Thursday 30^th November

Mum and I had a great time in Lae to see where my Grandfather was buried. By great fortune we stayed with Daniel and Christie King, friend of a friend of Mum’s, which made our stay most enjoyable. As Daniel said to Mum on the phone ‘What are you coming to Lae for?’ There aren’t too many sights to see! There hasn’t been much development since the Australians left in 1974 and they are in the process of cutting down the huge, beautiful, old trees in town to widen the road, so it is a hot, dusty town with potholes everywhere. A gorgeous market, full of fresh produce, much of it from the highlands, was very busy and colourful. The war cemetery was luckily in the King’s street so we were able to walk down there at our leisure. Hundreds of Australians killed around Lae are buried in neat rows surrounded by immaculately kept gardens. It was sad to see so many young men, and as in my family’s case, how different so many people’s lives would have been if they lived to enjoy their lives. A drink at the Yacht Club then dinner at a Malaysian restaurant ended a very enjoyable day of visiting Grandfather George, seeing various shops and the international school in Lae with Christie and swimming and relaxing by the pool. Mum and I had plenty of time to chat in the airports waiting for various connecting flights through Port Moresby.

While I was away the girls had fun with Jeremy. Willow liked going to Nusa School. “It was fun because I didn’t have to do much school. I had to draw and write the PNG alphabet which is different as it doesn’t have as many letters. I liked playing in the school garden with the local kids.” Hatty said “While Mum went to Lae, we went to the local school and I read the children books. We taught them games like Hokey Pokey and big red car.” Phoebe liked going to school and climbing up the soc soc tree to collect them to eat.

Tuesday 4th December

We said goodbye to Kavieng on Friday and motor sailed over New Hanover to Dungung Island, yet another beautiful, sandy island growing huge, green, tropical trees along the shore line. We enjoyed a snorkel on a sunken Japanese war ship growing beautiful fan coral and home to a huge variety of big Grouper, Striped Sweetlip, Coral Trout and Trevally. We caught three Spanish Mackerel on the way, we gave a couple to the locals and had Bev and Gary from Muscat for dinner. On Saturday, we left after a quick snorkel in the morning where we saw three Lionfish, so well camouflaged amongst the seaweed.

 We motor sailed 320 NM North West and were pleased to see the Hermit Islands after two nights at sea, on Monday morning. Everyone travelled well in very light breezes and remarkably calm seas. Luf Island, the biggest and only heavily inhabited island in the group, is in a lovely lagoon, with two lush hills growing the most delicious tropical fruit on either side of a thin, sandy peninsula. Houses of sago or wood under the most enormous trees I’ve ever seen, house the small, friendly community of 200. One of the highlights of our stay was swimming with three False Killer whales today. Calm and inquisitive, we were eye balling the calf and I could have reached out and touched it. It had scratches on its back so we wondered why they were still there, when the rest of the pod had left the reef last week. Amazing the way the calf rolled all over its mother and hugged the underside of her tail.  Another, presumably a male,  was more separate from the mother and calf but impressive when it breached nearby. Snorkelling on the nearby reef was beautiful with very clear water and some very large Parrot fish and Coral Trout cruising the sandy bottom. Willow loved the Hermits. “I liked meeting people, getting sugar cane, mangoes and the sweetest pineapples and walking up the hill. I loved seeing the whales because we swum with them. That was quite amazing!” Hatty exclaimed “At last I can eat mangoes again!  I met a nice girl called Valerie who we swum with in the warm water. I liked snorkelling on the beautiful reef and seeing lots of Giant Clams, Parrot fish, Starfish and Cushion stars. I nearly kissed a whale!”

Thursday 6th December

Yesterday we motored up to ‘Manta Pass’, as its locally known, between Luf Island and Akib Island. A trip in the tender to Bird Island was fabulous, seeing Red Footed and Brown Booby birds, Black Noddy Terns and Frigate birds. As we arrived masses of black and white bodies took flight over the small white  sand cay. Small trees were weighed down with nests made of sticks and unfortunately bits of plastic with eggs or fluffy white booby chicks heads poking out. Frigate birds circled above, always hoping for a free feed of fish. Snorkelling in the afternoon near the boat was a good way to cool off before Bev and Gary joined us for crayfish pasta, freshly caught by Bob, our local tour guide.

What an amazing place this is and what a day we’ve had! Up early to snorkel in the pass between the islands, only metres from two enormous manta rays. Their wing span must have been three metres and they were unfazed by us so close, as they were cruising with their mouths open to collect the plankton they eat. One turned upside down, exposing its white underside with gills long and straight, mouth funnels curled and tail erect. So majestic like a bird flapping its wings! After lunch we went turtle hunting in the shallow waters of nearby Akib Island, where we saw many but were too noisy and slow to get a close sighting in the water! We encountered Steve, the solo sailor of six years from Ballarat, on a slow boat to Japan, who arrived back in last night with a broken mast, after setting off for Micronesia last week. He showed us his eco lodge, which he has been building with the locals on Maron Island, an open structure made of coconut, perched amongst the thick forest overlooking the beautiful lagoon. Very refreshing to meet someone whose needs are so basic and enjoying such paradise! Now we wonder if he will leave! Phoebe loved swimming with the enormous white and black manta rays. “We saw their gills underneath as they were flapping up and down. We climbed up to the top of Steve’s shack and I could see the deep water and then the light blue reef in front. We enjoyed having Bob and Muscat over for coffee.”

Snorkelling nearby, we enjoyed seeing big Parrotfish, Star cushions, Sea cucumbers and many unidentified small colourful fish  amongst new varieties of soft coral. What a place this is, so remote but obviously they get quite a few boats passing by, going west or east.  With sea cucumber, fish and trochus shell collecting to sell on Manus Island there is some source of income as they seem to be healthy and have more basic needs met than some communities we have seen. All very friendly and welcoming, as usual, we will be sad to leave tomorrow with Muscat for the Ninigo Islands 42 NM west from here.