Day 1
Kavieng – Welcome to Paradise

We arrived in Kavieng with all bags intact and were treated to a royal parade as we drove along in the ute. Everyone was waving to us, just as if it was a king's entrance, or Mal Meninga had arrived in town. At the local footy field a man was hand mowing the grass, soon enough we were at our home for the next few days, the PNG Explorer. The boat is quite big, cabins down below, with upstairs and downstairs areas outside. First up was an entree of sushimi served with wasabi and soy sauce.

Our hosts Andrew and Jude were super friendly and made us feel really comfortable in our new home. I wasn't sure if the entree was just that or the full meal, but when the table was set there was a lot more for us to eat. Fish curry with a range of salads. After each of us had reached our four beer limit, it was a pretty early night as it had been quite a long day. Around 4am Andrew threw off the ropes and we started to steam out to sea.

A sign to make us all feel welcome.

A setup to make us all froth a little more.

That Ute.

Wonder if he is still going?

The friendly PNG people. A start of things to come.

The end of a great feed. Look how fresh everyone looks.

I'm sure it said TODAY ...

What we all woke up to on Day 2.

First fish of the charter.

Nate trying hard, Skipper showing how it's done and as usual Edwin smiling away.

A few worried faces ... don't lose it Nate Dawg.

A hard fight won only to be told that Blue Tuna don't taste that great.

Greg making it look easy (and cool).

Tony takes the win and comes up bruised the next day.

The beginning of a love hate realationship.

A free bird. Free to "Explore" ... and poop.

Day 2
First Contact

After what seemed like an eternity travelling towards “the island with the big tree”, we started seeing a bit of whitewash, which turned out to be a few surfable options. We moored midway between the breaks, just off a small island which has a population of 500 people, the highest density population in the area. We went in and said hello (morning morning) to our new friends, who looked happy to see us. They looked especially happy to see the boat and cheered Andrew's name as we were coming in. Andrew! Andrew! Andrew! We gave them the thumbs up and they gave their thumbs back up to us.

On our first trip in the dory, we split into two groups, a few of us on what they call “The Slab” and a couple of the others on a nearby right hander. Unfortunately Greg busted his legrope on the first wave, even more unfortunately he faced the same fate in the afternoon session.

My first few goes on The Slab, I was holding back too much, I was too scared. I got myself in the wrong position and got caught inside a number of times, things weren't going to plan. As time went on I found myself in better positions and got a couple of really fun fast waves. The highlight of the day was receiving the thumbs up from the boat after coming through on one of the best waves I've ever caught.

In the morning there were a couple of game rods stuck at the back of the boat and they reeled in three fish, and two of them were on our plate at lunch. We had ceveca, a peruvian dish which Francisca has told me she wants to make me one day. The lunch was delicious, one of the fish dishes actually tasted liked lamb.

The afternoon session probably started a little too soon after lunch for Chris, Nate and myself. We had a crack on the right, and probably got the best of it. The rest of the crew came over a bit later and the wind ruined the waves a little, but we all got a few fun waves.

Back to the boat and back onto the SP Lager. This is the PNG beer, it tastes pretty good. Apparently it comes from a Heineken mix. In our package we get four beers per day, which is a reasonable amount, get to have a few drinks each day, but don't blow out too much so we can wake up in the morning.

Tonight we are staying moored here, early tomorrow we may try a nearby left hander. Nathan would like it to be known as “Nate's Corner”.  There should be plenty more waves and tomorrow we'll go visit the local village. We just cheersed our SP's to a perfect first day.

First look at Ungalik.

Panoramic look at Ungalik.

Day 3
In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle

Surf conditions were not looking so swell in the morning (nice pun, guy). Instead of a surf we headed inland on a tour up the nearby river. In the local language it means “big entrance” but I've already forgotten the word. We made a big entrance, nearly crashing the boat going in over the bar. Our guides put us back in the right position and we surfed the waves in the boat to the calmer waters of the river.

The people who live on the island (Ungalik) we are anchored across from all come to work up the river. Their main form of work is with the Saigo tree. We were given the full rundown of how this all works, and got to meet some of the people involved in the process. The men chop down the tree and then use a “number 7 tool”, which is shaped at the angle just like a number 7 to hack at the soft wood. Once there is enough Saigo built up, one of the girls will carry it over near the river, where they use a sluice-like contraption to wash away the unnecessary parts. It is an operation that the whole community is involved in. They paddle their dugout canoes quite a long way up the river, sometimes against the tide to get to their workplace.

Throughout the day most people in the area chew on the beetle nut, which is classified as a “mild narcotic”. After viewing the Saigo workers, we got to try some beetle nut for ourselves. Eugene, the youngest of our guides was straight up the tree, it is a straight tree with no branches to support yourself on the way up. The local people tie a reed around their legs to keep the legs straight as they bound up the tree.

Once he was back down we had our fresh supply of narcotics. The reactions were quite varied, with Nathan suffering the most. He had made the mistake of not spitting out the excess saliva, and was hit the hardest, we soon found him sitting on the ground looking unwell. For me, I struggled to open my nut, then I only actually had a small amount of the nut. It brought red dribble down my chin but I didn't notice much of a narcotic effect. The people of PNG eat this stuff all the time. The standard way is with a stick of mustard, which is then dipped into crushed lime. Many people around PNG have red stuff dribbling down their chin. The nut is not coloured red in any way, but the chemical reaction produces a red colour.

We had a lot less trouble coming back out through the bar than when we came in, no tipping over this time. Jude made an excellent pumpkin soup for lunch, then not long after Nate, Andew and I headed for the slab. The weather was looking ominous, so we went back to the boat to wait for the squall to pass. It was the heaviest we have seen so far on this trip, so I settled down in the lounge thinking we had a long wait. I was getting quite comfortable when someone came in to tell me the squall had passed and we were back on.

The three of us went straight back out, but we soon got word on the radio that we had left a couple behind. The long talked of 'afternoon glass-off” had arrived, with nice clean conditions and some very good waves had by us all. Soon enough there was another squall, the glass off back to the land of myth. Although conditions were not as good, there were still waves on. Tony Boyle was the real star of the show, pulling in to numerous heavy barrels. I try to emulate the same thing only to find myself flying over the falls, fortunately not into the rocks not far below the surface.

For dinner we had another huge meal, crumbed fish, sweet potato wedges and a range of salads. The food on this trip has been nothing short of incredible, considering we are living on a boat in the middle of the sea.

All of us ... happy but unsure of things to come.

Deep jungle fever.

Saigo maker.

Saigo cutter.

How can one man look so scary wearing a skirt?

Before the pain.

Explorer in the background ... Explorer in the foreground?

The Phantom dropping in.

No barrels in this late-arvo overcast-windy session. Time to turn.

Day 4
Village Life

Today we went in to visit the village we've been moored across from the last couple of days. Ungalik Island is full of very friendly people. Jerome, who is the local school teacher gave us an island tour. Nearly all the kids in the village also joined us for our rounds. We got to see the houses of the people, there are quite a lot of people living there for such a small isalnd. It is basically the image you have when you think “tropical paradise”. The people live in houses which they make from the Saigo wood with impressive thatched roofing on the top.

We met the oldest man in the village, Old Joe. He is somewhere in his 70s but no one is quite sure how old. Jerome took us around to his place, it is in a shady location in the middle of the island, we gave some gifts for the kids, then I gave them a demonstration of footbag. I would say this is the first time freestyle footbag has been played on the island, or in PNG at all.
Dad had another game to demonsate, frisbee. We threw one around on the beach, some of the kids took to it very quickly. All the kids have incredible co-ordination when you compare it to kids back home. Right now we are looking over the closest break to our boat, there are kids out there riding the wave on wooden planks, which are probably broken parts of old outrigger canoes.

After our island adventure it was time for a surf, we had our first hitout at Malilli, which Nathan would like to be known as “Nate's Corner”. I made the mistake of taking Alison's flipper, which put me behind the eight ball from the beginning. I started off wearing it, but it was causing me too much pain, so I sent it back in the boat and went with just one flipper. The water was very shallow and I was only at half speed with my one flipper, this made me not much more than a spectator. I caught a couple of waves, scratched myself on the rocks, soon enough I had enough. All my other ventures so far I would call a reasonable success, but this was a definite flop.

Not sure what the plan is for the afternoon. We were going to head out for the outer islands tonight, but they are populated mainly by seventh-day adventists. From 6pm Friday to 6pm Saturday is considered the same sort of thing as the sabbath. They don't do any activities between this times, so us hooting around surfing, snorkelling, fishing and any other activities would most likely be frowned upon. So tonight is our last night anchored here, we're heading down to Three Islands Harbour tomorrow. This is going to give us the opportunity to snorkel on some wrecked ships from World War 2, which should be a pretty awesome experience.

Jerome and "half-sense".

Met on the sand by all the village's Picaninies.

The crew and my mate Donald in the foreground.

Toys that cost nothing.

What us Westerners could only describe as "Pandora".

Old Joe.

It's everyday life to dodge a fire on Ungalik Island, but ...

... footbag is another thing. Dan sending the village into rapture.

The Phantom takes a moment out of the water to show off his frisbee skills.

Brian and Nate go wave for wave in a late arvo session at Korangi.

Who wins the heat? ...

... THE SLAB.

Day 5
Leaving Home

Surf conditions weren't really looking crash hot, so we decided to wait until after breakfast. A lot of people were walking with a bit of a limp today. This included myself. The rubbing of my flippers had only worsened and it was giving me some troubles climbing up and down the stairs.

After breakfast we had one last crack at The Slab. The waves had dropped off but there was still a little something there for us. The tide was a bit higher and the reef was a bit further below the surface, there was a lot less danger, a lot less adrenalin. I got a couple of average waves, a little bit of fun, then got out. It was worth a splash.

Before breakfast Dad and I paddled in on the kayaks to go and see the canoe man. He is one of the few of the older generation left on the island, and is the main man for the building of outrigger canoes. These canoes are the main form of transport to take to work on the Saigo , so they are hugely important in island life. A few years ago the government delivered boats to all the islands, so a few people have the privilege of powering along in a speedboat, but most people go by canoe.

We got a short demonstration of the canoe man using the axe and the adze, which is more of a digger like tool. He uses this to make the hollow section of the boat. Dad talked a bit of woodwork lingo which I didn't really get, then the man showed us his collection of the skulls of quite a large number of pigs. When he introduced himself, he called himself the kangaroo hunter, and said that there are kangaroos and wallabies in the bush up the river.

When we came back from the slab, Nate had a try on the paddle board. Greg and Brian were surfing the wave nearest to us on longboards and he went out to join them. From our comfortable position on the top deck of the boat we saw Brian take a nice long wave making a few sharp turns. Greg was on the next wave and Nate was trying to get his board over the back of the wave. With their huge size, the Lairds are not easy to navigate. The board flipped over and knocked Greg off the wave. All this over some quite shallow reef. Soon after Nate paddle back in. His paddleboard experience was not quite a success.

Three Islands Harbour

Once everyone finished there morning activities it was time to say adios to Ungalik, which had basically been our home for the past few days and continue on our journey. Just one hour of steaming along and we pulled into Three Islands Harbour. The journey was a bit rocky but not too rough. I was reading Surfers World on the way, there was a feature on Kai Otton, a surfer from Tathra who is just a few years older than me.

We dropped anchor itn some pristine clear water, the were served up yet another delicious lunch. Today it was the plowmans lunch, a hearty meal and I was glad we didn't go out surfing immediately afterwards. There is a nearby break, but it only breaks in big swell and that's not going to happen today.

Andrew showed us an incredible war photo from World War 2, there were a couple of Japanese ships about to get absolutely blasted by American bombers. That happened right here in this bay and our next stop was going to be snorkelling over the top. The shipwrecks are now home to quite an abundant coral life with fish all over the place. I was glad I had been snorkelling a few times on the Whitsundays, as this time last year I probably would have really struggled seeing sections of the shipwreck, but now I have a bit of a clue how to snorkel properly, even though I am really still just a beginner.

It was really incredible to be able to witness this piece of history. As there were five planes in the area filled with bombs, neither boat really had a chance to survive, and you can see they are totally smashed to pieces. On one of the boats you can still see the gun and anchor chains. In the picture you see one of the Japanese guys using this giant gun to blast the planes out of the sky, but it was too little too late.

\A few of the gang have gone out fishing, I'm really not a big fisherman and they're going out for a few hours, which is really not for me. I've been sunburnt enough as it is, yesterday I got myself a pretty mean sunburn on my lower back, my rashie must have kept going up my back, leaving a small sliver exposed. This small sliver made sleep quite difficult overnight.

Tonight we're going to motor on to the outer islands, we're heading for Emirau where apparently there's a mean left. This was a key strategic island during the war and it looks like there's still quite a lot of remnants around the island. We may also visit Mossau, which is the next door island. So tonight will be a rocky night, probably not so much sleep once again. The plan is to arrive with the dawn, steaming into the harbour.

Pristine.

The Skip.

Another amzaing feed.

Gold!

A familiar afternoon sight.

Day 6
Leaving Home

We took an overnight passage to come up to Emirau, which is where we are now stationed. The main island is to the right with a small uninhabited island on the other side of the bay. Apparently there is a wild left hander around the corner but the wind is not favourable. Andrew says the swell reports are predicting the surf to get a lot bigger in the next couple of days, we might get some heavy waves at The Slab in our last couple of days.

Last night we played a card game called “Oh Shit”. This is not a game of poker faces, moreso a game where you end up saying “Oh Shit” fairly often. The concept of the game is you need to say how many tricks you will win, if you win you take a point, if you lose, you lose the same amount of points that you bid for. When my figures were down to negative I was saying “Oh Shit”. It was a good fun game, hopefully there will be a rematch again tonight. What keeps it interesting is each round the amount of cards goes up, up until the last round where ten cards are dealt. This makes the room for error quite large.

Each night we have been watching a couple of episodes of flight of the conchords. Downstairs there's a really great entertainment area which has been set in a small section underneath the boat, it has quite a large tv and the computer has a hard drive full of movies and tv shows. The general flow of each night is we watch a couple of episodes then head downstairs for sleep.

At the moment our boat is surrounded by dugout canoes, people from the island have come out not just to say hello, but also to trade. The crew from the boat will trade things like rice, flour, fishing hooks and other items in return for fresh food. As they have been travelling through this area for so long, they now know the best people for the best food. Although they don't chant Andrew's name as the boat comes in, the island people all look happy to see the boat.

After yet another scrumptious breakfast- cereal, tropical fruit salad, huge thick slices of toast, poached eggs (a couple of serves of each) and a period of digestion it was time to engage in some sort of activity. Some of us went over to the small island in kayaks, some went over the nearby reef with snorkels. I was a bit behind the ball, as I had eaten so much for breakfast I was feeling very lethargic. After a bit of time reading I was heating up, even though I was only slightly in a sunny area. I jumped off the side of the boat to cool down, then grabbed a snorkel and headed for shore.

Compared to yesterday the area isn't as interesting but the water is incredibly clear and visibility is good. It was disappointing to see, especially for an uninhabited island the amount of rubbish both in the water and on the beach. The coral was populated with small fish, I was expecting to see a couple of bigger fish, but it didn't happen. Each time I thought I had seen a big tropical fish, they just turned out to be a floating piece of rubbish.

I got into the beach, but as I had no shoes, no shirt, not much protection from the sun at all, I decided I should just head back. When I was about halfway back, Dad and Alison came by in a kayak and ambushed me as I was coming back up from underwater. In a kind gesture they gave me a tow back into the boat.

When I came back from the boat I went for a dive from the top floor. I already did one the other day, but decided for another attempt. Unfortunately I lost my footing before take off and landed in an awkward position. No more dives for me.

Day 7
A Day Like No Other

Woke up this morning after a deep, uninterrupted sleep. Last night was a night between two overnight steams so it was very important to get a good sleep in. I was glad that I managed this, I would have slept from about 10pm to 7am. Just before I went to bed some local divers brought some crayfish over. They sell to the boat for about seven kena a kilo, which is just a few Australian dollars, probably a tenth of the price you'd pay at a fish market in Australia. In the morning the report was that overnight these guys had brought in 56kg of crayfish, which seems like a rather large amount.

Dad has signed up to go diving just after dusk with the guys. I think he had a few beers last night before agreeing to this and is now not so confident. He's also concerned that after last night's efforts there'll be nothing left to catch. Before converting to a surf charter boat Andrew used to run a lobster trading company, which his Dad put him in charge of. These outer islands in the St Matthias Group were hotspots for the lobster trading company. They came to Emirau regularly but they always went to Mossau, the next island. The lobster company was not making ends meet so things changed and now we are lucky enough to have this boat as a surf charter boat.

Today is Monday, we actually just have a few days left of our trip. I'm starting to think about what needs to be done when I get back to land. What bands I want to see, hopefully having a house to go back to, seeing my girlfriend again, will I get into the course I applied for, can I still apply for that promotion. We haven't been gone for so long but this complete lack of contact is something different. Being out in the middle of the sea, you don't give much thought to going back home, not until you're on your way again. So that's on Friday, just four days left. The word is that the surf will pick up in the next couple of days and we will probably have some big waves to finish off our trip.

This morning we went to check out the left hander which is a couple of headlands around. I'm not sure of its name, but it wasn't quite working. Andrew said when it works probably you start on a long section, then it connects up to a pretty heavy barrel in the end section. You could see the two elements there, but it just wasn't coming together.

Last night we were looking up at the stars from the boat. I haven't really noticed the stars so much, but they were shining really bright last night. There has been a bit of cloud cover around the last few days, but last night there mustn't have been a cloud in the sky, you could see so many stars. Nathan made a critical error though, when he tilted his head back to look up at the stars, he forgot about the $200 sunglasses attached to his head. They now reside at the bottom of the ocean.

Yesterday Andrew told us the sad story of a guy they called Starfruit. He was basically the local hero on this island. When it was still a lobster boat he would paddle over to Mossau, not a short trip by any means, especially in a small dugout canoe. Sixteen nautical miles as a matter of fact. He would paddle out there, then dive all night, and always be the one that caught the most crays. Something happened just off the coast of the small island to our right, he was diving down underwater to help dislodge a tuna line or something that had been caught, but got a hook caught in his hand and got trapped underneath the water. He was finished well before his time.

Starfruit's children were some of the many children that came over to visit us. Unlike Ungalik, the kids here come onto the boat. This may be because some of the crew are locals to the area. Glen and Edwin are both from here and Audrey is from Mossau. Junior is from back near Kavieng. Andrew gave the kids a couple of footballs and we were playing around with them on the boat. There skill and co-ordination is simply incredible. Even the smallest children catch the ball nearly every time. They have no problems with speed, awkward bounces, the skill level is so much higher than similar children in Australia. I gave them a small footbag demonstration on the boat, I was only wearing bare feet but I had a couple of nice runs, they all gave a big cheer. Glen said there'll be no lemons left in the trees because they'll take them down and try and use them for a footbag.

Later today we are hopefully going on a bit of a tour of Emirau. This was the base for General McArthur during the war, so there's a lot of relics and other historical items around.  I really don't have so much knowledge of the war history from this area, maybe that's something I'll look into once I get back.

Now I have finished my book The Lucky Country, I am kind of interested in some light reading. Neither of the books I have remaining in my collection really fit the bill, I have Homer- The Odyssey and I've also got Manning Clark's For The Term of His Natural Life which is about the early convicts in Sydney. There are few books downstairs, I might start one of them.

Alison is playing with some of the kids at the moment, on what seems to be a broken piece of windsurfer or something. She got to go to visit the island people yesterday. One of the ladies told her she was quite welcome to visit the island. I think it is quite rude for a lady to just rock up to the island. Jude paddle over and they played a few games together with the local kids. When we were playing with the football, there were a few kids, Christina and Christine were the daughters of Starfruit, and there was another guy Jeremy, these were the three most talented of all the kids, but they were all incredible.

Last night the cards came out again, instead of being the bottom two, Nathan and I were real contenders this time. On the last round I went for 2, but only got one trick, that was the end of me. I think I still came in third place. A definite improvement on the previous night. Chris brought out the red wine he bought duty free, it was a real party. Last night was chicken for dinner, even though our brave fishing party brought back three fish. Nathan, who was leading a vegan lifestyle before departing for this trip was responsible for the deaths of three fish. He is going to have a lot to answer for once the vegan police catch up to him.

Dad has been enjoying his one phrase of pidgin he picked up along the way “pickanini man belong me” which translates to this is my son. He also has the option of pickanini meri which is daughter, or more literally child-girl. I suppose it's better than the phrases I know in German (The Cheese Factory is very famous die) kase fabrik ist sehr bekkant or in Spanish- vaminos d'esta pasilga (Let's get out of this pigsty!).

This morning we watched a couple of surf videos that had PNG sections. One had waves from Mallilli and The Slab in much bigger swells, it was looking pretty incredible, these top surfers were getting big barrels. One of the sections was called “Papua's Got A Brand New Bag”, a pretty great name for a section, break it down James Brown. Another of the videos had a south coast section, there was some footage of guys towing in at the bommie off Durras, it was crazy, guys were getting twenty foot barrels, and guys were also being totally smashed by the waves.

Andrew is now getting his scuba gear ready to dive down in search of Nathan's sunglasses, Dad is updating his diary, Chris is reading a book and trying to stetch out his back to bring it back into good condition, Alison is still the king of the kids, I just saw Nate push off in a kayak and I think Brian and Greg are out with snorkels. Life is hard sometimes...

Pristine again.

Feeling short as usual.

Explorer pushing his or her luck ... again.

Future AFL stars ... no NRL players here.

Perfect light for fishing.

Spoilt by an amazing sunset at "Jude's Retreat".

The best Vegan fisherman in the world.

Glenn comforting the lobsters shortly before throwing their heads minus tails overboard.

Awwww, isn't he cute.

Emirau

Today we went ashore at Emirau. Once again we were treated to a magnificent island tour by our local guides. The rapport that the guys from the boat have with all the islanders is impressive to say the least. Our tour guide today was Glen's brother in law, Clifford. He is the local policeman. There is not so much crime on the island, his role is more of an educator about the law rather than law enforcement.

Emirau is an insanely interesting place. It was a stronghold for the Americans during world war 2, it is where General Macarthur was based. Unfortunately for the locals, they were all forcibly removed to Massau while the Americans moved on. One of the legacies of the American visit is this long airstrip in the middle of the island. It has been classed so that Fokker 100s can land there, that's the plane that brought us over from Cairns.

Emirau is about to see some radical changes. Some engineers and surveyors flew in yesterday looking into turning Emirau into a much bigger destination, mainly based on fishing. At the moment boats from some of the Asian countries sail into PNG waters and take the tuna, this would make PNG boats the ones getting the tuna from PNG waters. The townspeople seem keen on the idea, but that may change once things get underway.

Emirau's history extends a lot further back than wartime history. There have been some recent discoveries, firstly of Lapita pottery, which is some of the worlds oldest pottery. A trail has been found throughout a number of Pacific Islands, archaeologists and historians use this to track a trail of the migration of the early settlers of the pacific. I learnt all this at the Vakka Moana exhibition they had last year at the National Museum. On reading matter I'm back onto the 20 year out of date guide to the area, I don't think all that much has changed yet.

The fishing expedition has just return, Alison was hooting and shouting after bringing in a big GT (Giant Trevalley). Her aim of the trip was to bring in a fish, her first since landing a slimy mackerel at Tathra Wharf many, many moons ago. They all sound very excited, however I have no regrets about not going. Dad has bailed out on the night time crayfish adventure. He figures that if they brought in 56 kilos last night, there'll be nothing left for anybody else.

A plate each of nuts and crisps have just come out. While the others fool around with photos and cheering, we will eat the chips. The sun is just going down behind the island. Just another day in paradise, tough living.

Nate claims he will surf for six hours tomorrow. I'm keen for a surf but I think six hours might be a bit much for me. We've got another overnight steam tonight, I'm not so keen for that, but we should be ready for action tomorrow. Maybe at Two Trees, maybe back to Ungalik, that will be determined once we charge into 3 Islands Harbour tomorrow.

4500kms on the clock. No lie!

Imagine all the "bomb-tails" from this island.

General Macarthur's Memorial

Another memorial.

Emirau airstrip ... drag race anyone?

Welcome to ... plane wing.

Day 8
This city shines with light of local eyes.

Surfed a different break this morning. It had good potential, and the others got some good waves, however I had an absolutely hopeless time out there. There is a rock sticking out of the water about halfway along the wave, I managed to get washed onto that and get stuck there for quite some time.

It must have been high tide as the waves were very difficult to get onto, well for me anyway. It seemed like Dad was also having trouble, but the guys standing up had no difficulties. I ended up getting a couple of waves, most of them were slow and fat, one had a bit of excitement to it, however I had to get off before running into those dreaded rocks.

Some of the local kids came out, walking along the reef with bare feet, a few of them came out in the surf with bits of plywood, probably from broken outrigger canoes. They were chanting some kind of song, not sure what it was all about. My suggestion was it said “Hey, white man, go home”. In saying that however, the locals have been nothing but lovely and completely hospitable. Apparently the Brazilian people were not so appreciated by the local crowd, someone was saying the were wandering around the island looking as if they owned the place. Probably like those early explorers who labelled Austraia as “Terra Nullius”.

The other guys have gone to an island further out (Nemto), maybe for a surf, but I think they're just taking a look. Dad said he wouldn't go, save energy for later, as we had just come back in from a surf very recently. I was all keen to go, but I thought his might be some wise words. If this swell is going to come, it's going to be best to save some energy to take it on.

It's all been happening since I last wrote. I had the best surf so far on the trip yesterday afternoon at Valla Valla, after the shambles of the morning surf, this time I was getting in the right positions, catching long waves and having a much better time.

Before getting that surf I had my first go on a paddleboard. These are a long board that you stand up and paddle with. On my first go I was completely hopeless, and fell in a number of times. I was thinking about having a crack at Motley One, but I could barely even get there. I ended up going to meet our neighbours the Brazilians. They were pretty friendly and gave me a few tips on riding the paddleboard.

After coming back from the surf I had another go, I was much improved, I only fell off once. I had a quick kayak as well, no falling off there. I was thinking about taking on the waves, but wearing no shirt and no shoes, I would have been in trouble if I fell onto the shallow reef.

In the evening the village invited us in for a sing sing. It turned out I was the first entertainment, giving a footbag demonstration. It was better than coming a few hundred years ago, and being the first item on the menu. I had been playing a little bit on the boat, trying (and failing) on some harder tricks. Dad told me I should just concentrate on some easier tricks. I used this advice and performed an impromptu routine with no music. All the kids cheered, they loved it. There were probably a couple of hundred people in the crowd.

Next up the ladies of the village performed some dances. They came in drumming on a couple of bamboo sticks, they made a really good drum sound. The dances generally involved shaking some sort of feathers or reeds and turning about in different formations. We were invited to stand in the middle and then they circled around us, this was the final act from the women of the third district.

Next up it was the men of the village. They were performing in what they called a string band. The band leader told us we would probably know it as a live rock band. They have an electric guitar, the amp runs on batteries, a few acoustic guitars and a number of home made wooden guitars. Three guys sit on the ground playing some percussion, which seems home made as well.

There was guy, his shirt on the back said 'Official' he was the main man for the show. Turning down the amp, the sound tech, keeping the kids order, crowd control. The official was the man of the moment. He was encouraging Andrew to get up and dance and then that we would follow suit. Chris was the first one up, a few of the local ladies were on the dancefloor and the phantom busted a groove. Eventually the rest of us were up and about. Even though he was standing next to me, I decided to introduce to infamous Tony Boyle kneebang to the lands of PNG. It will be all the rage in the next few years.

On return to the boat I played a bit more footbag. I gave Jude and Andrew an old bag as a gift, maybe with any downtime on the boat they will become experts. After the performance I was feeling a bit of adrenalin, I played for a bit longer, I hit a few things, came very close to legbeater on both sides, hit a few reasonably long runs, but dropped it a lot. It's a lot harder to hit tricks when you're on a boat with a low roof. I hit 14 ducking clippers to end the session.

The stars were out in force tonight, I'd say that was the most of the night sky we've seen on our trip. Nathan said he hadn't seen any stars on the trip, I reminded him of how he lost his sunglasses when we were over at Emirau. Andrew did end up finding them with scuba gear the next day, lucky break.

Explorer harrassing the locals.

A swell bringing rainbow.

The ladies sing sing featuring James Brown.

The men sing sing with the amp turned UP.

The Phantom appears on land for another show stopper.
(Photo of the trip by far!)

Day 9
Froth

That much talked of swell increase arrived yesterday afternoon. We had a good session at Valla, everyone was ready for the early the next day. Froth doesn't just come on the foam of the waves. Everyone was very eager, we were all up at 6am, hopefully beating everybody else out. We checked The Slab first, it wasn't really breaking properly, nor was it very deep. We all stayed on the boat for Malilli. This was so much better than the first time I went out there, that time it was small at shallow. This time I got some fast waves from right on the inside. I got a few waves which were quite big. Some of the other guys were calling me some sort of hellman, I was taking off even further inside than the brazos.

Everyone else has gone back out already, I'm going to let my breakfast digest and just chillout for a little while. Those waves aren't going to go away any time soon. It is however, our last day today, that's why everyone's so stoked on finally getting some seriously good waves. Andrew got some great photos on Nathan's camera. Plenty of those will be going straight to various pool rooms.

No captions needed for the following pics. Just Froth Out!
(If you want big versions send me an email)

THANKS JUNIOR! Out all day on Froth day ... what a legend.

Speaking of froth, Andrew is the froth king. Nathan said at 5am this morning, he had never seen someone so excited at jumping around. Even at the performance last night, there'd be a break in proceedings and he would say “It's going to be big tomorrow”. I think he wanted to charge the slab, but I don't think that's going to happen today. 2.30 departure back to Kavieng.
When I went on the paddle board and met the people from Brazil, they gave me a business card. They are doing a round the world trip, they are writing a blog about it, the website is destinoazul.com. Apparently the older bloke is the owner of a big surf company in Brazil, big rich guy, he's bought the yacht. One of the girls onboard is his daughter, her boyfriend and his mate get to travel around the world surfing wherever they feel like and they write blogs about it every now and then. It's something I'm keen to check out when we go home, which is really soon. The other girl on the boat is not actually from Brazil, she is en francais. They also came to watch the performance with us last night. I think this was a great opportunity that Andrew gave to them, I don't think it's something that the villagers would do just for the Brazilians, I have a feeling the village wasn't as fond as them as they were of the Explorer. This may be because according to the rules of Frothority, anyone not on board the PNG Explorer is a “faggot-breath” and are welcome to viewing privileges and not to surf the waves. This was a recent comment in the guestbook which we will all have to make our mark on soon enough.

Today I bought a couple of trinkets. I was holding out on buying anything, mainly because I'm super broke, but also in case anything else came up. I only had a total of fifty kena for my trip, and hadn't spent any of it so far. We are all chipping in at the end to give some cash to the crew, but Dad will have to cover my section of that, I don't have many kena left. Anyhow, I thought it would be best to buy Francisca a gift, the locals regularly came over with necklaces, they were more expensive than I would have expected, and all fairly similar. Today someone came over with some earrings made from turtle shell. Each one cost ten kena, so you could just buy one if you really wanted to. So that's a gift from my travels for her, I also got a gift for me. I got a wooden model canoe, I think it may be bigger than the one that Dad got, I think I also paid less. That was twenty kena, which leaves me with 20 to put in for the communal pot. I donated the books I read on the way over, they won't be much use to me anymore. Unfortunately they were both quite light, so it won't make any difference to my baggage weight.

Say Goodbye

The Phantom had to get one last surf in. Known on previous surf trips as “The Machine”, Chris was not showing these qualities up until today. I think he was out four times today. Everyone was frothing hard all day long. “How's the surf?” “Pumping” would be the standard response. I only went out the once this morning, I don't mind though, I got my best waves yesterday and some good ones this morning as well. Almost everyone got a few photos from the session. I'll have some photos with my umpire hat, new facebook picture here we come.

Chris left his exit so late that we actually pulled up the anchor and headed for the horizon. In what could have been a great piece of slapstick comedy, he and Junior both had to jump from one moving boat to another. Junior's jump was quite impressive, almost jumping right over the duckboard and landing on the boat itself.

Now we are steaming up to Kavieng. The boys from Clem's, that's another surf camp, land based, down near Three Islands Harbour. They take this trip on a speedboat, whilst we travel in style (inclding aircon). They go a lot faster, but we get to see more of the ocean, and we may reel in one more fish. Neither Brian or I have hauled one in yet. I'm not particularly interested still, but if I hear the line trailing out to see, I may be one of the first on the scene.

Goodbye Mr Andrew and Friends

We are now off the boat, now sitting in a hotel in Port Moresby. We had to get up at 4am as our flight was leaving at 6. An early start, that's for sure. We had good fun on the boat trip back, probably went well over our beer limit.

The flight was not so eventful. Just like on the way we stopped in Rabaul to pick up and drop off more passengers. Rabaul was ruined about 15 years ago by a volcano eruption. We saw the volcano from the plane, it looked like it was smoking, but it could have just been the angle of the clouds. When we took off from Rabaul it seemed as if we were almost vertical, and it took quite some time to level back up.

In Moresby we said our goodbyes to Nathan, then we took our bags through to the international terminal. We have a bit of a wait on, then a flight for a while. We don't really know what time we're getting in, we have a feeling that there's been an error on our booking sheet, so we may be arriving quite a bit later than expected.

Last night the crew sang us a farewell song, it was fairly simple but really nice. Junior came out on a ukelele and sung the first part, then the rest of the crew joined in. The chorus was something like “though the surf is rough, and the wind is strong, don't lose sight of your goals”. Apparently it was the first time that Junior had led the singing.

Keep on surfing my brother. Keep on surfing my sister.

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