Yes, that’s right, we had some visitors last week and it was lovely. Meet Alix and Jace.
They made their way all the way to the wilds of PNG just to see us (and get in some dives too I suppose), so we decided we had to try and make it worthwhile for them. And they weren’t too “PNGed” in that things went surprisingly smoothly while they were here.
The first place we took them was to visit our friend Serina’s village, Porotona (see past blog entry). This is where they were introduced to (and Jace developed a slight obsession with) prawning and kulaus (young coconuts which you drink from).
As usual Serina and her kids Desmond and Garube (pitured) looked after us very well, as of course did the extended family. We watched her netball team make it to through the semi-finals, and went on a walk where we saw snakes, waterfalls and lovely views.
There was also a funny moment when we were having a water fight in the river and Alix’s contact slipped. There aren’t really the words in tok ples (local language) or tok pisin to explain a contact lens. So they all excitedly told Serina later that Alix’s eye had fallen out.
On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday we organized some diving. Monday was a truly glorious day (sun shining on white sandy beaches), and a perfect diving day. We went out to the Manta Cleaning Station at Guna Bara Bara, and actually saw a manta ray, and many other fish, including a lion fish family, and an awesome cuttle fish. We also ate lunch on Samarai island (the old provincial capital and now resembling a bit of a ghost town), then went for a dive off one of the wharves there.
All of these photos are curtesy of Hiro from the dive shop (that is why they are so GOOD! thankyou Hiro)
These ones which are obviously not so good are from us... we hope you still like them.
Thursday was pretty much the opposite to Monday weather wise, and was one of the most painful boat trips I’ve had yet (both in terms of the sea-sickness, and in the amount of water I had consumed before getting on the boat). But we did see both dolphins and mantas jumping out of the water – truly spectacular. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the plane wreck we were looking for as the water was too choppy, and the visibility not quite good enough, but we still ended up going on two lovely dives. We even happened to stumble across a landing barge from the second world war that we think is previously undiscovered in a diving sense. Very exciting.
Weather & Swell YUCK!
This is Jane swimming through the front door or landing ramp of the barge.
Oh yeah and of course there were Anemone fish how do you like this shot?
Many thanks to Hiro, Vinz, Dangerous Dave, Eddie, Diane, and the rest of you at the Alotau dive shop for the great days of diving, and looking after us all so well.
Unfortunately the time Alix and Jace were here passed by too quickly. But they also managed to fit in a Milne Bay war history tour (which was apparently quite good), and we went to one of our favourite places: Waga Waga. Here we met Ane (pronounced Annee) the fruit bat – who quickly made friends with Alix. Considering how much the animals, reptiles and insects around Milne Bay seemed to like Alix, I’m fairly sure she will always be welcome here as our resident wild-life expert! : )
I’m sure we’ve missed out on some things, but we’d like to thank Alix and Jace for coming to see us – and for the cooking, gifts (and the gifts others sent via them), company, laughter and general good times. It was great!
