Solomon Islands - last weeks in the pacific

Halloooooo!

A lot has happened, i know I have been very slack to update....

I survived a "coup" when the Government fell in the Solomon Islands. Roadblocks everywere in town, helicopters circling around, no power so no TV/phon/internet updates what was happening, just a small battery radio....so we drank the last cold beers and hoped for the best :-)

Meanwhile mam was already on the plane to the Solomons..by the time she got here all settled down so that was a relief. Mam was in the Solomons for 4 weeks, we went out to the beautiful Western Province for 3 weeks. We started at Ghizo in luxury Sanbis Resort for Xmas, then by boat to Munda and a few days on Lola island including New Years on the beach, fly from Munda to Seghe and spent 4 days with a local family in Morovo Lagoon....it was awesome!

As a new years gift, the big boss asked me to extend my contract for another 2 months....cash in, can you hear the money rolling;-) So I agreed to to stay till the end of May, as you do with an offer you cant refuse, ha ha!

Also we received a high profile visit of Mr. Kevin Rudd (prime minister of Australia) in the Solomons. He personally opened one of the projects our company here worked on, and thanked all Australians for the great job they are doing under the RAMSI project in the Solomons...howzat?

At the end of March, as planned I went back to Perth to catch up with the crew for 10 days. Did a roadtrip with the guys down to Esperance, how awesome the clear blue ocean! It was soooo good to be back home and back in civilisation! So of course I did a lot of shopping, went to the beach nearly every day, drank heaps of beers and tried to catch up with everybody. As a bonus Gramps was back in town from the mines for his week off (everybody else had to work unfortunately), when he found out I was there too he got worried that I would make him drink beers every day.....can you believe that? Lets say we had a great time, proudly sponsored by Coopers Pale (I wish, ha ha!).

For the time being I am trying to kill time during my last weeks here, so we decided to go on a few trips:
- this weekend diving 2 wrecks Bonegi I and Bonegi II around Honiara
- Sunday arvo wakeboarding
- sunset cruise on a catamaran
- weekend to Marevagi resort kicking back
- weekend diving live a board on the Bilikiki to the Florida islands (including diving Twin Tunnels)
- night adventure fishing (tuna, Spanish mackerel....)
- 4 day dive weekend live a board on the Spirit of the Solomons to the Russel islands (including diving Manta ray passage)
- one weekend to Tulagi resort
- cocktail party with RAMSI
- farewell party at the famous A-frame house
- jump on the plane to Sydney for a week to catch up with a few friends, start of my 2 months holiday!
- fly back to Perth, holiday for 2 weeks
- End of June fly to Dubai for 3 days, the through to Amsterdam
- holidays in the Netherlands for 4 weeks, joehoe!!!!!!

in case you were worried I get bored in the banana republic......

for the divers, check out this site of the liv-aboard http://www.bilikiki.com/........ awesome! On the live aboard weekends we do 4 dives a day plus night dive for the ones who want to.....

See you al soooooooon! xx

PS no more picture space here, but I uploaded some on www.sabinebosch.hyves.net