Here are some Nai'a photos from the last trip...off to the Solomon Islands we went!

After a short flight from Nadi to Honiara (on the island of Guadalcanal), we were met by the Bilikiki crew and taken by "tinnies" out to the boat. Tinnies are aluminum tenders and the method by which we did 95% of our diving.

The boat is beautiful and has a crew of 12 which took awesome care of us! Monty & Michelle are the longtime Bilikiki Cruise Directors and lead the merry band of staff! We loved their Aussie accents and sharp wit! Their critter finding eyes were pretty darn good too!

Our 10-day charter on the Bilikiki allowed us to visit the Russell Island chain, Mary Island, Morovo Lagoon for several days of incredible diving and then the Florida Islands on the way back to Honiara. Dive sites were varied...some were seamounts rising to 15-30 feet below the surface. Those generally were covered in beautiful hard and soft corals and were surrounded by some of the largest schools of fish we've encounted. Critters were hiding amongst the hard corals too and we saw every kind and color of anemone in all the ID books as well as all their resident "clownfish" or anemonefish!

Other dive sites along the way were "points" jutting out of the various islands with schools of jacks and barracuda, some shark sightings and more big schools of fish. Other dive sites were "mucky" sites where we just puttered along looking for unusual critters. Harlequin ghostpipefish were frequently found and made all the photographers "nuts" over their poor posing behavior! Blennies and gobies challenged us all the way and various sizes, shapes and colors of nudibranchs were found. Pygmy seahorses were common but small: John our bartender went diving one day and found us two "true" seahorses! Mandarinfish were sighted, cuttlefish were photographed laying eggs....truly, truly world-class diving!

We did an incredible dive where three U.S. supply barges had been sunk at the end of World War II which were totally covered in critters....all in less than 40 feet of water! We also had an opportunity to shoot over/under shots of local kids in their dugout canoes...water was incredibly warm and beautifully clear!

Speaking of the kids, at every village along the route they and their Moms paddled out to meet the Bilikiki and conduct "Market" from the back of the boat where Michelle bartered with all the locals for fresh produce and awesome fruit! We also had a chance to visit three carving villages and see their incredible woodwork. Needless to say, some of the folks are at DHL as I type shipping their treasures home!

Thursday was the last day of the charter and after the final two dives, we were invited to Ndalah Village for a "sing-sing" where we were greeted on the beach by attacking warriors whooping & hollering and then lead into the gathering area where the boys & men played incredibly beautiful music on various home-made instruments including "pipes" made from PVC! Then the little girls had a chance to dance for us and then the little boy warriors came back and danced for us again....we then did a "walkabout" the village and saw the school and their beautifully kept village all the while snapping photos of the beautiful people surrounding us! The end of the day took us up on the sundeck for the group photo, the crew photo and then a Bilikiki tradition of traveling through a narrow inland passage surrounded by families in dugout canoes while we threw bags of popcorn down to them! It was a race to see who could get the most bags of popcorn and kids even jumped out of the canoes to catch the floating bags! We then had a farewell champagne toast by Monty & Michelle while finishing out sunset cruise....what a fabulous end to a most beautiful ten days!

Hopefully I'll also be able to upload a few photos from the Bilikiki week......on to Papua New Guinea and the Paradise Sport....farewell to Peter, Jeff & Ted...welcome, Tim!

I never imagined having this much trouble getting "quick" internet service! Oh, how much we take for granted.....