January 24th, 2007 – Lord Howe Island, NSW, Australia
This morning we headed out with a full boat expecting to dive the north head caves. Unfortunately, like many occasions lately, the conditions just weren’t right and we had to abort to plan B: The Octopus Gardens near the south passage to the lagoon.
I was pretty excited to dive a new site, although I was a little apprehensive because of navigation (I had no idea what to expect) and I was taking Pete’s 9 year old daughter and one of his good friends Anthony on the dive. Luckily, the dive went great; Brooke is really confident for a 9 year old, and she communicated underwater, which the most essential part of safe and fun diving. Although there were no octopi to be seen on this trip, we explored some awesome terrain, including some impressive corals and gutters.
My afternoon was spent cleaning up our mess and filling tanks, but after work I was invited to go on a booze cruise in the lagoon with some of the staff from Arijilla, one of the resorts on the island; one of the staff Ash was celebrating a birthday. We spun around the lagoon looking for turtles and I drank back a few imported beers from Laos. Yummy.
After the cruise we got into a huge BBQ and ate like kings. We seem to be doing the BBQ thing quite often, and I can’t complain one bit! Truly, the BBQ is definitely an Aussie event.
January 23, 2007 - LHI
It was my day off today, but instead of sleeping in and wasting my day in bed, I got up at the crack of dawn and went on a fishing trip to Ball’s Pyramid with an islander named Scotty and the boat “Belle Chase.” There were six other guys on board for the trip, and the day was perfect; beautiful sunshine, light breeze, and small swell. We left Lord Howe for the Pyramid, which is about 50 kilometers north at seven in the morning.
It took us a couple hours to get to the Pyramid, and we trolled for fish the whole way, catching a nice big kingfish to start off the day. For the first hour and a half we used sonar to detect schools of mackerel and caught them for live bait. We then headed north of the Pyramid and dropped our lines with squid as bait. Almost immediately, all of us had big kingfish on our lines; kingy’s are a great sport fish and fight like troopers. We must have hauled about 10 in on the first go. All of us on board were stoked and having the time of our lives. Unfortunately, because of the rising water temperatures around Lord Howe, the sharks soon came to rain on our kingfish parade. The entire day, we must have hooked about 30 Galapagos wailers. They became such nuisance that we had to move almost every time we got fish on board, and often they took big chunks out of our fish before we could get them on board.
For the rest of the afternoon we fished some deeper troughs around the Pyramid, and hauled in some more kingfish, perch, fusiliers, and of course some more sharks. All in all, we ended up with two huge tubs full of fish.
Scotty cleaned and filleted the fish on the way back to Lord Howe and everyone on board got to take as much fish as they could possibly handle. I managed to walk away with four kingfish and a perch. I’m going to have one hell of a BBQ!!!
January 22nd, 2007 - LHI
This morning we headed off to dive the north head cave; however, once we got out to the dive site, Busty thought there was a little too much surge coming through the area. Instead, we decided to dive a site called Yellow Rock, which is located just on the south-side of the north passage. I buddied up with a girl named Nina and we had an hour dive exploring the awesome channel. There were hundreds of different species of hard and soft corals, in addition to lots of crayfish, scorpionfish, cardinalfish, butterfly fish, and I even spotted a rare black-coloured lionfish.
After the dive I hung out in the shed; it was a busy afternoon and we had nine people to set up for, all of whom were first time divers. They all arrived at 1:30, watched the introductory video, did some skills in the lagoon with Busty and Todd, and we headed out to Comet’s hole. There were four teenage girls with Todd and I had a laugh at the hard time they were giving him; if I could have had a dollar for every time they said “Oh my God!” I would be a billionaire! Everyone had a good laugh though.
When we got back I had to hurry up and get ready for my shift at Palm Sugar. I’ve been working heaps the last few days, and feel much better now that I’m making some cash instead of just spending it!
January 21st, 2007 - LHI
This morning I borrowed Busty’s truck to take Laura to the airport; it was her last day and we got up extra early to make sure that she had everything packed and didn’t forget anything. It was really great getting to know her and she was an inspiration to me. I was sad to see her go; we had a really good time together the last two weeks. She worked extremely hard on her PhD work, was studying some fascinating stuff, and got to travel around to some of the most beautiful places on earth while being paid. It has seriously made me consider going back to school and pursuing marine biology. Who knows what the future will bring?
Mel and Busty had a dive at the Twin Caves today and I stuck around minding the shed. I drove Dan to the airport and said goodbye to him, and knocked off around 1:30. After my shift I went for a swim and took a kayak out to the reef for some exercise. The sun was extremely hot today, and the weather has been perfect; it hasn’t rained once in the daytime for the entire three weeks I’ve been on the island!
For the first time in a long while I had an opportunity for a proper catnap. I slept like a baby for a couple hours before heading to Palm sugar for a shift.
January 21st, 2007 - LHI
This morning I borrowed Busty’s truck to take Laura to the airport; it was her last day and we got up extra early to make sure that she had everything packed and didn’t forget anything. It was really great getting to know her and she was an inspiration to me. I was sad to see her go; we had a really good time together the last two weeks. She worked extremely hard on her PhD work, was studying some fascinating stuff, and got to travel around to some of the most beautiful places on earth while being paid. It has seriously made me consider going back to school and pursuing marine biology. Who knows what the future will bring?
Mel and Busty had a dive at the Twin Caves today and I stuck around minding the shed. I drove Dan to the airport and said goodbye to him, and knocked off around 1:30. After my shift I went for a swim and took a kayak out to the reef for some exercise. The sun was extremely hot today, and the weather has been perfect; it hasn’t rained once in the daytime for the entire three weeks I’ve been on the island!
For the first time in a long while I had an opportunity for a proper catnap. I slept like a baby for a couple hours before heading to Palm Sugar for a shift.
July 20th, 2007 - LHI
With all of the excitement these days I’ve been running a little behind on rest. It doesn’t help that today I woke up with a slight hangover from the night before. Luckily, I had shed duty this morning and didn’t have to do much; I got the dive gear ready, tidied up the shed, and sat in the sun until noon.
In the afternoon Busty, Todd and I took a big group out to Erscott’s north for a dive. Although Erscott’s is a shallow dive, roughly eight meters maximum, it’s pretty special due to the healthy coral and abundant fish life. On this occasion I took some first time divers along the wall of the reef and we spotted a few unicorn fish, a moray eel tangled in some finger coral, hundreds of endemic McColluch clown fish sitting in anemone, and a school of Galapagos wailer sharks encircling their prey!
After a busy day in the boatshed I headed off to Palm Sugar to work the dinner shift with Shannon from Pro Dive, and it turned out to be a busy night. Cathy cooked us up an amazing beef curry for our evening meal and we gorged ourselves on her homemade cakes; tonight was pear and coconut, lemon chocolate and triple-layer caramel cake.
As soon as I finished my shift I met up with Laura and we headed down to Ned’s beach for the radio shack fundraiser dance. It was five dollars entry fee and it was a really great time, despite the fact that I was completely burned out. I chatted with a bunch of people, splashed around at the tide break with the fluorescence, and headed home at half past midnight to get some well-needed sleep.
January 19th, 2007 - LHI
After a great night sleep (I’ve been having restless sleeps lately), I headed down to the shed for a boat dive first thing. I was pretty excited because the conditions were perfect to go explore the Cathedral caves at the north head wall. Two regulars, Chris and John, and another guy from New York named Craig geared up and were in the water by 10 o’clock in the morning.
Thus far, the Cathedral has been my absolute favourite dive. The terrain is otherworldly, with a huge cave that drops down from the surface and extends around some big rocks and into the island. Its name comes from the fact that the sunlight comes through the ceiling making it resemble the light coming in through the glass in a church. It was just stunning.
Along the way, Craig and I spotted some pretty interesting marine life. The Cathedral is Nudibranch heaven, and we spotted heaps of them of all different shapes, sizes and colours. Also, we ran into some big sea stars, a few scorpion fish, schools of brown triggerfish, spangled emperor and a big octopus hiding underneath a rock in the Cathedral cave. I seriously could have stayed down there all day!
I covered the shed over noon hour and in the afternoon I went out with Busty, Todd, Renae, and Heather, the Marine Park manager to work on some of our skills for our Rescue Diver certification. We went to Erscott’s north and practiced a few skills in deeper water, including finding a missing diver, rescuing an unconscious diver from the bottom, and dealing with a tired and panicked diver. Great stuff to know and I feel a lot more confident, although a little more practice will definitely help.
Tonight the entire Busty’s Boatshed family got together with the researchers, a couple of the regular divers and a few friends for a BBQ under the pines. I went up to the Top Shop at the top of the hill on the island a bought some fresh, homemade sausages, some onion and zucchini for Laura and I, and we had some drinks at the boatshed before heading over to the BBQ area to cook up a storm. Busty brought some kingfish, and Pete and Vic brought heaps of salad, sausages, homemade bread, and Vic brought her famous coconut pumpkin bake (which I now have a recipe for). The feast was incredible, and we had full bellies by the time the sun set over the horizon. The night ended up being extra special because we were treated to an amazing view of a comet moving through space; the tail on the comet was so bright, and it was absolutely mesmerizing to watch. I took a few pictures but they don’t do it justice.
After the BBQ Dan, Laura, Todd, Luke and I headed off to the bowling club for the Friday night dance. A few hours and a few drinks later I headed home, a little tipsy and buzzing from the incredible day.
January 18th, 2007 - LHI
This morning I helped Pete clear out one of the storage lockers at the teachers’ housing near the police station. Another teacher is coming soon and he has 27 cubic meters of stuff to be unloaded; Pete has lost one of his storage spaces to make room for all his gear. We made a few trips up to a new storage space and I stopped by Pandanus restaurant to ask for some work. They seemed keen so hopefully I’ll be able to get some more shifts in the evenings to start saving for my Asian adventures.
The afternoon was pretty hectic in the shed, and we finished late. None of us felt like cooking so we decided to meet at Humpty Mick’s for a drink and a meal. I went down with Laura and we both had some amazing steak sandwiches and cold Aussie beers.
To finish off the night, I threw on 2 Fast 2 Furious, one of the movies that Dan, the other researcher, burned for me.
January 17th, 2007 - LHI
Despite the overcast weather, the morning wasn’t all that bad. I went out with Todd on a boat dive, and stayed on board to keep watch (I.E. read my book). They explored the North Head Gutters, and I got through about 50 pages while Turns and Noddy’s fed off of small fish on the ocean surface, swooping just above my head.
I helped clean up in the shed and had the afternoon off to do whatever, so I decided to take a nice catnap and then headed out for an evening ride with Laura down to Little Island. It was her first time riding down to that area and she did really well considering the monstrous hill by Capella resort. I rode home quickly to get ready for work.
Tonight was my first night at Palm Sugar, and the job ended up being really good. Kathy, the owner, cooks all the meals, another girl Rachael from Pro Dive waited the tables, and Pam from Pinetrees washed up; I shadowed Rachael for the first night to get the hang of it. Palm Sugar is a small restaurant at the top of the big hill on the island, and it is tucked away amongst the palms and giant hibiscus bushes. It’s an incredibly romantic venue. At the end of the shift Kathy cooked us all a meal and we had homemade cake and wine. I think I’m really going to like working this job!
January 16th, 2007 - LHI
Today was magic; both the weather and the diving were incredible! In the morning I went out one of my favourite dive sites, the Arch. I took two teenage Aussie guys down and showed them around. Although the visibility wasn’t as great as it usually is, and there was a little bit of surge, we still had a great dive and saw heaps of marine life. For the first time ever I got to see a huge Spanish dancer. We also saw a school of trumpet fish, two lionfish, lots of crayfish, a hungry moray, a few scorpion fish, a brightly coloured nudibranch, and of course the hundreds of dotted sweetlips swimming underneath the arch.
Straight away after we got back I went out on the boat with Todd and went to Comets hole for a dive; I stayed on the boat because the dive was part of an Open Water course and Todd had to teach them some skills and ensure they had learned everything they needed to know. Pete’s son Noah and his friend stayed on the boat with me while I read in the hot sun; definitely not hard work!
In the afternoon I headed out to Middle beach with the intention of catching some crayfish for dinner but there was too much wind so I abandoned my initial plan and headed to Ned’s beach for a snorkel instead. It was my first time snorkeling Ned’s this season and it was just as amazing as I remember it. The kingfish were still going crazy near the shore, the coral was colourful and healthy, and I saw a big Galapagos wailer shark at the back of the sandy channel leading out to sea.
In the evening I chilled out with Laura the uni researcher, and we watched the Golden Globes together. It was funny because I had no clue what movies and television shows were up for awards; I have been away from North America so long that I am so out of touch with film and television. Regardless, it was nice to just chill out and watch some of the old idiot box with a sexy PhD student.
January 15th, 2007 - LHI
This morning I went for a dive at Rupert’s Reef just off the Admiralty Island’s. I went with Jenn, my good friend from Pinetrees, Dan the researcher, and another regular diver Ralph. We descended at half past ten in the morning.
Quite literally, Rupert’s was my favourite dive so far on Lord Howe. There was a spectacular diversity of brightly coloured hard and soft corals, not to mention the amazing terrain and fish life. The site is a coral reef about 50 meters in length with a huge gutter down the middle. I buddied with Jenn and we explored around the entire reef before heading down the gutter. Along the way, we encountered a big trumpet fish, the rare clown trigger fish, a beautiful (but intimidating) moray, an aggressive stonefish, a big hawksbill turtle, and a few fascinating nudibranches.
After a busy afternoon in the shed, I went back to my place with Todd and had a couple drinks, went for an evening ride, chilled out reading books and worked on the website for the rest of the night.
January 14th, 2007 - LHI
I had intended to work at Pinetrees today, so Busty gave me the day off. Unfortunately, the owners of Pinetrees are being very inflexible, and have decided (at the last minute) that they’re unable to accommodate me by paying me cash-in-hand for one day a week’s work. It seems silly and pretentious to me, but everything happens for a reason, and instead I will be working somewhere else (which is just fine with me!). To be honest, their loss!
I had some letters to write today, and went to Busty’s to use the internet, print out the letters, and scan some receipts; it wasn’t exactly the kind of stuff I like to do on my days off, but it had to be done. The letters are for OHIP, asking for an extension, or else I may not have health insurance in Ontario when I return to Canada. Like I said before: Necessary, but completely mundane.
In the afternoon I wrote a little bit of my novel, had a snooze, and met up with Laura, the PhD student studying the corals. We hung out for a bit and I went over to watch a movie with her and the other researcher Dan at the research lab. Before I went there though, I went up to the Palm Sugar café to see if they had any work for me. I met the owner Cathy and she was incredibly nice. She said that there was work for me and they could pay me cash in hand. Problem solved.
January 13th, 2007 - LHI
It was a very busy day in the boatshed today, and there was a lot to be done in addition to the regular duties of filling tanks, cleaning up and selling tours. First off, it was inventory day. Luckily, there wasn’t much left and it was all relatively in one spot. We ran out of water to wash off the gear, so we also had to fix that issue as well. All went smoothly, and the day turned out to be magic.
In the morning I accompanied Brian on a dive to Noddy’s Island, one of the Admiralty Island’s. The conditions were perfect; the lagoon was like glass, the sun was peaking through the clouds, and the water was a warm blue from the northern currents pushing in the tropical water from Queensland. Although I had to stay on the boat, it was absolutely amazing to be out on the water with hundreds of seabirds flying above my head.
When I knocked off in the evening I went for a swim in the lagoon and got ready to go to Pinetrees for my first shift. When I got there I was surprised to hear that I wasn’t working after all. Typical of Pinetrees, no one notified me to let me know that I wasn’t working because they were unwilling to pay me cash-in-hand for the next couple of weeks while I sorted out my Visa. I wasn’t a very happy man, that’s for sure. Marie, one of the managers, bought me a beer and I went on my way back home.
One of the girl’s on the island named Alex turned 18 today, and there was a big party to celebrate. I went over to my friend Jenn’s house before hand while she and another friend Shelly ‘got ready.’ Girls are funny. We arrived at the party around 10 o’clock with Shelly’s boyfriend Shane and Troy, another ex-Pinetrees employee. The party was bumping and there were plenty food and drinks. The dance floor (the outside deck) was the hotspot, and it was going off all night. I definitely had a great time, and left just after midnight.
January 12th, 2007 - LHI
I have officially been in Australia for one year today. Thinking back on all that I have accomplished, I am so pleased; okay, I admit, ecstatic. The past year could not have been any better, and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to explore this fine country. With all my heart, I am sold. I love the landscape, the climate, and most of all, the people. I’m still waiting to meet an Aussie that I don’t like. I know that Canada is home, but someday, eventually, I will make Australia my new home. It’s just too good.
I was woken up late today by Laura after some crazy dreams. I hadn’t slept well during the night so I decided to sleep in a bit. We chilled out for a bit, had a cup of coffee and discussed our plans for the day. She had to go collect samples from Middle Beach and Boat Harbour, while I was stuck in the shed filling tanks and hooking people up with all their gear.
Although I didn’t get a dive in today, I can’t complain one bit. The weather has been impeccable and I get to peer out onto the lagoon all day long. Today it was as smooth as glass and the summer sun warmed the air to a perfect temperature.
In the afternoon I helped Pete move the school teacher Mel’s stuff from her house to the plane; Friendly, one of the pilot’s on the island, was doing a run for her. We moved most of it in a little under an hour.
When I returned to the boatshed, it was utter chaos. I had to watch and fill 30 tanks, help people with their rentals, including lugging kayaks down to the water, settle people’s bill’s, and sell diving and tours to whoever came in. My head was spinning when I knocked off at 7 o’clock.
Of the two weeks I’ve been on the island, tonight’s sunset was by far the most spectacular; the whole sky turned a beautiful pink and orange, and the foreground island made deep silhouettes against the sinking star. I rode my bike down to Little island and rode back in the semi-darkness, dodging endemic woodhens as the crossed my path searching for food.
Later in the night I hit the Friday night party at the bowling club and ripped up the dance floor.
January 11th, 2007 - LHI
It was a crazy morning at the shed. We had three dives in four hours and I was in charge of prepping them all and making sure everyone had equipment, was transferred to Ned’s beach on time, and cleaning up. Because it was so busy, the morning went by so quickly. I filled a few tanks and Brian let me have the afternoon off because I had to come back in at night for our night snorkel and dive at North Bay to witness the annual coral spawning. A team of marine ecologists, including the Doctor who first discovered coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef, Peter Harrison, were predicting tonight would be the night when the corals send their sperm and eggs into the water.
I went for a ride and the afternoon and then passed out for a couple hours to prepare for the night.
After dinner I showed up at the shed and it was chaos once again; there were thirty people needing wetsuits and dive equipment, including lights and glow sticks. Surprisingly, we pulled it off pretty well. We arrived at North Bay around 8:30, got our gear on, and jumped in. I partnered up with Renae, the girl I had done my Rescue Diver skills last week.
It was my first night dive, and I must say, it was really relaxing. Many of the fish were asleep or hiding and different creatures were moving around in the darkness. We saw heaps of prawns, crabs and crayfish, a huge wrasse sleeping underneath a plate coral, worms, and a really nice lionfish that I almost didn’t see; Brian has been stung by one and he said it hurt for days, so I was lucky.
Nearing the end of our dive, we finally spotted what we had come to see: Coral spawning. Truly, it was a magical sight. The closest thing I could compare it to is snow; however, instead of falling down, the snow was floating up! When we shone our torches towards the coral, the spawn were attracted to the light and it looked like one of those glass shaker ornaments. Not many people in the world have the opportunity to see coral spawn in their lifetime, so it felt pretty special, especially at night underneath a trillion blinking stars.
January 10th, 2007 - LHI
Brian came by this morning and told me I could have the day off; it was still pretty windy on the eastern side of the island and there was only one dive going out today.
I could have easily gone back to bed but felt I should get up and be productive. I spent a few hours working on the website during the morning, and in the afternoon the weather turned and the sun came out. I went for a bike ride down to Blinky beach and found it was packed with people (for Lord Howe, 50 people on a beach is packed!). I went back home, ate some lunch, grabbed my surfboard and peddled back down to the beach.
By the time I returned to the beach the swell had gone down. I went for a paddle regardless, but in the end decided to leave the board on the beach and went body surfing on the wicked beach break. The water was a perfect turquoise blue, and the weather was dazzling. It was a great afternoon off, that’s for sure!
In the evening I met the Howea gang down at the boatshed for Ted’s going away party. There were about 25 of us putting back beers as the sunset over the ocean. We ordered pizza and had nibbles before heading off to the bowling club to party some more and check out some live comedy.
Before the comedy started there was a belly dancer and a band. Both were good, but it was definitely the comedian who stole the night. The comedian’s name was Brett Nichols and he was a professional comic from Sydney. He made me laugh so hard my belly hurt!
To finish off the night I watched shooting stars with one of the PHD students named Laura, who is studying corals on the island. I saw two stars blast across the sky and made a couple wishes.
January 9th, 2007 - LHI
The Howea Divers website is well on its way after today’s seven hour coding marathon. I had the day off from the dive shop, so I decided to be productive. I woke up at 9 o’clock and worked straight through until around 4 o’clock; I hardly budged from my seat except to make a cup of tea and go to the toilet. In the end, I managed to get most of my photoshop work done on the images I needed, finalized my CSS, and completed four full pages. Already, the site is looking good; real good.
After sitting down all day, I really needed to get some exercise. I biked down to Pinetrees to check in about a part-time job, and then continued on my daily ride to Little Island. You would think I would get bored of the same route day after day, but the truth is that it’s an absolutely stunning run and nearly impossible to get sick of.
Later in the evening I went over to Cory’s, one of the islanders that I worked with at Pinetrees during my last stint on the island. It was Jerlinda’s going away party, and I wanted to see her off properly. She was a really good friend of mine during the three months on the island, and we kept in contact via e-mail while I was on the mainland. She’s a super genuine person and her laugh is infectious; you can’t help but laugh along with her whenever she bursts into one of her fits. She’s such a great girl, and I’m sad to see her go.
January 8th, 2007 - LHI
I worked this morning but had the afternoon off. Indeed, business has been strange for the dive shop. Some days we are flat out with 15 divers, North Bay and snorkeling tours, while some days are pretty quiet.
For my afternoon off I worked on completing the editing and sizing of all the dive site images in photoshop that will be used for the website. It was tedious work, but I got most of it done, and felt good that I had got a start on things.
In the afternoon I went for my bike ride, and headed down to Ned’s in the evening for a BBQ. One of the school teachers was leaving and many of the islanders were celebrating her hard work. She had taught Noah, Pete Busteed’s son for two years, and apparently she did a really great job and the kids loved her.
At the BBQ I also had the opportunity to meet Mel, one of the new Howea staff. She is taking over for Dave who is leaving on Friday. She just finished her second degree, and is now a veterinarian. She’s taking a few months working for Howea before returning to the mainland to start her career.
January 8th, 2007 - LHI
I worked this morning but had the afternoon off. Indeed, business has been strange for the dive shop. Some days we are flat out with 15 divers, North Bay and snorkeling tours, while some days are pretty quiet.
For my afternoon off I worked on completing the editing and sizing of all the dive site images in photoshop that will be used for the website. It was tedious work, but I got most of it done, and felt good that I had got a start on things.
In the afternoon I went for my bike ride, and headed down to Ned’s in the evening for a BBQ. One of the school teachers was leaving and many of the islanders were celebrating her hard work. She had taught Noah, Pete Busteed’s son for two years, and apparently she did a really great job and the kids loved her.
At the BBQ I also had the opportunity to meet Mel, one of the new Howea staff. She is taking over for Dave who is leaving on Friday. She just finished her second degree, and is now a veterinarian. She’s taking a few months working for Howea before returning to the mainland to start her career.
January 7th, 2007 - LHI
Despite it being my day off, I woke up early and went down to the boatshed for a dive at 9 o’clock. Unfortunately, there was only one person looking to go for a dive, so the dive was cancelled. Instead, I went to Brian’s place and scanned all of the dive site diagrams he drew to include in the new website.
In the afternoon, I had a nap and headed back down to the lagoon to go on the snorkel tour with Pete. We went to four different sites including Erscott’s hole south and north, Comet’s hole and Hook reef. Erscott’s south is by far my favourite; the coral is so colourful and vibrant, and the fish life is truly exotic. On this occasion I spotted a huge puffer fish, a unicorn wrasse, a big reef shark, and some extremely friendly double-header wrasse. At Erscott’s north was great too, and there are some pretty impressive table corals and a big coral wall facing out towards the ocean. Comet’s was a little murky today because of the fresh water spring under the sand, but great nonetheless. There were plenty of sweetlips swimming about today, and thousands of different damselfish sputtering about near the surface. I was a little cold so I decided to stay on board the boat for Hook’s reef. I helped Pete drive the boat back at around 5 o’clock.
I was going to go fishing in the evening but on my way back I bumped into Damo who had just returned from the south part of the island with a good stock of fresh fish. We made plans to go out fishing together and he gave me a beautiful trevally for dinner. I went home straight away, filleted it, and threw it on the BBQ with some fresh potato chips; simply delicious!
I spent the night working on the images for the website, burning DVD’s and watched “The Last Samurai” on television, dipping into my Peter Carey compilation of short stories during commercial breaks. It would have been a night of uninterrupted relaxation had it not been for a huge huntsman spider that came crawling down the wall next to my bed; for those of you who are unfamiliar with the huntsman, it can grow bigger than an adult male hand and is as quick as a cockroach! I tried to capture and release this particular specimen, but to no avail. In the end, I had to kill it; there was no way I was going to sleep with that monster crawling around! Finally after a half hour and a variety of different weapons, (books, shoes and board shorts) the spider went swirling down the toilet.
January 6th, 2007 - LHI
Today I worked for the morning, and had the afternoon off. After a nice long nap, I hopped on my bike and drove down to the bowling club where I left my bike to go up to Middle beach. The walk brought back many memories, and not much has changed except for the fact that the terrain is much drier than in the winter.
I walked up and over the hill towards Middle beach, stopping to pet the two small bulls roaming within an electric fence. I went through a garden I found and picked a pumpkin, some potatoes, rock melon and honeydew melon; I took the liberty of taking a few items since the price of groceries on the island is almost triple the price of the mainland. I took a walk to the Clear Place before heading back home, dropping off my fresh produce, and heading back out again for some hardcore physical fitness. I jumped on my bike once again and peddled over the difficult hill by Capella lodge, and down the little island track at the very south end of the island. It was a good sweat, and I definitely earned my evening beer.
I took it easy in the evening, and started working on the new Howea Divers website, watched two movies: “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and the first “Back to the Future.”
January 5th, 2007 - LHI
Today I went for a dive at the Twin Caves on the north end of the island, around the back of Mount Eliza. I buddied up with twins from Canberra, Steve and Greg, who have been diving with us all week. While on the surface there were only two caves, underwater the caves split into three and went about 15 meters into the mountain. The maximum depth hit around 20 meters, although most of the time we were at a depth of about 13 meters.
The Twin Caves had plenty of really healthy hard and soft corals, sponges and sea grasses, but the fish life was minimal compared to other sites. We did have the pleasure of seeing a strangely coloured manta ray curled up in a little enclave, surrounded by a lionfish and coral-banded shrimp. We also bumped into a foot-long sea slug.
Later on I went to the golf club to meet up with some friends for a beer and a feed. Damo and Sean, two guys I worked with at Pinetrees were doing the catering, and the food was unreal. I sat around and chatted with the Howea crew and a few friends from Capella lodge before having an early Friday night.
January 4th, 2007 - LHI
This morning I helped Pete pack up and move some boxes for one of the Meteorologists who is moving back to the mainland.
I stuck around the shed in the afternoon, and strapped on some scuba gear to clean the bottom of one of the boats, read my book and went for a swim in the lagoon. Unfortunately, it was low tide and while I was swimming I put my finger down on an urchin; I spent an hour pulling out the spines. Since the first day, I have been nursing the bruises and wounds I suffered falling off my bike, in addition to a swollen knee from the dance floor on New Years, and now I had urchin spines in my finger; boy, was I in rough shape!
At night, I went to check my e-mail at Busty’s house, and had a visit to the Radio shack. More on the shack later, it’s a crazy place that needs a proper introduction!
January 3rd, 2007 - LHI
Another day at the office; it’s too bad that my office is a one mile long beach in the middle of the South Pacific. I wake up hating myself everyday (sarcasm).
The busy season is upon us and everyday is pretty flat-out with people looking to dive, do snorkeling tours, or head up to North Bay for the day. All day long there are people coming into the boatshed fitting wet suits, grabbing snorkel gear, or returning empty scuba tanks. Despite the chaos, it’s really hard to get stressed out; all you need to do is look out onto the lagoon and immediately the tension melts away.
I went on the second dive of the day and my buddy was a cool guy from Scotland. We went back to the Arch again, although this time there was heaps more to see. The crayfish were out in full-force and there seemed to be a hundred more sweetlips hanging around. Underneath the swim-through we say some Lionfish, lots of exotic nudibranches, and even a big moray swimming through one of the gutters. I’m getting better at conserving air and relaxing, which gives me more time to pay attention to the details.
Later in the night, the Howea crew met at the bowling club for a couple of beers. After a few pints we all headed back to Busty’s place for a couple more. It was totally unexpected, but Pete and Busty broke out a wicked card game called “Grass,” that they used to play as teenagers. Over 20 years old, the premise of the game is along the lines of dealing marijuana, trying to earn the most money, and stuffing up your competition. It was highly entertaining (excuse the pun…). In Canada, the game would be an absolute hit, no question! Needless to say, we were all pretty hazy when we decided to pack it in at midnight.
January 2nd, 2007 - LHI
I got up an hour early today to get everything ready for Brian and Dave’s trip out to Ball’s Pyramid, the best dive in the Lord Howe Island area according to Brian. I arrived at 8 am and got seven sets of gear ready and drove them down to the jetty where Brian was parked with Jack Shick’s boat; a loaner for the day. We loaded everything up by 9 o’clock and by quarter after they were on their way.
Ball’s Pyramid is the world’s largest oceanic volcanic rock stack, and heaps of rare and endemic animal life flock to it, both above and below the water. On land, an extremely rare stick insect called a phasmid, which was once thought to be extinct, roams the rocky soil and eats the sea ravaged tea trees. Under the water, thousands of fish including sharks, kingfish, trevally and spangled emperor feed, and the area is home to the endemic ballina angelfish. Although I had to stay behind today, it is certain that I will have my chance to dive the site within the three months that I’m here.
Instead, I hung out in the boat shed and dealt with customers for the morning while Todd and another islander named Ellis took a group diving around to a site called Malabar. In the afternoon, I went along with Todd to another dive site just outside the north passage and kept watch on the boat while he guided a family and finished teaching one of the boys the final skills for his Open Water Diver course. The wind had picked up and the swell was choppy; although I didn’t get sick, I was pretty nauseous after an hour at sea.
To finish off the day Pete got Todd and I to do the snorkel tour in the lagoon so that I could actually experience what I was selling to customers. It was an amazing afternoon, and although I skipped out on snorkeling Comet’s hole and Hook reef, I jumped in at Erscot’s hole, the healthiest and most vibrant site in the lagoon; on our way to the site, we had to hit the boat into neutral to avoid turning a big green turtle into fish food. At Erscot’s there is such a diversity of fish life that your head spins. On this occasion, I had the opportunity to see a school of double-headers, spangled emperors and a reef shark munching on an urchin, plus hundreds of endemic Lord Howe damselfish and an absolutely huge porcupine fish. Erscot’s is such a treat, and there is always something new to see regardless of how many times you snorkel the site.
January 1st, 2007 - LHI
A new beginning…I love New Years day because it is a time to reflect, but also a time to make goals and look forward. I’m so very lucky to be back at Lord Howe, especially completing my dive masters, but I still have much to accomplish. Today I slept in until 3:00 in the afternoon shaking off a hangover and contemplating my next moves, and my long term goals for this year. While I’d like to say I’ve got it all planned for the next year, I definitely keep in mind how fast things can change and ultimately, have to relax and take one day at a time; in my opinion, it’s the only way to truly embrace the present.
In the evening, I picked up my bike from Pete’s, went for a ride to Coby’s corner near the golf course, and read some more of the Rescue Diver Manual.
All in all, today was pretty uneventful, but relaxing; a much needed day of rejuvenation after a hard night of partying!
December 31st, 2006 - LHI
New Years Eve on Lord Howe Island turned out to be spectacular! I started my day at half past eight, assembling gear for the morning dive at the Arch, which is a dive spot just passed the reef breaks off of the lagoon. The site has big overhang (hence the name) where lots of big sweet lips hang out, in addition to crayfish, and sometimes, a giant black cod. I was seriously pumped today, since it was my first attempt at guiding divers around a site.
Once submerged, I took four divers around the arch and into some deeper fissures in the coral, just to the left and right of the arch. We saw the hundreds of sweet lips and other fish including some pretty impressive trumpet fish. The conditions were ideal, and all in all, the dive went fairly smooth, except for one diver losing their weight belt; luckily, she retrieved it.
The afternoon went pretty smooth, and I ended up looking after the shop and read some more of my Rescue Diver manual while I filled up tanks and maintained gear. At around 4:00, I finished up and cracked a beer to get an early start on the New Years festivities.
For New Years dinner, Pete invited the Howea crew up to his house for a BBQ. We had fresh steak, kingfish, salads, and Vicky, Pete’s wife, made some amazing coconut braised pumpkin. While we ate, there happened to be a German documentary on television featuring Lord Howe. It was called Lord Howe: Pacific Gem, and it was extremely well done.
We had more drinks, and around 9:00 Brian drove Todd and I down to Ned’s beach where a bunch of people were having a BBQ. We had some drinks there before we headed down to the big bonfire down near the jetty. At midnight, people lit fireworks and I watched from close by as Mista, an islander, and another guy lit a 20 foot stack of wood and palm leaves on fire. The thing went up straight away and cast an orange glow over the whole crowd. The heat coming off of it was absolutely intense!
From there we headed in the back of a ute to the dance at the bowling club. For Lord Howe, the place was absolutely packed! Everyone was drinking and having a blast. I rocked the dance floor until around 3:30: Closing time.
After stumbling down the road a bit, I was picked up by Pete who drove us, including a guy named Choc holding on with his bike, to Ned’s beach once again where we finished the night listening to music and staring at the stars. I finally walked home around 5:30 in the morning.
December 30, 2006 - LHI
After a good night’s sleep, I opened the dive shop at half past eight for Pete who had a 9 o’clock snorkeling trip. Yet again it was another beautiful, sunny day. I have to pinch myself to think that my office will be a boatshed overlooking the lagoon, Mount Lidgebird and Gower towering high in the background.
For the rest of the morning I helped people plan their dives and boat trips, rented out kayaks and snorkeling equipment, filled oxygen tanks, and setup dive gear. I arrived right at the peak of busy season, and it was definitely busy today; three dives at 9:30, 11 and 2 o’clock, with about 6-7 divers each session!
After lunch I geared up to go on the 2 o’clock dive at Comets Hole in the lagoon. Comets Hole is a really easy dive to navigate because of a large coral shelf that runs perpendicular to the beach, but offers some incredible marine life. The dive was a milestone for me since it was the first time I had the opportunity to guide people on a dive. I took three people, a mom, dad and son down to a maximum depth of about 7 meters and stayed under for 70 minutes; my longest dive yet.
During our time underwater, we saw so many amazing fish and interesting marine life. Some of the highlights were three big Stingrays (Dasyatidae), a Galapagos Reef Shark (Carcharinus galapagensis), a Mosiac Moray (Enchelycore lichenosa), Lizardfish (Synodus dermatogenys, jaculum), a Pennant Bannerfish (Heniochus chrysostomus) and heaps of different Anemonefish (Nemo!). It was an impressive dive and because of the long bottom time, we had plenty of time to take in the details of the reef.
I took it easy at night; watched a movie, went and visited some friends at Pinetrees, and began reading my Rescue Diver manual.
December 29th, 2006 - LHI
Today was trial by fire. It was a completely beautiful day, and the sun was shinning bright over the lagoon. It was also the busiest day of the season thus far, according to the Howea Divers staff.
Despite the craziness, I learned a lot today, and feel confident that I will do well. My office is and open shed looking out onto two beautiful mountains, a stunning blue lagoon, and coral reef. Truly, it’s really hard to explain in words how beautiful it really is. Even locals who have been here for years are still blown away by the view. Lord Howe is paradise, period.
Throughout my day, I helped out with rentals, organised dive gear, and went out on the boat for a boat dive at “No Name Island,” a small island near Roach Island off of Ned’s beach. Although I didn’t dive today, I had the opportunity to hang out and check out the view. On the way back from the dive site, we were lucky enough to see some flying fish. It was just like Mario Brothers!
For the rest of the evening we sat around on the lagoon, drank some beers, and watched the sunset. Being on the east coast for the last three months, I really missed watching the sun set over the ocean; I love watching the sun sink into the water and clouds light up like fire.
Unfortunately, on my way back to my flat after work I completely stacked it over the handle bars of my bike, cut my toe and finger pretty bad, and got a nice bruise on my hip. Here’s the setup: I had picked a fresh Papaya from a tree outside a house we were helping to move boxes to and from the airport for a government official earlier in the afternoon and was carrying it in one arm. When I shifted my weight to avoid dropping it, wheel turned and I hit the pavement hard. It was a bad one, and the funniest part was a guy who witnessed the crash. He came running over, freaking out! I’m sure from his perspective it must have looked pretty bad, but for me, it was just a flash of bright light.
Later that night, I made my way to the bowling club for a beer. I was so happy that I showed up since I bumped into heaps of old friends. I was actually quite surprised to see so many of the people who were here when I was working at Pinetrees were still around. Even better, there were heaps of new people I didn’t recognize. It’s going to be great getting to know them all this season.
December 28th, 2006 - Lord Howe Island
After three flights from Port Douglas, I finally arrived at Lord Howe. I was so tired after leaving Port Douglas, I slept for hours in the Cairns airport, and tried to shake a sore throat. Luckily, the airport had air conditioning, because outside it was pushing 33 degrees Celsius.
When I got to Brisbane, my cousin and uncle were waiting for me when I got off the plane. I went back to their place in Mitchelton, did some laundry, checked out some of my families’ pictures that they had taken on vacation to Canada and North Stradbrooke Island, and met up with Danielle Webb, one of my good friends that I had met months before. She’s a sweet girl, and hooked me up with chocolate, cookies and a book, “The Great War.” We stayed up all night talking and I had only an hour sleep before heading back to the Brisbane airport. Once again, I slept on the flight, and once I arrived in Sydney, had some food, and slept some more. I reckon Australians are pretty used to seeing backpackers passed out in the airport, and it wouldn’t be the same without us.
I caught a flight to Lord Howe just before noon, and landed around two in the afternoon. Gai, one of the islanders who I met on my previous trip, hooked me up with a ride and informed me that my accommodation would be at Somerset lodge, one of the closest resorts to the lagoon and Busty’s boatshed. I was stoked when I got to my flat; it was everything I needed, and I didn’t have to share it with anyone! Honestly, I’m pretty lucky to have scored this accommodation; at this time of year, it’s next to impossible to find something like the flat I’m now staying in.
After settling in, I took a bike ride and met up with some of my old friends, got some groceries, and headed to the boatshed for some beers with the gang. I met all of the people I was going to be working with, and we decided to get some pizzas from Humpty Mick’s café. This season, I will be working Brian, Pete, Todd and Dave; however, Dave will be leaving on the 12th to go back to the mainland and a woman name Mel will be joining us. The entire staff and their families met at eight had some fantastic food and drink. I was really tired and soon after the meal headed home for an early night.
I couldn’t be happier to be back on the island.
This morning we headed out with a full boat expecting to dive the north head caves. Unfortunately, like many occasions lately, the conditions just weren’t right and we had to abort to plan B: The Octopus Gardens near the south passage to the lagoon.
I was pretty excited to dive a new site, although I was a little apprehensive because of navigation (I had no idea what to expect) and I was taking Pete’s 9 year old daughter and one of his good friends Anthony on the dive. Luckily, the dive went great; Brooke is really confident for a 9 year old, and she communicated underwater, which the most essential part of safe and fun diving. Although there were no octopi to be seen on this trip, we explored some awesome terrain, including some impressive corals and gutters.
My afternoon was spent cleaning up our mess and filling tanks, but after work I was invited to go on a booze cruise in the lagoon with some of the staff from Arijilla, one of the resorts on the island; one of the staff Ash was celebrating a birthday. We spun around the lagoon looking for turtles and I drank back a few imported beers from Laos. Yummy.
After the cruise we got into a huge BBQ and ate like kings. We seem to be doing the BBQ thing quite often, and I can’t complain one bit! Truly, the BBQ is definitely an Aussie event.
January 23, 2007 - LHI
It was my day off today, but instead of sleeping in and wasting my day in bed, I got up at the crack of dawn and went on a fishing trip to Ball’s Pyramid with an islander named Scotty and the boat “Belle Chase.” There were six other guys on board for the trip, and the day was perfect; beautiful sunshine, light breeze, and small swell. We left Lord Howe for the Pyramid, which is about 50 kilometers north at seven in the morning.
It took us a couple hours to get to the Pyramid, and we trolled for fish the whole way, catching a nice big kingfish to start off the day. For the first hour and a half we used sonar to detect schools of mackerel and caught them for live bait. We then headed north of the Pyramid and dropped our lines with squid as bait. Almost immediately, all of us had big kingfish on our lines; kingy’s are a great sport fish and fight like troopers. We must have hauled about 10 in on the first go. All of us on board were stoked and having the time of our lives. Unfortunately, because of the rising water temperatures around Lord Howe, the sharks soon came to rain on our kingfish parade. The entire day, we must have hooked about 30 Galapagos wailers. They became such nuisance that we had to move almost every time we got fish on board, and often they took big chunks out of our fish before we could get them on board.
For the rest of the afternoon we fished some deeper troughs around the Pyramid, and hauled in some more kingfish, perch, fusiliers, and of course some more sharks. All in all, we ended up with two huge tubs full of fish.
Scotty cleaned and filleted the fish on the way back to Lord Howe and everyone on board got to take as much fish as they could possibly handle. I managed to walk away with four kingfish and a perch. I’m going to have one hell of a BBQ!!!
January 22nd, 2007 - LHI
This morning we headed off to dive the north head cave; however, once we got out to the dive site, Busty thought there was a little too much surge coming through the area. Instead, we decided to dive a site called Yellow Rock, which is located just on the south-side of the north passage. I buddied up with a girl named Nina and we had an hour dive exploring the awesome channel. There were hundreds of different species of hard and soft corals, in addition to lots of crayfish, scorpionfish, cardinalfish, butterfly fish, and I even spotted a rare black-coloured lionfish.
After the dive I hung out in the shed; it was a busy afternoon and we had nine people to set up for, all of whom were first time divers. They all arrived at 1:30, watched the introductory video, did some skills in the lagoon with Busty and Todd, and we headed out to Comet’s hole. There were four teenage girls with Todd and I had a laugh at the hard time they were giving him; if I could have had a dollar for every time they said “Oh my God!” I would be a billionaire! Everyone had a good laugh though.
When we got back I had to hurry up and get ready for my shift at Palm Sugar. I’ve been working heaps the last few days, and feel much better now that I’m making some cash instead of just spending it!
January 21st, 2007 - LHI
This morning I borrowed Busty’s truck to take Laura to the airport; it was her last day and we got up extra early to make sure that she had everything packed and didn’t forget anything. It was really great getting to know her and she was an inspiration to me. I was sad to see her go; we had a really good time together the last two weeks. She worked extremely hard on her PhD work, was studying some fascinating stuff, and got to travel around to some of the most beautiful places on earth while being paid. It has seriously made me consider going back to school and pursuing marine biology. Who knows what the future will bring?
Mel and Busty had a dive at the Twin Caves today and I stuck around minding the shed. I drove Dan to the airport and said goodbye to him, and knocked off around 1:30. After my shift I went for a swim and took a kayak out to the reef for some exercise. The sun was extremely hot today, and the weather has been perfect; it hasn’t rained once in the daytime for the entire three weeks I’ve been on the island!
For the first time in a long while I had an opportunity for a proper catnap. I slept like a baby for a couple hours before heading to Palm sugar for a shift.
January 21st, 2007 - LHI
This morning I borrowed Busty’s truck to take Laura to the airport; it was her last day and we got up extra early to make sure that she had everything packed and didn’t forget anything. It was really great getting to know her and she was an inspiration to me. I was sad to see her go; we had a really good time together the last two weeks. She worked extremely hard on her PhD work, was studying some fascinating stuff, and got to travel around to some of the most beautiful places on earth while being paid. It has seriously made me consider going back to school and pursuing marine biology. Who knows what the future will bring?
Mel and Busty had a dive at the Twin Caves today and I stuck around minding the shed. I drove Dan to the airport and said goodbye to him, and knocked off around 1:30. After my shift I went for a swim and took a kayak out to the reef for some exercise. The sun was extremely hot today, and the weather has been perfect; it hasn’t rained once in the daytime for the entire three weeks I’ve been on the island!
For the first time in a long while I had an opportunity for a proper catnap. I slept like a baby for a couple hours before heading to Palm Sugar for a shift.
July 20th, 2007 - LHI
With all of the excitement these days I’ve been running a little behind on rest. It doesn’t help that today I woke up with a slight hangover from the night before. Luckily, I had shed duty this morning and didn’t have to do much; I got the dive gear ready, tidied up the shed, and sat in the sun until noon.
In the afternoon Busty, Todd and I took a big group out to Erscott’s north for a dive. Although Erscott’s is a shallow dive, roughly eight meters maximum, it’s pretty special due to the healthy coral and abundant fish life. On this occasion I took some first time divers along the wall of the reef and we spotted a few unicorn fish, a moray eel tangled in some finger coral, hundreds of endemic McColluch clown fish sitting in anemone, and a school of Galapagos wailer sharks encircling their prey!
After a busy day in the boatshed I headed off to Palm Sugar to work the dinner shift with Shannon from Pro Dive, and it turned out to be a busy night. Cathy cooked us up an amazing beef curry for our evening meal and we gorged ourselves on her homemade cakes; tonight was pear and coconut, lemon chocolate and triple-layer caramel cake.
As soon as I finished my shift I met up with Laura and we headed down to Ned’s beach for the radio shack fundraiser dance. It was five dollars entry fee and it was a really great time, despite the fact that I was completely burned out. I chatted with a bunch of people, splashed around at the tide break with the fluorescence, and headed home at half past midnight to get some well-needed sleep.
January 19th, 2007 - LHI
After a great night sleep (I’ve been having restless sleeps lately), I headed down to the shed for a boat dive first thing. I was pretty excited because the conditions were perfect to go explore the Cathedral caves at the north head wall. Two regulars, Chris and John, and another guy from New York named Craig geared up and were in the water by 10 o’clock in the morning.
Thus far, the Cathedral has been my absolute favourite dive. The terrain is otherworldly, with a huge cave that drops down from the surface and extends around some big rocks and into the island. Its name comes from the fact that the sunlight comes through the ceiling making it resemble the light coming in through the glass in a church. It was just stunning.
Along the way, Craig and I spotted some pretty interesting marine life. The Cathedral is Nudibranch heaven, and we spotted heaps of them of all different shapes, sizes and colours. Also, we ran into some big sea stars, a few scorpion fish, schools of brown triggerfish, spangled emperor and a big octopus hiding underneath a rock in the Cathedral cave. I seriously could have stayed down there all day!
I covered the shed over noon hour and in the afternoon I went out with Busty, Todd, Renae, and Heather, the Marine Park manager to work on some of our skills for our Rescue Diver certification. We went to Erscott’s north and practiced a few skills in deeper water, including finding a missing diver, rescuing an unconscious diver from the bottom, and dealing with a tired and panicked diver. Great stuff to know and I feel a lot more confident, although a little more practice will definitely help.
Tonight the entire Busty’s Boatshed family got together with the researchers, a couple of the regular divers and a few friends for a BBQ under the pines. I went up to the Top Shop at the top of the hill on the island a bought some fresh, homemade sausages, some onion and zucchini for Laura and I, and we had some drinks at the boatshed before heading over to the BBQ area to cook up a storm. Busty brought some kingfish, and Pete and Vic brought heaps of salad, sausages, homemade bread, and Vic brought her famous coconut pumpkin bake (which I now have a recipe for). The feast was incredible, and we had full bellies by the time the sun set over the horizon. The night ended up being extra special because we were treated to an amazing view of a comet moving through space; the tail on the comet was so bright, and it was absolutely mesmerizing to watch. I took a few pictures but they don’t do it justice.
After the BBQ Dan, Laura, Todd, Luke and I headed off to the bowling club for the Friday night dance. A few hours and a few drinks later I headed home, a little tipsy and buzzing from the incredible day.
January 18th, 2007 - LHI
This morning I helped Pete clear out one of the storage lockers at the teachers’ housing near the police station. Another teacher is coming soon and he has 27 cubic meters of stuff to be unloaded; Pete has lost one of his storage spaces to make room for all his gear. We made a few trips up to a new storage space and I stopped by Pandanus restaurant to ask for some work. They seemed keen so hopefully I’ll be able to get some more shifts in the evenings to start saving for my Asian adventures.
The afternoon was pretty hectic in the shed, and we finished late. None of us felt like cooking so we decided to meet at Humpty Mick’s for a drink and a meal. I went down with Laura and we both had some amazing steak sandwiches and cold Aussie beers.
To finish off the night, I threw on 2 Fast 2 Furious, one of the movies that Dan, the other researcher, burned for me.
January 17th, 2007 - LHI
Despite the overcast weather, the morning wasn’t all that bad. I went out with Todd on a boat dive, and stayed on board to keep watch (I.E. read my book). They explored the North Head Gutters, and I got through about 50 pages while Turns and Noddy’s fed off of small fish on the ocean surface, swooping just above my head.
I helped clean up in the shed and had the afternoon off to do whatever, so I decided to take a nice catnap and then headed out for an evening ride with Laura down to Little Island. It was her first time riding down to that area and she did really well considering the monstrous hill by Capella resort. I rode home quickly to get ready for work.
Tonight was my first night at Palm Sugar, and the job ended up being really good. Kathy, the owner, cooks all the meals, another girl Rachael from Pro Dive waited the tables, and Pam from Pinetrees washed up; I shadowed Rachael for the first night to get the hang of it. Palm Sugar is a small restaurant at the top of the big hill on the island, and it is tucked away amongst the palms and giant hibiscus bushes. It’s an incredibly romantic venue. At the end of the shift Kathy cooked us all a meal and we had homemade cake and wine. I think I’m really going to like working this job!
January 16th, 2007 - LHI
Today was magic; both the weather and the diving were incredible! In the morning I went out one of my favourite dive sites, the Arch. I took two teenage Aussie guys down and showed them around. Although the visibility wasn’t as great as it usually is, and there was a little bit of surge, we still had a great dive and saw heaps of marine life. For the first time ever I got to see a huge Spanish dancer. We also saw a school of trumpet fish, two lionfish, lots of crayfish, a hungry moray, a few scorpion fish, a brightly coloured nudibranch, and of course the hundreds of dotted sweetlips swimming underneath the arch.
Straight away after we got back I went out on the boat with Todd and went to Comets hole for a dive; I stayed on the boat because the dive was part of an Open Water course and Todd had to teach them some skills and ensure they had learned everything they needed to know. Pete’s son Noah and his friend stayed on the boat with me while I read in the hot sun; definitely not hard work!
In the afternoon I headed out to Middle beach with the intention of catching some crayfish for dinner but there was too much wind so I abandoned my initial plan and headed to Ned’s beach for a snorkel instead. It was my first time snorkeling Ned’s this season and it was just as amazing as I remember it. The kingfish were still going crazy near the shore, the coral was colourful and healthy, and I saw a big Galapagos wailer shark at the back of the sandy channel leading out to sea.
In the evening I chilled out with Laura the uni researcher, and we watched the Golden Globes together. It was funny because I had no clue what movies and television shows were up for awards; I have been away from North America so long that I am so out of touch with film and television. Regardless, it was nice to just chill out and watch some of the old idiot box with a sexy PhD student.
January 15th, 2007 - LHI
This morning I went for a dive at Rupert’s Reef just off the Admiralty Island’s. I went with Jenn, my good friend from Pinetrees, Dan the researcher, and another regular diver Ralph. We descended at half past ten in the morning.
Quite literally, Rupert’s was my favourite dive so far on Lord Howe. There was a spectacular diversity of brightly coloured hard and soft corals, not to mention the amazing terrain and fish life. The site is a coral reef about 50 meters in length with a huge gutter down the middle. I buddied with Jenn and we explored around the entire reef before heading down the gutter. Along the way, we encountered a big trumpet fish, the rare clown trigger fish, a beautiful (but intimidating) moray, an aggressive stonefish, a big hawksbill turtle, and a few fascinating nudibranches.
After a busy afternoon in the shed, I went back to my place with Todd and had a couple drinks, went for an evening ride, chilled out reading books and worked on the website for the rest of the night.
January 14th, 2007 - LHI
I had intended to work at Pinetrees today, so Busty gave me the day off. Unfortunately, the owners of Pinetrees are being very inflexible, and have decided (at the last minute) that they’re unable to accommodate me by paying me cash-in-hand for one day a week’s work. It seems silly and pretentious to me, but everything happens for a reason, and instead I will be working somewhere else (which is just fine with me!). To be honest, their loss!
I had some letters to write today, and went to Busty’s to use the internet, print out the letters, and scan some receipts; it wasn’t exactly the kind of stuff I like to do on my days off, but it had to be done. The letters are for OHIP, asking for an extension, or else I may not have health insurance in Ontario when I return to Canada. Like I said before: Necessary, but completely mundane.
In the afternoon I wrote a little bit of my novel, had a snooze, and met up with Laura, the PhD student studying the corals. We hung out for a bit and I went over to watch a movie with her and the other researcher Dan at the research lab. Before I went there though, I went up to the Palm Sugar café to see if they had any work for me. I met the owner Cathy and she was incredibly nice. She said that there was work for me and they could pay me cash in hand. Problem solved.
January 13th, 2007 - LHI
It was a very busy day in the boatshed today, and there was a lot to be done in addition to the regular duties of filling tanks, cleaning up and selling tours. First off, it was inventory day. Luckily, there wasn’t much left and it was all relatively in one spot. We ran out of water to wash off the gear, so we also had to fix that issue as well. All went smoothly, and the day turned out to be magic.
In the morning I accompanied Brian on a dive to Noddy’s Island, one of the Admiralty Island’s. The conditions were perfect; the lagoon was like glass, the sun was peaking through the clouds, and the water was a warm blue from the northern currents pushing in the tropical water from Queensland. Although I had to stay on the boat, it was absolutely amazing to be out on the water with hundreds of seabirds flying above my head.
When I knocked off in the evening I went for a swim in the lagoon and got ready to go to Pinetrees for my first shift. When I got there I was surprised to hear that I wasn’t working after all. Typical of Pinetrees, no one notified me to let me know that I wasn’t working because they were unwilling to pay me cash-in-hand for the next couple of weeks while I sorted out my Visa. I wasn’t a very happy man, that’s for sure. Marie, one of the managers, bought me a beer and I went on my way back home.
One of the girl’s on the island named Alex turned 18 today, and there was a big party to celebrate. I went over to my friend Jenn’s house before hand while she and another friend Shelly ‘got ready.’ Girls are funny. We arrived at the party around 10 o’clock with Shelly’s boyfriend Shane and Troy, another ex-Pinetrees employee. The party was bumping and there were plenty food and drinks. The dance floor (the outside deck) was the hotspot, and it was going off all night. I definitely had a great time, and left just after midnight.
January 12th, 2007 - LHI
I have officially been in Australia for one year today. Thinking back on all that I have accomplished, I am so pleased; okay, I admit, ecstatic. The past year could not have been any better, and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to explore this fine country. With all my heart, I am sold. I love the landscape, the climate, and most of all, the people. I’m still waiting to meet an Aussie that I don’t like. I know that Canada is home, but someday, eventually, I will make Australia my new home. It’s just too good.
I was woken up late today by Laura after some crazy dreams. I hadn’t slept well during the night so I decided to sleep in a bit. We chilled out for a bit, had a cup of coffee and discussed our plans for the day. She had to go collect samples from Middle Beach and Boat Harbour, while I was stuck in the shed filling tanks and hooking people up with all their gear.
Although I didn’t get a dive in today, I can’t complain one bit. The weather has been impeccable and I get to peer out onto the lagoon all day long. Today it was as smooth as glass and the summer sun warmed the air to a perfect temperature.
In the afternoon I helped Pete move the school teacher Mel’s stuff from her house to the plane; Friendly, one of the pilot’s on the island, was doing a run for her. We moved most of it in a little under an hour.
When I returned to the boatshed, it was utter chaos. I had to watch and fill 30 tanks, help people with their rentals, including lugging kayaks down to the water, settle people’s bill’s, and sell diving and tours to whoever came in. My head was spinning when I knocked off at 7 o’clock.
Of the two weeks I’ve been on the island, tonight’s sunset was by far the most spectacular; the whole sky turned a beautiful pink and orange, and the foreground island made deep silhouettes against the sinking star. I rode my bike down to Little island and rode back in the semi-darkness, dodging endemic woodhens as the crossed my path searching for food.
Later in the night I hit the Friday night party at the bowling club and ripped up the dance floor.
January 11th, 2007 - LHI
It was a crazy morning at the shed. We had three dives in four hours and I was in charge of prepping them all and making sure everyone had equipment, was transferred to Ned’s beach on time, and cleaning up. Because it was so busy, the morning went by so quickly. I filled a few tanks and Brian let me have the afternoon off because I had to come back in at night for our night snorkel and dive at North Bay to witness the annual coral spawning. A team of marine ecologists, including the Doctor who first discovered coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef, Peter Harrison, were predicting tonight would be the night when the corals send their sperm and eggs into the water.
I went for a ride and the afternoon and then passed out for a couple hours to prepare for the night.
After dinner I showed up at the shed and it was chaos once again; there were thirty people needing wetsuits and dive equipment, including lights and glow sticks. Surprisingly, we pulled it off pretty well. We arrived at North Bay around 8:30, got our gear on, and jumped in. I partnered up with Renae, the girl I had done my Rescue Diver skills last week.
It was my first night dive, and I must say, it was really relaxing. Many of the fish were asleep or hiding and different creatures were moving around in the darkness. We saw heaps of prawns, crabs and crayfish, a huge wrasse sleeping underneath a plate coral, worms, and a really nice lionfish that I almost didn’t see; Brian has been stung by one and he said it hurt for days, so I was lucky.
Nearing the end of our dive, we finally spotted what we had come to see: Coral spawning. Truly, it was a magical sight. The closest thing I could compare it to is snow; however, instead of falling down, the snow was floating up! When we shone our torches towards the coral, the spawn were attracted to the light and it looked like one of those glass shaker ornaments. Not many people in the world have the opportunity to see coral spawn in their lifetime, so it felt pretty special, especially at night underneath a trillion blinking stars.
January 10th, 2007 - LHI
Brian came by this morning and told me I could have the day off; it was still pretty windy on the eastern side of the island and there was only one dive going out today.
I could have easily gone back to bed but felt I should get up and be productive. I spent a few hours working on the website during the morning, and in the afternoon the weather turned and the sun came out. I went for a bike ride down to Blinky beach and found it was packed with people (for Lord Howe, 50 people on a beach is packed!). I went back home, ate some lunch, grabbed my surfboard and peddled back down to the beach.
By the time I returned to the beach the swell had gone down. I went for a paddle regardless, but in the end decided to leave the board on the beach and went body surfing on the wicked beach break. The water was a perfect turquoise blue, and the weather was dazzling. It was a great afternoon off, that’s for sure!
In the evening I met the Howea gang down at the boatshed for Ted’s going away party. There were about 25 of us putting back beers as the sunset over the ocean. We ordered pizza and had nibbles before heading off to the bowling club to party some more and check out some live comedy.
Before the comedy started there was a belly dancer and a band. Both were good, but it was definitely the comedian who stole the night. The comedian’s name was Brett Nichols and he was a professional comic from Sydney. He made me laugh so hard my belly hurt!
To finish off the night I watched shooting stars with one of the PHD students named Laura, who is studying corals on the island. I saw two stars blast across the sky and made a couple wishes.
January 9th, 2007 - LHI
The Howea Divers website is well on its way after today’s seven hour coding marathon. I had the day off from the dive shop, so I decided to be productive. I woke up at 9 o’clock and worked straight through until around 4 o’clock; I hardly budged from my seat except to make a cup of tea and go to the toilet. In the end, I managed to get most of my photoshop work done on the images I needed, finalized my CSS, and completed four full pages. Already, the site is looking good; real good.
After sitting down all day, I really needed to get some exercise. I biked down to Pinetrees to check in about a part-time job, and then continued on my daily ride to Little Island. You would think I would get bored of the same route day after day, but the truth is that it’s an absolutely stunning run and nearly impossible to get sick of.
Later in the evening I went over to Cory’s, one of the islanders that I worked with at Pinetrees during my last stint on the island. It was Jerlinda’s going away party, and I wanted to see her off properly. She was a really good friend of mine during the three months on the island, and we kept in contact via e-mail while I was on the mainland. She’s a super genuine person and her laugh is infectious; you can’t help but laugh along with her whenever she bursts into one of her fits. She’s such a great girl, and I’m sad to see her go.
January 8th, 2007 - LHI
I worked this morning but had the afternoon off. Indeed, business has been strange for the dive shop. Some days we are flat out with 15 divers, North Bay and snorkeling tours, while some days are pretty quiet.
For my afternoon off I worked on completing the editing and sizing of all the dive site images in photoshop that will be used for the website. It was tedious work, but I got most of it done, and felt good that I had got a start on things.
In the afternoon I went for my bike ride, and headed down to Ned’s in the evening for a BBQ. One of the school teachers was leaving and many of the islanders were celebrating her hard work. She had taught Noah, Pete Busteed’s son for two years, and apparently she did a really great job and the kids loved her.
At the BBQ I also had the opportunity to meet Mel, one of the new Howea staff. She is taking over for Dave who is leaving on Friday. She just finished her second degree, and is now a veterinarian. She’s taking a few months working for Howea before returning to the mainland to start her career.
January 8th, 2007 - LHI
I worked this morning but had the afternoon off. Indeed, business has been strange for the dive shop. Some days we are flat out with 15 divers, North Bay and snorkeling tours, while some days are pretty quiet.
For my afternoon off I worked on completing the editing and sizing of all the dive site images in photoshop that will be used for the website. It was tedious work, but I got most of it done, and felt good that I had got a start on things.
In the afternoon I went for my bike ride, and headed down to Ned’s in the evening for a BBQ. One of the school teachers was leaving and many of the islanders were celebrating her hard work. She had taught Noah, Pete Busteed’s son for two years, and apparently she did a really great job and the kids loved her.
At the BBQ I also had the opportunity to meet Mel, one of the new Howea staff. She is taking over for Dave who is leaving on Friday. She just finished her second degree, and is now a veterinarian. She’s taking a few months working for Howea before returning to the mainland to start her career.
January 7th, 2007 - LHI
Despite it being my day off, I woke up early and went down to the boatshed for a dive at 9 o’clock. Unfortunately, there was only one person looking to go for a dive, so the dive was cancelled. Instead, I went to Brian’s place and scanned all of the dive site diagrams he drew to include in the new website.
In the afternoon, I had a nap and headed back down to the lagoon to go on the snorkel tour with Pete. We went to four different sites including Erscott’s hole south and north, Comet’s hole and Hook reef. Erscott’s south is by far my favourite; the coral is so colourful and vibrant, and the fish life is truly exotic. On this occasion I spotted a huge puffer fish, a unicorn wrasse, a big reef shark, and some extremely friendly double-header wrasse. At Erscott’s north was great too, and there are some pretty impressive table corals and a big coral wall facing out towards the ocean. Comet’s was a little murky today because of the fresh water spring under the sand, but great nonetheless. There were plenty of sweetlips swimming about today, and thousands of different damselfish sputtering about near the surface. I was a little cold so I decided to stay on board the boat for Hook’s reef. I helped Pete drive the boat back at around 5 o’clock.
I was going to go fishing in the evening but on my way back I bumped into Damo who had just returned from the south part of the island with a good stock of fresh fish. We made plans to go out fishing together and he gave me a beautiful trevally for dinner. I went home straight away, filleted it, and threw it on the BBQ with some fresh potato chips; simply delicious!
I spent the night working on the images for the website, burning DVD’s and watched “The Last Samurai” on television, dipping into my Peter Carey compilation of short stories during commercial breaks. It would have been a night of uninterrupted relaxation had it not been for a huge huntsman spider that came crawling down the wall next to my bed; for those of you who are unfamiliar with the huntsman, it can grow bigger than an adult male hand and is as quick as a cockroach! I tried to capture and release this particular specimen, but to no avail. In the end, I had to kill it; there was no way I was going to sleep with that monster crawling around! Finally after a half hour and a variety of different weapons, (books, shoes and board shorts) the spider went swirling down the toilet.
January 6th, 2007 - LHI
Today I worked for the morning, and had the afternoon off. After a nice long nap, I hopped on my bike and drove down to the bowling club where I left my bike to go up to Middle beach. The walk brought back many memories, and not much has changed except for the fact that the terrain is much drier than in the winter.
I walked up and over the hill towards Middle beach, stopping to pet the two small bulls roaming within an electric fence. I went through a garden I found and picked a pumpkin, some potatoes, rock melon and honeydew melon; I took the liberty of taking a few items since the price of groceries on the island is almost triple the price of the mainland. I took a walk to the Clear Place before heading back home, dropping off my fresh produce, and heading back out again for some hardcore physical fitness. I jumped on my bike once again and peddled over the difficult hill by Capella lodge, and down the little island track at the very south end of the island. It was a good sweat, and I definitely earned my evening beer.
I took it easy in the evening, and started working on the new Howea Divers website, watched two movies: “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and the first “Back to the Future.”
January 5th, 2007 - LHI
Today I went for a dive at the Twin Caves on the north end of the island, around the back of Mount Eliza. I buddied up with twins from Canberra, Steve and Greg, who have been diving with us all week. While on the surface there were only two caves, underwater the caves split into three and went about 15 meters into the mountain. The maximum depth hit around 20 meters, although most of the time we were at a depth of about 13 meters.
The Twin Caves had plenty of really healthy hard and soft corals, sponges and sea grasses, but the fish life was minimal compared to other sites. We did have the pleasure of seeing a strangely coloured manta ray curled up in a little enclave, surrounded by a lionfish and coral-banded shrimp. We also bumped into a foot-long sea slug.
Later on I went to the golf club to meet up with some friends for a beer and a feed. Damo and Sean, two guys I worked with at Pinetrees were doing the catering, and the food was unreal. I sat around and chatted with the Howea crew and a few friends from Capella lodge before having an early Friday night.
January 4th, 2007 - LHI
This morning I helped Pete pack up and move some boxes for one of the Meteorologists who is moving back to the mainland.
I stuck around the shed in the afternoon, and strapped on some scuba gear to clean the bottom of one of the boats, read my book and went for a swim in the lagoon. Unfortunately, it was low tide and while I was swimming I put my finger down on an urchin; I spent an hour pulling out the spines. Since the first day, I have been nursing the bruises and wounds I suffered falling off my bike, in addition to a swollen knee from the dance floor on New Years, and now I had urchin spines in my finger; boy, was I in rough shape!
At night, I went to check my e-mail at Busty’s house, and had a visit to the Radio shack. More on the shack later, it’s a crazy place that needs a proper introduction!
January 3rd, 2007 - LHI
Another day at the office; it’s too bad that my office is a one mile long beach in the middle of the South Pacific. I wake up hating myself everyday (sarcasm).
The busy season is upon us and everyday is pretty flat-out with people looking to dive, do snorkeling tours, or head up to North Bay for the day. All day long there are people coming into the boatshed fitting wet suits, grabbing snorkel gear, or returning empty scuba tanks. Despite the chaos, it’s really hard to get stressed out; all you need to do is look out onto the lagoon and immediately the tension melts away.
I went on the second dive of the day and my buddy was a cool guy from Scotland. We went back to the Arch again, although this time there was heaps more to see. The crayfish were out in full-force and there seemed to be a hundred more sweetlips hanging around. Underneath the swim-through we say some Lionfish, lots of exotic nudibranches, and even a big moray swimming through one of the gutters. I’m getting better at conserving air and relaxing, which gives me more time to pay attention to the details.
Later in the night, the Howea crew met at the bowling club for a couple of beers. After a few pints we all headed back to Busty’s place for a couple more. It was totally unexpected, but Pete and Busty broke out a wicked card game called “Grass,” that they used to play as teenagers. Over 20 years old, the premise of the game is along the lines of dealing marijuana, trying to earn the most money, and stuffing up your competition. It was highly entertaining (excuse the pun…). In Canada, the game would be an absolute hit, no question! Needless to say, we were all pretty hazy when we decided to pack it in at midnight.
January 2nd, 2007 - LHI
I got up an hour early today to get everything ready for Brian and Dave’s trip out to Ball’s Pyramid, the best dive in the Lord Howe Island area according to Brian. I arrived at 8 am and got seven sets of gear ready and drove them down to the jetty where Brian was parked with Jack Shick’s boat; a loaner for the day. We loaded everything up by 9 o’clock and by quarter after they were on their way.
Ball’s Pyramid is the world’s largest oceanic volcanic rock stack, and heaps of rare and endemic animal life flock to it, both above and below the water. On land, an extremely rare stick insect called a phasmid, which was once thought to be extinct, roams the rocky soil and eats the sea ravaged tea trees. Under the water, thousands of fish including sharks, kingfish, trevally and spangled emperor feed, and the area is home to the endemic ballina angelfish. Although I had to stay behind today, it is certain that I will have my chance to dive the site within the three months that I’m here.
Instead, I hung out in the boat shed and dealt with customers for the morning while Todd and another islander named Ellis took a group diving around to a site called Malabar. In the afternoon, I went along with Todd to another dive site just outside the north passage and kept watch on the boat while he guided a family and finished teaching one of the boys the final skills for his Open Water Diver course. The wind had picked up and the swell was choppy; although I didn’t get sick, I was pretty nauseous after an hour at sea.
To finish off the day Pete got Todd and I to do the snorkel tour in the lagoon so that I could actually experience what I was selling to customers. It was an amazing afternoon, and although I skipped out on snorkeling Comet’s hole and Hook reef, I jumped in at Erscot’s hole, the healthiest and most vibrant site in the lagoon; on our way to the site, we had to hit the boat into neutral to avoid turning a big green turtle into fish food. At Erscot’s there is such a diversity of fish life that your head spins. On this occasion, I had the opportunity to see a school of double-headers, spangled emperors and a reef shark munching on an urchin, plus hundreds of endemic Lord Howe damselfish and an absolutely huge porcupine fish. Erscot’s is such a treat, and there is always something new to see regardless of how many times you snorkel the site.
January 1st, 2007 - LHI
A new beginning…I love New Years day because it is a time to reflect, but also a time to make goals and look forward. I’m so very lucky to be back at Lord Howe, especially completing my dive masters, but I still have much to accomplish. Today I slept in until 3:00 in the afternoon shaking off a hangover and contemplating my next moves, and my long term goals for this year. While I’d like to say I’ve got it all planned for the next year, I definitely keep in mind how fast things can change and ultimately, have to relax and take one day at a time; in my opinion, it’s the only way to truly embrace the present.
In the evening, I picked up my bike from Pete’s, went for a ride to Coby’s corner near the golf course, and read some more of the Rescue Diver Manual.
All in all, today was pretty uneventful, but relaxing; a much needed day of rejuvenation after a hard night of partying!
December 31st, 2006 - LHI
New Years Eve on Lord Howe Island turned out to be spectacular! I started my day at half past eight, assembling gear for the morning dive at the Arch, which is a dive spot just passed the reef breaks off of the lagoon. The site has big overhang (hence the name) where lots of big sweet lips hang out, in addition to crayfish, and sometimes, a giant black cod. I was seriously pumped today, since it was my first attempt at guiding divers around a site.
Once submerged, I took four divers around the arch and into some deeper fissures in the coral, just to the left and right of the arch. We saw the hundreds of sweet lips and other fish including some pretty impressive trumpet fish. The conditions were ideal, and all in all, the dive went fairly smooth, except for one diver losing their weight belt; luckily, she retrieved it.
The afternoon went pretty smooth, and I ended up looking after the shop and read some more of my Rescue Diver manual while I filled up tanks and maintained gear. At around 4:00, I finished up and cracked a beer to get an early start on the New Years festivities.
For New Years dinner, Pete invited the Howea crew up to his house for a BBQ. We had fresh steak, kingfish, salads, and Vicky, Pete’s wife, made some amazing coconut braised pumpkin. While we ate, there happened to be a German documentary on television featuring Lord Howe. It was called Lord Howe: Pacific Gem, and it was extremely well done.
We had more drinks, and around 9:00 Brian drove Todd and I down to Ned’s beach where a bunch of people were having a BBQ. We had some drinks there before we headed down to the big bonfire down near the jetty. At midnight, people lit fireworks and I watched from close by as Mista, an islander, and another guy lit a 20 foot stack of wood and palm leaves on fire. The thing went up straight away and cast an orange glow over the whole crowd. The heat coming off of it was absolutely intense!
From there we headed in the back of a ute to the dance at the bowling club. For Lord Howe, the place was absolutely packed! Everyone was drinking and having a blast. I rocked the dance floor until around 3:30: Closing time.
After stumbling down the road a bit, I was picked up by Pete who drove us, including a guy named Choc holding on with his bike, to Ned’s beach once again where we finished the night listening to music and staring at the stars. I finally walked home around 5:30 in the morning.
December 30, 2006 - LHI
After a good night’s sleep, I opened the dive shop at half past eight for Pete who had a 9 o’clock snorkeling trip. Yet again it was another beautiful, sunny day. I have to pinch myself to think that my office will be a boatshed overlooking the lagoon, Mount Lidgebird and Gower towering high in the background.
For the rest of the morning I helped people plan their dives and boat trips, rented out kayaks and snorkeling equipment, filled oxygen tanks, and setup dive gear. I arrived right at the peak of busy season, and it was definitely busy today; three dives at 9:30, 11 and 2 o’clock, with about 6-7 divers each session!
After lunch I geared up to go on the 2 o’clock dive at Comets Hole in the lagoon. Comets Hole is a really easy dive to navigate because of a large coral shelf that runs perpendicular to the beach, but offers some incredible marine life. The dive was a milestone for me since it was the first time I had the opportunity to guide people on a dive. I took three people, a mom, dad and son down to a maximum depth of about 7 meters and stayed under for 70 minutes; my longest dive yet.
During our time underwater, we saw so many amazing fish and interesting marine life. Some of the highlights were three big Stingrays (Dasyatidae), a Galapagos Reef Shark (Carcharinus galapagensis), a Mosiac Moray (Enchelycore lichenosa), Lizardfish (Synodus dermatogenys, jaculum), a Pennant Bannerfish (Heniochus chrysostomus) and heaps of different Anemonefish (Nemo!). It was an impressive dive and because of the long bottom time, we had plenty of time to take in the details of the reef.
I took it easy at night; watched a movie, went and visited some friends at Pinetrees, and began reading my Rescue Diver manual.
December 29th, 2006 - LHI
Today was trial by fire. It was a completely beautiful day, and the sun was shinning bright over the lagoon. It was also the busiest day of the season thus far, according to the Howea Divers staff.
Despite the craziness, I learned a lot today, and feel confident that I will do well. My office is and open shed looking out onto two beautiful mountains, a stunning blue lagoon, and coral reef. Truly, it’s really hard to explain in words how beautiful it really is. Even locals who have been here for years are still blown away by the view. Lord Howe is paradise, period.
Throughout my day, I helped out with rentals, organised dive gear, and went out on the boat for a boat dive at “No Name Island,” a small island near Roach Island off of Ned’s beach. Although I didn’t dive today, I had the opportunity to hang out and check out the view. On the way back from the dive site, we were lucky enough to see some flying fish. It was just like Mario Brothers!
For the rest of the evening we sat around on the lagoon, drank some beers, and watched the sunset. Being on the east coast for the last three months, I really missed watching the sun set over the ocean; I love watching the sun sink into the water and clouds light up like fire.
Unfortunately, on my way back to my flat after work I completely stacked it over the handle bars of my bike, cut my toe and finger pretty bad, and got a nice bruise on my hip. Here’s the setup: I had picked a fresh Papaya from a tree outside a house we were helping to move boxes to and from the airport for a government official earlier in the afternoon and was carrying it in one arm. When I shifted my weight to avoid dropping it, wheel turned and I hit the pavement hard. It was a bad one, and the funniest part was a guy who witnessed the crash. He came running over, freaking out! I’m sure from his perspective it must have looked pretty bad, but for me, it was just a flash of bright light.
Later that night, I made my way to the bowling club for a beer. I was so happy that I showed up since I bumped into heaps of old friends. I was actually quite surprised to see so many of the people who were here when I was working at Pinetrees were still around. Even better, there were heaps of new people I didn’t recognize. It’s going to be great getting to know them all this season.
December 28th, 2006 - Lord Howe Island
After three flights from Port Douglas, I finally arrived at Lord Howe. I was so tired after leaving Port Douglas, I slept for hours in the Cairns airport, and tried to shake a sore throat. Luckily, the airport had air conditioning, because outside it was pushing 33 degrees Celsius.
When I got to Brisbane, my cousin and uncle were waiting for me when I got off the plane. I went back to their place in Mitchelton, did some laundry, checked out some of my families’ pictures that they had taken on vacation to Canada and North Stradbrooke Island, and met up with Danielle Webb, one of my good friends that I had met months before. She’s a sweet girl, and hooked me up with chocolate, cookies and a book, “The Great War.” We stayed up all night talking and I had only an hour sleep before heading back to the Brisbane airport. Once again, I slept on the flight, and once I arrived in Sydney, had some food, and slept some more. I reckon Australians are pretty used to seeing backpackers passed out in the airport, and it wouldn’t be the same without us.
I caught a flight to Lord Howe just before noon, and landed around two in the afternoon. Gai, one of the islanders who I met on my previous trip, hooked me up with a ride and informed me that my accommodation would be at Somerset lodge, one of the closest resorts to the lagoon and Busty’s boatshed. I was stoked when I got to my flat; it was everything I needed, and I didn’t have to share it with anyone! Honestly, I’m pretty lucky to have scored this accommodation; at this time of year, it’s next to impossible to find something like the flat I’m now staying in.
After settling in, I took a bike ride and met up with some of my old friends, got some groceries, and headed to the boatshed for some beers with the gang. I met all of the people I was going to be working with, and we decided to get some pizzas from Humpty Mick’s café. This season, I will be working Brian, Pete, Todd and Dave; however, Dave will be leaving on the 12th to go back to the mainland and a woman name Mel will be joining us. The entire staff and their families met at eight had some fantastic food and drink. I was really tired and soon after the meal headed home for an early night.
I couldn’t be happier to be back on the island.
