6 - 7 July 2010 WorldFish Center, Nusa Tupe & Gizo Airport Onma Lodge, Kolombangara The April 2007 earthquake and tsunami wrecked havoc to the lives of many in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. Foreign aid and rebuilding was slow and difficult, but the people of the Western Province persevered and rebuilt their [...]
6 July 2010 Gizo & Ranonga One morning in 2 April 2007, we woke up at home in Cairns. By force of habit, even before breakfast, I turned on the computer and checked BOM, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, for the day's weather. There was a tsunami warning button in red. Blink, blink. Huh? As we had [...]
28 – 30 July 2010 M’Buke Island A jar of lime powder (kambang); a bean-like green stick called mustard (daka) and green betel nuts (buai) Betel nut chewing is a custom or ritual that dates back thousands of years from Asia to the Pacific, a tradition very much a part of modern life in many [...]
28 - 30 July 2010 M'Buke Island, Anun Island & Champoin Island The traditional sailing canoes of M'Buke Islanders Last year in February, when I was still researching WWF Coral Triangle projects to cover for our expedition, I had heard of the traditional community canoe making project of WWF Western Melanesia Programme in M'Buke [...]
28 - 30 June 2010 S2 22.915 E146 49.513 - M'Buke Island S2 18.697 E146 51.595 - Anun Island At low tide, we navigated our small boat through the incredibly healthy coral reefs of Anun Island, M'Buke. Anun and another beautiful island called Champoin are proposed ecotourism sites by the M'Buke Islands People Association [...]
5 - 24 June 2010 It is now 15 months that we have been non-stop on the road from Asia to the Pacific. The diving has been spectacular but its the people we have met along the way that made our journey so much richer. The honest and open faces of people in the deep [...]
4 - 24 June 2010 We totally adored our three weeks in Lissenung. We were so much at home it was LIKE being home. We could achieve so much portraying the many aspects of Kavieng's village and marine life. First was an entire white board dedicated solely to us and our expedition's objectives for New Ireland. [...]
15 - 17 June 2010 We set off for a three day exploratory trip with our friend Dietmar Amon with five other divers or NFFs (new found friends) to New Hanover. Lissenung Island Resort has these special trips once a year and again, how lucky were we to be part of this grand annual endeavor? Andiamo [...]
9 & 20 June 2010 The strong culture of Papua New Guinea shines through during a sing-sing - a gathering of performers from a village who sing and dance to show off their ethnicity and their traditional rituals. It is powerful, as all earthy performances are and we have been so fortunate to see two performances from [...]
5 - 15 June 2010 We have been on idyllic Lissenung Island Resort since June 5 and have spent wonderful time catching up with our friends Dietmar and Ange Amon, the owners and operators of this lovely little dive resort in the Pacific. In the past, Dietmar and Ange have house sat for us while we were [...]
