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UEPI ISLAND RESORT - "Leana Via 2007"

UEPI 2007 another vintage diving year.

When starting this Report I decided to glace through our Guest Comment Book to get an overview of the year. Amongst the constant mentions of fabulous food, reefs teeming with marine life, schools of fish, 'resting' turtles, all sorts of mentions of our resident pets the sharks, epic volleyball, the most friendly staff, fantastic snorkelling, 'never get out of' hammocks, 'the best days diving ever( daylong dive trips), world class carvings, enlightening village trips, exotic birds, huge monitor lizards, relaxation.... relaxation ... relaxation I found a few humorous gems worth quoting.

"Many thanks in particular to the sharks who upon hearing that I was a lawyer decided not to eat me as a matter of professional courtesy"

" A wonderful, interlude from a crazy world"

"I really liked it here. The only thing I didn’t like was having to leave"

" wonderful etc..." signed by "Bob the Wonderful & Beautiful Kelly"

"The staff are wicked, they are also good at table tennis"

"Big thanks for initiating me into 2 vital skills: How to Snorkel & How to Relax!"

"They say the diving is great but I think it is even better"

"My wife & I experienced Romance once again" (hmmm)

"Never thought I would be a scuba diver but its now becoming an addiction!" (we understand)

"Me missim dis place & people very big much" (Aussie trying to speak pidgin)

"One word HEAVEN another word BLISS - lost for words for once!"

"Thanks for the divemaster for pulling me TOWARDS the hammerhead shark!"

"James cannot play darts to save himself" (by James' brother)

"In the words of Bernatzik : 'Here at last the turtle children felt happy' " (work that out).

"You will never have a nicer couple stay with you" (self assessment by a guest)

"So much to say but one of the best for me is that this is a place where people make things and when they break they fix them. Coming from consumer driven Europe this is a joy to see"

"The pizza was excellent" (an 8 year olds perspective on the important things in life)

"I was very surprised to find the divemaster can play the guitar!" (every Solomon Islander can play the guitar & sing)

Some good political news to kick start 2008: Like Oz the Solomons has a new PM. This came about after a vote of no-confidence. The general public are very happy & supportive of this. One of the first actions of the new PM was to extradite back to Australia the Fiji born, Australian citizen lawyer Julian Moti to face charges relating to child sex offences in Vanuatu. Moti who held the post of Attorney General of the Solomon Islands had somehow engineered the support of the outgoing PM & this had led to a lot of bad feeling between Australia & the Solomon PM. This was a major reason for the demise of the outgoing PM. Everyone is glad to see the back of Moti. Relationships with Australia are very positive again.

One impression of 2007 is the number of guests regulators that fail within a few dives. The proportion of failures for regs just serviced is even worse than those not recently serviced! Some fail on the first dive after servicing. Not sure what’s going on but my advice is to get your gear services done about 10 dives before you depart on an overseas trip. Computers also have a high failure rate, especially battery failure.

Currently the grouper spawning aggregations are gathering. Along with the coral trout the large (to 1.2m) Greasy Rock Cod are lining the drop-off edge at Inside Point. We love seeing these great animals gather & interact. They hate moving when a diver appears as they claim territory; but when closely disturbed mysteriously slide away into hidden crevasses amongst the coral wall. This particular area is a maze of hidden linked recesses.

This year December has suffered from poorer visibility than normally. I think this is due to a combination of very high tides, greater than average rainfall & weather often disturbed by Coral Sea low pressure cells. An unusual year! But despite this the diving has been good, sometimes brilliant. With conditions now improving we are anticipating some top diving in the coming months.

Leana Grant, Jill & the Uepi Dive Team

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We sincerely wish to thank the following people for use of their photographs in our website:

Peter Lange, Peter Pinnock, Oceania Films/Matt Guest, Eric Cheng, Fred Bavendam, Andy Belcher, Manuela Kirschner, Louise Murray, Roberto Rinaldi, Mark Strickland/Oceanic Impressions, Jill Kelly, Grant Kelly, Wes Kelly and Jason Kelly.