Nekton

Diving is a potentially hazardous activity. The materials contained within this magazine are for informational purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for proper and appropriate training.

After an overnight stay in Brisbane I joined the queue for the Air Niugini flight over to Papua New Guinea. Soon after touching down at Hoskins Airport our convoy, a truck piled high with dive bags and two mini-passenger vans loaded up with divers and precious camera gear, was motoring towards Walindi Plantation, a 45 minute drive away. Having previously stayed at the resort, the newest additions for me were, the Peter Hughes liveaboard, the Mahonia Na Dari Conservation and Research Centre, and Walindi Photo - a photo-
graphic, video and souvenir boutique.

Enjoying a welcome drink at the Walindi resort our luggage was delivered to the bungalows assigned to us for that evening. Annie, who was going to be our Hostess and DM for the next 10 days, sorted out the paperwork - Dive waivers, checked dive cards, time to board by, what cabin we had been assigned, any dive or camera gear to be hired, etc. Once all the formalities were complete she guided us to our bungalows so that we could freshen up and deck ourselves out in cooler clothing. After a refreshing shower I decided to have a nap before joining everyone for pre-dinner drinks.
That night we enjoyed a festive seafood and steak buffet at the resort.

Shown our assigned cabins we soon were busy unpacking. Out on the dive deck wetsuits were hung up and all other dive gear was secured away in our assigned bins. Once we had worked out who needed what for weight belts, best spot to charge up batteries, individual space on the camera table, etc, it was soon dinner time. Just after 18:00 we left port heading for the Witu Islands to the north west of Kimbe Bay.

On the following mid - afternoon, we boarded the MV Star Dancer and snacked on pre-dinner nibblies and welcome drinks before our orientation. Our wonderful crew was headed by Captain Alan Raabe, who is an absolute hoot to have around. Our Chef was Jayne Heanes, and once you have heard her laughter it's impossible not to fall under the spell of her infectious and happy nature. Annie Crawley, from the US, was our Hostess, DM and video-
grapher. The remainder of the crew were all locals.

Our daily routine started with flicking the cabin door tag over to the side advising that you did not want to be disturbed! (i.e. were going to skip the 1st dive!) or, ticking off on the reverse side of the door tag what time you wanted to be woken for an early morning continental breakfast. The main breakfast period was straight after everyone was back on board from dive # 1.

The first dive of the day was somewhere between 6:45 - 7am, depending on how timely we all were for the supposed 6:30am dive brief.

The dive bell was rung at 8am so those folk who wanted to be woken for the 2nd dive of the day knew it was time to get up if they wanted a hot breakfast. The next dive brief was somewhere between 9:15 - 9:30, followed by a dive snack; with the 3rd dives brief some where between 11 - 11:15.

The majority of the time the safety stop was completed on the 'T' bar at the back under the boat. Visibility ranged from 80 - 150 ft depending on the dive site. The dive crew were always on hand to assist with camera gear. We were thoroughly spoilt, having warm towels draped over our shoulders straight after showering out on the back deck and receiving a quick shoulder and neck massage. A couple of dive sites, which were known for swift currents, had been set up with trailing ropes that lead you from the back of the boat to the mooring, then down to the specific dive attraction. In general water temperature averaged around 29Celsius, no matter what island we dived around.

Without going into full detail of each and every dive - unless there was something really unique about it for me - let me just say that this area has the most amazing diversity of fishes and invertebrates.

The Dive Sites:
Joy's Reef, off Walindi: Lots of beautiful zebra lionfish, ocellated coralfish and huge soft corals everywhere.

Vanessa's Reef: Huge gorgonian sea fans right across the ridge with lots of hawk fish, many of them in pairs, hiding amongst them.

Kirsty Jayne's Reef: Mushroom corals with anemone shrimp absolutely everywhere on the sea floor. It was here that I saw the only barramundi cod that I chanced across during the whole trip. Yellow damsels were grunting at me to stay away as they ferociously guarded their eggs on branches of sea whips where they had trimmed the polyps off for just that purpose.

Otto Reef: In the current were schools of barracuda, trevally, rainbow runners, fusiliers, various types of surgeonfish, unicorn, triggerfish and white tip sharks.

Jackie's Knob: This site was a smaller version of Otto Reef as regards the fish life. I had a bit of fun playing with a cuttlefish, checking out clingfish in the feather stars and trying my best to photograph a white nudibranch with black spots.

Shaggy's Reef: This area featured a few white tip sharks cruising around checking us out. For some reason the place was thick with pyramid butterfly fish.

Norman's Reef: This was our first night dive. Our dive guide found us the largest sponge crab I have ever seen. One snip of those humongous claws and I think that I would have lost my hand.

Elaine's: This was the first dive spot in which we saw the magnificent napoleon wrasse, a large family of them in fact. While I was relaxing watching all the fish swim by, a very curious sweetlip decided to check me out. It got so close that I could have reached out and tickled it under the chin.

The Arch: Because of its depth, swimming from the mooring line down to this arch gives limited time before having to ascend to a shallower bommie. It was here where I chanced across the most glaringly pink coloured scorpion fish that I have ever seen.

Midway: Lots of anemone fish in this area, my favourite being the bonnet anemone fish. The big-eye jacks were schooling around and pairing up.

Alan's Muck dive: We did a day and a night dive here. The place was crawling with various types of crabs in shells. The largest being the red crab in triton shells. Annie was taking some shots of a cuttlefish when some of the soft sponges began spawning.

Alice's Magnificent Mound: Surgeonfish and unicorn fish everywhere, the males a magnificent blue colouring around the face and tail end until you came too close whereupon they changed back to

a boring brown colour. The top of the bommie was covered in anemones, gorgonian sea fans and sea whips. A great spot to hunt for leaf scorpion fish. I discovered a moray eel that was busy grooming itself by brushing its face against a sponge.

Belinda's Reef: This dive was mainly for the white tip sharks.

Fu Man Chu (2 spot lionfish): The best time to chance across a Fu Man Chu is during a night dive and I managed to get a photo of one here before it disappeared to hide under the coral. Absolutely huge basket stars here.

Killibob's Knob: The main attraction here were the whitetip sharks and the schools of barracuda, tuna, trevally and batfish.

Jayne's Gully: We came across an octopus that was quite happy to sit on top of a plate coral in all its glory and changing to all sorts of colours while everyone photographed it. Elsie patted a turtle that is a regular sight here. I found lots of hawk fish in amongst the black corals.

After that dive we travelled overnight towards the Witu Islands taking around 12hrs.

Crater dive: This was a muck dive! I saw lots of upside down jellyfish, shrimp cleaning stations and oodles of sticky sea cucumbers everywhere.

Krakafat Reef (Lama Shoal): Everyone rated this as the best dive site, so naturally we insisted on quite a few dives here. One word of caution - this spot is covered in corallimorpharians, which look like small anemones and that can give a nasty sting if you brush against them, even when wearing a diveskin. The were absolutely huge schools of jacks, barracudas, rainbow runners and batfish at this site, with one large dogtooth tuna among them eyeing up who he could knock off for his dinner! Where the current was most swift all the plankton eaters were hanging out. I came across a clown triggerfish that allowed me to get really close for a photo while it was being picked over by a cleaner wrasse.

Elsie's muck dive: A lot of juvenile octopus and zebra fish at this site, also a nice spot for the beautiful cowrie shells. I chanced across my first silver pearlfish here. Just in case you don't know - it lives in the anus of the sea cucumber during the day!

Dicky's Place: We did a day and night dive here. Personally, I found this the best muck dive site of all with enormous red crabs living in triton shells, harlequin ghost pipefish hiding amongst the feather stars, peachfaced triggerfish, darting gobies, white frogfish. (I was in photographer's heaven as a first for me was this regions sand-divers and the very ugly spiny devilfish.)

Zee Arches: A strong current at this spot but it was the only site where we saw a crocodile fish (flathead). The painted crayfish (lobster) were huge and made me salivate for crayfish mornay. I saw my first white pygmy seahorse here, so minute that if it hadn't been for the green algae it was trying to hide in none of us would have seen it.

Ann Sophie's Reef: Large schools of batfish welcomed us into the water and our mouths dropped in awe when the largest school of humphead parrotfish any of us had ever seen cruised by. The sailfin tangs were pairing up and this was the first spot where I noticed the beautiful blue-girdled angelfish and silver pompano.

Restorf Island: Fortunately for us the triton trigger-
fish were not nesting in this area. A very picturesque spot for underwater photographers with many coral bommies covered in gorgonian sea fans, sea whips, barrel sponges and elephant ear sponges. During a night dive here we spotted many sickle mantis shrimps, sea pens and soft coral crabs.

South Emma Reef: One of the dive group was fixated on photographing every type of dart fish known in this area. I spent a lot of time watching the gobies and blennies.

This was my fourth visit to PNG. Would I go back again? I sure would! The crew bent over backwards to ensure we had the most comfortable trip possible. Alan and Jayne were our 'live' entertainment. I'd have to say they had the best meals and post-dive snacks that I've ever devoured on any of the liveaboards that I've been on so far. What more could a person ask for - easy and varied dive sites and plenty to photograph. I was in diver heaven.

TRAVEL FACTS

Getting There:
Papua New Guinea is accessible from Cairns in Australia on Air Niugini. The port of entry for all flights into PNG is Port Moresby, followed by an onward flight to Hoskins and the Walindi Resort to meet the Star Dancer. Flying time from Cairns to Port Moresby is approx. 1.5 hrs. The domestic flight from Port Moresby to Hoskins is approx. 1.5 hrs.

Qantas Airways also services both Cairns and Port Moresby via Sydney; however, guests who enter PNG on a Qantas flight instead of an Air Niugini flight will not be entitled to Air Niugini's "dive allowance" for excess baggage weight on their domestic flight. If the domestic flight is full, then luggage from Air Niugini's international flight will be given priority over that transferred from Qantas. Air Niugini also operates an international flight to Port Moresby from Singapore, so that any international carrier with service to Singapore is also an option.

Flights to Cairns on Continental Airlines via Guam (GUM) from most of the US gateway cities are not daily and may require pre and post overnight hotel stays in Australia.

For further information, e-mail: walindiphoto@walindi.com or check out the websites at: http://www.walindi.com/WalindiPhoto/Boutique.html and: www.walindi.com/walindiphoto

Joelle's Reef: This site was covered in mush-
room corals and anemones. I think the anemone fish were getting a bit fed up with being photographed as the clarkii in particular were very aggressive. Here I had my first sighting of a pink tail surgeonfish nesting.

Susan's Reef: For me, the main attractions of this site were the huge gorgonian sea fans, elephant ear sponges and red sea whips. I spent most of the dive trying to photograph the long nose hawk fish on the sea fans and the razor fish that were hiding amongst the sea whips.