From: rees@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au (Rees Griffiths)
Subject: Re: Has anyone dived the Solomon's
Organization: Macquarie University, Australia.
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 02:30:21 GMT


    REPOST from last year.  I don't think this got in the archives.

                SOLOMON ISLANDS September 1991.

                          DIVING
            Aboard M.V. KIRIO, Russell Islands
             with Adventure Sports, Gizo and,
      Island Dive Services and Dive Solomons, Honiara

                  Solomon Islands Background

     Are you looking for 5-Star Resorts, Club Meds?  FORGET it, the
Solomons doesn't have any, thank goodness.  The Solomons are largely
untouched by mass tourism and the Government intends it to stay that way.
     The Solomon Islands are a double chain (separated by the New Georgia
Sound, 'The Slot' of World War II) of some 1000 islands, east of, and at the
same latitude as Papua New Guinea.  You can therefore expect coconut trees,
warm 28 degree C (82 F) water with excellent reefs, World War II plane and
ship wrecks.
     In short the whole tropical deal.  Including of course the necessity of
taking anti-malarial drugs before, during and after your stay (typhoid,
Hepatitis A shots and a Tetanus booster wouldn't go astray, but aren't strictly
necessary).
     November to March is the wet season, you can guess the dry season.  It
doesn't get much hotter than 32 C (90 F) so its very pleasant.  So light
clothing is all that is required.  Brief swim wear should only be worn at the
beach so as not to offend the locals who are on the whole VERY religious.
     The majority of people are Melanesians and are very friendly.  English is
the official language although most nationals speak Pidgin in addition to their
own language.
     Commonwealth Citizens, US and most EEC countries do not visas to
enter the country.  You will need an on-going ticket and a valid passport.
     Electricity is 50 Hz 240 V in the Solomons using Australian 3 pin style
outlets.
     The exchange rate is approximately SI$1.00 = AUS$0.50  = US$0.40 (I
said roughly :-).  Americans NB tipping is OUT, a warm and sincere thank
you is enough (a tip is a gift and requires reciprocation as far as I can make
out).
     You can fly there with Solomon Airlines from Brisbane & Cairns (Aust),
Port Moresby (PNG), Auckland (NZ), Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu, or from
Brisbane with Qantas.

     The nearest chamber is Australia so play it safe.  Oh and dives were
around SI$60-70.


Russell Islands on M.V. Kirio (Island Dive Services)

     The Russell Islands are a 6 hour boat trip from Guadalcanal and comprise
two main islands divided by a channel and numerous smaller islands.

     All the diving in the Russells is live aboard.  Island Dive Services runs
two boats, the Bilikiki (20 Divers) and the Kirio (10 Divers).  The two boats
dive the same sites in the Russells.  The Bilikiki also visits Morovo Lagoon
and is the more comprehensively fitted out vessel (it has 110 V supply).
Food and service on the Kirio were excellent.

     Except for a few WWII dump sites and the wreck of a small freighter, the
diving is on sheer coral walls.  1991 was a very wet dry season and the
weather we had was not the best.  The weather may have had something to do
with the distinct lack of large pelagics we experienced, which we were told
was unusual.  However despite the weather there was no trouble diving
anywhere as there is always somewhere in the lee.  All dives had 100 foot
viability.  Walls all had large gorgonians, lots of species of Crinoids,
Nudibranchs, soft corals, clown fish and so on.

     A couple of the outstanding dives were the 'Slot' which I didn't dive.  It is
a 10-20 ft wide crevice that extends back into an island, Rainforest over the
top, 60 ft deep, shafts of light shooting down at midday.  We found a little
grotto on one island where you swim in through a submerged archway and
enter a small enclosed pool in 10 ft of water with the trees visible above.  All
in all very pleasant diving, thoroughly recommended.

P.S.  The most famous dive site in the Russell Islands is the Custom Cave
(see Doubilet 'Light in the Sea' or Deacon 'Diving in the South Pacific') is
not on ANY itinerary.  It is called the Custom Cave because it is a CUSTOM
cave and is Taboo.  As far as I know the Deacons and David Doubilet were
the last divers to dive it.


Gizo, Ghizo Island with Adventure Sports and the Divers Lodge

     In Gizo you can either stay in the Gizo Hotel (Small) or at the Divers
Lodge which has two houses and share accommodation.  We stayed in the
Divers Lodge at the top house.  One house is away from the centre of town
on top of the ridge and has panoramic views, the other house is by the
waterfront.  The accommodation was clean the food excellent.  Oh but the
shower was cold, wouldn't be a problem usually but the weather was again
not the best while we were there.

N.B.  DON'T DRINK THE TAP WATER it may or may not be safe at the
time.  Safe water is provided.  This tip is Gizo specific.

     We dived with Adventure Sports rather than Island Dive Services (which
has become a separate entity in Gizo with a new name recently).  When I was
there Adventure Sports had almost all the divers in town.  Diving is from
fibreglass canoes (narrow boats not real canoes) with dive masters to guide
you if necessary at dive sites.
     Diving is either reef diving or on World War II (and one recent) wrecks.
The main wreck is of a 400 ft Japanese Freighter the Toa Maru that is mostly
intact (no propeller or engine room).  There are numerous plane wrecks
including a Hellcat and Zero's.  The Hellcat is intact, the Zero we dived was
in the harbour so the viz was only 30ft and the plane is broken off behind the
wings.

N.B.  There is a sewerage outlet not far from this plane so using AQUAEAR
or a similar product is PARTICULARLY recommended after this dive.  After
every dive in the tropics is not a bad idea anyway.

     Apart from the wrecks there are many reefs you can dive including Plum
Pudding Island or as it is known these days Kennedy Island after JFK was
shipwrecked on it.  The other dive they advertise is a site they call Grand
Central Station.  It is advertised as a ledge on a reef wall in 60 ft of water
where you can watch pelagics of all sorts swim by.  This is not entirely true.
The ledge is more like a sloping shelf so to get as close as possible to the
action you need to be at the edge of the wall in 100 ft of water.  Well you do
if your a keen U/W photographer like me.  Also the dive is best when there is
a STRONG current.  Like hand holding stuff.  However you start and finish
the dive in a current free shallow reef.  We were told not to worry if we
couldn't make it back as we could be seen and picked up.  I don't see how we
could have been seen from where we were anchored.  One boat did go
looking (I think) though while we were having a long safety stop on the reef
shallows.

     Basically a nice mix of wreck and reef diving is available around Ghizo
Island.  I'm told by an instructor that used to work there that Fergusson
Passage is a Dynamite Dive, weather permitting.

         **********  CAVEAT  IMHO  *********

     Although the diving was well organised by Adventure Sports, who are the
most experienced in Gizo; my advice is to take some aspects of their advice
with a pinch of salt.  As I mentioned above I didn't believe them when they
said they could see us from where they anchored at Grand Central Station.  I
didn't dive the last day but friends who did ran into some trouble with
instructions from the head of Adventure Sports (Danny Kennedy) who stayed
in the boat.  Firstly he told them that they should swim a heading of 240
degrees to come to the scattered remains of a WWII Corsair plane.  It is 240
degrees on a US Compass, 60 degrees on a Southern Hemisphere compass.
These things happen, but he also told them not to worry if they drifted away,
he'd come and pick them up.  Well when they got near the surface they were
VERY VERY nearly run over by an inter-island freighter (70 or so feet long)
which was cutting corners.  At this stage they were about 150 yards away
from the boat due to a strong current.  They hadn't worried as they were told
they would be picked up.  After they surfaced Danny signalled, were they
OK?  They signalled back they were and he then turned his back on them and
they had to swim the 150 yards against the current.  If I had been with them
with my camera housing I wouldn't have been swimming back, I'd have been
blowing my whistle a lot.

This is nit picking I know :-) but be warned/informed.

Honiara, Guadalcanal with Island Dive Services and Dive Solomons

     We stayed in the Mendana Hotel in Honiara which was very comfortable.
There are other hotels and there are dives run from Tambea Village Resort
(I've been told Resort should be taken loosely).  The main dives in
Guadalcanal are wrecks.  Some good reef diving is available near Tambea but
you don't have to stay at the resort to dive there.  Tambea is not that far from
Honiara.  The main wrecks are the beached Japanese freighters Bonegi I and
II, and the Ruiniu.  A submarine, troop transport and a B-17 Bomber (intact
wings forward).

     The first day we dived the Bonegi I (Hirokawa Maru) with Island Dive
Services.  I had a great dive on my own followed discreetly by a trainee Dive
Master who kept out of my way while I took photos.  The others in the group
suffered from some pretty severe mothering by the Dive Master especially
around 130 ft.  He liked to flash OK signals 2 inches from their masks.  Also
at the end of the dive we were led out when I would happily have stayed
another 10 minutes at 10 ft.
     The beached freighters are intact towards the sterns but the bows are
mangled steel.  They have some very nice soft corals and gorgonians on
them.
     The next day we dived with Dive Solomons who have operations at
Tambea and in Honiara.  Given a choice I would recommend Dive Solomons.
We dived with Troy Griffiths (no relation) who runs the operation and his
Dive Mastering was the right balance between making sure your OK and
leaving you alone.  He escorted us over the Ruiniu but after he had done his
safety stop he left us to finish films etc in the shallows.  The other dive we
did was a B-17 in 45 ft of water, which makes for a nice second dive.

Other sites in the Solomons

     A number of sites are opening up in the Solomons.  The main established
site we didn't dive is Uepi Island.  It is highly recommended reef/shark etc
diving.


Hope this helps you and feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Safe Diving
Rees

P.S.   A friend of mine is now a dive instuctor for Island Dive Services in
Honiara.  They also have a third charter boat now.

_________________________________________________________________________
Snail: Rees Griffiths, Computing Officer
       School of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University
       N.S.W.  Australia   2109
Phone: (02) 805 8202  Facsimile: (02) 805 8245  Intnl +61 2 805....
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