right beside the dive master and he gave me his secondary mouth piece! We were at the end of our dive, so just waited until I calmed down a bit!!! then we ascended to do our 3 minute stop at 5 meters! The couple I was diving with have over 200 dives each and nothing like that has ever happened to them! It was just a freak thing! I was pretty nervous afterwards, but went in again to see the Hellcat.

It is off the Island of Quomu and very cool because it is in only 10 meters of water and completely intact! It was only discovered in 1986. Unfortunately pilot Richard Moore passed away before that in 1978.

Apparently, the Hellcat left Munda Airfield as an escorting fighter. A Corsair F4U ( also an American plane) shot Moore's plane in the engine, high on the port side. It started smoking and leaking oil so Moore decided to return to Munda. Soon, the engine cut out and landed safely in shallow water, about 100 feet from a reef. Right away, two native canoes showed up and took Moore and his wingman to safety.
The ammunition magazine covers are open. Because the engine cover is missing, you can see the oil tank. There are 2 bullet holes - one behind the cockpit and the other in the tail. (Thanks to the divegizo.com for this information).

The Toa Maru #2 Wreck is one of the most popular diveable WWII shipwrecks in the South Pacific.  It is 450 feet long and lying on its starboard side.

The Americans attacked it so it ran aground.  You can see saki bottles,

a telephone and medical supplies.

and diinner plates-

There are a lot of corals growing on the top and you can see the hole that caused the demise of the ship!

At Manta, I saw a turtle and numerous blue starfish, an Eagle Manta, hard dark green coral and I found a writing slate.    The current was pretty strong here and I flew into the wall a couple of times.  I hate doing that because you cause damage to the coral.

Lunch all three days was on deserted islands.  Today we had barbecued snapper, grouper and Trevally-

Our dive master and boat driver built a fire out of wood and coconut shells-

Then they wrapped the fish up, put it in the fire and covered it with leaves-

It was delicious!

There are lots of islands along the way.  Some seem deserted and others have wood and grass huts-

These hermit crabs are pretty cool.  Here are 4 dragging shells-

What a great time this has been!