August 1 - August 15, 2017.
I am just back from running a fantastic trip with some amazing dives and great people. With 14 nights to spend diving the Solomon Islands we visited all of our favourite places and were able to go out west and dive some rarely visited spots too. Two of my favourites there were the surreal upright tuna boat and the staggering Rapichana Cut.
We spent two days at Mary Island swimming with schools of jack, barracudas and snappers, along with bump head parrot fish and all the small stuff, great nudibranchs, popcorn shrimp, and everyone's favourite, the freckled face blenny! Other highlights were Karumolun Point where, apart from all the crazy fish action, we had an ornate ghost pipefish, disco clam and orange spearing mantis shrimp. There were also sightings of pygmy seahorses, full size seahorses, mobula rays, orangutang crabs, soft coral crabs, coral hermit crabs, jaw fish, twin spot gobies, octopus and cuttlefish, plus sharks on many dives too. There was something for everyone! The last night dive was something special with a painted frogfish, juvenile pinnate batfish and to top it off a pair of halimeda ghost pipefish! It was totally awesome!
On this trip we got to congratulate Cindy for completing her PADI Open Water course and Sonia for doing her 300th dive while making every dive of the trip!
A big thank you to Nahuel & Paula (my fantastic assistants for the fortnight) and all of the hard working Bilikiki crew for making this such a wonderful trip. I look forward to diving with everyone again in the future.
Cheers,
Kellie Oldfield